Scrapbookin’
October 12, 2012 by McMaxxis
Hey Guys! First of all, I know this post is coming out of left field. You could say it’s more exciting that way? But I guess a proper introduction is needed. The name’s McMaxxis. Just call me Max. I’ve been on the team for quite a while in the background, with other new recruits you have not yet met. I have been doing some vital work along with the other artists since the pixels were remixed. I’d like to begin my post with saying thank you for your patience with us all this time. You guys are amazing. We are trying our best to put that signature Itoi aesthetic in this game. Carefully picking thing in and out to have the story and visuals to it’s true sequel potential.
Basically, this update will be a little bit different. Since most of the Sprites have been redone. We thought we’d share a few concepts, sprites and doodles that could’ve have been in the game. It’s like getting unused content, but saving you the trouble of cracking open and tearing apart the game once it’s released.
Oh, before you scroll down just to look at the pixels. I would like to give you guys a present of progress first. 
Right here is the new Floyd (In his snazzy new hat) and Zack! We’ve been meaning to show this for a while. I think the new hairstyles we gave them benefit a lot from the adjusted heads and faces. There’s also more character put into their appearance, like the rest of the cast has now. Let us know what you think!
With that out of the way, let’s get to the MOTHER4 scrapbook. Keep in mind: Everything from here on will NOT be in the final game! So no getting anticipated for anything you see, k?
Talk about development hell making our hero, Travis. Pretty much all summer, we were seeking a more unique and memorable design for him. Even for a brief moment, that blue hair had a chance of being the one. There we lots of arguments and debates on what we should, could, might, and will not have. Without explaining a lot, this “timeline” pretty much considered how many placeholder variations we gave him. It was a long road. But hey, we got exactly what we wanted in the end.
Right here was the last actual revision to Travis and Meryl we had right before we considered changing them completely. (Back in May of this year.) Note the extra hair detail and compare it to the screenshots on this site. We overall felt that at this resolution, the additional detail given would look over the top and too much of a leap from the MOTHER3′s style. Which is why the hair on our final Travis is has less colors.
This is an oldie, but a goodie. There’s lots of things going on here, but the main focus is on the walking animations. It’s in MOTHER3′s method, as you can see. Mostly it was used for map testing, if I’m correct. We now have a better and more fluent way of walking.
(I really don’t know what’s going on with those sprites below Leo)
Okay, enough of the talking. I’ll just start dumping pictures. Since they’re just doodles to give us ideas.
By Pik
By Chaisu
By yours truly
Welp, That’s pretty much it, anything else we’re holding back are some pretty heavy spoilers. But stick around, I’m pretty sure another post will be coming up soon. Like I said, Thanks for the patience. And with that said, Have a good night! You’ll be seeing more from me on both Starmen.net and Here.
THIS IS SO FREAKING COOL.
I had heard rumors about this project a few years ago and dismissed the attempt as silly. Boy was I wrong. You guys have clearly put a lot of love into this, and best of all, you seem to have totally captured what Mother is all about. I can’t wait for this! It looks fantastic!!
Will the Franklin Badge make an appearance in Mother 4, and will it be the same one as the last three games?
(By the way, love what you guys -and girl- are doing with the series! You are a huge inspiration for us! Keep up the good work, and know how much Mother 4 means to us!)
Lookin good with those sprites. Wish I could do that…
There is a villain…
This is really cool! Keep up the great work and I cant wait for the release. I wonder what that ‘c’ is though
I really liked the attention to detail it brought!
Keep up the good work, Max!
really nice picture
On another note… Will you guys ever release any of the older prototypes of the game? Screenshots or like a short demo of things that didn’t make the cut? Or will there be easter eggs?
Hey everybody what have ya’ll been up to, and also which version of travis is your favorite.
I like the new song.
It’s awesome that even a cruise ship has different music depending on the time of day.
On an unrelated note, the Game Makers’ Collaboration Club I mentioned in the previous blog post went up successfully! I’m on my way to the finer arts of game design. Now all I need is a cool music-making program, because I’m the only musician (and organizer) on the team right now and Finale Notepad just won’t cut it.
Hey Stitch, if you’re reading this could you tell me what program you use to create your music?
Good for you, man! I’m glad you’re taking some initiative in the field you might be interested in.
I bet you and your club are going to crank out some awesome stuff. Perhaps nothing of this caliber (yet!), but some say the steps to the temple are more important that the temple itself!
Oh, I very much doubt I’ll be able to outdo Mother 4, but I’ll just have to see what we come up with. I hope to use a ton of pop culture references (You’ll definitely see some urfbownds in it), and the songs I create will probably have some inspiration from some Mother 4 tracks.
But I am 100% positive that there will be a fez in the game somewhere… ’cause fezzes are cool.
Fezzes and fedoras are the most bad-ass of headgear; you must have at least a few if you want to show people you mean business!
Stitch uses a program called Reason. I’ve tried it out myself; I don’t have a lot of experience with trying to use a program to make music, but it seems pretty nice and easy to use. Rather simple, too, compared to other programs.
that shits so expensive. but reason is good for electronic music. its kind of geared for mostly that though, so you might want to consider more general music programs otherwise. reasons more like a virtual instrument.
Well, I found a decent program called Linux MultiMedia Studio. I’m going to give it a try.
But first I need to figure out how it works. It should only take a few days at most.
Oh, a half-angel Travis! I wonder what that could be…
Hey, that’s what I said!
If a 3D Mother game was ever made now a days, those drawings are how I believe it should look like.
?!
ThatPersonGuy is here?
… this is?
Ugh … These updates take SOOOO long, but I slobber over each one, even ones that tell us everything that ISN’T in the game. I really can’t wait to play this … seriously, I’m going to find where you live, raid your fridges, handcuff you all to a corner, and play what you have so far. I refuse to wait.
I can like this post in that it did not dress up its agenda. this person cant wait, not you cant blame me for being so impatient.
Man, I loved the dorky-Meryl sprites. Made me smile.
And welcome to the team! (Or, hi, since I’m guessing that was a while ago…) Anywho, I adore the new Zack and Floyd. Their designs breath quite a bit of personality.
Howdy Mother 4 Team (like I needed to say hi…), but anyway, I had a great idea for this game that you could probably easily add in (I know you guys don’t really take ideas, but I just wanted to share it).
When in a hotel and preparing for night, wouldn’t it be nice if every party member was in pajamas until you left the room? I think it’d be great… athestetic for the game. Makes it feel a lot more real, that is if I have the right idea that you can do things at night in hotels… Like this idea?
I probably shouldn’t say this. But the sprites of Meryl with glasses shown above are her Pajama sprites. So maybe?…. Just maybe… haha.
So called it! Really glad to see that idea HAS gone through.
its probably more likely that theres a pajama level than just a pajama feature
*considering the emphasis on the day/night cycle to begin with. perhaps attacked in their sleep or some sort of dream state.
Ness also wore his pjs in the Magicant part of the game, maybe there’s somthing like that here?
@ItoiStalker
Unless you are playing the original japanese super famicom version, where instead of PJs in magicant Ness is in his birthday suit.
A wild update appeared!
So, like, next to Travis’ angel/ghost sprite, what’s the one with the angel wings see-through body but still wearing clothes one about? It lacks a halo, too…
*baby argument prevention activate*
Not that it matters, since it’s already been determined that those particular sprites won’t be in the game to begin with.
Sprites and music are great, but I’m really the most interested in the battles. Shame that stuff is so tightly under wraps. Reading all about how it was programmed just doesn’t do it for me. For me, the battles are what makes the Mother games fun. I love the different PSI techniques and the rolling HP meter that makes you have to work quickly sometimes.
Oh, yeah. I love the new Zack. He just looks so much more characterized! I think if I were Zack, I would want to be known as my own person, not as “The Older Brother” who doesn’t mean much when not with his sibling. I’ve always kind of liked Zack, and now I like him better. xD
baby argument prevention activate? Oh dear, he seems to have gained quite a lot of hate. Even if it is partly his own fault.
Ahem, that aside I agree with you completely. I want to see the battle system too. I’ll love seeing how it works in Mother 4. I know it’ll be fairly the same as the other Mother games (especially Mother 3) but last I remember the way you chose commands was different.
Haha, less “hate”, I’d say, and more “reputation”. People will say something that’s not totally thought-out and he’ll jump in and point out the contradiction. Most people tend to take it badly, though, so… >.>;
He usually makes valid, clear points; It often just comes off the wrong way. It’s rather unfortunate that he’s gotten such a bad rep when he’s (most of the time) trying to be helpful or constructive.
I’d like to see a battle video just as much as you and CrystalZoner. It just seems like it’s too far away from finalization yet to put out there.
Although, it seems like every time it gets close, it moves farther away. Perhaps perspective forces are at work!
Either way, this trend of rather old-news-like updates should be ending soon. With the programming and the old sprites and whatnot, the updates contain stuff that isn’t fundamentally “new knowledge” or “progressive information” about the game; it’s more like what you’d find on the “about” cover in a book.
There’s only so much back-story you can provide about a product that hasn’t been finalized yet, right? There’s gotta be some new material coming soon!
Im being engaged more than I ever was when I actually post things.
I wish they’d give us a little 30 second battle sequence or battle compilation so we’d get a feel on how the system works in this game.
I wonder if that’s why I haven’t seen baby posting anything recent lately? Going to admit, even with his/her quirks baby is a pretty good review/ judge… some of the time though.
Also does anyone know about the new thing they placed into the game’s battle mechanic yet? Like in one of their screen shots you see the boarders on the character’s HP, and PP screen that there is various shading, as if it is acting like a gauge (http://mother4.andonuts.net/wp-content/gallery/screenshots/stalk.png). I wonder if this is going to act like a limit breaker or ATB, I don’t know what do you guys think?
I didn’t notice that! That was a good catch.
As for what it is, I’m not too sure. I thought about ATB like you suggested, but it wouldn’t make much sense for a K.O.’d member to still have his gauge running. I would assume it would be greyed out until he was revived. Then again, I’m not calling the shots.
Limit Breaker… perhaps. It seems out-of-place for a Mother game, in my opinion.
Aha! I’ve got it; it’s a representation of how much experience the respective character has until they level up!
Seems a bit strange for Meryl’s gauge to be filled all the way, though… perhaps it takes into account other enemies killed during the fight?
Makes me want to play the game already to figure out all the secrets, this team has placed in there.
Also that’s not a bad guess either about it representing as level up bar, kinda like the Pokemon games.
I remember noticing that… and I think an old update inferred it was the replacement for the meter seen in old screenshots.
In the Lamp Battle screen, Meryl’s is full and she is the one currently attacking so I had guessed it was an ATB mechanic… but I really like your theory better. In Earthbound, it was your dad who gave you info on exp to the next level (tertiary to saving and funding) but since postcards/mail system takes on the role of saving and funding, you’d need a way to show exp to next level. I mean, you could always do it in the status screen… but the battle screen meter is a more convenient, stylish way to do it. Really harks back to Pokemon
it probably is a exp bar, its full because you dont get the level until after the battle. That or its not “full”, its like 2 points off and it just looks full. Since pokemon was the example brought up, if youve ever been a traveled pokemon guy, youve had to have hit a few times where that happened when training poke, especially when you get past like lvl 70, and especially with dragons. Ive had poke that had “full” gauges for ages, and it almost seemed like it froze and was stuck.
but limit breaker is the only next reasonable guess, atb would be a bad idea, technically for the game, as well as emotionally for me. maybe some sort of fatigue meter.
I wouldnt have even said anything about that. ‘-’
I dont just shoot dont everything, and I dont shoot down to shoot down. And there really isnt much to address about a half angel sprite, your guess is as good as mine, all I could really do is add to the speculation. Im not a villain.
I don’t think anybody thinks your the big bad of this website.
Some more sensitive people just don’t know how to rationally respond to criticism, and that has lead to you having a somewhat unsavoury appearance.
To be honest, like I said before, the only reason I come back to this website and check the comments is to see if you or Dave has posted something new. You’re more like part of the soul of the website rather than somebody who’s trying to crush it.
*’~'*
Well, at least you have a firm opinion instead of a common opinion.
I agree with what Juggernaut says, you’re not a bad person. Your posts are interesting and make very clear and valid points. You’re not afriad to speak your mind, which may be why some people get so… defensive when you post those points. I enjoy reading your posts, it’s just some people need to learn to not take things on the internet so personally.
i sort of figured that rule was a given.
not to minimize my position thus though.
simply ignoring me isnt the best way to deal with it either. just because one does not like me doesnt necessarily make me wrong. me being wrong makes me wrong, and I never claimed that I am flawless or without error. but you gotta get in the ring and prove it.