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Final Fantasy 7 => Other Mods => WIP => Topic started by: obesebear on 2020-05-19 02:15:10

Title: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: obesebear on 2020-05-19 02:15:10

(https://i.imgur.com/mYu6djO.png)
Download BCC DEMO: HERE. (https://www.mediafire.com/file/qj616bjd7czmmua/BC_Demo_0.1a.rar/file)
(Last update: 30/11/2021. Reason: Added Chapter 2)

Github: HERE. (https://github.com/DevinaGithub/Before-Crisis-Remake)
Discord: HERE. (https://discord.gg/C4arJpB)
Tutorial Videos: HERE. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUu_2eCcDrE)
Twitch Stream: TUNE IN. (https://www.twitch.tv/0besebear)
Compendium: BC OG material. (https://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=20884.msg286155#msg286155)
Trailer: YOUTUBE. (https://youtu.be/3PQhBEjjDGY)

Make a donation: HERE. (https://www.paypal.com/donate/?business=5VY9FTRUS4LES&no_recurring=1&currency_code=USD)


What's Before Crisis: Cissnei?
Before Crisis: Cissnei is a passion project led by a team of Final Fantasy fans that aims to replicate and faithfully expand upon the original Before Crisis flip-phone game, which never came out of Japan and is nowadays unplayable.
The game is being developed on RPG Maker MV with skillful hand of Obesebear, founder of the project, that has painstakingly extracted and recreated all of the backgrounds (currently of chapter 1). While the tireless cyclone Devina did a meticulous job in restoring the portraits to be a 1:1 comparison of their phone counterparts, adding 2D sprites, implementing a battle system and was relentless in trying to always find the next programming solution and put it into place. Thanks to Rizzle, the full script is being revised and new lifed has been breathed into the dialogue. Last but not least, Xhris surprised us with some fantastic graphic and UI edits.
The game takes place six years prior to FFVII and tells the story of the Turks as they face the newly formed terrorist group known as "Avalanche".

Development
Before Crisis: Cissnei and Before Crisis: Cissnei Final Mix

We need you!
     Please pop in if you want to join us:

Requirements

Features

How to install

Screenshots
Spoiler: show
(http://nothing here)


Known issues:

To-do list

Changelog
Spoiler: show
  • Final Mix 0.1a - Demo out


Credits:

-Obesebear:
   Progammer
-Devina:
   Progammer
-Rizzle:
   Script writer
-Xhris:
   Graphic/UI editor
-Kuraudo:
    Resource Manager

VA Credits:

-SharethePB:
   Cissnei
-TehIrish:
   Shears
-Anthogator:
   First Avalanche member
-J.W. Richardson:
    Second Avalanche member
-Blackjack Gabbiani:
    Down with Shinra

Special Thanks:

-Mako:
   A ton of help (Gaia's Children developer and RPG Maker Wizard)
-Tsunamods:
   Voice recruitment
-NaoyaShinota:
   Support, BC original demo
-Kuraudo:
    Video trailer


Title: Re: Before Crisis game
Post by: Devina on 2020-05-19 02:30:20
That's really cool you're trying to remake it.

I finished RichterW's and while it was serviceable and good for a fan effort, there were some annoying parts, lack of battle sound effects, lots of typos, and it crashed a few times on me.

I know this sounds like a crazy idea, but how would you feel about adding in a fandub?
It's not a super long game, some characters like Aerith/Barret/Zack only appear for a chapter or 2, so everyone who offers their voices wouldn't have to do much work (except Shotgun's).
Title: Re: Before Crisis game
Post by: obesebear on 2020-05-19 02:46:22
Totally fine with a fandub, actually already talked with tsunamix about it for a bit.  Though it would need to be someone else programming it in.  Once it's done, everything will be made public for people to improve upon. I will likely loop the ost tracks and phone tracks as an option.
The only change I'll be making is switching shotgun for Cissnei since she's a canon character. Once it's done I'd like to make all of them playable, but realistically that probably won't happen
Title: Re: Before Crisis game
Post by: LeonhartGR on 2020-05-19 02:50:20
That's so cuuuute! About the voice over, I think it would really help with covering up for the low graphic levels and there could be parts of individual character graphics popping up everytime  there's a dialogue or at least in the important parts of the story so as users will be able to watch the characters in a more clear perspective. Like it happens in the visual novels.
hint: https://youtu.be/xMVW78wRf18?t=104
Title: Re: Before Crisis game
Post by: obesebear on 2020-05-21 12:58:19
Uploaded a new video. I've got some of the scripting figured out. Unfortunately, I ran into some hiccups trying to implement an active battle system, so I'll have to look into that again a little later. But so far I'm pretty happy with how this is turning out. It's just taking me a little bit of time to learn RPG maker, but I think I have the basics down.

I've also got a messaging system plugin to more easily manage the text boxes and face locations, so all of that will be sorted by the next video.

https://youtu.be/PpfDoDnJ_M0 (https://youtu.be/PpfDoDnJ_M0)
Title: Re: Before Crisis game
Post by: Devina on 2020-05-21 14:31:07
That looks really good so far, the portraits could use some transparency edits (easy fix).
It'd be a good idea to include the speaker's name above the dialog boxes.

Have you thought about what you're going to do for sprites?
One idea I have is to use TWEWY: Solo Remix sprites a base, remove all 8-direction movement and keep them a bit basic.
I did a mock-up job as Cissnei (I can do better work, just wanted to see what your idea is first).
Title: Re: Before Crisis game
Post by: obesebear on 2020-05-21 15:00:42
Thanks. None of this is final. In fact, I'm going to have to go back into the maps and add in features that didn't originally exist in order for it to work right in RPG maker. I see what you mean about Shears portrait transparency. There are probably other issues like that that will have to be ironed out.  For now, I'm just trying to get it to a respectable state. 

For the sprites, I made a post on spriters resource.com asking for help and tips on how to best extract such a small image from such a noisy video.   I've got two options of where to get sprites for Cissnei as far as videos. But neither is particularly great nor will it be particularly easy.  If someone were to create sprites from scratch, I would be more than happy to use those instead of wasting hours trying to piecemeal them together.  Sprite creating would have to be outsourced though, I can find my way around Photoshop, but I am not an artist by any means. 

A good majority of the other sprites will probably be easier to extract due to them being on a more plain background
Title: Re: Before Crisis game
Post by: Izban on 2020-05-22 04:22:25
There is a rumour that the whole compilation is coming to switch translated with upscaling
Title: Re: Before Crisis game
Post by: Devina on 2020-05-22 08:16:24
I call BS on that rumor and wouldn't take it seriously. It's nearly 2 months old (the "leaker" even said "soon").

Before Crisis would also need a remake, I seriously doubt even Square has resources to translate an old phone game due to the age of the code.

And why just Switch? Why not PC/PS4 where the FF7 Remake is?

And with COVID (likely the reason why they can't fix the PS4 texture issue), it makes everything even more unlikely.
Title: Re: Before Crisis game
Post by: Izban on 2020-05-22 09:35:56
But it's a nice rumour,not like the ones you hear on Xbox live
Title: Re: Before Crisis game
Post by: Devina on 2020-05-22 11:06:03
Sure, it's nice to think about, but now we have a situation where we're like "is it even worth doing a fan remake if an official one is in progress?"

People who spread fake rumors need to grow up. I used to spread gaming rumors and lies when I was a kid because I wanted people to give me attention, so the people who do that sort of stuff often have low self-esteem and a lack of friends. I grew out of it.

I'm not trying to bash you or anything, Izban, thanks for letting us know of this rumor, anyway.

Keep up the good work, obesebear, and let me know if you need any help. I have decent art skills ready to help you out.
Title: Re: Before Crisis game
Post by: obesebear on 2020-05-22 12:51:33
If I thought there was any chance of a rerelease you can guarantee I wouldn't be wasting my time on this. 
If the remake didn't exist, there could be some grounds for a rumour like that to be true, but to me it seems like the compilation is done and all efforts will now be on the remake and its story.

Devina, the only assets that will be overly troublesome are the sprites. I can handle the backgrounds and sfx ( though help is always appreciated). If you think you can create some nice sprites that would be great.  Tonight I'll upload the videos from nicovideo to my Google drive so you can view and download them in case they'll be of help
Title: Re: Before Crisis game
Post by: Izban on 2020-05-22 13:13:43
Remake was a rumour then became a thing, but I totally get the point, between all the issues floating around sometimes it's nice to have hope.

Typically the guys here do a better job of upscaling, would be nice to play BC at all so if I was a betting man I bet oh qhimm forums
Title: Re: Before Crisis game
Post by: darxide on 2020-05-22 21:46:57
There is a rumour that the whole compilation is coming to switch translated with upscaling

Rumors are stupid. 98% of the time they are false. Look at the frenzy the Silent Hill community is in over false rumors. Please don't spread that stuff here, too.

It would be nice, but I can tell you why Crisis Core will never get remastered, remade, or rereleased in anyway and I can do it in one word: Gackt

That kills the entire rumor of a compilation release.

And no, the remake was never a rumor. Squaresoft teased it in 2015 themselves. It was not a rumor before that because everyone was 100% convinced it would never happen in our wildest dreams. Also, it was poorly planned to announce it so early and we did have to theorize about a lot of things and rumors about what exactly the remake would be were started, but the remake itself was not a rumor. We knew it was in the works. Blame Sony for pressuring Square to announce it so early and people then calling it vaporware when almost no more substantial news came out for the next three years which led some people to think the whole thing really was a rumor. But it wasn't.

tl;dr: None of the other compilation games are likely planned, in the works, or even being discussed seriously at Squaresoft right now. It would be nice, but it probably isn't ever happening.
Title: Re: Before Crisis game
Post by: obesebear on 2020-05-23 02:07:52
Everything is currently uploading to my google drive.  EVERYTHING.  Any picture, video, text snippet, anything I have that has to do with Before Crisis.   However, I am going to keep it to restricted access, so if you need access let me know why and what your email address is.  The more help the better
Title: Re: Before Crisis game
Post by: Devina on 2020-05-23 03:46:09
I realized that RPG Maker isn't really built for exaggerated and very fluid sprites, so using TWEWY as a basis is out of the question. I was scouring for RPG Maker Ace VX sprite bases and was annoyed by how... chibi everything is.

I finally found something decent with realistic proportions.
It's very simple with only 9 sprites to work with per sheet, and I'm pretty sure you could always set different walk/run speeds to simulate when you want to portray a character is in a hurry.

Male:
(https://i.imgur.com/RzTfwDf.png)

Female:
(https://i.imgur.com/zD4gvp1.png)

We could use these bases for the whole game and they're extremely versatile.
There's also a less muscular male body version too (the muscular body will come in handy for people like Barret).

For a mock-up job, how do you feel about this Cissnei?

(https://i.imgur.com/7RIbaGF.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/uAPepxj.png)

If it's a go, I can try doing everyone in chapter 1.

I should also add, these are free bases, so it's A-OK and we won't have to worry about legal stuff as long as we credit Greg Mustache:

https://thegregmustacheexperience.tumblr.com/post/129156785421/sprite-bases-for-rpgmaker-vx-ace-two-male
Title: Re: Before Crisis game
Post by: obesebear on 2020-05-23 12:33:58
I will also be downloading a plugin that will allow use for larger sprites so we won't be constrained to the default sizes and proportions.   I'll make sprites a priority today and post what I come up with
Title: Re: Before Crisis game
Post by: obesebear on 2020-05-24 01:41:36
Devina, first off, excellent work on the mock-up than what I'm capable of.  Second, I switched to MV from VX Ace due to some plugin issues.  However, I think the TWEWY sprites are more accurate to the movements the characters make in game.  I was pretty busy with real life today, but did make time to screenshot all of cissnei's movements and check through my pictures to find official images of her.   All of that has been uploaded to the drive.
I put some in photoshop and on the far left is the official picture I have (upscaled and filtered), the one beside it is a screenshot I manually edited to try to color match.  The third is running some corrections through photoshop followed by quick manual touchups, and the 4th is an unaltered screenshot.
(https://i.imgur.com/tXKWLud.png)
This is at the resolution they would appear in game.  Is editing and extracting these sprites something you think you'd be able to do? 

Each animation has 8 frames, but left and right are mirrored, so that's 16 less to worry about.  I know for sure there are plugins that allow for adding more frames in MV.  Our sprites probably need to be about 80x80 and I'm sure there is a plugin that can handle that and the additional frames.
Title: Re: Before Crisis game
Post by: Devina on 2020-05-24 03:23:05
Ripping them is very easy enough.

(https://i.imgur.com/FCPtEx8.png)

The real question is, do you want accuracy like the above, or do you want something more like my Stardew Valley-ish mock-up job? I could even recreate poses like her cross-arms pose.

Either is fine by me, although I'd be a bit sad if you decide to go with the former as it means little creativity from me and I like being creative. I would totally understand why you'd go with the former as it's more of a 1:1 recreation. Plus I'm not really good at doing pixelated monsters from scratch, so if you do decide to go with a battle system, there wouldn't be inconsistency by having realistic monsters next to pixelated characters.

Also, ever thought about contacting RichterW and asking for their sprites and data? I wonder if they'd be willing to help us out.
Title: Re: Before Crisis game
Post by: obesebear on 2020-05-24 04:13:06
Dude I think that looks AMAZING!  Of course if you'd like to create your own it could be added as an option. I'm doing the same thing for the music. Currently using the phone soundtrack for authenticity, but also adding support for the OST. There's also been more than one person asking about doing an AI upscale. So if everyone wants an HD remake it would be VERY possible and your made from scratch sprites would probably be perfect for that!

I have all of RichterWs assets. He clearly did a ton of work, but he also used extremely low resolution files, likely to fit it in rpg2003. It is helpful using his as a base so I can get an idea of how to script events, but there's not much else of use there.

What would also be great is to have someone good at story telling. A lot of the translation seems a bit too literal and could use some better wording.  I did my best for chapters 1-5 mixing Grimoire Valentine and Dark Angel's translations and adding my own exposition the few places it seemed appropriate. But just like with Devina, someone with more experience in that area will blow me out of the water.
Title: Re: Before Crisis game
Post by: obesebear on 2020-05-24 04:18:55
It just occurred to me, but maybe I can meet you halfway on the creativity. Some of these plugins support 8 directional movement AND sprites. You want to give those diagonals a try?  Also could use an idle animation instead of one frame. Not too mention an unconscious frame / animation. Maybe a casting animation too
Title: Re: Before Crisis game
Post by: obesebear on 2020-05-24 18:14:20
Increasing sprite size is as simple as resizing the sprite sheet, the game automatically recognizes it and adjusts.  Looking into QSprite by Quxios now to see how easy it will be to use it to add in new animation frames
Title: Re: Before Crisis game
Post by: Devina on 2020-05-25 04:53:42
I just checked the "Cissnei sprites" folder and oh lord, those are some blurry sprites.
Remastering them just isn't feasible imo.

Since you found a way to increase sprite size, I think we should go back to the original TWEWY idea.
There's a lot of pros to this idea:

-Line art is consistent with enemies as opposed to pixelated look
-Tons of poses to choose from, easy to use if we ever want to get into a battle system
-TWEWY's stylization is cool and is designed by Nomura, and it looks close to the original sprites in terms of movement

If you're OK with it, I can cook you up a basic Cissnei sprite sheet, just give me 3 days to polish it. How about it? I can even do her cross-arms pose as a basic neutral sprite. I'll have to leave 8 direction out for now tho, but we could always come back to it later.

What I'm thinking of is a 4x4 sprite sheet, 12 sprites per character.
Each running animation has 3, with the idle pose at the very right.
Title: Re: Before Crisis game
Post by: obesebear on 2020-05-25 12:11:44
Honestly, it's whatever you're able to do.  Ripping all 8 frames from the game is the most ideal, but I've seen those sprites myself.  Might be something I try to tackle later, but like I said the priority is to get something in a semi-releasable state. I can nitpick later.

What's your suggestion for all of the other sprites like NPCs and enemies?

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get much done yesterday due to the holiday. Should have some progress to show later tonight
Title: Re: Before Crisis game
Post by: Devina on 2020-05-25 14:28:11
Some more mock-ups. How do you feel about this? I think it's probably the best and more realistic option so far.

(https://i.imgur.com/EkSk3HK.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/ExTedDV.png)

A lot of detail gets lost when the sprites are downscaled, but it fits the world better imo, and leaves your imagination to fill in a bit.
I could easily do all the NPCs and enemies in the game like this, as long as I have reference photos for each of them.
It'd be a bit time consuming for me, but I get to be creative and it ensures a consistent art style across everything.
Title: Re: Before Crisis game
Post by: obesebear on 2020-05-25 16:06:18
Yeah, the original Sprite work leaves a lot to the imagination as well. I think it looks good, my only criticism may be to make it look a little more dirty or grungy.  That's the right size for it in game, it just looks a lot more clean than the rest of the backgrounds.  Maybe like a noise filter would do the trick.  I could also easily do that though if you just want to focus on what you're doing.  It won't take much to screenshot the rest of the sprites
Title: Re: Before Crisis game
Post by: Devina on 2020-05-25 21:48:09
Sure, you can find a way to make grungier, just going to need some time on this sprite sheet so I can polish the animations.

Here's the running animation I have so far:

(https://i.imgur.com/HAXsJn3.gif)

And here's what it would look like if you stopped running for a second, then kept going:

(https://i.imgur.com/cBeVmdZ.gif)
Title: Re: Before Crisis game
Post by: obesebear on 2020-05-26 19:38:56
Looks good!  I'll keep the 4x4 frames, it shouldn't be hard to switch to an 8x4 in the future if you ever feel like smoothing them out.  What's the pixel size?

Wish I had some update to show, but I'm mostly just figuring out RPG maker and how to script events.  I basically just have a smoother beginning cutscene, but I'm learning how to move characters and not create indefinite loops.  Trying some experiments with a few things so the game will look like it should.  So far so good!
Title: Re: Before Crisis game
Post by: obesebear on 2020-05-28 02:12:13
Come one, come all
A DECENT UPDATE! (https://youtu.be/YqiQ8CvSXWA)

Opening cinematic is done, as well as a very slight amount of gameplay.   I only just realized that I'm using a wider screen than the original games boxy 320x320, but I'm unsure if I'll change it or not.  Please comment on the video or here as to your opinion on the matter.  I really want this to be as close to a 1:1 recreation as possible, but that will greatly limit the screen size and show the game's age.
Once Devina finishes some sprites it will probably take a little work to get them in the game since I haven't had to mess with that plugin yet (nor have I tried to find a battle system).  But all of the event scripting and scrolling and movement is pretty much figured out now.  I could easily make this into a playable cutscene where you auto win all battles.

Moving forward updates should be happening a lot quicker.
Title: Re: Before Crisis game
Post by: Kuraudo. on 2020-05-28 19:30:30
Fantastic idea, if that might be useful https://www.famitsu.com/news/202005/03197424.html

there's a cloud avatar pretty neat on the above link
Title: Re: Before Crisis game
Post by: obesebear on 2020-05-29 00:21:12
Thanks! I actually already have all of the avatars and have them mostly resized to their original specs.
Title: Re: Before Crisis game
Post by: Devina on 2020-05-29 11:02:19
(https://i.imgur.com/XlXW80g.png)

Finally finished this sprite sheet, it'll be good for female characters in the future.
Once you've got it working in-game, I think it'd be a good idea for me to do Reno next to build a basic male base (since the men in the game should be a tiny bit taller, so you may need to do some pixel adjustments to get the proportions.

There really isn't a fixed pixel size I've come up with yet, but I think they should be scaled down by at least 50 percent.
I'm not sure if it's something RPG Maker automatically does on its own, or if it's necessary to do it beforehand (I can easily do that in Photoshop).

The running poses should go in a 12321 order, not a 123123 order.
Really eager to see what it'll look like in-game!
Title: Re: Before Crisis game
Post by: obesebear on 2020-05-29 20:43:12
Dude, that's great.  It might take me a minute to find a good plugin for animations but I'll upload something as soon as I get it done
Title: Re: Before Crisis game
Post by: obesebear on 2020-06-01 01:05:34
Haven't had a ton of time but I'm working on Cissnei now.   I'll send you the photoshop .psd for future use once I get it set, that way you'll be able to create and properly place the sprites within the image
Title: Re: Before Crisis game
Post by: obesebear on 2020-06-01 02:34:37
EDIT:  You might also notice I've gone with the original box resolution instead of widescreen.   I'll try this out for a bit and see if I like it.

New sprite in action !
https://youtu.be/TaCeAW2Q1mI

Devina, here is the psd.  I'm not sure what you're using to place the sprites on the sheets, but I had to manually move them around so they weren't clipping into other animation frames https://www.mediafire.com/file/c3ayattv65qt4e5/Cissnei.psd/file  I also cant make it loop 12321, It has to go from beginning to end.  Well, it can go 123212321232, but on the upward and downward animations it looks weird because that middle frame she is actually looking left, so her face goes left left right left, left left right left.  So the 4th frame she should be made to look right

It could still be better optimized.  I don't know jack about sprites but these should be aligned to the bottom or center instead of the top.  And centering them within photoshop isn't ideal because when her arm is out, the center of the image is her armpit instead of her chest, so it looks like she's wobbling around.

Also, I shrank the image down from 1030px width (with the 5 columns) down to 500px to get her to the size you see in the video.  Probably still  needs to be slightly smaller, and maybe some noise added to fit in better with the background, but I wanted to get this done so you could see the fruits of your labors.

I've got a pretty full work week this week, so I won't be able to get too much done unfortunately.

Also, RichterW subscribed to the channel, so that's kind of cool
Title: Re: Before Crisis game
Post by: Devina on 2020-06-01 14:40:17
I vastly prefer the wider screen and the wider field of view, it's way more immersive, imo. I know you want to be accurate to the original game, although I feel this is one of those things that should be dropped. Playing a narrow cellphone resolution on my widescreen TV makes me feel claustrophobic and wishes for something more. It also reminds me that this originates from a flip phone game and feels dated from 15 years ago. I think there are many times when being too purist is a bad thing, sort of like how some fans get hot and bothered over literally any change the FF7 remake had over the original ("how dare Aerith's dress is more of a white tone instead of a hot pink tone! Rawrrrr!").

The main reason why people would play our version instead of Richter's is basically for a visual novel (for now, unless we get skippable optional battles as you said), higher fidelity feel with some better graphics, so we're already sort of appealing to the "higher graphics" crowd anyway.

The sprite actually looks good! Which sort of shocks me a bit because I've never actually done anything like this before. And yeah, as you said, they're a liiiiitle big and maybe should be reduced about 80% in height. If you pause at 9 seconds in the video when Cissnei is standing by the window, I think the best height would be where the top of her head reaches the top of the window.

Do you know if there's a way to disable 8 directions for now? The swerve between 8-9 seconds bugs me, and 8 directions is more of a stretch goal for now. Doing all the sprites in the game for me is daunting enough, but something I can do. 8 directions of top of that makes me feel overloaded.

https://www.mediafire.com/view/pr7kw61aukgn372/CissneiEdit.psd/file

Here's an edited psd where the fourth sprites are flipped, so her running up/down animation should look more even.

For now, I think I'm going to skip Reno and do the Soldier/Avalanche guys next. Reno has a lot of unique animations (for example, he has an attacking sprite and unconscious-on-floor sprite) and he carries a rod behind his back. I don't want to betray quirks like that so stuff like that will take a bit of effort.

I know there's going to be times where we're both busy. I think ideally, we could try to release the final game before the end of the year. And of course, I don't want to bottleneck you, so you can add chibi sprites as placeholders like you've been doing. I can pump out a spritesheet about once a week, so by the end of the year, I'd have 25 sheets done at that rate which should be enough to cover the whole game or so.
Title: Re: Before Crisis game
Post by: obesebear on 2020-06-01 17:48:25
I think I agree with keeping the widescreen. It's more work to do widescreen, but it's almost nothing to go back and change it to a smaller resolution after the fact.  You don't have to do 8 directions. It would maybe look cleaner, but there aren't many wide open places that you could really notice it, and the original game doesn't use them. A much better use of time would be adding frames to the 4 main directions, or just getting other characters done.  I was just commenting about it because the plugin I use to get 8 directional movement has an option for it if you wanted to.
As for sprite sheets, just do it however you want. As long as they are properly aligned within the sheet, it only takes me maybe 10 minutes to switch them out.  That includes if you want to add those other poses like answering the phone or fainting into the existing Sprite sheet. It doesn't take much time at all
I'll keep the eight directional movement, doesn't really matter if there are sprites to represent those diagonal movements. Though, I think I can change the character movements speed, so maybe we'll look a little better
Title: Re: Before Crisis game
Post by: obesebear on 2020-06-03 20:28:41
So, I'm most of the way through chapter one. I've scripted everything up to the part where you go through the reactor entrance. The only thing that may need some touch-ups are the sprites when Devina finishes, and some background photo shopping. I'll also need to figure out the battle system. I'll likely also create a "story mode" item that instantly wins all battles. And leave someone else to make a well-rounded battle system.

 Should be done with chapter one this week. Then I'll probably get a full playthrough uploaded on YouTube of the first chapter once Davina gets a few more sprites done. From there it'll be just cranking out chapters two through five. And then doing an alpha release
Title: Re: Before Crisis game
Post by: Devina on 2020-06-06 18:27:24
Sprites are coming along, might take a bit longer because I have to adjust for male proportions, here's a preview of an Avalanche member:

(https://i.imgur.com/oesBOgl.png)

Like I said, I don't want to bottleneck you so if you want to do chapter 2 and beyond, you totally should.

Do you know if there's any body shots of Shears?
I might have to guess and create my own detail if there isn't...
Title: Re: Before Crisis game
Post by: obesebear on 2020-06-06 21:58:54
Oh, don't worry.  I've been chugging along slowly but surely.  Clocked in 50 hours at work this week so I didn't get a lot done.  But I've pretty well figured out the mechanics of RPG maker, so the rest is just getting everything scripted in.

If you check the chapters folder, there should be some screenshots of Shears in the folders.  I know there are some of him facing sideways and up, but they are in game only. I don't think there's any concept art of him, but I'll look around
Title: Re: Before Crisis game
Post by: Devina on 2020-06-07 20:26:34
Edit: Nvm, fixed my issue.

Thanks, that should help with my art direction.
Title: Re: Before Crisis game
Post by: obesebear on 2020-06-08 03:34:01
Digging the avatar by the way.  Where did you get that from? Don't think I've seen that artwork before unless you created it?

BIG NEWS!!
New vid!
https://youtu.be/3IZoirzymGk

Chapter 1 is done.  It still needs some tweaks here and there.  But the core of it is finished.  Well, excluding battles :P   This took a lot longer than I thought it would to finish out today.  Good news is RichterW contacted me on youtube and thinks he may have some assets backed up on DVD that he used for his game.   Depending on what he has, that may save weeks of time.  I'll be keeping my fingers crossed!
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: obesebear on 2020-06-09 15:09:54
Less big news
A discord channel
https://discord.gg/C4arJpB

Going to go ahead and start looping all the music
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: Devina on 2020-06-15 10:48:20
Just finished my basic Avalanche spritesheet:

https://www.mediafire.com/view/ag0vmck9cnljz3s/Avalanche.psd/file

I kinda skipped a little detail which I can always add later, I just want you to test it out first and see how it looks.
Once I know it looks fine, I'll continue making more male characters.

The video you posted looks really good and makes me feel optimistic about the project!

Do you need help fixing the backgrounds at 4:30 and so on?
If so, I can help out with that and making it look believable by copying and pasting textures over the grey blocks.

The battle system looks like it's off to a good start too. When you enter battles, you plan on adding the battle backgrounds, right?
Since the blurry in-game freeze frame looks strange.

I'll probably join the Discord later, I'm just a little lazy now to make a new account since my previous one got hacked.
I got my avatar online while looking for Cissnei art, so it's official art by Nomura. I wish I was that talented of an artist...
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: obesebear on 2020-06-15 14:11:13
I'm leaving the backgrounds for now in hopes that someone else will want to join in and help.  Like you said it's mostly just copy and pasting over the existing texture.

The battle system is just the default that comes with RPG Maker.  The only changes I've made to it are to allow one hit kills.  I've been busy with work and vacation this past week, so I haven't made really any progress since uploading the video, but this week I'll be able to get back to it and work on chapter 2.
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: Kuraudo. on 2020-06-19 17:19:21
It's really an interesting project.

If in case anybody will be brave to translate this into another language or to upscale it, would be there any data uploaded to do so?

BTW there is an animated video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJRp-HrTNOM&list=PLE75858F7C5A3927D) as well, would that be reinstated as well?
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: obesebear on 2020-06-19 19:30:39
Yes, I've got the scripts and assets uploaded to a Google drive. All of it will be accessible to the public on release. 

Unfortunately with real life and the forum drama I haven't had much chance to work on it.  Next is to go through the script for the upcoming chapters so I don't  program all of that dialogue in and then have to go back and change it.  I should also probably take 5 minutes to go ahead and get those avalanche sprites in

The video is just a trailer for the game.  I don't believe it actually would play at any point. I've scoured the internet for as much information as I can find, but if someone knows something I don't by all means please let me know
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: Kuraudo. on 2020-06-20 05:54:38
Cool.
I guess you are right, it's a trailer. However, it might be a nice addition as an intro before the new game screen.

Cheers
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: obesebear on 2020-06-20 17:28:18
I know Richter used it in his game, and I guess you could be right, I just got sick of seeing it as I was going through his multiple times for inspiration. I guess anyone else playing would only see it once...

I don't know. For now it's not a priority. I need to get the basics down and completed first.
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: obesebear on 2020-06-21 02:59:42
Chapter 2's script is marginally better, now.  Tomorrow is Father's day, but I'll try to find some time to begin getting it all into rpg maker.
If anyone's interested in improving the script... the more help the better
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: -Ric- on 2020-06-22 14:41:06
This looks awesome. I never played Before Crisis and I'm sure there's a lot more people here that haven't. Looking forward to giving it a go.  ;D
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: obesebear on 2020-06-22 14:59:16
It's probably going to end up like a playable story when I'm through. There's only one gameplay video and that person goes to all the correct places and does all the correct things, so that's all I can copy.  I hope once it's done someone with more creativity will go in and add to it so it will feel like a more complete game.
Thanks for the encouragement
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: Devina on 2020-06-24 10:47:52
Any update on how the Avalanche soldiers look? I'm really curious to see how they'll look in motion in a video.

I think the script isn't that important now. I could try making suggestions and improving flow once we're done. I think we'll have to probably change some stuff during the Cissnei-Zack chapter. Their interactions in Before Crisis need to be a bit vague, since they sort of "meet for real" in Crisis Core. I have a bit of a funny idea where I can draw Cissnei with ski goggles and a beanie during this chapter (since it takes place in a snowy area), and Cissnei asks Zack why he's not wearing warmer clothing, and he says being used to cold weather is a part of his unofficial SOLDIER training.

Then near the end of the chapter, Zack says he'll hope to meet Cissnei again and asks for her name, but Cissnei says that he can call her just "Shuriken" for now (a bit of a meta joke) and maybe she will tell him her name if they meet again in the future. Then Zack says he'll hope to remember her, but says he might have trouble because he has trouble differentiating between Turks because they all wear similar clothing and he hasn't seen her face. Cissnei says maybe she'll show her face next time, and that it's just as hard to tell SOLDIERs apart because of their uniforms, but says she probably won't have trouble remembering him because of how spiky his hair is.

This would make sense for people who've played both games, fix some plot continuities, explains why Zack doesn't remember Cissnei in Crisis Core, and also explain why Cissnei is so friendly upon meeting him again in Crisis Core (because I think it would be cute if it's because she does remember him).

Apart from this little scenario addition, I don't think we should deviate too much from the original script or else the FF7 purists are going to come at us with pitchforks or else some fans may not like it, although I wouldn't mind a few continuity nods here and there (another idea is during the Costa del Sol chapter, Cissnei comments it's a pretty beach and she should bring a swimsuit and a friend next time).

Gameplay-wise, I wouldn't worry too much about that aspect yet. Once we're done the chapters, maybe you should open source the project and invite battle programmers in. One of the things that does intimidate me a little will be doing the on-field monsters. The human enemies are easy enough, but if we're faithful to the monsters, then it will mean I'll have to animate four directions for all the enemies, like Tonberry, Behemoth, Boms, etc. I noticed in the video that the enemies seem to walk, and when you get close, they charge at you like you have a million dollars in your pocket. It would be convenient if you could make it so that they have a pace sort of in-between (a light jog) so I don't have to make separate walking/running sheets.
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: obesebear on 2020-06-24 12:09:00
Oh, I don't mean adding like a completely new storyline. I just mean a lot of the dialogue is hey, here's what's happening, do this.  There's not a lot of exposition or all that much character development. Like, you can't read the script and know exactly who's talking except maybe Reno.
When Cissnei meets Zack in chapter 8, it's actually an overlap with crisis core. Before crisis being from the Turk's perspective and crisis core being from Zack's perspective.  That's actually one of the main reasons why I wanted to use Cissnei instead of shotgun, because having someone else encounter him wouldn't be consistent with the story in crisis core.
As far as animations, no one has a walking animation that I can tell. Everyone is basically a running animation that just moves kind of slow. As far as enemy monsters, they seem kind of basic, it could be that's when we try to rip sprites from the video and clean them up.
As far as this being an open project, it definitely is. The only reason the Google drive is protected is honestly because of music. But now that I think about it I don't really see SE having a problem with some old phone game music that I ripped from a YouTube video.
I'm pretty much back to full-time at work now, so between that and kids I haven't had a ton of time. But I'll try to get a video up so you can see what they look like in motion
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: obesebear on 2020-06-24 14:12:38
I spent a little more time with the avalanche sprites than cissnei and noticed that the height of the sprites varies depending on which way they're facing.  Some are 199 px and some are 218px.
This is the new sprite sheet with all similar heights https://www.mediafire.com/file/4zqcpioxjsz2sc3/Avalanche.psd/file
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: obesebear on 2020-06-24 18:18:17
Avalanche sprite in action
https://youtu.be/ONcfTj-soAE
Unfortunately I can't seem to get it to act right when it's assigned to an NPC.  It will use the appropriate sheet and cycle the frames, but it will only use 3 frames instead of 4.  Not sure if it's an issue with the plugin or what.  I'm going to contact the author and see if it's something I'm doing wrong.  I can't figure out the problem for the life of me.
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: Devina on 2020-06-29 18:05:47
Any luck with the qsprite frames?

I was just thinking, if we can't figure out how to do 4 animations in NPC sprites and we're limited to 3, it might be best to do 2 animations for now so that the animation is even. I can continue to make 4 frame spritesheets just in case we find a fix for the future.

Have you looked into NPCs being able to follow you? It might be a bit awkward if Cissnei runs with 4 animations while an NPC follows with 2, but it shouldn't be too bad. I know in some chapters, Aerith and Barret follow you.

2 frames would be a downgrade, sure, but I think we could pull it off without it looking too bad.

Do you know anything about custom unique frames too? I was thinking of making some unconscious sprites for Avalanche. Not sure how that would be organized in a spritesheet, but I could always give you a 1 sprite image.
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: obesebear on 2020-06-29 19:58:56
They all would need to be on the same sprite sheet, but once they're programmed in the first time it's very easy to add or change animations
Haven't had a ton of time to look into why the frames aren't working right. I made a post in his thread but haven't heard back. Might end up having to DM him, it read through 50 pages...
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: obesebear on 2020-07-09 01:03:01
Click here for access to all the Before Crisis assets (https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1HPgVzsoUV0YiRqGYmTw56psByi3Plnhn?usp=sharing)
This is everything I have so far (should be fully uploaded 2 hours from this post).  If you have RPGMaker MV, you should even be able to open the project and edit it if you wanted.
I hope to be able to start back up on chapter 2 in the next few days.

What I need to try next is to change the NPC movement to use the qmove script that accompanies qsprite editor.  This may allow more frames of movement instead of being restricted to 3.
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: obesebear on 2020-07-12 19:04:09
The good news is I messed up the avalanche sprite sheet somehow.  By repositioning the starting frame, it somehow works.  Hope to get it figured out tonight


QUICK EDIT:
Got it working  :)
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: Devina on 2020-07-13 09:19:21
Cool, do you need to give me a new sprite sheet with new gridlines to work from as a base, or should I just use the last one you gave me?

Either way, a new spritesheet with more room will have to be made anyway once I start doing the custom frames like "preparing to attack", "unconscious on floor", etc.

I'm glad you got it sorted out, I haven't done anything lately because I've been waiting for this and I've been busy upscaling Crisis Core in the other topic. I did get started on a look for Shears tho:

(https://i.imgur.com/88rEg83.png)

Also, congrats on the 1337 posts. :P
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: obesebear on 2020-07-13 13:03:09
The new sheet size is 1030x840.  I gave each sprite 210 pixels in height, it made it a little easier.  I do need to adjust it though, right now some of the adjacent sprites leak into the frame.  Gotta head to work though, so I'll try to fix it tonight and get it uploaded.
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: obesebear on 2020-08-18 00:46:29
(https://media.giphy.com/media/3zFcbgHoIXzykQc7vU/giphy.gif)

The wife is going back to work and the kids will be going to school / daycare starting in September.

Since I don't have much choice but to be at home with no distractions, I'll be able to pick back up working on this.  I'm probably a bit rusty, but I've got a whole chapter I can reference to refresh my memory.  Tsunamods has also announced a new casting for their voice-over project, and it's my hope that they'll tackle Before Crisis and maybe even rework the script.

Stay tuned!
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: Devina on 2020-08-19 17:20:43
That's awesome, send over the updated spritesheet gridlines when you can.
Now that most of my work on the Crisis Core HD project is done, I can put more time into spriting too.
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: Kuraudo. on 2020-09-04 08:40:18
My body is ready, gimme more
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: obesebear on 2020-09-05 17:33:09
Work should start back up Tuesday :)
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: PoolHandMan on 2020-09-18 03:36:33
thank you so much for working with this, I've always wanted to play this game. It was a stupid decision to release it only for a specific cellphone only in Japan  :roll:
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: obesebear on 2020-09-19 00:38:33
thank you so much for working with this, I've always wanted to play this game. It was a stupid decision to release it only for a specific cellphone only in Japan  :roll:
I completely agree. 

I have to handle some work/personal stuff this Monday, but come Wednesday I should be able to dedicate some time to this again.
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: Gadesx on 2020-11-11 11:54:10
Hi, looks good that map of the first post,
I' making the betatesting of FFBCR (rpgm2003)
of the Spanish translation and because
I have around 20 years of experience with Rpg maker, I see this project like a madness.
Without auto-start events as example.

I try to make enhancements using rips,
https://ibb.co/jrNsmJq (https://ibb.co/jrNsmJq)
 because the other way atleast for me is re-do every map using Cinema 4D, or 2D Pixelart.
With Easyrpg Player the game can be actually played in many systems.

I have to make little changes of the original game (2k3), atleast because is a translation mainly.

The characters assets of this game are blurry, about portraits, I can use big images making a new message system.

Your project looks like a true remake
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: Devina on 2020-11-16 04:47:14
Those background pics are nice. :)

I'm just waiting for obesebear to push the project forward. I'm always at the ready for creating sprites. I've just been busy polishing the Crisis Core HD project for the past few months, but I'm pretty much done now with most of my work on that now.

I'd also be up for getting on Discord to make this Before Crisis remake project go faster.
At first, I was hesitant on Discord because I thought it wasn't needed, but I've now seen how much faster things go with people in tandem.
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: obesebear on 2020-11-17 00:25:33
Hi, looks good that map of the first post,
I' making the betatesting of FFBCR (rpgm2003)
of the Spanish translation and because
I have around 20 years of experience with Rpg maker, I see this project like a madness.
Without auto-start events as example.

I try to make enhancements using rips,
https://ibb.co/jrNsmJq (https://ibb.co/jrNsmJq)
 because the other way atleast for me is re-do every map using Cinema 4D, or 2D Pixelart.
With Easyrpg Player the game can be actually played in many systems.

I have to make little changes of the original game (2k3), atleast because is a translation mainly.

The characters assets of this game are blurry, about portraits, I can use big images making a new message system.

Your project looks like a true remake
One of the things that would be incredibly helpful is for someone to go through and manually rip the backgrounds as I have done.    If you check my google drive link in the first post, I managed to rip the highest quality videos available (from nicovideo) and slowly take screenshots with MPC-HC and patch together the scene.  I would more than welcome the help of someone else doing that.

Those background pics are nice. :)

I'm just waiting for obesebear to push the project forward. I'm always at the ready for creating sprites. I've just been busy polishing the Crisis Core HD project for the past few months, but I'm pretty much done now with most of my work on that now.

I'd also be up for getting on Discord to make this Before Crisis remake project go faster.
At first, I was hesitant on Discord because I thought it wasn't needed, but I've now seen how much faster things go with people in tandem.
A few months back I had some family issues that took a while to resolve.  Then had an HR battle at work over whether my coworker should be fired or if I should quit.  Then began working more often in hopes of getting his job (and also being short staffed), and then today was actually my first day back to work because my family and I finally caught the coronavirus.
Unfortunately, still short staffed at work, but everything else has slowed down.  There's even another person interested in helping with sprites named HikarooChan.  As for the discord, it's here https://discord.gg/C4arJpB (https://discord.gg/C4arJpB)
Kuraudo has been on it from time to time finding artwork and other obscure facts to help with lore.  I've also reached out to Tsunamix and his voice over director about making adjustments to the dialogue so the story is better, and ultimately implementing voice acting.

ALL THAT SAID, I should be able to start tinkering a little bit in the coming weeks before thanksgiving.  It really just depends if I have any days off to commit to it.
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: obesebear on 2021-01-02 18:14:34
I realize this thread has become posts of me just saying that any day I'll be able to resume work on this.   Now I can say I will actually have some time.  My work schedule has finally been figured out so that I'll be off every Tuesday and Wednesday.  Family and workplace drama has been completely resolved, so I should have an abundance of free time going forward.

I'm excited to finally get back to work on this!
I'm not sure where to begin, it's been quite a while since I opened RPG Maker, but I'm sure it'll be just like riding a bike.
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: Kuraudo. on 2021-01-25 07:48:21
Hi, looks good that map of the first post,
I' making the betatesting of FFBCR (rpgm2003)
of the Spanish translation and because
I have around 20 years of experience with Rpg maker, I see this project like a madness.
Without auto-start events as example.

I try to make enhancements using rips,
https://ibb.co/jrNsmJq (https://ibb.co/jrNsmJq)
 because the other way atleast for me is re-do every map using Cinema 4D, or 2D Pixelart.
With Easyrpg Player the game can be actually played in many systems.

I have to make little changes of the original game (2k3), atleast because is a translation mainly.

The characters assets of this game are blurry, about portraits, I can use big images making a new message system.

Your project looks like a true remake

Hi, join us on discord https://discord.gg/C4arJpB
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: Devina on 2021-01-25 11:42:42
(https://i.imgur.com/tAScR19.png)

Hey everyone, some updates.

For one, we are igniting the development of the project on the Discord.
Everyone interested in the project please join us there.

The development of the game is now open-source.
Everyone is welcome and those with RPG Maker MV skills are extremely vital.
The more people who collaborate with us, the faster we can get this game out.
For example, someone joining us could mean the difference between a release date of 2022 instead of 2024.

The current status of the game is be hosted here, at:

https://github.com/DevinaGithub/Before-Crisis-Remake

RPG Maker MV is currently required to access the playable version.

Finally, we plan to release a Chapter 1 demo sometime soonish in the future.
Can't give an exact release date just yet.

Finally, a sneak preview of the game's menu:

(https://i.imgur.com/1a9FNmp.png)
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: LeonhartGR on 2021-01-25 22:28:00
Beautiful!
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: obesebear on 2021-01-26 18:14:07
Got a tutorial up for "extracting" backgrounds out of the nicovideo videos.   I'll try to make a few more tutorials on how I do things in case more people want to jump on board

https://youtu.be/BUu_2eCcDrE
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: Kuraudo. on 2021-01-27 23:38:07
Hey folks, just a heads-up... got the full japanese transcription.

We are looking into people able to cross-check the text and revitalize the dialogues/fix grammar. Jump in discord if interested.
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: Kuraudo. on 2021-02-04 14:23:32
I was playing the last repo, a few comments: the blinking it's amazing. The font is beautiful.

-It's missing the "Prologue" text after clicking New Game, OB see the japanese script I send you
-It's missing the screen "Chapter 1 Those Who Lurk in the Night" (my suggestion is to remove black screen title and to keep it simple remake style (https://ibb.co/XXgrLj3), with Optima font... like this (https://imgur.com/hs2eBjf))

.
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: Kuraudo. on 2021-02-23 07:01:54
BEFORE CRISIS FFVII - COMPENDIUM (https://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=20884.msg286155#msg286155)
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: Devina on 2021-02-23 22:28:01
Some positive news, we've done quite a bit of an overhaul of chapter one over the past month.
There are a lot of new updates but I don't want to spoil what will be in the demo. I want a lot of stuff to catch players off-guard.

Right now, we're just doing the finishing touches and I'm currently making battle sprites. Here's a sneak preview:

(https://i.imgur.com/SeOtPaW.gif)

Everything's going smoothly.
Anyone with RPG Maker MV expertise is welcome to help us as this project is open source.

As for a timeframe of the demo, if I had to guess, maybe in 2-3 weeks from now.
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: LeonhartGR on 2021-02-24 21:39:57
Great news!
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: obesebear on 2021-02-28 19:55:21
I just want to document here so in the future we'll know the best way we currently have of upscaling the ripped backgrounds
Using Topaz AI Denoise > remove noise 25%, sharpen 25%, recover 0%, noise reduction 0%
Then in photoshop CS6 > filter > reduce noise > strength 2, color noise 40%, sharpen 25%, "check" remove jpeg artifact
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: Kuraudo. on 2021-03-19 23:09:38
Hey folks, just a heads-up, Rizzle is on-board now and the dialogues looks so much better now! Stay tuned~!
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: Kuraudo. on 2021-09-08 21:15:57
FYI news soon.

Note from OB:
"I abandoned Gigapixel because I got better results just using Photoshop. Per my notes:
Sharpen Edges.
Reduce Noise: strength 2, color noise 40%, sharpen 40%, remove jpeg, upscale: smoother"
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: PoolHandMan on 2021-09-08 22:10:46
Hey folks, just a heads-up, Rizzle is on-board now and the dialogues looks so much better now! Stay tuned~!

I'm really looking forward to this!  ;D
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: obesebear on 2021-09-09 00:39:35
I'm really looking forward to this!  ;D
You're in luck because our alpha demo will be released EXTREMELY soon.  Like, within a week or two!  Stay tuned!
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: Devina on 2021-11-09 11:41:37
Hey everyone, I'm here to finally release the demo,

This version is now what I consider the "gold demo", as in "the game has gone gold".

Our game is now titled Before Crisis: Cissnei.

(https://i.imgur.com/qp2JDdg.jpg)

Here's a sharable trailer for our game:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PQhBEjjDGY

It's 1:30 long. The trailer is not full of any huge major spoilers, but some people may wish to not see the trailer in case they want absolutely nothing spoiled. The trailer shows some combat, menus, a few moments from some cutscenes. And expect some music from Devil May Cry.

There's a lot of things I want to go over so here's some organized sections for easier reading.

WHY DID THIS TAKE SO LONG?

First off, I want to talk a little bit about my background and the creation of this. I've been working on this for about 3/4 of a year (although I made some sprites before that), and when I first started, I had little experience with RPG Maker, so I've had to learn a lot from scratch. I've probably put around 200-250 hours over the past several months. I'm a hermit myself so this pandemic had little effect on my ability to contribute.

My last post in this topic was in February this year so it's been a while. I decided not to post in this topic since because I didn't want to disappoint anyone, since I noticed a pattern of me constantly not being able to keep up with the deadlines I wanted to, and I didn't want to cause a cycle of hype and disappointment. However, it was ultimately for the better: good things take time and I did not want to rush it myself. I also wanted to spend a lot of time polishing the game.

It took us this longer than we hoped to release this, although they are many reasons why:

-Both me and Obesebear were learning the hoops of RPG Maker. Sometimes plugins broke something or we had to spend time fixing some stuff. Both of us are way more talented at RPG Maker now and any future development on the game would not take as long because the initial hard hurdles are over.
-Me taking a long time to join the Discord and get more involved (I thought being part of the Qhimm forum would be enough, but it turns out being part of active discussions is far more important than I realized). Additionally, I was busy doing a lot of work on the Crisis Core Upscale Project so I wanted to finish that up a bit.
-We had to move everything from 4:3 to 16:9, and re-do the backgrounds and positions of characters.
-We had to re-loop the music of the original tracks, as we decided to no longer use MIDIs.
-We had to change all the background windows to a translucent version.
-The release of Ever Crisis in February severely disheartened me and Obesebear's motivation to work on this project.
-I went on vacation and due to an unfortunate situation, I was lost a week more than I wanted to.
-We decided we wanted to include partial voice acting, so with the help of Tsunamods, we were able to find some good actors to bring the cast to life.
-I wanted to add the Shinra Building, so I created the entire level myself.
-We implemented a new script.
-I had to spend time studying some of the OG FF7 (such as how menus look) and ripping sound effects

ABOUT THE CURRENT DEMO

Now that that's out of the way, here's some basic information about our game, dubbed 0.1a for now. If I had to give a rough estimate as to how long it is, it could be between 1 hr 20 mins up to even 4 hours. Why the big gap in playtime, you ask? Well, some players may breeze through the combat while others may need to spend time retrying.

Some things in our version were not actually part of Before Crisis, but for understandable reasons. This demo is not a 1:1 recreation of Before Crisis' chapter 1, and it never will be. However, don't be alarmed because but we aimed to be faithful where it counts, so people can still play our version and not be left out on anything, especially story-wise. Think of it as more of a vanilla KH2 vs KH2: Final Mix experience. For example, there is a boss battle and a secret optional location not available in the original. This is because we wanted our chapter one to be a banger with more exploration.

One major change is that Cissnei was not actually playable until chapter until Chapter 18 in Before Crisis, as she was more of an unlockable "bonus" in the game. In our version, Cissnei is our protagonist because we felt it was the best choice and Crisis Core wants us to empathize with her. I agree that it would be better to be Cissnei, as opposed to one of the other random Turks who have little backstory and are ignored by the rest of the Compilation of FF7. Cissnei is intended to be written into our script in a natural manner. At the very least, our version is a nice little "prequel" to Crisis Core and a taste of Before Crisis for people who know very little about it. I also hope it will help people empathize with Cissnei before her appearance in Crisis Core.

I did the entire combat system myself, balancing enemies. I decided to go with turn-based instead of ATB because turn-based is easier to program for and balance. An ATB version someday in the future is not out of the question, but it is far from being my priority.

SOME THINGS I'M NOT TOTALLY SATISFIED WITH

There are some things I didn't get to put in this version which I would like to later. For example, I think some of the sprite work could be improved (I'm not too happy with Cissnei's walking animation), and I would like to add some more dialog choices. At one point, two characters turn semi translucent because I didn't want to delay this demo any longer, but I do plan to add KOed sprites in later. Some things I wanted to implement was a way to make the TP (aka Limit in our game) bar to flash colors when full, but I could not find a way. Another thing people may notice is that footsteps may be inconsistent or not appear in certain areas. This should be addressed in the future.

HELP, ADVICE WITH THE DEMO, AND OTHER IMPORTANT INFORMATION. READ THIS!

- F4 is fullscreen, F5 is force reload to title screen
- Shift (to run), Z (confirm)/X (cancel/menu) are used if you are playing on keyboard.
- This demo is controller compatible, but you may need to press cancel or some other button in order to "activate" your controller first. Try spamming all buttons on your controller to get it active. It's a weird RPG Maker thing.
- Be sure to extract the "www" folder inside the .rar as well or saving won't work.
- You need to examine the first save point in order to use it, walking over it won't work. Please test to see if the first save points works. It's not a super long demo anyway and you can retry battles if you die.
- The "ALL" Materia does not work exactly like FF7 automatically. You need to press a button (such as Shift on PC) while targeting enemies. As in FF7, the All Materia needs to be in a paired slot.
- If you hold Z during cutscenes, it will fast-forward them.
- Please do not spoil the puzzles (e.g. posting number codes) in this thread. It ruins the fun.
- Please read the instructions and tutorials very carefully as you play. If you skim, you'll probably end up confused somewhere.
- You can get through the combat more easily if you notice general patterns to the enemies and strategize. My advice is to be conservative with healing items, and focus on defeating one enemy at a time because flip-flopping will give them more turns.

THE FUTURE OF THIS DEMO AND BEFORE CRISIS: CISSNEI

Unfortunately, at this time, we simply don't know what the future is for our project. This is because a lot of it is based on the success of this demo, reception and popularity. Ideally, I would like to finish the game (all 25ish chapters) and it's something I could very well work on for several more years. Although I'd summarize some boringish filler chapters, I'd keep the chapters which I feel are worth preserving. Here are the chapters which I would summarize and the ones which I could ensure are remade (if the game is finished in the future, then I would like to later make the chapters I summarized to be playable):

Spoiler: show

2 - Summary. The layout is rather boring and President Shinra is meh.
3 - Playable, because it introduces Elfe.
4 - Summary, meh Azul storyline
5 - Summary, linear layout despite Cloud, no major plot significance
6 - Summary, Rude/Chelsea storyine isn't significant to main plot
7 - Summary - Sebastian/Essai are meh
8 - Playable, with Zack as an ally
9 - Summary, linear layout, Heidegger is meh
10 - Playable, has interesting Shinra Building layout
11 - Playable, with Aerith as ally
12 - Summary, it's linear and just going over the Nibelheim Incident
13 - Playable, important plot details, interesting Shinra Mansion layout
14 - IDK, layout of Wutai is interesting so maybe a mix of summary and playable
15 - Summary, linear, meh Cid story
16 - Playable, with Barret as ally, interesting dungeon
17 - Playable, important storyline
18 - Summary, Cosmo Canyon boring
19 - Playable
20 - Summary
21 - Summary
22 - Summary
23 - Playable, final dungeon
24 - Playable, final dungeon


Depending on how things go, we may stop after a few updates, or we may finish it to the end. One of the major reasons is, of course, the elephant in the room: Ever Crisis. Why work on a remake if Square already said they are remaking it? None of us expected this and it caught us off-guard. We have no idea how faithful their remake will be to the original. This is why we don't have plans to put the project on full blast (i.e. making every chapter playable) to the end. However, we have created a version of the game that is still a great "base" for the future at the very least. If Ever Crisis happens to miss anything important or change too much (such as removing some important flashback important to a character's backstory), our version could be a complement to it.

DONATIONS

Our version is free and will always be free, and we made this as a passion project with little budget. Perhaps even a shoestring budget. Obesebear is accepting donations and the more funds he receives, the more he will feel motivated to fully work on the game. Creating this demo was time-consuming, and creating the rest of the game with only two main programmers will also be. So if you enjoyed our demo and wish for the game to have a bright and complete future, please donate here:

https://www.paypal.com/donate/?business=5VY9FTRUS4LES&no_recurring=1&currency_code=USD

People can feel free to donate to me as well, but I prefer only Steam wallet codes via forum or Discord PMs (I buy games occasionally, but the money I save from games helps my life out in other ways, so it's just another way to donate).

ABOUT LEGALITY

Some people may be wondering about the legality of this project. This is legal because people have been creating fan games using official assets for ages. However, this also means Square has the right to send a C and D at any time, but it is unlikely they care, and it would be an insult to the FF7 fans, and people who have been working to archive Before Crisis. Additionally, our version is free and it is usually when people put their fan games behind a paywall when companies start to take action (meanwhile, we are simply accepting optional donations). Richter already remade his own version of Before Crisis and has had no difficulties with Square, so we are not worried.

RPG MAKER HELP, POSSIBLE TRANSLATIONS, AND RECRUITMENT

There is a community of creative, passionate RPG Maker devs out there and making certain aspects of our game was a confusing process at times, such as implementing our phone menu, making sure custom animations appear, etc. We have decided to hide the game's source code in order to respect the authors of the paid plugins we bought. However, if anyone is working on an RPG Maker game and is wondering how we did X or Y in our demo, they can send me a message on our server and I will be happy to help out and can provide screenshots of the relevant code so other devs can improve their game.

If anyone would like to offer to volunteer to work on Before Crisis: Cissnei in any way shape or form, even in spite of its uncertain future, feel free to post a message in our Discord.

If anyone would like to translate our demo into another language, feel free to ask. I made some mock-ups for fun of what our game would look like in Japanese:

(https://i.imgur.com/3WYTMJM.png)

If someone encounters any major bugs, or has suggestions about anything, please let us know on our Discord.

CREDITS

(https://i.imgur.com/M9dSVFP.png)

I would also like to thank Naoya, who has been nice to talk to, and their efforts in trying to archive the original Before Crisis.

We also thank Richterwilker, who created a previous Before Crisis remake and inspired us to create our own. It is important that everyone knows that we are not trying to "one-up" Richter or take his thunder away from his version, we have respect for his work and don't want to hear any stupid false accusations that it's our intent.

DOWNLOAD

https://www.mediafire.com/file/qj616bjd7czmmua/BC_Demo_0.1a.rar/file

Here is the download, it is 400mb.
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: olearyf2525 on 2021-11-15 05:01:29
Gj Devina and Obesebear, can't wait to try this out. Devina you're grammar is flawless, I enjoyed reading your post.
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: Devina on 2022-01-20 11:38:43
Hey everyone, it's a new year of covid and I thought it'd be a good time to post an update.
There's some good news and there's some bad news.
For now, I think it's best to get the bad news out of the way before I move onto the good news.

Soooo, it's been two months since the demo was released and...

(https://i.imgur.com/9ZUnA9G.png)

I'll be honest, these numbers are a bit... disheartening.
83 downloads isn't terrible, but I know some of those downloads were mine in order to test the download worked, and that I passed the demo to some of my friends. I was kinda hoping by now that people would be talking about the game more and that we might have 150 downloads or something by this point. So I'm just sort of confused. I haven't received any donations myself either. I mentioned earlier I said the future of this project will rely on a little funding. I've seen a few people say "Oh, this looks cool!" and I reply "Great! Let me know what you think of the demo!" and then.... silence. I have like no feedback to go off. All I can do is hope our game will be a sleeper hit of sorts that will become more popular in the future, after all, Among Us was a quiet game for its first year.

It's just very "oof!" when you spend over a year of your life on a game and it feels no one is playing it. And I know it wasn't just me, everyone else like Obesebear and the voice actors put a lot of effort into making our demo a reality. I put a lot of effort into designing the Shinra Building level myself, even taking screencaps from Crisis Core (spoiler alert: our demo allows players to enter the front area outside Shinra as it appears in Crisis Core, which became an unused area and only appears in a small cutscene). Animating the fumes from the reactor alone, for example, took me at least two hours:

(https://i.imgur.com/SwdiEyx.png)

So I'm just curious, why the low download count? Maybe people don't play RPG Maker games or they're viewed as indie? Maybe it's just the curse of 99% of RPG Maker games, with exceptions like Omori and To the Moon being able to break the curse? Maybe the Cissnei fans are as dormant as the character, who disappeared after Crisis Core? Maybe Qhimm just isn't that popular these days, and most of the OG FF7 fans are in their 30s-50s by now and are busy adults who don't have time to play fan games? Who knows. Taking guesses isn't really important or productive, what matters is the future.

I noticed a similar thing to another game I enjoyed playing a lot called Farewell Eikon:

(https://img.itch.zone/aW1hZ2UvMTAzMzU3OS81OTM1NjgzLnBuZw==/original/xdVnrt.png)
https://lapouris.itch.io/farewell-eikon

I played the demo a while back and heavily enjoyed playing it, and the game has only received 200 downloads as well.
(Yes, this is a shout-out to it.)

It just seems a bit strange, since FF7 has a huge fanbase and we're trying to make a canonical part of the storyline easily accessible. Then again, a huge chunk of FF7 fans don't even know what Before Crisis is. But yeah, stuff like a low download count demotivates me, to the point that I feel like I might as well scrap chunks out of the project, like Cissnei fighting alongside Zack in the ice cavern chapter.

Another possibility is that some people find the demo too hard, ragequit, and don't bother to tell their friends? Again, I wouldn't know since no one's given me enough feedback. As people can see, only one other commented in this topic after I released the demo. So here's some tips about the game if this is the case:

Spoiler: show

* At the beginning of the game, don't just head to the top left. Explore the map and make sure you click on any suspicious areas. You might find another level to explore.
* The All Materia is important, so use it once you get it to survive all the Avalanche members outside the reactor.
* When you see the treasure chests, you have the ability to open at least one of them. Here's a hint: the answer is in your pocket.
* Barrier is a must against Shears, and you only should bring one magic Materia into the battle. It doesn't matter if you choose Gravity or Fire or whatever. None of them do more elemental damage.
* Shears never uses 2x Cut twice in a row. You can get away with doing a strong attack or whatever you need to with this knowledge.
* Use the window of time before he unleashes his power move to kill you. You need 40 MP to cast Barrier and be sure you fully heal.


So now, onto the good news.

This project won't be cancelled. Obesebear has given me the go to make a "branch" of the game. He's very busy with his life and has very little time to work on a fan game that receives little downloads and already has an official remake called Ever Crisis supposedly coming out. He might do his own version of Chapter One using 3D models with his own take on the chapter, but no guarantees.

The vast majority of video games with full teams have developers constantly floating ideas back and forth, often with disagreements or compromises, with developers saying things like "Ehhh, I think that's not a good idea." This often results in some sad devs because their ideas and creative vision gets scrapped. This is just the reality of game development with multiple members. For example, should Cissnei receive this or that Materia after a boss fight? How should a character be written? Is the boss fight too hard, easy or just right? Et cetera. Our version 0.1a of the game is built a result of our compromises and lots of consensus over many months.

However, the Final Mix version will allow me to express my creative freedom and desires to my full ability, without needing to constantly check-in with someone else or ask for permission to go forward with an idea, so I appreciate him giving me this opportunity.

For now, I've decided to called this branch Before Crisis: Cissnei -Final Mix-
(And yes, Final Mix is a Kingdom Hearts reference, just for fun. "FM" for short.)

It will be solely authorized by me (with text lifted and adapted from the original game), so I ask that no one views the Final Mix version as Obesebear's work. So if, for some reason, someone does not like something in the Final Mix version, then blame me, not him.

I've spent a long time (months, actually) pondering what the FM version should have. Something I will be transparent about is that the storyline will branch a little bit at the ending, which won't be out for quite a while. It will answer what happened to Cissnei after Crisis Core and address why she does not appear in the rest of the Compilation of FF7. Of course, this is purely fanon but this one of the few divergences I want to have in my creative vision.

FM will contain chapter two as a two-minute long slideshow summary, like this:

(https://i.imgur.com/wwwUvE9.png)

Chapter three will be playable and feature Elfe as a boss fight at the end.
This is one of my main motivations to keep working on the project, since I really wanted to have a cool Elfe-Cissnei battle.
Here's some images from the incomplete chapter three:

(https://i.imgur.com/SgkD7Gh.png)

Chapter three in my Final Mix version is aimed at a release date of Summer 2022.
Afterwards, I will summarize chapters 4-22, with each chapter being a two-minute slideslow.
It only takes me 2 days to summarize one chapter as a slideshow, like I did for chapter two.
They will also have appropriate music, so Aerith's chapter will include her theme, for example.

Players will be able to save between each chapter.
This means people can play our version alongside Richter's and not have to choose "which version should I play?" People can just play his first, then watch the 2 min summary in our version between each chapter for a basic recap, and to see all of the HD portraits. Each chapter will feature a world map image like chapter one, giving players an idea of where the action is set:

(https://i.imgur.com/gB1YyKD.png)

Final Mix will end with a playable version of Chapters 23/24 and will end with the final boss of the game, Zirconiade. Players will be able to get through the final dungeon using high-level materia such as Firaga, Thundaga, etc.

I hope people look forward to the Final Mix version. The finale of it has a loose release date of the end of 2022. I still have a lot on my plate, for example, I need to finish spriting Elfe:

(https://i.imgur.com/5MiPHs6.png)

I spoke to many of the voice actors who worked on their demo, and basically all of them said they were willing to help out in the future. So to all the voice actors: for now, you can rest for a while. The sub-server in the Tsunamods channel will remain open as my development on the game continues, although it won't be very active, of course.

Something I could use now, however, is a good Elfe voice actress. I have someone in mind but right now, they're just a possibility and I want to see other voices, so anyone interested in voicing Elfe, please post your auditions on the channel. Just say whatever you want like "Let's do this!" or "This is your end, Turk!" or "How could I lose...?" I don't really care about the lines said, I care more about the voice, range and tones than the lines. And in the future, I'd ideally like a Fuhito voice actor for a possible boss fight.

So to recap, update two (up to chapter three) should in the middle of this year, while the rest of the game will be update three (at the end of this year). After that, I'm not sure. There's always possibilities for me to go back and flesh out the summaries into fully playable chapters, or I might make my own version of Episode Reno since I finished his sprites and his moveset and voice acting is done. The future is full of potential. But at the very least, our remake will have five playable chapters (1, Shinra Building, 3, 23, 24) and be an immersive way for players to know the full story of Before Crisis.

Our Discord is open and everyone is welcome to join, give their feedback on the demo, or help out in any ways they see fit, whether it be submitting art, music, volunteering to be a voice actor, giving us exposure, etc. For example, Chapter Three will feature a remix of the Chapter One theme because someone gave me permission to use their fan-remix.
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: Tsetra on 2022-02-12 22:26:03
Hello, just wanted to chime in. I silently keep up with any and all FF7 developments including the original RM2003 remake and the work here. I also periodically wade through the sea of RPG Maker works at RMN looking for the creative gems.

If you're looking for a game that can break through to the masses, it will take an enormous amount of polish. There is a stigma against RPG Maker games in general because of the poor quality the overwhelming majority of them have and while it's understandable, there are incredible works that get completely overlooked because of it. Some could arguably be in Top 10 lists if they were developed on the SNES instead, that's how bad of an image problem the engine has. Another great example is Ara Fell which was hugely overlooked as an RPG Maker 2003 game but exploded on Steam as a Unity title even though it was fundamentally the same exact game.

However, your work shows greater promise than the old RM2003 version and that game has gotten ~23k downloads. I'm pretty sure exposure is your biggest problem. I'm not going to get into why I think it's the case, but I don't believe Qhimm is the best avenue for getting people to notice this. You should absolutely be cross-posting at RMN and probably YouTube.

I'm one of the downloaders of your work, but I haven't gotten to try it yet and you nailed some of the reasons in your above post. I'm just super busy! I'll definitely get around to it eventually though and continue keeping tabs on the project, best of luck I hope it gets some traction!
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: Bonez on 2022-02-13 00:34:08
Tsetra's right. Yeah, this is a Final Fantasy board, but people here nowadays are more worried about when Lunatic Pandora Remastered is going to be done, or when the next Project Edge field is going to get posted, or getting a mod to work properly... You definitely need to branch out. Youtube would probably do wonders. You just need some eyes outside of Qhimm and Tsunamods. (it's too bad you can't put it on Steam, you'd probably get 100k downloads)
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: Devina on 2022-02-15 04:14:11
Thanks you two, I'll probably upload the next Final Mix version to RMN then.
It's at 102 downloads right now on Mediafire... sooo, we have over 100 downloads now, just took a few months.
Thanks to all the downloaders as well.

I read somewhere that Ever Crisis is going to go in chronological order so they're (apparently) going to release their adaptation of Before Crisis first, but I don't have a concrete source for this. So I'll have my eyes peeled on that and if this is true, then I'd like to work the chapters around that so if Ever Crisis misses any important info, our version can fill in any gaps that Ever Crisis misses.
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: olearyf2525 on 2022-02-15 05:42:36
Yeah I agree with Testra, qhimm has seemed dead for awhile. It's mainly just people looking for help troubleshooting mods. Some of the traffic was probably re-directed to Steams' own forums, Tsunamods, Nexusmods, etc. Or a lot of people just watch youtube for modding news now.
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: Devina on 2022-02-18 17:09:44
I decided to take the advice and am in the process of trying to upload my Final Mix version to RMN.

(https://s10.gifyu.com/images/ezgif.com-gif-maker848cf419a5ca9da8.gif)

I also decided this version will have a few small changes from the current available version.
Nothing HUGE or anything, but just something to tide people over until the intended chapter 3 update this summer.

For example, Cissnei will now have a new Limit Break inspired by Crisis Core: Lucky Stars.
It will restore her health and temporarily raise her max HP, while also increasing her evasion rate.

Hopefully I can get this small updated version on RMN by the end of the month. :)
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: Mirrorman95 on 2022-03-10 16:52:41
I tried the GitHub link from the front page. It said "DevinaGithub doesn't have any public repositories yet."
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: Devina on 2022-03-11 05:16:26
Hey, we've made the decision to hide the game's source code. I probably should've specified "We decided to make our Github private." The game uses some paid plugins by some authors so we decided to hide the source code to respect the authors and prevent people from grabbing their plugins for free. All the Github has is the game's source code, nothing else. It's also convenient to not have to drop plugins in and out whenever we need to check the latest build.

And because of this, the Github source code is only available for developers or anyone who wishes to peek at the code to learn how we did things so they can learn and implement things into their own RPG Maker project. Ask here or IM me if someone wishes to learn how to implement Materia in their game, for example.

The download/version hasn't been updated anywhere since I posted it.
In the meantime, people may wish to check out our project on RPGMaker.net and become a subscriber:

https://rpgmaker.net/games/12400/

I'm still working on the game little by little each week. I just picked the song for the Elfe boss fight tonight.
Title: Re: Before Crisis Remake
Post by: Devina on 2022-06-17 10:16:41
A quick update, I've decided to postpone the next update of Final Mix until after the remake of Crisis Core comes out this winter. The reason being, there's a high chance there's going to be some material/references in it to add to the game. Plus there's going to be even more Cissnei fans around this time.

I'm been very busy lately and had to deal with some stressful annoying situations and financial crap. I haven't had a lot of free time to work on the project, but I will now for the next 6 months.

The current demo has had over 250 downloads now apparently, so that makes me a bit happier. Thanks to those who are following this game's development and looking forward to Cissnei's trip in Junon. I have some secret surprises in the project that I'm keeping under wraps and are already implemented in the game as well.