The Solarus Resource Help Project

Started by Zefk, May 06, 2016, 10:23:55 PM

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May 06, 2016, 10:23:55 PM Last Edit: February 20, 2021, 12:16:35 AM by Zefk
Solarus Resource Help Project

Update:
Go here for more official information: Here

About:

This project is meant to help Solarus. The contents are below. Please make suggestions.

Reports:

Let me know of:

  • Dead links
  • Service changes - Ex: Like how ADrive no longer gives 50 GB free.
  • Typos or grammar mistakes
Basic Question:

Q: Can Solarus make more than ARPG games?
A: Solarus can make visual novels, monster battle, card battle, and any other game type in the 2D realm. (Although, there is talk of mode7.) Solarus is aimed at ARPG, so there will need to be more coding for other game types, but Solarus is made to make coding easy. (At least in my opinion.)

Q: Is Solarus an emulator?
A: No.

Q: Is there a simple android export option?
A: No. Not "yet."

Q: Single exe?
A: You can make a single .exe with a free packager software like "Inno Setup".

Q: Can I sell my game in communities like Steam, and make money from it?
A: Yes, but follow the GPLv3 license.

Q: Is there online support?
Q: Can I make a game without programming?
Q: How much experience in Lua is needed prior to starting to use Solarus?
Q: Is there a short explanation for GPLv3?
Q: What basic information will pixel artists want to know?

ARPG 2D Games good for studying:

-The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
-The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Four Swords
-The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages
-The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons
-Zelda ARPG games: Wiki
-Secret of Mana (Seiken Densetsu 2)
-Secret of Evermore (Not related to the Mana series, but pretty much has the same functions and was made by the same company.)
-Seiken Densetsu 3
-Sword of Mana (Seiken Densetsu 5)
-Children of Mana (Seiken Densetsu 6)
-Avatar The Last Airbender GBA
-Boktai
-Alundra
-Soul Blazer
-Illusion of Gaia
-Shining Soul II
-Juka and The Monophonic Menace
-Yu Yu Hakusho - Ghostfiles - Spirit Detective
-The Legacy of Goku
-The Legacy of Goku II
-Buu's Fury
-Terranigma

SideScrolling Games:

-Gunstar Super Heroes gba (Full of ACTION)
-Mario Land
-Wario Land
-Sonic
-Metroid
-Mega Man
-Lady Sia

SideScroller/ARPG: (Half/half):

-Summon Night: SwordCraft

Port information:

Homebrew 3DS: Here

Wii port information: Here

Android port news: Here
There is an older android port for an older version of Solarus, but there seems to be a better port in progress for maybe 1.5

Old android port info: Here

Some information of people that did the ports: Here

Lua learning information and Solarus documentation: Here
Solarus uses Lua for scripting with Solarus libraries to make things easy. This should not be an issue if one already has experience in a high level language like C or C++. Do not let that scare you because Lua is actually a very easy programming language and it will actually help you with learn C or C++ later, but C languages are not needed for making games with Solarus. It will help if you want to assist with the Solarus engine or modify it.

C++ SDL 2.0 and QT Creator: Here
Want to help program for Solarus and fix bugs? This would be a good place to start. Once you begin, fork Solarus and do a pull request once you made your changes on GitHub. Scroll down to GitHub on this post if you have no clue what I just typed.

Upgrading:

The migration guide will help one upgrade from different versions of Solarus: Here

Diarandor's Audio and Pixel art:

Updates Here and his work is in the sample quest in Solarus Engine!

Sample Quest:

The sample_quest and Children of Solarus project have some free graphics too.

Book:

Solarus 1.5 free book by zefk: Online - PDF - GitHub - Post

Basics:

The new Solarus 1.5 tutorial series: Here
The basics for Solarus - Video Tutorials by Christopho! The Creator of Solarus!

Tutorials by ffomega: Website

Advanced Screen Capture Tools:

  • Shutter for Linux -There are many options. The most important is selecting an area on the screen and making a screenshot. There are some basic paint editing tools as well.
  • Greenshot for Windows -There are many options. The most important is selecting an area on the screen and making a screenshot.
  • The use of gifs might be better than videos for reporting bugs. They are easier to post and upload. Giphy might be a good place to upload them before posting...only if they are bigger than 100 kb. Silentcast for Linux and ScreenToGif for Windows or LICEcap v1.26 (works with wine)
Error Solutions:
-Function at line has more than 60 upvalues for local variables, arrays, & 200 Local Variables Limit Problem solutions: Here
-Control structure too long near: Here
-Solarus Graphic scaling solution/Images beyond 320x240 solution: Here

Scripts:

A list of scripts: Here

Audio:

Audio: timer and timer_hurry (CC0): here

My music for Solarus

A free music making software list and soundfonts (sf2)

Looping .Ogg music Solarus: Here

Font:

Bitmap font - Direct download

Making Font Resources and Template

Font (.ttf) to Bitmap and Glyph Dump: Here

Pixel art or graphics:

Animation list for sprite characters: Here

Diarandor's selective outlining post: Here and my: comment

Diarandor's Design of graphs of dungeons post: here & my comment: here

Spritesheet Editor Software: Here

LPC Character Sprite Generator: Here

Free Pixel art: Here (login to view)
-Crystal, switch, & block
-Unlucky Studio graphics
-Urbansquall ARPG Graphics
-ARPG Skull Shield

ARPG Heroine Sprite Eldrina: Here (Eldran Sprite Mod by ZEFK)

Sprite Character Templates - Opensource Free

Open Source Graphic Pack - Finished
Part1: Fairyolica World Outside/exterior Finished

Free Pixel Art Making Programs for Linux, Windows, and Android

Transparency and opacity

Making maps with a program called, "Tiled."

Easy palette swapping tool. A post by MetalZelda : Here

Story:

Most of this section has been deleted and added to the Solarus book project: Here

Interesting brainstorm features: Here

Music, mapping, and story help

Free Office Suites for online and offline use: Here

Linux:

Solarus Linux Wine Guide based on Zuto Kaza's

Mac:

Having trouble installing the Mac version? Use Wine to use the Windows Solarus version on your Mac. Here is a Wine Installation guide for Mac. Here

Android:

You might be able to use Wine on your android by emulating Ubuntu. There is a root and no root method. Here

Running Android apps through chrome. The article is detailed enough. Some android programs can be used to help with Solarus game making, but not all will work because a lot of apps that you buy have annoying verification that may need something that is not functional. Also, some apps crash when sound is used.
http://askubuntu.com/questions/605589/can-android-apps-be-used-in-ubuntu

Raspberry Pi:

I am not sure about the Solarus Editor, but the engine works. Here are two sources.

Source: Solarus's creator confirms it works

Source: Successful test and Github source.

Source: How to set up solarus on raspberry pi?

Legal:
License help

Storage:
Attachment too big? Here is where you can upload large image files and other file types for free. They are good places to store your files too.

GitHub Help:

Github in my opinion the best free service to use for your project. There are obviously other as good free alternatives.

Link to GitHub: Here

Some basic markdown formatting: Here

Formatting Cheatsheet: Here

Uploading files to your repo: Here

Pull requests: Here and video tutorial: here

Fork: Here

Markdown offline editors: 
-I like CuteMarkEd because it is portable. Go here for more options. (Buggy)
-Haroopad - best here in my opinion. One can even insert a table of contents based on the headers, no bugs to be found, and the html file can be turned into a pdf with chrome. (Table of contents still work in pdf)

Common bug fix for Haroopad on older Linux distributions:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-toolchain-r/test
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install libstdc++6-4.7-dev


-Asciidoc Book Editor - Has everything, but only for 64 bit! No x86...

Funding online platforms that can help your project with donations:
Have you ever thought of using Patreon, Kickstarter, and IndieGoGo? These could be funding platforms that could help your Solarus game projects. I think Patreon would be the best because people can send recurring payments monthly to creators. As in people can give you money monthly.

Funding platforms:

  • Patreon
  • IndieGoGo
  • Kickstarter
  • Appsplit
  • Wefund
  • Appstori
  • Onevest
  • Fundbyme
  • Razoo
  • Pozible
  • Croundfunder
  • Campfire
  • Rally
  • Rockethub
  • Gofundme
  • Fundrazer
  • Gambitious

Steam:

Related post: Here

You will need to use Steamworks SDK if you want steam achievements (you do not need it) and your game only gets on steam if Valve likes it.

You need to use Greenlight. If Valve likes the game, then they will publish it on Steam.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c61YgiNDd8E

More info on Greenlight:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raIef6QXu0E

Added:
Pixel Art Making Programs - I will actually put this on its own post later. I want this post clean with just table of contents.

Great! You did an awesome work to help people :) Thanks!


Added to help project: (Links above below content)
Solarus Tower Defence Style by Kibos1er! Preview and Download

Side Scrolling functionality by wrightmat! Here and Zutokaza test project  - As I can see there are bugs to work out because of new updates probably.

Added:
ARPG game Scripts by Christopho and his team! Here
-Click the game and at the bottom will be the source code that can be used as a template.


I have a Question: Do you know a free Music making program?
You know that nearly all of use strugled once
with RPG maker. But now we make with
Solarus! 8)

I've heard  good things about musagi, though I haven't used it myself. It's by the same guy who wrote sfxr for making sound effects for games.

Quote from: GameboyArda on May 14, 2016, 01:46:10 PM
I have a Question: Do you know a free Music making program?

LMMS (Linux Multi media studio) It is for Windows too and OS X. I used this program to make over 500 free audio for Solarus and all my music is made with it. For instance, my Klgo Journey music I added for Solarus as well to use. LMMS is very very easy after you do a few tutorials. The soundfonts I listed at the bottom of my music section can be used in it. It is basically a free FL Studio.

Quote from: llamazing on May 14, 2016, 03:03:09 PM
I've heard  good things about musagi, though I haven't used it myself. It's by the same guy who wrote sfxr for making sound effects for games.

I have never used musagi. But I use sfxr to create my 16-bit sounds and I recommend it (it is very easy, simple and intuitive to use).
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you. But if you really make them think, they'll hate you."




Added:
Quest types - Story help for beginners.

Note: It is very similar to the wiki article that I learned about quest types from and I added a bit of it into it. I made it the source link.