Equinox - Cresent Blue / Diamond Red

[Zexion]

Cresent Blue: ShowHide

Diamond Red: ShowHide

About:

Spoiler: ShowHide

• In the introduction, the main character is said to be moving out of town to live on their own farm. Although the character lives alone, the neighboring city is full of life and is only a short walk away. There are also plenty of areas surrounding the farm to explore such as caves, the ocean, and mountians where you can find many exotic fish and pets. Equinox is a simulation game similar to Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon.
  
  
• You can chat with villagers and make friends (or enemies), exchange gifts, do favors, and throw parties.
  
• There will also be a museum to hold art, fossils, fish, and misc. finds.  
  
• There are several shops to buy and sell goods such as clothes, furniture, and farming merchandise.
  
• There are events on every holiday, and even special holidays within the game.
  
• The environment will change with the seasons, grass will fade, trees will change colors, snow will cover the ground, and rain will make puddles and wet the ground.
  
• You can plant flowers and trees anywhere. (Well almost anywhere XD)
  
• You live your own life.
  -If you want to get married, you will have to put in the work or it will fall apart. You can decide to neglect the farm, but it will lower the rating of it, and if the rating drops too low, you will have to pay 100k Jules (money) to start your farm back up, and shops will not sell to you until you pay the money back.

Features:

Spoiler: ShowHide

• Dynamic planting system
  -Trees and bushes can only be planted in the forest, and take a few days to grow. Flowers can be planted anywhere and grown instantly, but require water daily. They will wilt after one day of not being watered, and will disappear on the second day of not being watered. Trees can be shaken to obtain fruit and other random items. A tree with an item will only have one item per day. Trees with items are random, eg. No specific tree will always give an item.
  
• Farming system
  -You can plant seeds to grow crops. They require daily maintenance for a set period of time depending on the crop. If not tended to, the crop will die and you will have to re-plant it. In addition to the crop patch, there are also several special patches for trees, herbs, and fruits.
  
• Farm rating system
  -You start off with a 25% rating on your farm. Each crop will add a certain amount of points to your farm's rating. Your rating will only decrease if nothing is planted on your farm at midnight. Every night that you do not have a crop planted will cost you 10% of your farm's rating. At 0% you will have to pay a fine for people to come and "fix" your farm.
  
• Barn Animals
  -You can keep certain animals in your barn as long as you care for them otherwise they will run away. Barn animals can be sold for large amounts of money, or kept as companions. (but not pets)
  
• Pet System
  -You can choose to have certain animals as pets including cats and dogs (of couse), but also chickens, mice, and exotic animals you might find in mountains or caves. Pets require attention, but are not very demanding. You can choose to leave them on the farm, or have them follow you.
  
• Seasons
  -Seasons will have an impact on the environment. Fall will have random debris storms that can cause damage to crops and can damage things around the farm. Winter will slowly transition from leaves and grass drying up, to being covered in snow, and lakes will freeze over. The snow will replenish water to some plants, but damage others. Spring will bring lots of rain which will be great for your farm (and for weeds). Summer can cause fires to start and damage young plants. Storms can cause power outages and villagers will change clothes depending on the weather.
  
• Interactive environments
  -You can use fires to roast marsh-mellows, roll snowballs into snowmen, swim (or fish) in rivers and lakes, or skate on frozen lakes. There are many things to do for any season.
  
• Villager System
  -Villagers will come and go as they please. You can have up to 8 of 40 villagers each with their own personality and style. You can build relationships and even choose to marry one at the annual "Moonfall Ball".
  
• Events
  -Celebrate Christmas with your villagers as you get together around the town tree or put together a spooky costume for Halloween and go trick-or-treating with your best friend. Whatever you do just make sure to get your festive item. (There are several different ones and you will receive a random gift upon talking to your best friend.)
  
• Furniture System
  -Furniture cannot be moved, but can be exchanged for the different types that you find. Furniture will automatically upgrade with your household.
  
• Treasure
  -Everyday you can dig to find random items including fossils and paintings.
  
• Customizable Character
  -Change your shirt and pants, or rock a cool hat and glasses. Everything you wear can be changed from head to toe. Hair and eyes can also be changed in the game at a certain salon/barber shop.

Screenshots:
An early look at how seasons will change the environment.

Spoiler: ShowHide

Left: Winter pre-snow. Right: Winter after the first snowfall.

Download:
A small technical demo will be put together once sufficient progress has been made. The real game should be released by the end of May or beginning of June.

Credits:
-Graphics

• Me
  -Scripts (so far XD)
  
• ForeverZer0
  
• Me

[AliveDrive]

This looks like exactly my dream game, downloading!

EDIT: I just finished reading the download section. lol

[Zexion]

This looks like exactly my dream game, downloading!

EDIT: I just finished reading the download section. lol

Lol! Sorry I kinda wanted to make the project thread to keep track of what I still need to do, and the plans I have (as to not forget them).
Btw forgot to mention that the character isn't going to be exactly like Animal Crossing, that is just a template I made for my fan game that I transformed into this

[AliveDrive]

I can't wait to try it.

[Blizzard]

Lol, is that guy naked? xD

[Zexion]

Lol, is that guy naked? xD

Lol! >.< Yep
I'm gonna use visual equipment eventually lol.

[Dweller]

I like the character front animation, its funny 

[Zexion]

I'm debating whether I should make 8 direction sprites, or just 4 directions with 8 direction movement. What do you guys think?

[AliveDrive]

I personally think that 4-way sprites using 8-way movement are fine.

Maybe people will disagree.

[Zexion]

Yeah that's what I thought too. I'm just kinda meh about it because I don't know if it would even be worth the extra 4 directions and all the trouble it would cause.

[G_G]

Looking good Zexion! Can't wait to try out a demo.

[Zexion]

Just about done with the boy's animation cycle. Next adding a swimming/running system and footstep sounds .

Btw: I keep forgetting to mention. Cresent Blue and Diamond Red are the boy/girl version of the game. I would include them both in one game, but that would cause twice the charactersets, paperdolls, and items. This way I can make specific paper dolls for boys and girls individually and won't have to clutter up the game with useless mb.

Also in an effort to allow my game to the people with slower connections...I will have a midi and mp3 version of both games. If you have a fast connection you can enjoy the nice music (that i will eventually make >.<), but you will still be able to play the game with a noob connection as well

[KK20]

I've never tried my hand at Harvest Moon and Animal Crossing before, but I am more than willing to try this out~

Keep up that hard work--I see a lot of potential! 

[Zexion]

Okay, so I haven't been all addicted to spriting for the past 4 days due to family gatherings and such. Today has been pretty good for the game though, so I thought I'd post the updates.

• Added a Time/Month system (done by events)


• Screen will tint as the day/night passes


• Fixed up the chat box to work at the smaller resolution


• Finished up, down, and side walking animations


• Added terrain step sound script

I am also starting the running and swimming sprites. You will not be able to swim in rivers because they are not deep enough. You can only swim in lakes and the ocean. A pet system will also be started today .

Here is a screenie of the weather, new character graphics, and the chatbox.

Spoiler: ShowHide

Edit: Also I'm thinking of adding the paperdoll system already to avoid naked screenshots from now on

[Zexion]

After working on this for a while, I started to think of how generic this is, and I started to think about ways to make this more unique and less a copy of harvest moon and animal crossing. While the main inspiration was a simulation game, it was still pretty obvious what the influence of said games was. I sat down and thought about it for a few moments over the past few weeks and I came up with a small list of the generic properties of this game, and how I could change it.

*Generic*
-Farm based
-Plant and fruit growing
-Housing system
-Companion (pets)
-Make a living on your farm and selling crops/animals

How I fixed it:
-Data based (lol data-based)
Basically live on the internet like a navi from megaman, or tron.
-Jobs and Enemies
You now make a living off of jobs such as programming other units or building armour etc. Enemies will also be a source of income.
-Better housing
Can actually move furniture and "apply textures" or "change models" of furniture in your home. Will be basicly the same as not much can change.
-Companions
You will now be able to buy companion data or receive it from enemies and use it as a pet (which helps in battle).

The other basic features will remain the same such as swimming and other recreational activities even changing clothes, plants and flowers (although I am not sure about having them planted anywhere). The main difference will be that it is more data-based than farm based. There will also still be regions to explore like ice, forest, desert, mountains, and virtual cities.

The main reason I want to make this change is because I really want to make a game that is as original as possible I want to be able to call it MY GAME, and not have to say that I got this from here, there, etc.

[KK20]

Well it sure sounds like an interesting approach. Also enemies--suddenly battle system?

[Zexion]

Haha that's what I thought it would make people say lol.
Yeah I think most simulation games get boring, so why not make a simulation game that you can kill stuff for FUNNNN ...and money grand theft auto style, but without the hookers.

[Blizzard]

No hookers? Then I'll make my own simulation game! With Black Jack and hookers!

[ArcaneAlchemy]

What about like a 'Jack the ripper' in London simulation game? Hmm... I might work on that one day if you don't...

[Blizzard]

CP has Black Jack and you never find out if maybe one of the girls in the club in Termina is a hooker so technically it also has hookers. CP gets Bender's seal of approval.