Okay here's the thing...I'm kindof interested in making my own shmup, but I think that starting with something like this might actually be good practice.
However, I know NOTHING about making my own game music! I'm not even good at reading music or composing! This game is JP import, but most menus are English enough to grasp it. The engine is kinda limited with what powerups and stuff you can work with, though you CAN edit the sprites on your own, as well as stages, this whole process takes A TON of work, and apparently you can upload games for your friends to play.
At this point I'm positively biting off more than I can chew as this is in the same vein as the RPGMaker games.
HOWEVER, if I do design any one thing...it would be MUSIC...I'm bound and determined to make something awesome sounding at least once...if only just to make a chiptune. However, like I said before, I'm a total novice, so anything people can actually give advice on would be nice. Dezaemon Plus has a kindof "mario-paintesque" music engine, but it's kinda better I think.
And if this game doesn't work out, I'd love to learn how to make Genesis or NES or SNES chiptunes, even though I don't have music aptitude at the moment.
Dezaemon Plus (PSN/PS3/Japanese PSone/PSP)
Dezaemon Plus (PSN/PS3/Japanese PSone/PSP)
The world would be a better place if there were less shooters and more dot-eaters.
Jesus' BE ATTITUDE FOR GAINS:
1. Pure, Mournful, Humble Heart
2. Merciful Peacemaker
3. Suffer for Righteous Desire
Jesus' BE ATTITUDE FOR GAINS:
1. Pure, Mournful, Humble Heart
2. Merciful Peacemaker
3. Suffer for Righteous Desire
Re: Dezaemon Plus (PSN/PS3/Japanese PSone/PSP)
I messed around with Dezaemon 2 for a few months. I can say very confidently that it's great practice for a number of things if you're interested in making your own 2D shooter. You really learn to love some of those limitations, too.
I couldn't speak specifically about Plus (I'm sure it has some significant upgrades); but the music editor in 2 very much reminded me of Mario Paint's... it seemed like it'd be easy enough if you had a clue where to put notes, select instruments, change tempo and so on. Being totally without musical inclination, I didn't of course...lol.
The time investment is all part of the process, that's kinda the first thing you have to get used to going into anything like this. Some of the better games made with Dezaemon took a solid 6+ month to produce according to their authors. Heck, even some of my dinky Blast Works projects (all individual levels) took over a month to finish.
I couldn't speak specifically about Plus (I'm sure it has some significant upgrades); but the music editor in 2 very much reminded me of Mario Paint's... it seemed like it'd be easy enough if you had a clue where to put notes, select instruments, change tempo and so on. Being totally without musical inclination, I didn't of course...lol.
The time investment is all part of the process, that's kinda the first thing you have to get used to going into anything like this. Some of the better games made with Dezaemon took a solid 6+ month to produce according to their authors. Heck, even some of my dinky Blast Works projects (all individual levels) took over a month to finish.
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BPzeBanshee
- Posts: 4859
- Joined: Sun Feb 08, 2009 3:59 am
Re: Dezaemon Plus (PSN/PS3/Japanese PSone/PSP)
I use GarageBand and/or Mixcraft 5 for making my music, and Game Maker 8 for programming games. There's VST plugins and stuff available to imitate NES-style instruments so you always make some kind of chiptune from that.
Or use Modplug Tracker, but you'll still need to get instruments for that as well and I find Mixcraft 5 to have a friendlier interface.
Or use Modplug Tracker, but you'll still need to get instruments for that as well and I find Mixcraft 5 to have a friendlier interface.
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PC Engine Fan X!
- Posts: 9129
- Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 10:32 pm
Re: Dezaemon Plus (PSN/PS3/Japanese PSone/PSP)
For Blade,
When I first got my copy of Dezaemon Plus back in early 2000, I was eager to try to create a doujin shmup with it. I even went out & bought a PSX 1st-party mouse to use with it -- definitely makes game creation a whole lot easier compared to solely using a PSX D-pad controller setup. Just like you, I didn't have any previous knowledge/experience of creating BGM tunes or even sprite artwork for that matter. So in April of 2000, I took the plunge of working with DP's built-in BGM Editor.
Protip: You can modify the sample BGM tunes used with the included Daioh Gale mini game to see how it works. By simply changing the tempo, you can make it dramatic/epic or have a more upbeat pacing.
It was through much trial & error/discovering new sample beats/loops that I was able to create some cool fully-flegded BGM tunes complete with a intro (that plays only once) and the remaing loop portion plays endlessly until another loop selection is selected for playback.
It's possibly to create BGM tunes for the opening main game title screen, individual stages, end-stage bosses and even the ending staff credits roll. How's that for completeness?
So from 2000 until 2004, I'd work on creating new DP BGM tunes to see what could be done...managed to create a cool & funky 1970s BGM tune that would go well with a Dangun Feveron inspired doujin shmup. Athena Co. Ltd. would be shocked to learn that their DP BGM Editor engine could pull something like that off despite it's limited shortcomings. I still have yet to create some sprite-based artwork to accompany the various BGM loops I made. If you can create some cool shmup-worth BGM tunes, then the rest will fall into place (although at a slow time-consuming pace).
It's cool to d/l the custom loops from various PSX memory cards & chill back with them from time to time.
There was a handy book guide titled "How to Create a Shooter in 7 Days" using the DP engine. Goes into more detail of all the various functions of what the DP engine can do over the course of a week. Very interesting book just for the novelty factor alone. Various sample sprite artwork and sample BGM tunes are provided for you to try out/modify. You bascially learn at your own pace. Unfortunately, it's all entirely in Japanese though. No all-English text version was printed to my knowledge. Would be nice if it was translated into English so we could get a better understanding of what everything does.
PC Engine Fan X! ^_~
When I first got my copy of Dezaemon Plus back in early 2000, I was eager to try to create a doujin shmup with it. I even went out & bought a PSX 1st-party mouse to use with it -- definitely makes game creation a whole lot easier compared to solely using a PSX D-pad controller setup. Just like you, I didn't have any previous knowledge/experience of creating BGM tunes or even sprite artwork for that matter. So in April of 2000, I took the plunge of working with DP's built-in BGM Editor.
Protip: You can modify the sample BGM tunes used with the included Daioh Gale mini game to see how it works. By simply changing the tempo, you can make it dramatic/epic or have a more upbeat pacing.
It was through much trial & error/discovering new sample beats/loops that I was able to create some cool fully-flegded BGM tunes complete with a intro (that plays only once) and the remaing loop portion plays endlessly until another loop selection is selected for playback.
It's possibly to create BGM tunes for the opening main game title screen, individual stages, end-stage bosses and even the ending staff credits roll. How's that for completeness?
So from 2000 until 2004, I'd work on creating new DP BGM tunes to see what could be done...managed to create a cool & funky 1970s BGM tune that would go well with a Dangun Feveron inspired doujin shmup. Athena Co. Ltd. would be shocked to learn that their DP BGM Editor engine could pull something like that off despite it's limited shortcomings. I still have yet to create some sprite-based artwork to accompany the various BGM loops I made. If you can create some cool shmup-worth BGM tunes, then the rest will fall into place (although at a slow time-consuming pace).
It's cool to d/l the custom loops from various PSX memory cards & chill back with them from time to time.
There was a handy book guide titled "How to Create a Shooter in 7 Days" using the DP engine. Goes into more detail of all the various functions of what the DP engine can do over the course of a week. Very interesting book just for the novelty factor alone. Various sample sprite artwork and sample BGM tunes are provided for you to try out/modify. You bascially learn at your own pace. Unfortunately, it's all entirely in Japanese though. No all-English text version was printed to my knowledge. Would be nice if it was translated into English so we could get a better understanding of what everything does.
PC Engine Fan X! ^_~