As I mentioned in my earlier introduction post, I'm making a Phoenix Wright fangame.

Phoenix Wright: Turnabout Diaries

Turnabout Diaries is my Phoenix Wright tribute. It is being made in a program called RPGMaker 2003. It is a very powerful program with abilities to create games on the levels of the Super Famicom (SNES) and I have used the program for a number of years now to make different systems, contribute to games, and the like.

The engine itself is not really designed to handle an adventure game like Phoenix Wright, so that's why I plan on using several different features for the game to take it in a direction that has never been seen in the PW games before.

Court System:
The court system will be as close to the actual one in the games as I can make it. Testimony, Cross Examinations, "OBJECTION!" etc will all be included. I'm most likely going to have the 5 "strikeout" method from the first game as it will be easier to code and impliment, instead of the percentage meter from the second and all subsequent games.

Psy-Lock System:
I am debating at this time if I want to add a Psylock system, although it could be fun. It would also use the "strikeout" method. I can see where it would show potential.

Evidence System (court record):
I plan on making this very similar to the one used on the GBA version. Obviously, since split screen is not possible (or practical) on this system or a computer, it would have to be it's own separate menu that would overlay on top of everything else. I'm not sure how I plan to impliment this as far as the programming goes (If any of you have worked with this program before you know what a PITA custom systems are.)

Maps:
Here's where the game will take an entirely different turn. During the investigation phases, I will not have the traditional point-and-click mentality of the actual game and courtroom, but real maps that you can navigate in and look for clues in, complete with NPCs and the like. Once critical evidence is found, and enough progress is made to forward the story, then it is possible to advance and have the courtroom scene take place the next day.

Dialogue:
The heart of any adventure game, this will require several cases and ALOT of work. I plan on adapting the case "Turnabout With The Wind" from the official manga, along with a few others adopted either here from the site or from novels, or completely original stuff. I might even have a case where you can play as the prosecution, as either Edgeworth, Godot, or Franziska. Not too sure about this one, as it will be last in my priorities. There is no point in doing this until all the systems and animations are worked out.

Animations: I am animating the sprites for use in the engine as well, and this is a complicated process. In order to save space and make the timing more practical, I am not animating the entire sprite, just the parts that move. When I post some animation sheets, you'll see why!

Custom Sprites: I'm adding in the additional Phoenix and Edgeworth poses, and I think I might actually put in Gregory Egdeworth (Edgeworth VS Von-Karma, anyone?) as well. Maybe some edits or some actual original sprites, much further down the line.

Importing Backgrounds: Court, Prison-cell, Wright&Co, etc have all been added. Other backgrounds will be as well for generic places in the game, and also event/case specific ones as I find suitible ones for the (as yet determined) cases.

KNOWN ISSUES
The DS Has a screen of 256x192, while the RPGmaker engine has a resolution of 320x240. This means that none of the official art, sprites, and background are large enough to fill the screen, so there will have to be a frame around the outside edges at least during the court sequences, if not for the entire game, for continuity and visual reasons. I'm not leaning towards doing that, however.

There will be no way to "fast forward" with dialogue by pressing down a button to skip through it, unfortunately. The engine is not designed to do that.

Messages will be interesting to see how they can be presented. While I can force the message to work within the frame (see attatched screenshot) it is actually far easier to have the message work without the limitations of forcing it into the frame, wo I'm leaning towards that.

Maps: 0%
Evidence System: 0%
Court System: 0%
Psylock(maybe): 0%
Dialogue: 0%
Importing Sprites (Normal): 3%
Importing Sprites (Custom): 0%
Importing Backgrounds: Courtroom done
Animating Sprites: 3%

Misc (Music, sound effects, images, etc): 2%

TOTAL PROGRESS: Less than 1%

Feel free to ask any questions, I'll post more information if someone asks for it, or like wise.

Here's a screenshot of what I have so far. Phoenix yells "Objection!", points, and speaks. Yes, his mouth moves when he speaks. Then the text shows across the screen.

Now right now, this is just a test of the animation and other systems to see if I can make it work. It took a few days to lay the groundwork for it down but once it did, it can go rather smoothly.

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Personally, I'm making a game (Of other kind) with RM2K, I'm not too familiar with RM2K3... Will you be able to post some kind of link for a demo(Once it's complete, the demo I mean)?

Although, I think both are quite similar, expect for some things, so if I can help with anything, I'll do my best.

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The only problem I have is with the text.

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If I remember correctly, there's a way to fix the text to have a different font... but I don't remember what it is.

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Seconded, I'm quite fussy about fan-made games without the correct text, anyway, we'll see how it goes.

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The problem is, Ace Attourney has text that is TrueType, while RPGmaker only deals with text that is fixed.

I don't exactly have the ability to import the text based on the images on the site, but if anyone knows the actual font used in the game I'll see what I can do.

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