Fight spirits to survive in a haunted house! ... Or don't. · By
Hello! I'm a crippling newbie when it comes to making mods for games, being that I've never done it. I did have some idea for ghosts for this game though, and I'm just wondering... how? I know I'd need to make the character art myself and such, as well as all the animations, dialog, etc.I'm just completely unsure of how to do that. What program do you guys use to make art for this game? And how would I convert the stuff I make into files the game can read?
Hello,
I wouldn't mind sharing some insight on how we made Ghosts & Japes.
I made the game using Gamemaker Studio 2 and its built-in IDE. The .JSON (external files), I edit with Notepad++. Any basic text editor will work, it all comes down to preference. If there's parsing errors with one of these files, I use an online .JSON verifying website such as JSONLint - where I copy the contents of the .JSON file and paste it there. It usually helps me find silly mistakes.
Japes uses a combination of the paint.net software and Aseprite for sprite creation. Sometimes, Clip Studio Paint is used in addition to a drawing tablet to draw larger things, such as some game over artwork.
Japes and I edit some sound effects in Audacity with a bit-crushing plugin. (If you are curious what plugin this is, I can check and provide its name later.)
I believe Moonkey composed the soundtrack solely in FL Studio. Some sound effects that they made were also made in it.
As for how to make your own custom enemy, the easiest way I personally recommend for getting started is to copy an existing enemy that does something similar to what you want. Edit their parameters, art, and sound as you see fit. Want a boss enemy? Copy Honeygast's files and edit them. Want an enemy that shoots a lot of damaging projectiles? Make a copy of Lorenzo. Up-to-date modding documentation is provided with every release of this game in .PDF and .RTF format via /Modding Resources/Guides/.
Best of luck with modding! Don't be afraid to ask questions about what specific things do, mean, or how they would behave. We will get back to you if possible, or perhaps someone else who is an experienced modder can hop into this thread and answer.
-Cammy
