"Super Kyasarin", "Birdo RPG: Adventure 64!", "Mushroom Kingdom RPG"... these prerequisites to Mushroom Kingdom Adventure are full of creativity and charm.
Though now put on permanent hiatus, we would like to share these works with you and take you on a journey exploring the vital project that led to all of Vinfreild's experience in software and graphical development.
Though now put on permanent hiatus, we would like to share these works with you and take you on a journey exploring the vital project that led to all of Vinfreild's experience in software and graphical development.
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Developed between November of 2011 to April of 2013 before being scrapped and moved to Unity3D as "Mushroom Kingdom Adventure", Super Kyasarin was meant to be a spin-off of Nintendo and Intelligent Systems game Paper Mario for the Nintendo 64. Built on GameMaker by YoYo Games, the goal was to mimic the appearance and gameplay of Paper Mario but in a 2D environment like Super Mario Bros. 2.
The game would expand on the world of Paper Mario 64 and focus on Birdo as the games primary protagonist instead of Mario. Other less notable characters from the Super Mario Series, such as Kammy Koopa, would also take lead roles as playable characters to allow for more diversified gameplay.
The game would expand on the world of Paper Mario 64 and focus on Birdo as the games primary protagonist instead of Mario. Other less notable characters from the Super Mario Series, such as Kammy Koopa, would also take lead roles as playable characters to allow for more diversified gameplay.
Conceptualization for Super Kyasarin, believe it or not, actually started out as a joke. Our developers (just friends at the time) were experimenting with Super Mario Bros. 2 graphics and sprites they mistakably stumbled across during a Google search, and started photoshopping them together using SumoPaint.com. After realizing what a unique character Birdo was in the Super Mario Series and doing some research, a few graphics were thrown together for fun.
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Shortly after making these images the same developers discovered some sprite sheets on Google search and thought "What are these?! Wouldn't these be fun to use; I wonder how we would go about it?". We had always wanted to create a video game someday, even if it was just a small project for fun. Pouring through these hundreds of newly found sprite sheets and graphics we immediately began our research. A few days later, GameMaker 8.1 by YoYo Games was brought to our attention. Taking a look at the program and some examples it looked pretty easy to make a game, so we began playing around with the program immediately. Through trial and error, digging through forums and searching images online; our developers were able to self-teach sprite assembly, simple coding, 2D graphic design and game dynamics.
We had the basics for what we wanted; now we just needed to expand it. We wanted the game to be like a true RPG where you could switch between characters and go into buildings, start side quests and roam around. The side-to-side 2D was very limiting and we wanted a more "Paper Mario" aesthetic for the games overall graphics. We immediately began work on 2½D physics, which only some specific non-linear areas would use. This was perhaps the most challenging thing we came across in GameMaker; we wanted the movement to feel 3D even though we were working with a flat grid. Kammy had a broom to fly, Birdo needed to jump and land on the ground she started from and Princess Peach needed to glide with her umbrella. Real 3D graphics were out of the question for us at the time - we knew nothing about them and GameMaker's 3D support felt like walking in the dark in a foreign country.
After spending the year 2012 delving into information on both real and faux-3D graphics, the game transformed into a visual pleasing experience. Though RAM heavy from all of the screen-shotting and 3D pre-rendered graphics from both real Paper Mario and Google Sketchup, we were able to find solutions to clean it up and optimize our code which also lead to finding better ways to go about the programming and physics. Now not only did we have the graphics in order, we had turned it into something that felt good to play too.
After spending the year 2012 delving into information on both real and faux-3D graphics, the game transformed into a visual pleasing experience. Though RAM heavy from all of the screen-shotting and 3D pre-rendered graphics from both real Paper Mario and Google Sketchup, we were able to find solutions to clean it up and optimize our code which also lead to finding better ways to go about the programming and physics. Now not only did we have the graphics in order, we had turned it into something that felt good to play too.
By the end of 2012 we had grown from conceptualists to developers; we had created something tangible and knew more about our future possibilities. The game was at this time re-named "Birdo RPG: Adventure 64" due to the expanded gameplay, partial 3D environment and incorporation of a new playable characters and story structures.
A new problem now arose; we had began research on 3D computer graphics and now had the power to create our own characters and graphic styles. We wanted the game to be something more than just a Paper Mario spin-off, something more than a game centered around Birdo as a result of a joke made up a year ago. Through our research we had discovered the quality of the 3D pre-rendered promotional graphics from the SNES and N64 eras and we wanted to recreate them in our own way and develop our own Super Mario Series spin-off. The new idea was a game which not only incorporated all of the Super Mario Series characters and expanded on its existing adventures, but held a candle to the charm of those long-lost retro 3D graphics and brought them into a realtime gaming experience for the first time ever.
A new problem now arose; we had began research on 3D computer graphics and now had the power to create our own characters and graphic styles. We wanted the game to be something more than just a Paper Mario spin-off, something more than a game centered around Birdo as a result of a joke made up a year ago. Through our research we had discovered the quality of the 3D pre-rendered promotional graphics from the SNES and N64 eras and we wanted to recreate them in our own way and develop our own Super Mario Series spin-off. The new idea was a game which not only incorporated all of the Super Mario Series characters and expanded on its existing adventures, but held a candle to the charm of those long-lost retro 3D graphics and brought them into a realtime gaming experience for the first time ever.
We immediately began our research on how to migrate the existing assets of Birdo RPG into a realtime 3D gaming environment using GameMaker, Blender and Google Sketchup. Once again, however, even after prowling through documents, forums and published examples, GameMaker's 3D support proved too limiting and difficult to use for our developers. Another issue had also arrived; we wanted to expand our content to the multi-platform environment and were planning a transition to Mac OS X in April 2013. We tested GameMaker for Mac and it proved to be too limited compared to its Windows counterpart to fit our needs. We needed to switch to a game development platform that would be versatile enough to support seamless development on both Windows and Mac OS X simultaneously, while also providing us with a dedicated realtime 3D engine.
It was, sadly, time to say goodbye to GameMaker and introduce ourselves to Unity3D. Starting development again from scratch, we went with a new, more universal name (Mushroom Kingdom Adventure) and a entirely new project was born.
It was, sadly, time to say goodbye to GameMaker and introduce ourselves to Unity3D. Starting development again from scratch, we went with a new, more universal name (Mushroom Kingdom Adventure) and a entirely new project was born.
Our new direction was realized; we had our end goal and we knew how we could get there. All that was needed now was to fine-tune our creation skills and develop. Regrettably, life does not operate in a direct path and due to personal issues with our developers the project was put on hiatus. Not able to devote enough time to the development of the game, the focus became the graphics. We would fine-tune what we had and share our ideas with the public. Through the next few years we spent developing and fine-tuning our abilities behind-the-scenes, we unfortunately also lost the ability to build and access the resources of Super Kyasarin in GameMaker.
As of January 2017 the Mushroom Kingdom Adventure project is planned to live on.
Though we don't yet have dates or a timeline we can provide you with, we can provide you with what remains of the past of the project - Super Kyasarin.
We recently discovered an old build of the runtime software in our archives and files. We were also able to re-assemble its assets and make it stabilized enough to play for fun. For your own creative purposes, research and enjoyment (and possibly your help on the future of our project) we would like to provide this to you as a download.
Though we don't yet have dates or a timeline we can provide you with, we can provide you with what remains of the past of the project - Super Kyasarin.
We recently discovered an old build of the runtime software in our archives and files. We were also able to re-assemble its assets and make it stabilized enough to play for fun. For your own creative purposes, research and enjoyment (and possibly your help on the future of our project) we would like to provide this to you as a download.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE READING!
PLEASE, ENJOY SUPER KYASARIN / BIRDO RPG: ADVENTURE 64!, AND THANK YOU FOR YOUR EVER-CONTINUING SUPPORT INTO OUR LENGTHY ENDEAVORS.
PLEASE, ENJOY SUPER KYASARIN / BIRDO RPG: ADVENTURE 64!, AND THANK YOU FOR YOUR EVER-CONTINUING SUPPORT INTO OUR LENGTHY ENDEAVORS.
© 2011 - 2017 Vinfreild Group