New (unusual) LBT Project

[Akiko]

Well, let me first say hello again and introduce myself to those of you who may not know me. I came here several months ago, I just have a lot of trouble keeping up with forums sometimes. Anywho, name's Autumn; I'm a huge fan of the 'animation classics', including LBT of course (it's the very first movie I saw with my mom, and has always held a special place with me). I'm more so a fan of the original movie (the singing and 'younger' appeal of the sequels and series kind of gets to me :blink: no offense to those who enjoy it of course   I love some things about the continuations (Chomper, for one).

Anyways, I recently got inspired to start working at a somewhat unusual LBT project. First, does anyone here know of "Furcadia"? (www.furcadia.com), it's a graphical chat/roleplay and my project involves it. In Furcadia, you can have 'avatars' that walkabout the screen, portraits, etc...and your own little 'dreams'/worlds (like a roleplaying "world"). Well, I started one for LBT...mind you I'm not very good with the 'maps' (layout of the world) and right now I'm focusing with making the avatars...so far I have Ducky all set, and the start of Cera (she's very much a 'rough mouse sketch' right now   ). There's also a set of LBT smiles that I plan to use in the dream too (I actually posted those here a while back, not sure if anyone remembers them but you're welcome to use them). Here's a glimpse of what I have so far for this project...

http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/9333/avatarsot1.png

In the 'world' your avatar/character would look like that (eventually I'll have all the main characters, at least from the original). The roleplay setting I had in mind is actually from the original movie (before they find the Great Valley, not sure why but I like the thought of playing with that specific time frame more  : who knows, might change...this project is just in it's early stages right now). I thought I'd post about it here because this is the largest and nicest community of LBT fans I've ever met, and thought you guys might like it. If anyone has any suggestions or would like to get involved somehow just let me know.

[aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato)]

This sounds neat. Good job so far, Ducky looks awesome. On the frontal face pictures, who's the purple threhorn on the far left? Dina or Dana?

[Chiletrek]

Hello:
 That ounds like a good idea, I know a bit about Furcadia but I never registered . But I can say your idea is very cool and I hope you'll keep producing it, with the best of our wishes
 Thanks for sharing the idea here and keep it up!

[Kor]

I tried furcadia a few times, but folks there seemed to be in cliques, unlike here, so I never stayed long.  Good luck on your project.

[Malte279]

Hi Akiko! It's great to see you again
This project sounds interesting, especially because right now a project is taken on here which may be similar to yours (here is the link to the project I'm referring to). Perhaps the two projects can complement and benefit from each other? For example you mentioned map making. Are any participants in your project drawing maps of the LBT world? I have begun some drafts of maps for our project here too (though those maps show just the Great Valley and are not nearly complete at this time). Maybe we can help each other with our projects by exchanging maps or whatever other ideas, graphics whatever may be useful for both projects?

[Tails_155]

This looks fantastic! and it is quite original

[Akiko]

Thanks guys! Lettuce, the smaller threehorn is actually meant to be Trisa, when I made those icons I just got on a roll and started making some of the newer characters too.

Hey Malte! Great to see you again too!^^ Well, Furc has many pre-made objects (such as trees, plants, floors (grass), rocks, etc) that you can use in making maps (you can also make your own, it's just a lot of pixel work ). A friend and myself actually run a couple feral roleplaying games there, and when I mentioned this project to her she said she might help with the maps some too (she's the one who usually does the mapping in our projects, I'm not too good with it). Here's a couple pictures of some of the maps from furc, the lower pictures showing some actual players and the very bottom three are zoom out pictures showing overviews of the maps:
http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/9226/furcmapssj5.png Just to give you a glimpse of the type of look you can get there. For the LBT map we were talking about seeing if we can actually recreate some scenes from the movie (you know, certain places that really stand out) so we'd probably use a mixture of pre-made objects and some originals.

I'm not good with java or many game programs (such as, making it look
World of Warcraft-ish, for example (although that sounds really cool! :blink:); Furcadia is more 2D, your character would look like the Ducky avatar (as an example), or like the coyotes and horses seen in the map pictures. It uses a coding system called Dragonspeak, which can range from easy to very confusing (I personally know how to make things animate (wavy grass, flowing water, rain, etc), make people/avatars teleport to various locations on the map (say you enter a cave, for example, after walking through the cave entrance you actually 'enter' inside), how to make music (midi files) play and a few other things I just can't think of at the moment.

I'm looking through the other post too, it sounds more like a WoW type game that action9000 is making; I'd love to help too if I can (I'm just no good at programs of that style :unsure: you're welcome to use any of my pixel art if they help in anyway though ) Thanks again guys!  :^.^:

PS: Some progress: Got a pose for Cera colored and set, and started some rough sketch outlines for Littlefoot and Chomper (just cause I love Chomper   )

http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/1596/intheworksvz0.png

[Malte279]

The furcardia page looks really interesting but to some degree also very confusing for somebody who knows very little about programming. Can you tell me which of the software offered on the page is necessary for the creating of maps? Would those maps have to be created online, or can they be created, saved on the own computer and later uploaded?

[Tails_155]

I have a treestar you could use, but it's 31x30... it was supposed to be for new forum envelopes, but they didn't feel like using it, so it's just setting idle

[Akiko]

The program you create maps (and the programs for other things (avatars, items, etc) with for Furcadia comes with the download. So, if you install Furcadia (it's free) then in the Furc folder (C:\Program Files\Furcadia) you'll see an icon called "DreamEd" (looks like a little flower with the word "map" in yellow ontop). If you have another folder (say "LBT" for example) that has all your patches (avatars, items, etc) then when you open DreamEd, click Patches then Dream Settings you can make it so all your items in that folder show up in the map maker (so you can then insert your own trees, plants, etc and anything else you like). The program looks like this once it's open: http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/8890/furcseo9.png To place Cera and Ducky there I made them an iteme file in the LBT folder.

It's hard to explain exactly how it works, but once you get the hang of it it's easier. I'm pretty sure Furc has some "How To" guides on their site for using these programs, too. You don't have to stay online to work on the maps and patches either, as long as you have your patches (items, etc) that you're using saved to a folder on your computer you can play with the map at anytime. It's only when you're uploading the dream (so others can access it, once everything is set up) to Furcadia that you have to be online.
This page might help some: http://www.furcadia.com/beekins/guide/

Thanks, Tails! That size actually sounds perfect for Furc, here's an example of the actual game screen size: http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/25/gamescreenni5.png You can make certain things larger, the "panels" to the left have various controls for the games (smilies, icons to change your avatar, etc), it's pretty good for both visual and text roleplay since you have a large area for typing, and get the visuals at the same time.

[Kor]

Sounds like it could be interesting.  I guess it is free, as apposed to doing it on Second Life, which would likely cost money.  And have a lot of griefers and other such things.

[Coyote_A]

Akiko, that is one great idea! I hope you will develop it to the release stage and i'm looking forward for this.

[Tails_155]

it's not isometric though

[Kor]

What do you mean?

[Tails_155]

Meaning at an angle that looks 3D (2.5D, or at an angle between 22.5ù? and 45? from flat if I remember... which I don't fully)

[action9000]

Here's an example of a 2.5D game, as Tails described:
http://patpend.net/reviews/smrpg_ss.gif

Hmm, I do like the idea of this game.  With the creation of this idea, I may put the 3d project on hold if there is more support/liklihood of this game taking off.  I am learning a powerful, free 3d modelling program - if I can get that working for me there is much more hope for the 3d game's success.

I want to minimize competition between our games (trying to avoid "Game A is better than Game B" and so-forth) and am willing to join your project in any way I can.  I have C, C++, Java and Blitz3d programming experience and have access to Photoshop.  I have developed simple game engines and file input/output code for games in the past so I am somewhat familiar with what can be done.

Unfortunately my art skills are rather weak.  I'd be game for composing a soundtrack though. .

[Tails_155]

It uses a unique language ("Dragonspeak") to program it, you can "larn you a language" here

http://www.furcadia.com/beekins/guide/visualds.html

[Akiko]

Thanks action, I certainly mean no competition either (the more LBT games the better, right? ) and would love to work together, I was looking through the post about your project too. It sounds amazing; from what I understand more of a "World of Warcraft" type of appearance. Furcadia is much smaller and more 2D, however very nice for roleplaying (a fair amount of text space for posts plus you get the visuals).
If there's any way I can help with your project too, just let me know...I'm afraid, as I said, I'm pretty stupid when it comes to java and most gaming programs (I've just learned Furc since I've played for such a long time; my guess is it's probably a little less complicated than most programs like that (once you learn the basics, lol). If there's anything I can do though...:unsure:

Tails has come to check the progress a couple times with me, so far my main focus is with the avatars, the 'map' I'm using at the moment is just a very small area for 'testing' the avatars as they evolve; my friend has the main map in the works. Here's a little screen from it though...and you'll see what I mean with
'recreating' some of the places from the original movie (just note that it'll look a lot nicer in the actual map^^;; http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/9463/duckynspikehl4.png )

A pretty new feature on Furc is that you can make the avatars animate (blink, swing their tails, etc) while in a single pose. I have blinking animations for all of Ducky's poses now, and gave some animations to the smiles (which I'm posting here too, so feel free to use them if anywhere else too you like...I may actually have to shrink them for Furc since they're a touch too large for it's text screen).

Smiles:
 
(Smile, Stick Tongue Out, Wink, Frown, Scared, Grin)

[Tails_155]

yea, it's coming along fantastically, and I have to say, Furcadia seems to be a very small program, so it doesn't take much RAM, 8-9 megs of it seems to be its max...

[minor grammar fix]

[Kor]

This could indeed lead to something very interesting.