Hey! Excuse the lack of updates. The game is still going strong, sadly RPGs take a lot of time, but we are not far from done!
I'm trying to raise some funds to support the development of Me and myself, like the sun and the moon. Not asking for much, just what it's needed. I've been developing this out of my savings but they are all gone now. If you can help us, it will be much appreciated. If you can't, don't worry, I'm still gonna finish this, no matter what! Against all odds, baby!
Here's the fund-raising trailer. It contains a lot of new footage, and for the first time, you will be able to hear a bit of what Disasterpeace has been doing with the music. Enjoy, and thanks for reading!
Most NES RPG’s didn’t try too hard to hide the tile based nature of their graphics. In some of them, like Dragon Quest, it was quite obvious and it didn’t look that good, however, for Me and myself, like the sun and the moon I’m trying to add more variety to each tile set so things look more organic.
In Dragon Quest they didn’t even bother to use shadows (which give depth and volume to objects). You don’t need a grid to clearly distinguish each individual tile. Final Fantasy isn’t that much better.
If you look at the grass in both examples they only use 1 very simple tile for it. Me and myself…, in the other hand, will use 5 different textures for grass, each (but one) has 5 different tiles (top-left, top-right, center, bottom-left, bottom-right). That’s 21 different tiles just for grass!
Because of this, making the maps is taking a LOT of time, but hopefully, it will look very good in the end. In fact, I have to be cautious of not going overboard with the tile variety, as too much would probably not be possible on the NES and I want to somewhat stick to its limits. Still, I can’t deny I’m having a lot of fun building these maps, and I’m not far from being done.
My goal is to make this look better than any other tile based RPG on the NES!
Thanks for reading, as promised, here are some new screenshots, enjoy!:
Every RPG has dungeons, right? And Me and myself, like the sun and the moon is not gonna be the exception! BUT, I’m thinking about doing something a bit different than the tired formula most RPG use.
One of the dungeons I’m working on takes place in the wild part of the forest, that part where people don’t usually wander, home of dangerous creatures and untamed vegetation. There, tall trees create dark areas, and when you get there, is hard to see too far. So this dungeon is basically just a big group of trees. From the outside, you can’t see anything but the top of the trees, and once you get in, you can only see the “room” you are currently exploring but not the adjacent rooms or halls. Look at the pictures so you get a better idea.
From the outside...
Inside the room
This creates an effective mystery mood, you never know what will lie ahead until you enter a different room or follow a different path. We have seen this kind of effect in games as old as the first Dragon Warrior (Dragon Quest). But there the view was so limited it could get a bit frustrating.
In Me and Myself… dungeons will not be the classic temple, cave, shrine, maze, etc. Every one of them will be different in structure, theme and objectives. Level design is gonna be a key part of this game so I’ll make sure things are kept varied and fun, I want to balance originality with a bit of the classic old school design conventions we all love, so the game feels fresh but not too strange.
Since the game takes place in a somewhat reduced physical space, the dungeons won’t be too large, yet they will be more intense to provide enough challenge. Also there’s no map in the whole game, so that may add to the challenge a bit.
Next week I’ll talk about the game graphics, I’ll have several screens to show and I’ll compare Me and Myself… to other popular NES RPG games and explain why it looks as good as the best… Or better!
Stats are the heart of any RPG game system. Since the player skills are not important, stats are the ones determining the player’s progress and maturation.
Many RPG’s have way too many stats, being honest I don’t think most players really take all of them into consideration when developing their characters, so I decided to stick with a very basic set.
HP – (Health Points) This is your energy. If they hurt you it will be reduced, if it hits 0 you die. You can replenish it by using a healing item.
ATK – (Attack) This is your attack level. It tells how much damage your attacks can inflict on your enemies. It’s determined by the weapon and item you are equipping and your AIM.
DEF – (Defense) The higher your DEF the less HP you lose when you are attacked.
AIM – (Aim) This one is interesting, since it’s one stat I came up with for this game. I was gonna have STR (Strength) but it would make no sense in a game where all you use to attack are fire weapons. So AIM determines how good you aim is, the higher, the more precise your shots are and the more damage you can inflict on your enemies. When you are fighting an enemy, not only your ATK is important. The distance between you and the enemy is important too. The closer to the enemy the higher the damage.
LVL- (Level) Your current level. Indicates how strong you are. You level up by getting EXP after defeating enemies. When you level up all your stats increase.
EXP – (Experience Points) You get EXP after defeating a batch of enemies. Experience is expressed in the EXP/NXT format, where EXP are your current Experience Points and NXT is the number of Experience Points you need to reach the next level.
None of this is carved in stone. I’m not done with the battle engine, so I could still change some of the previous stuff, but I would like to keep it as simple as it is or even simpler if possible!
SHOPS
Shops are very simple and, unlike the list based shops of most RPG games, they feel more natural too. They are really similar to the shops found in the first The Legend of Zelda game for the NES. You have 4 tables with products, when you face a table you see the item description and when you press a button you buy the item. If you don’t want the item, just walk away. You want several quantities of that item? Just press the button several times. That simple.
COMING NEXT…
I’ll show you some screens of the new locations I’ve been working on and explain to you the new gun reload system, as a hint, it takes inspiration from a personal favorite of mine: Ys.
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Guillermo (Cc) 
An action RPG in the style of those old school NES games.
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