RPG maker cartoons?

[masamonkey 0]

For a while, I've been mulling over the idea of using rpg maker xp or whichever as the basis for an episodic web cartoon. Basically, I'd yank sequences set up in rpg maker and edit them into an animation like Red vs. Blue, but still maintain the whole game console feel (speech boxes, battle menus, etc.) It would be a nice examination into the narative abilities of video games in general in bite sized chunks you could watch at the office.

 

My main question, though, is whether or not anyone would even be remotely interested in watching something like this. I can watch a thousand of these sequences play out in my favourite rpgs and be thoroughly entertained, but I'm sorta odd.

 

Secondly, a project like this would be pretty art-heavy, but the workload would be a little easier to manage with needed material only being required in small chunks per episode. Then again, for some people, that might be a longer commitment than they'd rather dedicate to a project rather than something that requires the work in a big load and never again.

 

What are your thoughts?

[Arkbennett 16]

I'd say it's possible.

My suggestion is, get a screen recorder though, instead of actually sending the project to people.

[Marked 197]

As long as it's entertaining I think people would be interested in it. Although I'm a bit confused about the screen recorder... A web cartoon, that would be animating right? I think I've heard of red vs blue from some people at school, but don't really know what it is.

 

What program would you use to animate this?

[masamonkey 0]

Ah, right. Sorry about the confusion.

 

I was meaning to set up a 'scene' in rpg maker and then use video screen capture to record the sequences as they play out 'in-game.'

 

Short example: I set up an event in RM where a dialog takes place between two characters. One is accusing the other character of stealing something, let's say.

 

Now I switch on the video screen capture and jump into play mode. I walk character A over to character B and they speak. After this sequence, I go into the inventory screen and flip down to the item in question, maybe it has a funny description...then if I set up a switch I could talk to character B again, situation is resolved in comedic fashion, har har.

 

After that I can take the captured footage as a movie file and edit it, say knocking out the title and game load, maybe stringing out the pause on the inventory item for dramatic effect or speeding up some of the menu navigation so as not to distract people. with a video capture prog that supports it, I could even turn it into a flash file and do a lot more with the editing, maybe add a button or two so the viewer could click on that tree over there while the action is going on and a picture could pop up or whichever.

 

At any rate, I'd end up with a movie file or a flash cartoon containing the sort of stuff that goes on in an RPG Maker game.

 

It's sort of a roundabout way to animate a facsimile game and what, but a lot of simple effects in rpg maker can be a major pain in flash; moving water tiles in the background for instance. Also, animating sprites can get very herky jerky with an annoying amount of seperate frame sequences to keep track of.

[Marked 197]

Okay, I get it now. Have you got Camtasia Studio? That's video capturing software you could use.

 

Do you animate sprites like this:

Arshes.fla

 

If you did it with a screencapture program the filesize could be quite large. I think it's possible to do the whole thing in Flash, and it's much more interactive as well. I once downloaded this flash movie, every so often the screen faded and an Angel and Devil button popped up, and the viewer got to choose what happened next. Of course it was only a small sequence then back to the main storyline, which worked well. It also gets the viewer to watch it all over again and choose different options.

 

How about this for water: http://www.cartoonsmart.com/fx_examples/watery.swf

I know that's slow on your browser and it's from a tutorial, but that could work for water.

[masamonkey 0]

I hear a lot of arguments back and forth between Camtasia and its rival that I can't remember the name of off-hand. In the end, I feel it's impossible to actually get an unbiased opinion of the progs, so I've been looking about for affordable alternatives and ran accross an interesting prog that I (also) can't remember off-hand that had berry in the title I believe...*shrug* Horrible memory today...

 

Yes, I'm pretty sceptical of huge file sizes myself, but with the low resolution RMXP runs at and the right options, I might be able to take those sizes down to something actually watchable to anyone without a T1. I'll just need to do some research on that front, I think.

 

I have actually mucked around with Flash quite a bit before, trying to replicate the RPG sort of narrative and visuals, but ran into problems crafting just about everything...succeeding, but not without major hassle. Eventually, I resorted to animating the sprites by creating seperate animated gifs or other static images that would switch and move around the screen as needed by the character's actions. It works, but it's a mess and easily susceptable to little unintended blips and bumps.

 

By the way, I found a cartoon along the same lines done wholy in Flash based off of Secret of Mana.

 

http://www.manatheater.com/archives1.htm

 

It looks good and has little Flash options and easter egg buttons like you mentioned. It'd be nice to do something like that, but more in the game style, with menus and the little GUI sort of stuff. -That's- what I'm really a little reserved about. Whether or not anyone would appreciate the replication of the gameplay visual rather than Secret of Mana Theater's more traditional animation storytelling.

 

ED:I also keep forgetting how to insert proper links...

[Marked 197]

So you're definitely going with a screencapture program and using RMXP?

 

If not, I'm slightly biased towards flash. I am training EXTREMELY slowly in Flash, with Cartoon Smart tutorials.

 

I watched the first episode of Secret of Mana, and to me it looked pretty simple to do in flash with the right sprites.

 

Eventually, I resorted to animating the sprites by creating seperate animated gifs or other static images that would switch and move around the screen as needed by the character's actions.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by that, but animated sprites can be simple(I actually learned when I tried yesterday).

 

This is just an explained screenshot of the .FLA file I posted above. I dont about your experience with Flash, you may already know all of this...

 

Everything I saw in Secret of Mana(the first episode) is quite simple to do. To do it with RMXP though, you would need the extra sprites.

 

Whether or not anyone would appreciate the replication of the gameplay visual rather than Secret of Mana Theater's more traditional animation storytelling.

I think if done right, people will like it. I think the storyline plays a big part in that.

[masamonkey 0]

Ah, yes. That's about how I started trying to animate sprites in Flash, though you've done a couple more clever things than I came up with on my own.

 

It could definately be done either in Flash or with screen capture and later editing. There are some screen capture progs that can capture to flash movie file format also, so a mix could be possible as well.

 

The main draw of this sort of a presentation as opposed to a full game would be the file size and the lack of requirement to download an .EXE to run on your computer, which most casual internet users are fairly leery of. With this in mind, I don't see large file sizes for a movie as being a huge turn-off for many people when compared to the size of even episodic rpg maker games. Though it has to be admitted that smaller is always better with files any way.

 

Whichever way it may be made, it started as an idea of ways that rpg maker could branch out into other avenues.