Mail Call!
Posted by The Dave
Welcome to the first edition of the Mother 4 Mailbag!
Hello and welcome to a new semi-irregular series: The Mother 4 Mailbag! In this series, we answer your questions about the game! It’s semi-irregular because it relies on your input, so send in those questions!
So, without further ado, let’s answer some questions.
Topic: Fan Submissions
Do they have a chance of really being used, or are you just letting people submit things to get their hopes up?
There is a chance that the submissions will be used. We look at the quality of the submissions and whether or not they fit into what our plans are for the game. In fact, we have recently asked someone to aid in the development of sprites. We asked based on the quality of their work and the amount of apparent effort put into it.
The original intention of the Fan Submissions page was to create a place for fans to show off their artwork or other creations and not to look for potential additions to the game. The section was influenced by the various fan sections on Starmen.net where users can submit artwork, writing, etc. There is a disclaimer of sorts on the bottom of the submit form that details this.
Topic: Battle Backgrounds
Will the backgrounds in battle be as mind-boggling as the ones in Mother 3, or is the program you are using not able to do things like that?
Yes, we’re certainly able to recreate the signature battle backgrounds found in Mother 2 and 3. In fact you can see some of them in the screenshots, although the screenshots aren’t animated, so they lose a bit of the charm. But rest assured that there will be fully animated mind-boggling battle backgrounds in Mother 4.
Topic: The Villain
As you Might know, Mother 2 and 3 shared Pokey as the villain, main and co-villain. Is it Pokey on this game too or it’s a bad guy that you created?
I think it’s safe to say that Pokey is not the villain of this game. However, the actual villain is shrouded in so much mysteriousness and shadows that we can’t tell you who it is!
Topic: A Mother 4 Guide
Have you thought about creating a guide for this game or will you leave that task up for someone else to do?
We have thought about creating a guide for the game, however it would most likely be just a walk-through. However, that’s not to say that no one can make a guide when the game is launched. In fact, I’d encourage people to!
Topic: PSI
I have two questions about PSI.
Will there be new PSI powers?
Will old powers be returning?I really miss PK Beam from Mother 1*
*(I’ve been playing it alot lately)
There will be new PSI powers, and there will of course be some old ones too. Whether or not PK Beam makes it in is a mystery though.
Topic: Release Date
Do you at least expect to the game be released next year? Or will it take more time?
Also, is it going to have any tracking to Mother 3? Or it is going to be a totally different game?
As for a release date, we aren’t going to set one. Setting a release date would make us rush through the development process and could result in a poor quality game. However I’ll give an arbitrary date and say that the game should be out before 2012. So you can play it before the world ends. Yeah. Let’s go with that. That was a joke folks. I’m clarifying this here so people who come across this and are unfamiliar with the project aren’t confused. (Also because sarcasm is hard to pick up on through the internet.)
As for whether or not the game will have any “tracking” to Mother 3, that depends on your definition of tracking. If you mean will there be characters and places from Mother 3 in Mother 4, then no there won’t be. Well at least no places. 
It’ll be a new game with new characters and new places to explore.
Topic: References
Itoi kind of always put references to stuff on the MOTHER games. Beatles, Jazz, Movies and even literature references.
Are you guys doing stuff like that, too? I would love that.
Yep! Pop culture references are a significant part of what makes a Mother game a Mother game, so of course we’ll throw some in.
So there you have it. We’d love to answer some more questions, so please use the Contact Us page and send a question our way!
The next revamp I'm putting on youtube deservers a commentary. This one is driving me nuts...The original composer is deceitful. Should I? 
February 22nd, 2010 at 8:08 pm
Does this game run on an snes or gba emulator? Or is it more like your own thing? How do you think the graphics will compare to the other Mother games?
February 22nd, 2010 at 8:48 pm
This will be an executable or app, if you will. It will run on your computer with no emulator needed. As for graphics, check out the screenshots page.
Also, be sure to read the FAQs before asking a question. It might already be answered!
February 22nd, 2010 at 9:42 pm
Do you plan on making another post to feature fan submissions?
February 22nd, 2010 at 10:14 pm
Yes of course! I’ve been trying to come up with a new format for the features, so it’ll be coming soonish.
February 22nd, 2010 at 11:15 pm
Oh my, I had no idea Kevvviiinnn knew about this…
I apologize to both you guys and you, Kevin, because I submitted your work without permission :X
I gave you credit, but I’m sure you already posted it…
Sorry! Wow, I gotta look around more… Geez.
Really embarrassed about that…
Also, I don’t mean to downtalk the hard work of its creators, but I honestly hope you don’t use much of the fan-submitted music. I’m not happy with most of what’s been submitted.
February 23rd, 2010 at 12:35 am
Are you going to play as ness or lucas??? I really miss playing as ness on my Super Nintendo???? Mabye as a secret character mabye???
February 23rd, 2010 at 1:35 am
Ness and Lucas won’t be playable characters in this game. Mother 4 will feature an original cast of characters.
February 23rd, 2010 at 12:46 pm
Could you make this on a GBA rom if possible?
February 23rd, 2010 at 12:58 pm
If anything it would be for the DS. But doing that would take a lot of time and effort so don’t get your hopes up.
February 23rd, 2010 at 5:50 pm
are there going to be any returning characters from past games? or even sprite similaraties?
February 23rd, 2010 at 5:51 pm
Responding to questions without actually answering in most cases?
You guys really are legit video game designers!
February 23rd, 2010 at 6:53 pm
@siefer:
Please read the FAQs.
@Eraser:
But really, a lot of the questions we get are too specific to answer. We want there to be at least some element of surprise when you actually play the game.
Ahaha. We try.
February 24th, 2010 at 3:35 am
What is the game rated is it for everyone or more mature viewers
February 24th, 2010 at 7:30 am
Isn’t that why they do it, too?
Ex. Zelda Wii
Miyamoto-san! We want answers!
February 24th, 2010 at 11:03 am
When you finish the game are there any plans for releasing the source code, so that ports to consoles and such can be done?
February 24th, 2010 at 12:05 pm
@Andei
It isn’t rated by the ESRB, but if it had been it would be E or E 10+ probably. Maybe teen.
@Eraser
Yes exactly.
@Goveynetcom
I don’t plan on publically releasing the source, but if there is interest in porting, I could provide the source to those who would use it.
February 24th, 2010 at 3:50 pm
The Dave, i’d would like to say that my girlfriend and I both played mother 2 and 3 and although these two marvelous games were fantastic… we want more MOTHER! When we found this blog on the internet we almost cried of happiness! Keep up the good work, we are waiting for the final version of Mother 4 and we are sure it will be a complete success.
Best regards
chazychaz
February 25th, 2010 at 5:47 pm
Will you guys be releasing an OST when the game is done?
February 27th, 2010 at 11:19 am
I’m pretty sure we are. I’ll have to check with the Snobodys.
February 28th, 2010 at 6:58 pm
I wish all of the folks from the forum would come here so that they wouldn’t crowd the thread with questions that had already been answered.
March 2nd, 2010 at 7:32 pm
Now I see the Mother series of events like this:
Mother (Earth Bound 0): Ninten, Ana, and Loid defeats Gigue and he runs away creating peace
Mother 2 (Earth Bound): Ness, Paula, Jeff, and Poo kill Gygas who was Gigue and saves the world
Mother 3 (Earth Bound 2): (complicated story) the world is destroyed except the people on the White Ship then comes to an island that wasn’t destroyed and they had their? memories erased to start a new life but on earthbound Pokey (Renamed him self Porkey) went somewhere in time and ended up there and started to make things called Chimeras so Lucas, Kumathora, Duster, and Boney had to pull things called needles to awaken a dragon sleeping under the islands (that’s why? the island wasn’t destroyed) so they pull needles until they defeat Porkey and pull the final needle then the dragon awakens and restores the world (which has no more evil)
Mother 4 (Earth Bound 3): I Knew this would happen things come from space and mixes everything blah blah blah… Things come to life blah blah blah… Then four People have to save the world AGAIN… so the dragon Only took away? evil from the planet Earth NOT… THE… UNIVERSE!!! so hopefully there will be even a Mother 5, 6, or 7.
And thats what I think would happen sorry if its too long but I have been doing my research.
March 5th, 2010 at 4:56 pm
When you say… “In fact you can see some of them in the screenshots, although they aren’t animated, so they do lose a bit of their charm.”, do you mean that the backgrounds aren’t animated in the screenshots? Or in the actual game?
March 5th, 2010 at 5:49 pm
Good catch. I meant since the screenshots are not animated, you can’t see the backgrounds animating, so they look less impressive. I’ll change the wording of that sentence to clarify.
March 7th, 2010 at 12:28 pm
The Dave what is that thingy on the characters HP and PP? Will any characters from mother 123 come back, like giygas (make less frightening if he is) or Pokey/Porky maybe even Dr Andounuts?
March 7th, 2010 at 1:18 pm
Maskedman, please read the FAQs. Your questions have already been answered there.
March 21st, 2010 at 11:48 am
Just out of curiosity, how many people are working on this game? And how often do you guys work on it?
March 21st, 2010 at 1:40 pm
The active members are Chaisu, Zephys, SNOBODYS, and myself. For a full list of contributors, check the about page. We usually put in several hours a week, though I’ve never counted. It varies from week to week.
March 24th, 2010 at 5:08 pm
If this game plays like an aplication instead of a rom that means a lot of people wont be able to play it, like Mac users and people that uses Linux-_-. PLus making it a rom would mean the game will be playable years after most preople has swiched to a new version of Windows.
March 24th, 2010 at 7:05 pm
Mother 4 will be cross-platform. See here.
Also, ‘making it a rom’ would require me to rewrite crucial parts of the engine for that platform, be it DS, Wii, PSP, SNES, or anything else. Which is more work than I’d like to have to do.
March 25th, 2010 at 6:35 pm
well is you make a rom from it, heres what I think. I remember seeing on website that you can slap a game rom on a catridge without much hassle. Well, since this techincally is not a Nintendo game, couldn’t slap the rom on a clean cartridge (I would the GameBoy ones,) and play it without any illegalness coming on?
I mean you could give them to your friends and stuff-what I’m saying is, I think theres a wya you can put a rom on a cartridge but not get any signs that say its illegal if you sell it, then I don’t know what to say, but if you don’t sell it then I guess its legal isn’t it?
March 25th, 2010 at 9:44 pm
It’s a very gray area. But if the game were built for some game console something like that would be possible. Except for the selling part. That could end poorly.
March 26th, 2010 at 7:35 am
Yeah, you always have to have an ok to put your games on Nintendo Cartridges if you want to sell them.
Also, sorry for bugging but, what’s the tone of the game and its difficulty?
Is it like EarthBound and Mother 3 with the game being a lighthearted easy game for all ages?
Or will it be more like Mother 1, where the plot is a bit edgier, darker, more serious, and although its a good game, its really hard to beat!
So, which and tone and Difficulty will it be? Dark, Lighthearted, or In-Between? And will the game be Easy, Medium, or Hard? (I just like knowing stuff, I hope this isn’t a big question.)
March 27th, 2010 at 6:03 pm
It would be nice if one of the characters had an unique sickness for it, like Ninten (Who had asthma) and Ness(Who had homesickness). I don’t know, pollen allergy with a 50% rate of happening or somthing like that?. That would work if you are going to use a lot of plant based enemies…
Mother 3 was really easy, but people liked it, I missed Teleport and being able to visit most of the places I had been before the final battle, like in the first two games. I noticed that no earthbound game has had circus related enemies, besides the monster tent in Earthbound. Maybe a zombie clown would be too scary?.
March 30th, 2010 at 8:31 am
Are there any plans to offer the game’s engine (or even the original Game Maker version’s engine) up for download?
I’ve actually tried making my own Mother fangame in the past, but I found RPG Maker to be too confining. I’d love to revive the project, but lack the programming skill to start from scratch like you guys did.
March 30th, 2010 at 8:46 am
I’m going to decide what to do with it all after the game is launched.
April 10th, 2010 at 2:07 pm
I would like to know the program used for making this…it could be fun, trying to make a mother game
April 10th, 2010 at 4:51 pm
There really is no program for making this. I’m writing the engine myself from scratch in C++. If you want to try making a Mother-ish game I suggest you find a copy of RPG Maker. Probably the XP or VX version. They might cost something though, I’m not sure, I don’t use them. Google around a bit.
April 11th, 2010 at 12:29 pm
nah, ive tried them before, they just suck cuz its hard finding sprites and the battle scripts. dont even start on the graphics for the towns and crap.