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Cutscenes, Script & Plot

Will the background behind the text always be black?
Just wondering because I might just go ahead and make a font.

Where's the current one from by the way? Did you make it?
Your layout has been removed.

Wow, that is really impressive so far. Great job Kip.
Also do you have some sort of template you could post for anyone wanting to base their font off of yours?
Layout by LDA during C3.
Looks great. I certainly hope you can keep it up and manage to finish it.

What are we looking at in terms of space? Do you think it will take up a lot of room?
Originally posted by BlackMageMario
Very, very, very nice Kipernal! I'm guessing the text space is added into the levels the text code is run?


Yep.

Originally posted by BlackMageMario
Also, I'm guessing this isn't going to be released anywhere else?


I could if anyone wants it, but a lot of the code is probably going to end up being rather SMWCP2-specific.

Originally posted by leod
Will the background behind the text always be black?
Just wondering because I might just go ahead and make a font.


Yes. By that I mean I could make it a different color if I wanted to, but I don't really see the point. Black is sort of the "standard."

Originally posted by leod
Where's the current one from by the way? Did you make it?


This is what I used, with a couple of very slight modifications.

Originally posted by Lightvayne
Wow, that is really impressive so far. Great job Kip.
Also do you have some sort of template you could post for anyone wanting to base their font off of yours?


Sure. This is the current .BIN file I'm using. In YY-CHR it should be viewed as 1BPP (not 1BPP YX as it might default to) with "FC/NES x 16" as the pattern to make it look right (for anyone drawing a font, though it doesn't have to be drawn with that pattern; I'll can just copy/paste to the one I need).

Originally posted by S.N.N.
Looks great. I certainly hope you can keep it up and manage to finish it.

What are we looking at in terms of space? Do you think it will take up a lot of room?


It's a rough estimate so far, but the text looks like it will take up about two banks of space (I don't know about the actual cutscenes themselves). I might be able to compress it to save a little space, but #1 I don't think text will compress very well and #2 that would add another level of complexity to the code that I don't really want to deal with if I don't have to.
I should get a new layout.

Probably won't, though.
Here's my attempt at a custom font:



Compared to the current font, this one's a little wider and more futuristic-looking. Its ascenders and descenders seem to be larger as well, but it still manages to keep an overall height of 14 pixels, which should be alright.

It's obviously neither VWF-ified nor converted to a BIN file yet, since right now I'm mostly looking for feedback. (If people don't like it, as I said, the current one doesn't look so bad.)


 
It would be easier to compare them if you could post your alpha cutscene using both versions, side by side. But I have to say I slightly prefer the first one. The second looks a bit rounder and goofier. The tail on the "l" really hurts my eyes, and I'd advocate removing it. Maybe also sharpen the corners on the "w" and turn the "y"'s tail into a right angle.

You don't need big ascenders and descenders for legibility. The first one looks crisp and sharp, and the angular style seems to fit the game's mood better.

Just my $0.02...
"(Z->)90° - (E-N²W)90°t=1"

Supporting:


Current project: Mario's Kool-Aid Acid Trip
I actually like yours better than the one I used, and all of the things Biospark88 mentioned I don't really have a problem with. The only thing that looks kind of odd to me is how the descender on the capital "Q" is squashed flat, but that's probably just personal preference.
I should get a new layout.

Probably won't, though.
Originally posted by Kipernal
I actually like yours better than the one I used, and all of the things Biospark88 mentioned I don't really have a problem with. The only thing that looks kind of odd to me is how the descender on the capital "Q" is squashed flat, but that's probably just personal preference.


I was gonna mention that too, so thanks for doing my job for me ;)
"(Z->)90° - (E-N²W)90°t=1"

Supporting:


Current project: Mario's Kool-Aid Acid Trip
Alright, here's an image I threw together for better comparison:



It seems to take up more space than the other one in terms of... space, but the amount of bytes needed for the text shouldn't be affected.

The things you pointed out with the font I honestly don't mind too much, though I agree with you both on the Q looking odd. I guess I just... underestimated the space I had available. I've expanded it downwards just a little.




 
That "Q" looks much nicer. And, as I said, I like the font, though since only one other person has said anything I don't know if people want me to use it or not.

Anyway.



Word wrap, text scrolling, multiple scripts, "push A to continue" prompts. I also have a patch here; the first cutscene's text is complete and I wanted to know if anyone (especially Rameau's Nephew) has any issues with the timing or similar things. To start the cutscene, enable the cheat "7E010019" any time after the "Nintendo Presents" screen (EDIT: alternate version here for anyone who doesn't want to mess around with cheats).
I should get a new layout.

Probably won't, though.

Extras



I should have something witty to put here (even if it's just to update dated info), shouldn't I?

Advertising Space

Are you sure that patch is correct? I'm just getting vanilla SMW when I apply it to a clean ROM.

Oh, derp. I misread the last part of your post.

Scratch that: wouldn't it be easier to just make the sample cutscene a level as oppose to having to do some cheat enabling, which seems complicated? (Of course, I really should be in bed right now and I'm likely messing something up.) Guess it was that last bit.


It looks to be done pretty well to me, though the BOOM BOOM AKALAKA BOOM part got a chuckle from me (god dammit, rameau). Text seemed a bit too slow to me, though that may be wanting to go to bed again speaking. The main thing I mainly wanna see are how the graphics gonna be handled for these cutscenes.


I do have some custom/edited button graphics that could be of some use to you.

Yeah, that looks really well done - not much to add on to what MrDeePay said.

As for the font, seeing it in action makes me think it would actually fit the mood better than the one I made. Mine seems pretty... large in comparison. Then again, using the current font would mean not having fully custom graphics, wouldn't it?

Yeah, it'd be helpful to hear what other people think about that.


 
Originally posted by MrDeePay
Scratch that: wouldn't it be easier to just make the sample cutscene a level as oppose to having to do some cheat enabling, which seems complicated? (Of course, I really should be in bed right now and I'm likely messing something up.) Guess it was that last bit.


Uploaded a version that doesn't require cheats anyway. It required a modification that I probably should have done from step 1 so I didn't have to do more work while debugging, but...actually, yeah, I have no excuse for that.

Originally posted by MrDeePay
Text seemed a bit too slow to me, though that may be wanting to go to bed again speaking.


The only other option is twice as fast, and that seemed too fast to me. Maybe I'll make it so holding down A speeds it up to that speed.

Originally posted by MrDeePay
The main thing I mainly wanna see are how the graphics gonna be handled for these cutscenes.


Next time, definitely.

Originally posted by MrDeePay
I do have some custom/edited button graphics that could be of some use to you.


If you don't mind, that'd be great.
I should get a new layout.

Probably won't, though.
Is it intentional that on the demonstration pic up there it clears the screen right after the first message is done? I guess you skipped the "press A" prompt on purpose there? Because it looks kinda weird by itself.
Feel free to visit my website/blog - it's updated rarely, but it looks pretty cool!
Originally posted by RPG Hacker
Is it intentional that on the demonstration pic up there it clears the screen right after the first message is done? I guess you skipped the "press A" prompt on purpose there? Because it looks kinda weird by itself.


I just chose to end it there because the message goes on for a lot longer before the next "press A" prompt, and I had already captured over 400 frames by that point. I figured what was there would be enough for people to get the general gist of it, and if not, they could just download the patch and try it themselves.
I should get a new layout.

Probably won't, though.
Looks pretty good to me, for the most part. The timing of the dialogue seems good for the most part (and I especially liked how you handled the above mentioned Boom-Boom-etc. line), though it seems to me there should be a touch more of a pause before "See ya!", since it's both a closing line, and also sort of a separate statement from what comes before.

I agree that the the text speed seems a little slow, though I can understand the problem with not wanting to double the speed. Perhaps a possible solution is to make it so the text never scrolls up and off the screen, but instead always pauses and requests a button input before the screen fills up entirely, as seen in the cutscenes in the first SMWCP, and also the draft Deedle-Ball cutscene. This could allow a faster text speed without risking that the player miss anything due to the text scrolling by too quickly, as the text never disappears unless the player tells it to.

Also, "Sevvry" should be "Sverry" ( = "Sverige" = Sweden; analagous to "Dan-Mark" and "Norveg").
I actually don't see the problem in the current speed, it's a little bit slower than reading speed, but a lot of games do that.


Either way, I just doubled the speed of that gif to get a rough estimate of how it looks:


Doesn't actually look bad at all in my opinion and as long as you make sure to never overload the player with text before it waits for input, it should be just dandy.
If that's how it'd be in-game, that is.
Your layout has been removed.
Instead of just scrolling downwards when the screen fills up with text, I think it should be done in such a way that it waits for player input before it scrolls - especially if you're going to speed up the text. Some people read slower than others, and it might become a problem for them for the longer speeches in the script.
aran - Graces of Heaven
I'd just say keep it how it is in the preview, that means try to always get the screen to fill up with text if there's enough left, but never make it scroll past more than one or two lines (that should be enough for even the extreme slow readers) before waiting for input IF that sentence at the end really just keeps going.

Basically don't start any new sentences in the 'overflowing' scroll text to keep it small.
Your layout has been removed.
So the general consensus is to speed up the text and ask for confirmation before it scrolls off the screen, yes? Then that's what I'll do.

Originally posted by "Rameau's Nephew"
Also, "Sevvry" should be "Sverry"

fdsjal how did I miss that. Thanks for pointing it out (it looks like I also forgot an exclamation point after "-smoking-", which I've also added in).

Also, I'm going to need some graphics drawn for this; all of them should be the standard 16x32 so that we don't have to redraw other sprites (such as Mario) to match the cutscene "scope". In particular, what I really need for now are some frames of Doc Croc walking while looking at the camera, a frame of Doc Croc pointing towards Madam Mau, and, less urgently, a frame of Luigi holding Smallhacker's fish (two of these, actually: one which should fill the entire window, or at least large enough so that the player can actually see the fish well, and one of standard size; what will happen is the camera will zoom in on the fish when Luigi remarks, "Ugly little thing, isn't he?", and then return to normal afterwards), and some frames of the fish walking.

If anyone feels up to the task of drawing those sprites, that'd be really great.

EDIT: The sprites can be simplistic for now, since I understand that it's probably difficult to know exactly what I'm trying to describe just through words and putting a lot of effort into sprites that turns out to not be what I needed would be discouraging, so even if it's just simple outlines or something similar for now, that would be fine.
I should get a new layout.

Probably won't, though.