ASCII-mation Game

[SpriggsySpriggs]

I am no good at graphics. It is not my forte. However, I am somewhat decent at filming and photography. So, my idea is to use my new system for converting images into ASCII text files and making a game using real actors for the main characters, some sort of pixel art characters for the enemies, and AI art for the bosses. All will be converted into ASCII text files that will contain all animation data for their movesets. Basically the entire screen will be created using PRINTSTRING and other PRINT commands. Collision will be fairly easy, as I will have tags on the boundary of each character that will not be printed but will be checked for proximity to another character's tag. If the tags are touching, there is collision. I'm even considering going as far as having cutscenes in the game, with varying degrees of detail provided by the ASCII conversion, so as to have cinematic qualities. Note, this will be my first game EVER, so expect development to be long and arduous, with me asking many of our resident game programmers for assistance. I don't know when I will start this project, but I also don't want people hounding me about it as I'm very bad about getting sidetracked and starting multiple projects at the same time and never finishing them. For the game, I'm thinking typical sidescroller with basic combat. Melee, ranged, etc. I am on call this week for work so I probably won't do much this week but Monday & Tuesday of next week will be a good time for me to start. I want to at least get a first character put on the screen with basic animations for idling, walking, running, and jumping. The hopes for this game will be that it will be compatible with not only QB64 (on all platforms) but that it will also run on QBJS. Shouldn't be too difficult to make that happen. The game probably won't be open source at first, but snippets might be shared for helping with debugging and whatnot.

[Dimster]

What no 3D??? Just kidding. Interesting project, down the road who knows maybe a META game? The sounds like a time consuming project, best of luck with it.

[SpriggsySpriggs]

LOL. Yeah, the dream for it is to be similar to some of those new retro-style indie games that have beautiful pixel art cutscenes and such. Except this will be mostly monochrome. I'm drawing some inspiration from Mortal Kombat with how in the early days all of the characters were actual people in costumes acting out all the various movesets.

[bplus]

First game I ever posted I think was War and Peace a variation on the card game War

So if you succeed you will have a slightly more sophisticated start, if you succeed.

This isn't hounding, is it? I mean if I were to hound I might mention that SQL tutorial or something... but I am not going to do that ;-))

Good luck, sounds cool!

[SpriggsySpriggs]

I think you were the only one that kept mentioning it. I think no one else gave two turds about it, which is why I never did it.

[bplus]

I think you were the only one that kept mentioning it. I think no one else gave two turds about it, which is why I never did it.

So I wasn't worth it? ;-))

"If you build it they will come." maybe you never heard that before?

[SpriggsySpriggs]

People just don't use SQL. There was zero interest outside of the occasional nag you'd make as a little jab or whatever. I think most of my threads on the topic had a grand total of zero replies. It simply wasn't worth it. It would have taken a lot of effort and time to make something that no one would ever look at.

[mnrvovrfc]

I'm drawing some inspiration from Mortal Kombat with how in the early days all of the characters were actual people in costumes acting out all the various movesets.

Ahh the reminders. And before that, a game that I never played by Atari I think (?!) called "Pitfighter".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pit-Fighter

But this year, with some disgust, I have discovered what the f is cosplay.

[SpriggsySpriggs]

Cosplay can be amazing when done right. Oftentimes, though, it is just some Instagram "model" dressing up as a slutty version of some character so neckbeards who live in their parents' basements will send them more OnlyFans money. Some people actually put small fortunes into their costumes and make outfits that are end up being way more accurate to source material than big Hollywood studios. Those are few and far between, though.