Discussing modding...

Discussion and analysis of graphics, story, levels, and so on.
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Kdash
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Discussing modding...

Post by Kdash »

I often find it good to hear how others create mods, as it sometimes improves mine (just the other day I drew the BWB using Xky's technique {where he draws in pencil and edits it pixel-by-pixel} and it came out with Keen 4-6 quality :-D). So, here you can discuss anything that might help other modders.



Tiles:
Ok, so the first thing I usually do is start with the tileset. This offers more playing around and inspiration. :-)
When i first started modding, i just edited the original tileset. This is sometimes good for a beginning modder, but if you want to create every tile yourself, it's best to start from scratch (this way you aren't tempted to just recolour tiles :-).


Items, Keys, and Doors:
You can have the most fun IMKO with items. Anything an 8-year-old boy would want to collect works fine (unless the character is different or Billy's age has changed), but most often the best choice is candy.
But what kind of candy? Any kind!! Chocolate bars (a classic), lollipops, gumdrops, taffy, peanut butter cups - come on, there's endless possibilities! (but avoid veggies :-) Then there's stuffed animals. These work as well, unless you've changed Keen's age in the story. If you don't like the way an item comes out, and redrew it many times, then you're best off finding a different thing to use (I was gonna use a peanut butter cup for my Keen 2 mod, but, well, it wasn't good looking)

Next you've got Keen's weapon. You can use any kind of gun - raygun, pistol, neural stunner, laser (or you can be creative - snowballs, rocks - even bubble gum if you want ;-)
Of course, you don't have to use the actual weapon as the thing Keen collects. You could use bullets, batteries (for a raygun), or sticks of gum :-).

And doors and keys? Well, you can use keygems (but draw your own ;-), Keycards, keyletters (not my favorite), or even keylasers (i was gonna use some laser key thingy for my mod.). Doors can be the standard flat ones with the letter on them (draw your own), or you can do things like bars, mystic barriers, even some guy blocking the path! And heres an idea - Keen has to get money or a token or something and pay it to go through a toll booth or something :-).


Floors:
Floors can be the inspiration to your whole mods theme. First, create a square thats 3 tiles by 3 tiles. These will be your top-left, top-middle, top-right, midle-left-, middle-middle, middle-right, bottom-left, bottom-middle, and bottom-right blocks. Now you can color it, mold it, and shape it any way you like. Metal blocks are the simplest floors to do, unless you add things like small bolts along the edge.
Natural grounds like rocks or dirt are harder to do, and require a lot of random pixels. If you want your ground to look bumpy, don't change the height of these 9 blocks. Instead, make a masked or background tile that looks bumpy, and line the grounds with these. After all, you don't want Keen floating over a small hole in the ground. :-)


Well, thats all for now (I'm not gonna spend all day typing this)!

-Genius314
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levellord
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Post by levellord »

Well, after many attempts [and 1 success!] to mod, I have finally developed the following system for making a mod:

1.) Story; just what will happen? Where is Keen going and what will he do there? I leave the endtext for later, as I usually slightly modify the story as I go along.

2.) Colorscheme; what color will this mod be? I consider this very important, color sets the 'atmosphere' of the mod, from dark and foreboding to light and cheerful. With Andy's palette patch things are even better. At this point I also do most of the fonts and bitmaps.

3.) Vital tiles; here I design the 3x3 [or larger] block of tiles I'll use as my 'main' ground, doors, keys and items, stuff that I'll use a lot of, will influence the mods look and must therefore match the mods feel and look good.

4.) Sprites and sprite patches; Now I work on the sprites and the patches controlling them. These usually come easily, as the work already done suggests the ideas. [I already have an ancient castle? Then we think ghosts and knights]

5.) Patches; now I fill in the patches I want to use to make my mod what it is. I look at every aspect thats patchable in order and see what I want to do. There is often some modding of previous work to fit this.

6.) Levels and more tiles; my tileset often fills up as I get ideas for new tiles when building a level with my basicc tiles. Levels are the most consuming part of a mod, even though they are the easiest part to create.

7.) Finnishing touches; All levels are beta tested twice, the entire game played to make sure it works, anything left undone is completed, remaining text and whatnot fiddled with, and the game packed and zipped for playing.
Kdash
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Post by Kdash »

Good to see others are contributing. :-)

I don't know how good my post was, as I've only made 1 mod, which isn't released yet. :-\
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XkyRauh
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oh lord

Post by XkyRauh »

Hmm... I think my development cycle usually goes like this.

1) Do the Keen sprite.
2) Do the sprite of the main enemy (or enemies)
3) Make a few tiles which reflect the main enemy
4) Make a few tiles for the next enemy, and make sure they mesh with the existing tiles
5) Make another enemy's sprites
6) Add more tiles
7) Make a level that uses everything done so far
8) Juggle between 5, 6 and 7 until all sprites are done
9) Do graphics for doors/keys
10) Add extra graphics for background objects/scenery
11) Go back to existing levels and add background stuff
12) Playtest a bit
13) Come up with a story to make this all work (oops)
14) Change some graphics, or create new ones, to incorporate the story
15) Show what I've got so far to a friend, let them playtest
16) Tweak, Playtest more
17) Do all text-related patching (story, helptext, ending, etc)
18) Final playthrough and test
19) Packaging and Uploading
20) Release

This time around, I actually have a lot more of the story planned than last time... but that order up there is the way I did XkyKeen1, 2, and 3. :-)
Ilsoap
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Post by Ilsoap »

For Lego Keen, it was:

1. Analyze the limitations and possibilities of the engine you are using.
2. Think of an artistic theme that works nicely with the engine. (Hence, Lego.)
3. Create a storyline that incorporates the theme you created.
4. Specifically analyze the sprite limitations and possibilities, begin sketching the sprites.
5. Create a portion of the tileset.
6. Make a level out of that tileset.
7. Create some of the world map.
8. Go to step 5, repeat until you have your levels.
9. During steps 5-8, edit the story, high scores, and the other incidental areas of the mod.
10. After the levels are finished, create the finale art and text.
11. You're done!
KeenRush
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Post by KeenRush »

1. Make couple of new tiles.
2. Start making levels with those.
3. Make more tiles.
4. Add those new tiles to your already made levels and to new levels.
5. Make more new levels.
6. Start making sprite graphics.
7. Complain online how annoying spritework is and that how you can never finish this crappy mod.
8. Finish the levels and tiles, work slowly on sprites.
9. Make up some story.
10. Do the patching stuff.
11. Beta test and release.
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Allstories
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Post by Allstories »

Tiles
Tiles
Tiles
Sprite
Tiles
Sprite
Sprite
Tiles
Tiles
Levels
Tiles
Levels
Tiles
Story
Levels
Levels
Tiles
Levels
Tiles
Misc
Levels
Tiles
Levels
Tiles
Tiles
Levels
World Map
Release
Kdash
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Post by Kdash »

Ok, now give some tips or something. :-)

I don't have any though. :-(
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grelphy
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Post by grelphy »

Absolutely, without a doubt, start with the story. And develop it fully --- make it complete. Make in into a novel and get somebody to read it if you have to. The more detailed and final your storyline is, the easier it will be to come up with ideas for tiles, sprites, levels, etc.

Immediately after you finalize your story, start working on tiles. I like to adapt my tiles to the episode at hand so I can just import and then jump straight into Keen to see what they look like. No patching, no tileinfo, just art.

Shortly after tiles, I start on sprites, and work on both at the same time. I suppose it would be possible to completely finish the tileset before beginning sprite work, but I never have; creating some sprites will provide inspiration for tiles, and vise versa.

Levels come along with sprites and tiles. It's probably a better idea to save the levels until after the graphics are done, to ensure an even distribution of tiles, but I always find that the urge to try out some of those new tiles is too great. =)

Patching, aside from critical things like tileinfo, always comes last for me. Maybe it's because I don't like it, but it always seems to be the last thing I do.

Finally, you betatest it, write documentation, package it, and post it.

-Grelphy
Benvolio
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Post by Benvolio »

When I am making tiles I use what I call a 'tilesheet' - an image 800px by 800px in size. At the start of my modding career I designed stuff on paper, but by Bunny Basher I had stopped doing that. Anyway, I pour every whim and notion that enters my head onto my tilesheet, and I try to render them as perfectly as I can. I only copy the finished result into my tileset. I think this process was implied in Genius314's first post of this topic.

I do something similar with sprites - a 'spritesheet'. Onto this image I draw a basic sprite frame, then I draw all the frames (on a background that contrasts with the sprite's colour).
grelphy wrote:Absolutely, without a doubt, start with the story. And develop it fully --- make it complete. Make in into a novel and get somebody to read it if you have to. The more detailed and final your storyline is, the easier it will be to come up with ideas for tiles, sprites, levels, etc.
I would tend to agree more with Ilsoap's attitude concerning the story than Grelphy's - I tend to actually write the story when I have 90% of the mod finished. These mods are not mainstream commercial products that need to be as plausible as possible not to be a disaster (whereas games that are for sale do have to be more plausible). The mods are just a gloriously easy way to show off your graphical and creative talents, so the story is one of the least important things, in my opinion.

For my recent mods I have used one of my older mods (in its pre-zipping state, with all the tools and images in the folder) as a mould. I usually use 'Vanished to Venus' or 'Bunny Basher'.

The very first thing I do is a palette. Then I brainstorm onto one of my 'tilesheets'. I put together a level to see how my tiles look 'in the flesh'. By the way, I'm at that very stage in the development of my latest mod (the one after Musical Keen).
Stealthy71088
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Post by Stealthy71088 »

I start with a story, but don't figure out details. Just raw basics, enough to get a theme, and figure out about how i want to make basic level structure, including map level to work. Then i start making levels, adding tiles for the levels as i go, or vice versa, but doing the levels as i go. I find that i tend to be more of a level person than an artist, and it shows. But at the same time i find level packs boring, at least for regular keen. Then as i go along, if i have enough patience, I'll spend 3-4 hours and make a sprite.

Other than how to put in a patch, I dont understand how they work, or how to alter them to accomplish my needs. (There are so many patches that are set as the default that you have to change, for instance the color patch. But i cant use them as i have no clue what to change...) Therefore, patching, other than stuff that is absolutely nesassary, (yorp invince patch) tends to be last. That of course is subject to change, but for now.
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