Greetings! Have you recently bought SRPG Studio? Developed an interest in making your own Fire Emblem-like game with it, but aren’t quite sure how to make things like physical/magical hybrid classes or decent-looking maps? Well, hang in there, because I’ve got a solution that just might help you get on your feet.
Introducing my new FE Clone Starter Kit! This is intended to act as an in-depth alternative sample project for the engine which demonstrates the use of features such as complex databasing, custom assets including graphics and plugins, maps for both story events and gameplay, and more. It provides a practical example of a game made in the engine which users can dissect and study to learn more about how the engine works and how to implement functionality commonly found in FE games.
Here are some things this starter kit includes:
- Popular custom assets (including graphics and plugins) individually labeled with their creators, assembled into a single convenient place, and implemented.
- An entire FE class tree (including melee/bow, bow/magic, and melee/magic classes) and common weapons, items, & status effects, databased in advance and fully ready to use or edit.
- Tweaked default animations that include casting animations for magical melee weapons and throwing sword/axe animations where they actually spin in midair as opposed to simply flying straight.
- Demos for implementing a customizable Avatar and Child Units.
- A short 5-chapter (or is it 6?) sample game entitled Golden Fools which shows off the above features in action.
Now, as much as I’d like to, I cannot possibly account for everything a user might want to do for a game made using this software. Here are some things this starter kit does not include:
- A proper Support system like those in modern games. Personally I’ve grown to find Support conversations in FE to be an overrated mechanic that doesn’t lend itself well to organic character development. If you’re looking to make an FE-type game in this engine, I strongly suggest experimenting with other approaches to unit bonding.
- A difficulty that includes permanent death and the alternate scenarios and events necessary to accommodate permanent death. Permadeath is another common FE mechanic I’ve soured on over the years due to it largely failing to accomplish its intended purposes and ultimately being little more than a nuisance (at least in my opinion). Although you can easily add new difficulties that include permadeath, you should not feel pressured to include it in whatever you make if you do not feel you are creatively or logistically capable of supporting it.
- Graphical assets deviating significantly from the RTP (default) assets in art style. If you have a specific vision in mind for how your game and your characters should look, that’s great! But that’s something that should ideally come from yourself.
- The GBAFE portraits included in this starter kit are mostly just here because I didn’t want to use the RTP ones and I needed something I could more easily demonstrate the Child Unit system with. Using them in a commercial project is a very, very, very bad idea if you don’t want Nintendo’s copyright ninjas breathing down your neck. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!
I hope that this starter kit aids you on your SRPG Studio journey. Hopefully it will do its job of helping new users learn their way around the engine kinesthetically. Who knows? Maybe even users who don’t plan on making straight FE clones might get a little something out of this.
Credits
All RTP resources by SapphireSoft
All portraits originally by Intelligent Systems
All databasing, writing, and map design for Golden Fools by Von Ithipathachai
Custom Backgrounds:
senaka
Custom Class Graphics:
Fuwafuwa, gameandfun, JAPANWeb, Kashikoma, Maiser, Ojisan, Repeat, Von Ithipathachai
Portrait Edits:
BladerDj, Imperial, JeyTheCount, L95, LaurentLacroix, Levin, Lunatic, Nevrikx, NICKT, Sphealnuke, TactHack, Von Ithipathachai
Custom Weapon & Item Graphics:
Briver, Dankboi, EightWinds, JAPANWeb, miyabirakuda, senaka, Von Ithipathachai
Custom Spell Animations:
Fuwafuwa, Pipoya
Custom Plugins:
Aren, Balberith, Claris, Cube, Goinza, MarkyJoe, namaemitai, o-to, Repeat, robinco
Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
EDIT: In the event I get further questions about GBAFE Support implementation, I’m just going to direct people to this tutorial: https://imgur.io/a/O2ak1Ih
Be warned that getting all the necessary stuff set up is going to be a massive pain.
EDIT (9/20/2022): Removed some excess animation types I’d forgotten about and added a link to some helpful development documents that might clarify a few things. It might help you when making your own games to create documents similar to these. Yellow cells are ones that should be safe to edit without breaking anything.
EDIT (3/16/2022): Released an update to the kit with a handful of new features.