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If I wanted to get into MUGEN development. What should I start with? (Read 2725 times)

Started by Zthunder, April 09, 2009, 12:09:41 am
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If I wanted to get into MUGEN development. What should I start with?
#1  April 09, 2009, 12:09:41 am
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I was sorta considering getting into development with MUGEN. Yeah, I know if I chose to I would be extremely late in the game but still. Out of curiosity, if I ever decided to start developing what would be the easiest route to take? Characters? Stage? Or screenpacks?


I mean it does seem easy for people to make these things but I'm only making assumptions. How would hard is it to start making MUGEN stuff?


Also, while we're on the subject of developing MUGEN stuff. I always wanted to do those little story things that I see online with my MUGEN characters? Are those easy to do? If so how do I learn to do it?

OZ

Re: If I wanted to get into MUGEN development. What should I start with?
#2  April 09, 2009, 12:20:29 am
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Depends entirely on your talents and interests.

Ex: Would you rather sprite or code?

Any artistic talent, previous sprite work?
Do you enjoy coding or programming?
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Re: If I wanted to get into MUGEN development. What should I start with?
#3  April 09, 2009, 12:24:00 am
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My art I wish could be better. As for coding. Man I've been trying hard to get good at that. But it just looks so difficult with all of those different words and symbols and not knowing what any of them means. *sigh* well I guess I really don't have the talent for it but have been trying. I mean I use to be interested in Gamemaker and I even found their language confusing as hell.


I guess I need to learn how to read coding honestly.  I've  always saw myself as someone who could enjoy coding. I just wish I had it down pack.
Re: If I wanted to get into MUGEN development. What should I start with?
#4  April 09, 2009, 12:27:19 am
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The first thing you must do is reading the docs that come with mugen. Then, begin tweaking and editing existing chars and stages, see what does each parameter and how it affect the game. Once you get the hang on it, try adding more stuff just like a new attack or a new background element on the stage.

This explanation may seem silly and tedious, but trust me, is the best way to learn. Mugen will provide you much frustration if you don't understand the basics, and this frustration will force you to quit without even beginning. Whenever you face an issue and ask for help, if you've done your homework, not only you'll be able to provide more details on your problem but people will also understand it better and provide you with a better solution.

It's a really silly situation when a newbie asks for help because his character's hyper attack is not working and he only says "it doesn't work", then you realize that he doesn't even know what is a Hitdef. That newbie will get no love from the others, and most probably will quit due to not being able to finish his ultimate gaming project.

On general terms, stages are easier to do than characters, and you can see results earlier than attempting a character, but then again is a matter of personal choice.
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Re: If I wanted to get into MUGEN development. What should I start with?
#5  April 09, 2009, 08:59:57 am
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Editing and messing with characters you already have is an excellent way to start. The first thing i ever did was a super attack for Knuckles by Ssonic, i just tacked together his punch anim a lot.

Mugen code in and of itself is pretty easy really. [E] describes it as a glorified .ini file. A load of plain text that describes what it does.

People who have trouble with it, are those who haven't taken the time to understand what they're looking at at all. It looks like unrestrained gibberish if you don't realise that the only bits you really need to look at and alter drastically are type = and trigger1 = Everything else is gravy... Or frosting, whatever.

If you wish to start without getting involved in the code a stage would be the best spot, you still have to palette it, but the results come into play much faster.


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They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance.
Re: If I wanted to get into MUGEN development. What should I start with?
New #6  November 14, 2009, 01:20:30 pm
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ADDED; I've found some good tutorials on this site just now btw, so this post makes me look a bit silly, really.

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Hi everyone,

I'm afraid I'm another one of those new Mugen users, we come in our thousands and we often leave in our thousands.

I have a question, it's related to this topic in a way, but it's related to many others as well. So I hope this is in the right place. I have done quite a bit of searching for the answer, I know it's annoying for experienced users to have to answer the same old Mugen questions over and over again, I just couldn't find the answers.

Right so, getting into Mugen development. This, for the majority of users, involves using sprites from other games. There is a small group of users who make totally original characters, such as  Andres Borghi, who made a game called 'The Black Heart' which is an awesome achievement. I would like to make original characters too, from scratch. I mean, I'm not that sure how Andres Borghi even did it almost entirely on his own. Even if you drew 2 frames a day (which I think would be a lot), it would take around a year just to make one character.

Anyway, sorry, I'm rambling. Essentially my question is 'How do you draw an original character?' Let's put draftsman and animation skills aside, these are obvious, I mean the more technical side. I've been looking for tutorials, there are plenty for Mugen, but they too often assume you're using already drawn sprites, usually from games such as Street Fighter.

What I've gathered is that a character has a colour 'palette', so that each frame of their animations use the same colours, and you're limited to 256 colours, right? I am aware of this tutorial;

http://www.gas13.ru/v3/tutorials/sywtbapa_making_fighting_game_sprite.php

It's good, if you're like me and you're reading this, check it out. Right, back to my drawn out question. Does anyone know of a tutorial which helps you step by step through this process? Like for a specific application such as Photoshop or GraphicsGale? Let's say I'm in Photoshop, which colours am I allowed to use? When I've finished a frame, how do I make sure I use the same colours for the next frame? How big should a frame be? These are the things that confuse me.

Thank you for your time, sorry for the long question.

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UPDATE; OK I think a lot of my questions have been answered in these tutorials I have recently found. Any other help would still be good though;

http://www.gotoandplay.it/_articles/2006/05/pixel.php
http://mugenguild.com/forumx/index.php?topic=86733.0
http://mugenguild.com/forumx/index.php?topic=93639.0
An anthropomorphic existential nightmare.
Last Edit: January 19, 2011, 12:32:01 am by FrozenDelight
Re: If I wanted to get into MUGEN development. What should I start with?
#7  November 14, 2009, 03:39:43 pm
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check the gfx subforum, it is focused on drawing sprites, plut there is a sticky topic with tutorials.
Re: If I wanted to get into MUGEN development. What should I start with?
#8  November 14, 2009, 04:15:25 pm
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Thanks Frederika. Do you mean > Art & Entertainment > Graphics > ?
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Re: If I wanted to get into MUGEN development. What should I start with?
#9  November 14, 2009, 04:26:10 pm
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