Open Golden Sun: Open source recreation of the Golden Sun engine

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[OpenGoldenSun]

Hi all,

I'm posting a link to my channel where I'm recreating the GBA Golden Sun engine.

OpenGoldenSun Channel

Right now I have these videos up that show where I'm at with the engine.

• 19 Nov 2014: Golden Sun Engine Demo
• 14 Dec 2014: Golden Sun Engine Update: Graphics Update, Move Psynergy and More!
• 03 Mar 2015: Golden Sun Engine: Preliminary Battle System
• 04 Apr 2015: Golden Sun Engine: Battle Engine Progress
• 22 Oct 2015: Golden Sun Engine: Update and Comparison vs GBA in Imil  

It's currently not open source but the intent will be to open source it when it's reached an acceptable point. Subscribe if you'd like, I'll attempt to keep this post updated as I go. This has been made from the ground up with no RPG maker or anything.

I've described more details about the engine in this reddit post.

Let me know your thoughts.

[Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas]

Thanks for posting this!
I was thinking about maybe some day creating an open-sourced platform from the ground up based off of Golden Sun's code for people to create Golden Sun-like games... but I wasn't sure if I'd ever go as far as copying all the maps. (I was thinking more about a collection of code-based resources.) However, if it turns out your project is the perfect replacement (which it sounds like it is.) Then I won't need to...
Since I (and Salanewt) have documented quite a bit about GS2, I guess I'll eventually look into seeing how your project is organized compared to it, and check for consistencies as well. :)

[KyleRunner]

Open Golden Sun! Just like "Openmw"! Like a dream come true!

[Mion Sonozaki]

I would pay good money for a decent RPG maker. I'm serious, too.

Though, for my own purposes, I would need 3D support and a Z-Axis to create something with an overworld style similar to Grandia. 3D Environments with 2D sprites. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUUHBFN3QL4

I'd probably need for the battle system to be modifiable, so I could make something similar to Grandia, too.

Why am I basically asking for an Open-Source Grandia-maker on a Golden Sun Forum? >_<

I guess a guy could dream when wanting to make his own original RPG with inspired mechanics...

[Rolina]

Question - how editable will this be?  Would we be able to add additional stats, so as to give psynergy stat support?  How much control will we have over things like critical hit rates, unleash rates, and damage formulas?

[OpenGoldenSun]

I would pay good money for a decent RPG maker. I'm serious, too.

Though, for my own purposes, I would need 3D support and a Z-Axis to create something with an overworld style similar to Grandia. 3D Environments with 2D sprites. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUUHBFN3QL4

I'd probably need for the battle system to be modifiable, so I could make something similar to Grandia, too.

Why am I basically asking for an Open-Source Grandia-maker on a Golden Sun Forum? >_<

I guess a guy could dream when wanting to make his own original RPG with inspired mechanics...

I'm really not the best person to do something like that and I really wouldn't have the time, sorry (also you can't afford me   ). I'm really just making this because they're my favorite games of all time.

Question - how editable will this be?  Would we be able to add additional stats, so as to give psynergy stat support?  How much control will we have over things like critical hit rates, unleash rates, and damage formulas?

You would be able to do whatever you want in theory. I will most likely create all the damage and stat calculations off what the game currently does and then modify from there.

[Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas]

@3D support: Is it even possible to take Golden Sun's 2D maps and make them rotatable as if they were 3D? Even if it was a slight rotation like an earthquake. (Possibly using the height map in part of the equation of-course.)
It may or may not be tricky/ugly/feasible, but still, it was an idea.... You'd use sin and cos for sure. But just in-case, has anyone seen anybody try something like that?
@Ugly: Imagine how houses would work, you'd need to fix the sides and back, obviously.

I'm really not the best person to do something like that

Just to make sure, does some of that time you would need have to go into figuring out how to go about it, or would you already have an idea, but the work to do it is difficult?

[Rolina]

Will we be able to manage things such as accuracy, evasion, and move priority?  Would we be capable of handling Criticals and Unleashes as separate entities, or would they be folded into a single thing like they were in Dark Dawn?

[OpenGoldenSun]

I like how you guys are already trying to hack an un-built project. 

@Rolina, the thing with coding something from the ground up is, you can do anything you want.

@Fox, I'm really just going to focus on rebuilding the GBA engine as-is. I'm sure adding a pseudo 3D affect would be cool, but I'm not looking to reinvent the style of the game.

[MaxiPower]

Looks sweet, you have the full attention of all members of this board!!!

This is the greatest news seen on this site in years!! I'd almost gave up on the idea of a golden sun Fan game.

WOW!

[Atrius]

It's looking pretty convincing so far, I'm impressed with how well you've replicated the game's engine.

[OpenGoldenSun]

Looks sweet, you have the full attention of all members of this board!!!

This is the greatest news seen on this site in years!! I'd almost gave up on the idea of a golden sun Fan game.

WOW!

Thanks! I look forward to seeing where this goes.

It's looking pretty convincing so far, I'm impressed with how well you've replicated the game's engine.

I take that as a huge compliment, especially coming from you, so thank-you.

[Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas]

@Fox, I'm really just going to focus on rebuilding the GBA engine as-is. I'm sure adding a pseudo 3D affect would be cool, but I'm not looking to reinvent the style of the game.

Okay, fair enough. Sticking to just the Golden Sun engine, is probably what I would have done as the focus point as well? ; And then when the GBA project would be complete, perhaps look to see what Dark Dawn had to offer, and implement optional things from there, but I dunno.

Looking good so far. Have you worked on the battle system yet?


Oh and...

@Rolina, the thing with coding something from the ground up is, you can do anything you want.

Well, you are still limited by the programming language and hardware, but that's little to be concerned about considering how limited hacking the GBA was. (It's like hacking the GBA is only worth it for collecting data? That, and maybe translations/difficulty hacks, anything minor.)

[OpenGoldenSun]

Looking good so far. Have you worked on the battle system yet?

Not yet, I think that will come later. Sorry, I know it's one of the more interesting parts but it's also one of the hardest. I'm comfortable with the structure I've built for doing field psynergy. While doing Move & Growth I think I was able to come up with a pretty decent structure so now it's just a matter of finishing up a bunch of the field psynergies. I'll probably focus on a couple more field related items such as: jumping, pushing, and cliff-edge sliding.

Once I'm comfortable with those items I'll move onto to either the world map or battle system. Once those are in a good spot, I'll probably do a major code refactor.

Here is a screenshot of the Class View for the engine (large image), this is completely subject to change and I'm posting this mostly because you seemed interested: http://i.imgur.com/xqeGWVm.png

[Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas]

That's fine. As a small hint, though, I believe the game uses two angle values that can be found at addresses 0x02030034 and 0x02030036. So I don't imagine that setting up the base battle system would be too difficult (Basically skin and bones), but actually making it a playable feature with properly working animations/etc might take a whole lot more work.

The World Map should be pretty easy...

That image looks great!  Keep up the good work.

[jjppof]

Very nice work! I am very impressed! 

Looks like you are using xna, right? C# is a lovely language.
That's a very hard and professional work and you have already done lot of stuff.
Can't wait to see the source!! 

[Rolina]

I'd love to see some behind the scenes stuff, so as to better see what bit of code corresponds to what.  Or, alternatively, if there's a UI functionality built into it like with Atrius' Editor, I'd like to see that.

[Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas]

Same.  I'd like to know how the map data is done, myself. What is this TileAndHexUtilityForm?

-Is it just 16x16 tiles without the four split 8x8 tiles like how the game works?
-Are the tiles done in 16bpp? Without an indexed pixel format?

[Rolina]

I'm interested in how the field effects are done.  I'd love to add more (say, fireball functionality from DD), so seeing how Move and Growth were handled would be kinda neat.

[Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas]

I imagine the basics of field effects are simple enough to understand... but as for the entirety, probably plenty of work to implement? (You have to also remember the less obvious things like how Douse will do snowflakes in cold places.)

-You generate the graphics in front of the character.
Something like this... (If assuming facing right is a 0 degree angle.)
Utility_x = PC_x + (distance * cos(PC_angle))
Utility_y = PC_y + (distance * sin(PC_angle))

-Interacting with objects is likely tile based, so x/16 and y/16  (Or was it /8 each?) or something like that... And different utilities measure out different distances in tiles.
Frost could work 1 tile away, Move could work 2 tiles away, for example.

[Salanewt]

15, November, 2020, 03:45:26 PM

Salanewt: We're more alive than the board implies; most discussion takes place over on the Discord server.

[Salanewt]

15, November, 2020, 03:45:06 PM

Salanewt: Haha, heya!

[Frog]

15, November, 2020, 02:07:50 PM

Frog: Nice to see this place is still alive...ish anyway xD

[Salanewt]

30, October, 2020, 11:10:23 PM

Salanewt: ... Actually, it's almost time for me to post an update on the forum. It's been coming along really nicely overall, and it was only a couple months or so ago that I added some new status effects to the game.

[Salanewt]

30, October, 2020, 11:08:41 PM

Salanewt: I need to get it done to start making progress on the parts of the AI Overhaul I want to start working on.

[Salanewt]

30, October, 2020, 11:08:14 PM

Salanewt: It's going well! I wanted to get more of my djinn reform done this week but I've been busy with other things sadly.

[KyleRunner]

30, October, 2020, 09:58:14 PM

KyleRunner: Hi guys! How are you doing?

[MaxiPower]

13, October, 2020, 11:19:21 AM

MaxiPower: first chapter of my golden sun inspired webtoon is now live. be cool if yas could check it out. https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/legacy-of-the-lost-dragoon/the-northern-reaches/viewer?title_no=508487&episode_no=6

[Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas]

31, August, 2020, 08:40:32 AM

Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas: Being able to convert IPS files to text files to also supporting commenting, and convert back to IPS after changes.... sounds like a fun strategy? 

[Salanewt]

27, August, 2020, 10:37:30 PM

Salanewt: Hey, thanks! 

[Foreclosure]

25, August, 2020, 12:59:22 AM

Foreclosure: Yo! Looking forward for this AI OVerhaul patch when it's finished :) :) 

[Salanewt]

19, August, 2020, 07:00:17 PM

Salanewt: That's awesome! I'm pretty good; been working on an AI Overhaul project and have made some nice progress in the past couple weeks; the goal for tonight is to add Deadbeard to GS2 and then I can move onto something new.

[Awec]

19, August, 2020, 01:14:56 PM

Awec: Ye not bad, just checked back in for updates on GS Reloaded really. Although now I'm looking back through some of my old forum posts, which is fun :D how are you?

[Salanewt]

19, August, 2020, 01:43:07 AM

Salanewt: It sure is! How have you been?

[Awec]

16, August, 2020, 09:40:57 AM

Awec: Yo nice to see this forum is still going

[Salanewt]

14, August, 2020, 09:06:44 PM

Salanewt: Hey! How goes it?

[KyleRunner]

01, August, 2020, 01:31:53 PM

KyleRunner: Hello, people!

[Salanewt]

08, July, 2020, 08:57:11 PM

Salanewt: That awkward feeling when almost a quarter of a year goes by without anyone posting a message in this chatbox.

[Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas]

27, April, 2020, 07:54:10 PM

Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas: I'm having a thought. So I know Atrius's editor is slow at saving sprites.... So I've been thinking.   I am considering another console program.  This time, for importing and exporting sprites/animations. Image files (for sprites), binary files (for animation data), and maybe binary or text files for Settings. Would certainly be cool if it works out. - Console programs are fun, when you can (at least temporarily) cheat out making a full interface editor for them. =P

[Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas]

25, April, 2020, 10:42:07 PM

Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas: Tried to list those in order of importance, but anyway....

[Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas]

25, April, 2020, 10:37:59 PM

Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas: GSHC, GS Speedrunning, /r/Golden Sun, GS United Nations, ToK.  Sixth one is border-line I'm not sure.

[Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas]

25, April, 2020, 08:00:21 PM

Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas: (low as in <100)

[Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas]

25, April, 2020, 08:00:04 PM

Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas: So while there are quite a few GS Communities out there. There are only up to maybe ~6 Discords worth even the consideration of joining, I think. Most of the rest of them have a fairly low member count. (Of which I can tell?)

[Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas]

14, April, 2020, 10:49:35 AM

Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas: The Essential Age could be what it stands for?

[Misery]

13, April, 2020, 05:23:32 PM

Misery: Tea editor... that's a cute name for it

[JupiterDjinn]

01, April, 2020, 02:42:48 AM

JupiterDjinn: Also my browser is sending two o f my messages srry.

[JupiterDjinn]

01, April, 2020, 02:42:06 AM

JupiterDjinn: Just got the reply. Ok my question is: how can I get the tea editor on Android, because I already have an emulator. But no computer.

[Salanewt]

31, March, 2020, 07:18:29 PM

Salanewt: Sure thing!

[JupiterDjinn]

31, March, 2020, 03:38:27 PM

JupiterDjinn: Can I have a question answered?

[Salanewt]

28, March, 2020, 12:50:13 AM

Salanewt: I want to shrink it down in size later, but yup!

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