Mail’s Here
October 5, 2010 by The Dave
It’s time to delve into the mailbag once again!
Unfortunately I lost the psd for the old mailbag logo. So I’ve made this more streamlined new one as a replacement.
Anyway, for all you new to the site, Mailbag is where we answer the questions you’ve asked through the Contact Page. We’ve selected the ones we can answer at this time, and well, answered them! Note that we have slightly altered the questions to correct grammar and formatting. So without further ado, let us begin.
Open Source
Will the mother 4 source code be open?
The Mother 4 project is closed source, meaning that I will not release the source code to the public at any point in time. (At least, in the next few years.) This is because I plan to reuse the code for other, more commercial purposes after the game is finished. 
Download Location
When the game is out will you let us know on the website? And can we download it from this website?
Yes on both accounts. The game will be available for download only on the website. We’ll make sure it’s clear that the game is available when it launches. The current plan is to replace the home page of the site with one that features the download links front and center.
Creation Program
I wanna make a game like this but, what program did you use?
At first we used RPG Maker XP, but that fell to the wayside when I joined the team. I began creating the game using Game Maker for a more customized and Mother-like experience than what would have been achieved in RPG Maker. However, a little after a year into development I hit some limits of Game Maker, and had to develop “band-aids” to work around them. The band-aids soon became too troublesome to work with and I decided to make the switch to a more feature-full environment. After scouting about, I decided C++ with SDL and OpenGL would be my best bet, so I began work on a new engine from the ground up and have been working on it since. The IDE I use to develop on Windows is Microsoft Visual C++ 2010.
Setting
I can’t wait for this game to come out!! But what’s the setting?
Mother was based in 80s, yes?
Mother 2 was based in 90′s
Mother 3 was based somewhere in the future
So what time peroid is Mother 4 in?And also, is Mother 4 based in America like the first two games?
Mother 4 will take place in a modern-esque world. There will be towns, cities, forests, valleys, sweeping plains, deserts, seas and much more. Think of it as a large connected world like that of Mother 1 or 2 mixed with the variety of locales featured in Mother 3. I can’t say an exact time or place though.
Mangoes
Do you like mangos?
Yes. I do love me some mangoes. (Yep this was an email we got. 
)
Mr. Saturns
Will there be Mr. Saturns in Mother 4?
Yep. Take a look at the banner up top.
Battle Combos
There’s a musical note icon in the battle screenshots. Will there be Mother 3 style rhythm combos in Mother 4?
There will be combos based on the music, however they won’t be exactly like Mother 3. We’ll be adding our own style to attack combos.
Music Stats
I’d like to know how many pieces of music has been made for the game?
How much of that is remixes from old games?
Currently I count 34 tracks. However, that doesn’t include all the music we’ve made and since replaced. There are 5 straight remixes and there are 4 songs with themes from past games interspersed in them. The rest are originals composed by Roger Levy and SNOBODYS.
The Sound of Music
I’ve got a question about the development of Mother 4, in regards to music. How is it being done? Will it sound like the music from previous Mother games?
As with the graphics, we’re giving the music a bit of an upgrade in quality. The best way I can tell you how it will sound is to give you a sample to listen to. Fortunately, there’s one availible. I’d like to direct you to The Music of Mother 4 from last year’s NCFC.
ESRB Rating
If the ESRB were to rate this game, what do you think they would rate it?
If the ESRB were to rate this game, I expect they would rate it along the lines of E 10+ or maybe Teen. You know, for cartoon violence and all.
Sprite Detail
I was a big fan of the detail of the sprites in Mother 3. I was wondering how much effort you guys will be putting the sprite animation aspect of the game.
There will be an emphasis on detail in the sprites in Mother 4. There will be extra animations for cut scenes as there were in Mother 3. Just wait until the NCFC rolls around for some screenshot action.
Difficulty
For the past couple days I’ve been replaying Mother 1 and Mother 3.While playing these games I have noticed that Mother 1 is a lot harder than Mother 3.I was just wondering how difficult will game would be? Mother 3 had times where it got a little tough but not as much as Mother 1. I’d like to know since I don’t like games that are really easy.
I think I answered this in the last mailbag, but maybe it was somewhere else. Anyway, we’re shooting for a difficulty less than Mother 1, but a little harder or on par with Mother 3. There will be hard parts, and easy parts, but what we’re most concerned about is balancing those in a way that gets progressively more difficult as the game goes on. This is where beta testing will be very useful.
Psychic Animals
Will there be any animal party members (like Boney from Mother 3) that can use PK/PSI attacks, or any anthropomorphic party members like that?
No we don’t have plans for any non-human PSI users. Although that is an idea. Perhaps someone could pursue that in another fan game. I’d check that out. We also don’t have plans for anthropomorphic characters.
COMING TO A THEATER NEAR YOU
I know you are producing a video game.
I know you don’t want any information leaked to the internet.
So I’ll not ask for miracles here… but would be so kind to give a general outline of Mother 4 plot?I’m not asking to give every datail of the game, but to know a general scenario. Pretty much what you would read when reading the description of the game. As if I were looking at the trailer of this game.
There’s always the synopsis over on the about page, but I’ll try my hand at a trailer type description here:
In a world with darkness on the rise,
a few boys, some young men and a pretty girl stand alone.
It was all just fun and games until the strange crafts appeared in the skies.
Cars. People. Household appliances. Everything is alive and is out to get them.
What will become of the world?
Will this unlikely team of friends be able to stop the madness?
Only you can decide.
Mother 4.
Coming to your computer sometime before the end of the world.
And with that, this wraps up today’s round of mailbag. If your question wasn’t featured, don’t fret! Check the FAQs to see if it was already answered there. If you can’t find it there, then it just isn’t time for it to be answered. We’ve got to keep some surprises for when the game launches.
And as always, please send in your questions for future mailbag posts. Thanks!
Thanks for answering my question about the music stats! Music in video games is a very important feature, to me atleast. Infact, I am a very big fan of alot of video game music, I listen to alot of it on a daily basis. I could usually imagine the setting that the music is meant for in my mind while I listen. That’s just one of the qualities. Another would most definitely would be the catchiness of the tracks.
I’ll have to talk to my partner to see if where we stand. We’re slightly busy, but, at least on my side, I’m a little more free than usual.
Can’t believe its been a year already. My my how time flies.
That’s okay, you guys just keep working. Doesn’t matter if you show stuff at NCFC or here, so long as we get something by the time the years out
We would’ve liked to, but we’ve all be pretty busy with other things as of late. Despite our busyness, we’ve still been working on some nice updates. We’ll still have some NCFC type stuff for you this year like we did last year, just not in the same format. And not all necessarily during the NCFC.
Weren’t you guys suppose to have a booth at NCFC 2010?
It’s a good thing it is. That site has spared me hours of research and stress. I feel safe knowing I can just check every now and then.
^The funniest thing about this post is that that website is real.
The world won’t end? Ah, now I don’t have to check HasTheLargeHadronColliderDestroyedTheWorldYet.com everyday. Thanks!
If the world ends(Note for all you idiots/looters: it won’t), you can say “we tried.”
But then you’ll realise that you wasted your life on something that will never see the light of day before you fade out of existence.
And then you can prove religions wrong/right.
An entirely uneducated guess from a major storyline writer is that it might maybe be about ready somewhere around the area of late 2012.
Maybe. Kind of around that time, sort of. Possibly.
That was not an official statement, and I do not want it taken as such.
@ULTRAGIYGAS – Most likely not, but you never really know. If I were to make an arbitrary guess I’d say within the next three years.
I wonder how giygas handles music theory homework…
is this going to happen sometime this year or what?
I’d expect some form of insanity if giygas does their homework.
Hopefully this is not like Pokemon where you hurt yourself in your confusion
I think it’s more confusion. We need a new level of insanity. Someone make us all feel crazy.
Oh ho ho. What is this? Division in the ranks?
Snowbodys: Get ahold of me. I want to hear some more music, haha.
Oho! Well I suppose I’m not quite as in the know when it comes to the music department as I thought I was. In any case, I would love to post some tiddles from your new tunes. And I’m sure everyone here would appreciate it.
I’m not sure what Dave has from us, but as of now we don’t have any music that is ready to be submitted. We have a lot of them, just not to the standard we want them at
We’ve a few projects, but we’ll get this music stuffs sent so maybe dave can post a few tiddles of our new tunes. Or not. Who knows.
Cheers,
Patch of the SNOBODYS
Along with new screenshots, is there any chance of getting some more music clips? I really like the first one.
Mother 4 is a fan made game and is in no way official. It will be available on computers running Windows, Mac OS, or Linux. (It’s an application, not a rom.) It will also be entirely free.
Give the FAQs a read for more information. Most basic questions about the game are answered there.
what systems is Mother 4 gonna be on,and how much money will it be?
@Meryl
It’s pseudo-Latin gibberish. This Wikipedia article explains it all. It’s there because I couldn’t think of anything good that would represent a generic question.
@yeroc
Yeah, I think E 10+ is pretty spot on. But I always thought Mother 3 could’ve gotten a T rating here in the US for some language, violence and more mature themes. (Ie. It’s not a game for everyone.) It seems to me that the ESRB has gotten stricter since the days of Earthbound. That’s how I came up with that answer.
I’d have thought this game would have E or E10+ rating. Comic mischief and/or cartoon violence does not usually jump a game to a T rating. Also, I think a Mother 3 difficulty would be ideal. Mother 1 is difficult, Mother 2 is easy, and Mother 3 seemed like a nice balance between the two.
Nice mailbag y’all have here. I can’t wait to see some more screenshots with the sprite detail and whatnot.
What language is on that letter? Or is it gibberish?
I’m not sure what you’re implying with that first paragraph. But yes the world is pretty.
(PS. That “movie trailer” I wrote was a summary of the synopsis on the about page. So if things aren’t so clear from what I wrote, check the About page.)
Well, the bashing of Jehova’s Witnesses earns you points. And is it me, or does the single girl promote things that will inevitably come to pass? Seriously, I’m saying this after watching the most suggestive possible anime that featured an 8-year-old nude. Did I mention it was a kids’ show?
Those questions were mildly(meaning 1/10 made any sense) informative. Might I inquire how one is meant to understand the universal logic of such a vibrant, unique world?
Average Joe Terminology: Is the world we’re fighting to save pretty?
*applause*
Tongue-in-cheek plot analysis:
In a world with darkness on the rise
(That’s just night time, just wait it out, usually only lasts a few hours)
a few boys, some young men and a pretty girl stand alone.
(By the number of people mentioned I don’t think they’re REALLY “alone”)
It was all just fun and games until the strange crafts appeared in the skies
(If Porky Minch was reading this, this would be WHEN THE GAME STARTS! MWAHAHAHAH!)
Cars. People. Household appliances. Everything is alive and is out to get them. What will become of the world?
(Lots of level grinding opportunities, that’s what’s going to happen)
Will this unlikely team of friends be able to stop the madness?
(This is madness! No, this is Mother 4!)
Only you can decide.
(Along with the thousands of other people who download the game)
Mother 4.
(Wait a second, this game is called Mother 4? WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN!?)
Coming to your computer sometime before the end of the world.
(Now according to the Mayans you have two years, according to Isaac Newton you have 50 years, and according to Jehovah’s Witnesses you’ve missed your due date over 10 times, shame on you!)