51 replies to this topic

[Yal]

SisterEngine v0.6

What is this? It's an RPG engine that tries to mimic Earthbound and its sequel Mother 3 in terms of how battles look. It's also a very easily customizable engine where you can basically spam in new enemies, items, attacks and other stuff in the blink of an eye. It's an engine where you shouldn't really mess around with the code, but rather just add in new stuff and know that the engine will handle it for you.

Oh, and it's not complete yet.

Current features:
- Entire battle system.
- Other HP display systems than the Earthbound reels.
- Most of pause menu system, including using items.
- Easy system to let characters use different types of HP/MP, to e.g. let humans recover less HP from dog biscuits and robot oil than dogs and robots will.
- Very, very, very easy system to add things like Enemies, Status Problems, Player Characters, Items, Key Items, Skills, Moves and all other stuff you need. You basically just slap some data and a sprite together.
- There is no need at all to mess around with the engine scripts to get stuff to work. In fact, I recommend that you don't even open them but just use the LUT (Look Up Table) scripts to define everything you need.

Still working on:
- Overworld stuff like talking, shops, and other stuff.
- Using healing spells and stuff from the pause menu outside battle

The engine is not complete, but if you have your own overworld system it will surely come in handy already. At least check it out and remember it. And feel free to give me suggestions for things you want to have in the engine!

Game links: BOX.NET download

Screenshots:

Edited by Yal, 19 January 2012 - 08:57 AM.

[Bcm27]

Very nice Yal, I will definitely give this a try later today.

[Mr. RPG]

Great engine, works amazingly well.

I am not familiar with constructing turn-based battle systems (even though i would love to) but it looks like you are using so many scripts and objects for this.

It just looks too complicated and big for someone else to make a game out of. Why don't you just make a game out of this?

[Yal]

It just looks too complicated and big for someone else to make a game out of.

The thing is, I'm aiming for an engine where you don't have to use any of the scripts at all; you just have to define new stuff in the LUT (Look Up Table) scripts and then place them in the rooms. There's going to be lots of room for customization just by changing a bunch of global variables. Like the Point Draw Mode that I managed to finish yesterday:

This replaces the HP reels with typical HP bars. MP bars uses the same bar image as the PPimage, so you can easily give mages purple mana bars and warriors red rage bars. Also there's now the possibility to give characters different types of HP, to e.g. let robots recover from oil and not food, and humans from food and not oil.

Later, I'm also going to make some fake-3D functionality that lets you make Golden Sun-style battles. And a bunch of other things. But as I said before, no meddling with the code unless you know what you're doing, and this engine will work like a charm.

Come to think about it, I should make some YouTube tutorials about how to add in new things to the engine.

but it looks like you are using so many scripts and objects for this.

Many scripts are there to replace code-repeat, and there's loads of utility scripts (like, it's better if you use item_get() than if you meddle with the store_pINVENTORY ds_list on your own)

Edited by Yal, 19 January 2012 - 08:54 AM.

[Mr. RPG]

It just looks too complicated and big for someone else to make a game out of.

The thing is, I'm aiming for an engine where you don't have to use any of the scripts at all; you just have to define new stuff in the LUT (Look Up Table) scripts and then place them in the rooms. There's going to be lots of room for customization just by changing a bunch of global variables. Like the Point Draw Mode that I managed to finish yesterday:

This replaces the HP reels with typical HP bars. MP bars uses the same bar image as the PPimage, so you can easily give mages purple mana bars and warriors red rage bars. Also there's now the possibility to give characters different types of HP, to e.g. let robots recover from oil and not food, and humans from food and not oil.

Later, I'm also going to make some fake-3D functionality that lets you make Golden Sun-style battles. And a bunch of other things. But as I said before, no meddling with the code unless you know what you're doing, and this engine will work like a charm.

Come to think about it, I should make some YouTube tutorials about how to add in new things to the engine.

but it looks like you are using so many scripts and objects for this.

Many scripts are there to replace code-repeat, and there's loads of utility scripts (like, it's better if you use item_get() than if you meddle with the store_pINVENTORY ds_list on your own)

I understand what you are trying to do.. I think, you're trying to make a RPG Maker inside Game Maker (kinda?)

I don't see why you would want to. RPG Maker would be better suited for this.

Why won't you just make an original Earthbound-esque RPG

Anyways, I like the ideas you have for this engine. Golden Sun Dark Dawn was a great game, though I have yet to play the Game Boy Advance titles.

[Yal]

Golden Sun Dark Dawn was a great game, though I have yet to play the Game Boy Advance titles.

GSDD is basically the same thing as GS and GS:tLA put together into one game, made a bit shorter. It's also worth mentioning that the GS is, as far as I know, the only RPG ever to leave the Infinity Plus One Sword lying around in a unguarded, highly visible, treasure chest in a room in the NORMAL final dungeon that you HAVE to pass through in order to complete it.

GS games are extremely easy due to them putting all the good equipment out in the open... forging new equipment in the blacksmith in GS2 actively punished the player! Sheesh, the series are very overrated.

I understand what you are trying to do.. I think, you're trying to make a RPG Maker inside Game Maker (kinda?)

Nope, you don't understand me. But you're not entirely wrong either.

The idea is basically that you get a battle engine. It works, you can affect it by flipping a bunch of switches, and that's that. Since it's made in Game Maker, you can put it into any game you're working on and extend it using a code you're used to using. And most importantly, it's very easy to add in any new content you want to the game.

[Mr. RPG]

Golden Sun Dark Dawn was a great game, though I have yet to play the Game Boy Advance titles.

GSDD is basically the same thing as GS and GS:tLA put together into one game, made a bit shorter. It's also worth mentioning that the GS is, as far as I know, the only RPG ever to leave the Infinity Plus One Sword lying around in a unguarded, highly visible, treasure chest in a room in the NORMAL final dungeon that you HAVE to pass through in order to complete it.

GS games are extremely easy due to them putting all the good equipment out in the open... forging new equipment in the blacksmith in GS2 actively punished the player! Sheesh, the series are very overrated.

I understand what you are trying to do.. I think, you're trying to make a RPG Maker inside Game Maker (kinda?)

Nope, you don't understand me. But you're not entirely wrong either.

The idea is basically that you get a battle engine. It works, you can affect it by flipping a bunch of switches, and that's that. Since it's made in Game Maker, you can put it into any game you're working on and extend it using a code you're used to using. And most importantly, it's very easy to add in any new content you want to the game.

However, I am still going to argue that if you want to make an RPG and not create it all by yourself, then you should just use RPG Maker.


Anyways, what was the inspiration to make this game, Yal and will this be a full-fledged RPG system?

Edited by Mr. RPG, 23 January 2012 - 10:59 PM.

[Yal]

if you want to make an RPG and not create it all by yourself, then you should just use RPG Maker.

RPG Maker uses a very different programming language than Game Maker, RUBY is infamous for having a painful syntax. The fact that the program is ported from Japanese by hobbyists doesn't very help either.

The one BIIIIIG problem with RPG Maker is that the only thing you can do with it is RPGs. Having a good RPG engine in Game Maker allows you to make ANYTHING to the RPG, for instance you can very easily add fishing/shooting/puzzle mini-games, new types of movement in the overworld (e.g. a 3D spaceship), and suchforth. Also, even though I don't recommend messing around with my code, it's a lot less likely that you'll screw up sphagetti GML than sphagetti RUBY.

[Harrk]

Wow, you learn new things everyday!
I was checking out your code to see how things work and I never knew you could title code blocks by doing this:

///Movement

Anyway, the engine is pretty smooth and fancy. I like it.
I might even take some ideas from it if that's okay
Nice job!

And well... GM > RPG Maker any day.

[mrpeanut188]

Thank you! GMMMMKKKK!!!!!!

[Edit]
Freaking acorns....How the crap am I suposed to defeat dos lava snakes with only a dried kidney and people less then 9 health? All I can beat are acorns...........

Edited by mrpeanut188, 27 January 2012 - 05:18 AM.

[Yal]

Freaking acorns....How the crap am I suposed to defeat dos lava snakes with only a dried kidney and people less then 9 health? All I can beat are acorns...........

You can do either of these things:

1) Grind
2) Edit the SETUP object and e.g. make both characters start with PK Fire Beta and PK Ice, or hack their stats or something
3) Edit the ENEMYDATA look-up-table and make the lava snakes weaker


They're just example enemies for the sake of demonstrating the engine, so I haven't really tried to balance them.

I was checking out your code to see how things work and I never knew you could title code blocks by doing this:

New feature as of GM '81. Pretty nifty!

[marcelheld]

Nice,can we also use this engine for doing (own) with it ?
And can we put the game on Youtube for sharing if we give credits to you ? :D

[DZiW]

Nice)

[Yal]

Nice,can we also use this engine for doing (own) with it ?

Yes.

And can we put the game on Youtube for sharing if we give credits to you ?

A game made using this engine? Sure! The source code is free to use commercially, too (but NOT any graphics or music that comes with it!) and anything you make with the engine is your property, just like the games made with Game Maker are.

Sharing the engine itself?
Completely out of the question. I want all the popularity and glory from this engine to fall on me and me alone.

[Awesome]

This is awesome! Very well done, even if you only have the battle system and pause menu done. It's customization settings are pretty cool, too.
Though, is there a way to make a more Mother/Earthbound battle entrance? And how about the special death that happens when you defeat a boss in the originals? Oh, and can we add more sprite poses?

I know you're busy with the other features so I'll try to do it myself first lol.

Edited by Awesome, 09 March 2012 - 06:02 PM.

[Yal]

Though, is there a way to make a more Mother/Earthbound battle entrance? And how about the special death that happens when you defeat a boss in the originals? Oh, and can we add more sprite poses?

I've been thinking about making the M3 panel fade effect, but I've been too busy. For boss special deaths, I think the key is to play around with the "global.bossbattle" variable (or whatever I called it). I've forgotten all about it... whoops! Anyway, using if checks with that you could make bosses create an "obj_bossdiefade" that fades away with a cooler sound and also flashes the entire screen white, and you could also play another fanfare when creating the obj_YOUWON.

As for sprite poses, the enemies have an image_speed of zero. The only thing you gotta do is to make some of their MOVEs set image_index to different values.

[Awesome]

Though, is there a way to make a more Mother/Earthbound battle entrance? And how about the special death that happens when you defeat a boss in the originals? Oh, and can we add more sprite poses?

I've been thinking about making the M3 panel fade effect, but I've been too busy. For boss special deaths, I think the key is to play around with the "global.bossbattle" variable (or whatever I called it). I've forgotten all about it... whoops! Anyway, using if checks with that you could make bosses create an "obj_bossdiefade" that fades away with a cooler sound and also flashes the entire screen white, and you could also play another fanfare when creating the obj_YOUWON.

As for sprite poses, the enemies have an image_speed of zero. The only thing you gotta do is to make some of their MOVEs set image_index to different values.

Thanks for the sprite poses information, but I really meant for when the characters are moving diagonally. Excuse my ignorance!

[Yal]

but I really meant for when the characters are moving diagonally

It should be pretty easy to squeeze in a bunch of if cases checking whether you're moving horizontally and vertically on the same time. For instance you could structure it up like this:

- You make a 2D array of 3x3 elements and store a sprite in each, except [1,1] that has NONE.
- When moving, access array element [1 + sign(xspeed),1 + sign(yspeed)], and if not NONE, replace sprite_index with that sprite.

This should be the most good-looking approach.
So [0,0] is moving up-left, [0,1] is moving straight up, [0,2] is moving up-right, [1,0] is moving straight left, and so on. Do you understand the idea?

Also, instead of making 9 sprites, just make one up-diagonal and one down-diagonal sprite, facing diagonally right, and then set image_xscale to sign(xspeed) whenever xspeed is nonzero.

I know my current approach puts all animations in a single sprite, but I think using a multi-sprite approach (for player characters! NPCs should be just fine with a single sprite though you'll need to remake the code a bit to allow four additional facings) will be easier on you than messing around with my system since all get_facing scripts only take four directions into account.

[Awesome]

Still working on this? (

[Yal]

I'm not working on it in a daily basis, no. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't download the engine, since all the important stuff is available.
Whoops, wrong topic!

Um, I'm working at this time from time. The most important stuff to finish is the pause menu Specials menu and a save system (and perhaps shops). I'm a bit busy with another engine right now, but I've done some more pause menu stuff a while ago. So I'm still working on it, albeit sporadically. The lack of feedback made me feel working too much would be a waste, to be honest.