Looking for someone to create a custom nes game.

I am looking to do something amazing for my husband. I was wondering if anyone could create a custom game using custom drawn characters that I would provide.

I would like it to be at least one world or enough to play through...not sure on the semantics. I also understand that being a specific custom game for one person would cost more, which I would like to discuss at the start but am willing to pay.

Not sure what other information is need, but could/would you or anyone you know be able to create something like this?

Fingers Crossed,

Savvy

Post mock screenshots and a synopsis of the gameplay mechanics and some of us might be interested.

I do not have a screen shot because I am looking for someone to take two custom charters that my husband has drawn and use/over lay them as sprits in some type of game. I do not care if the game play is not original, I just want the charters and title screens to be original.

What sort of game? Jumping and stomping on enemies like Mario? Moving in 4 directions like Zelda? Anything as long as it features the characters? If it doesn't matter, what are some of his hobbies or favorite NES games? How long (in minutes of play) do you want or need it to be? Is this meant solely for him, or do you plan to sell/distribute this somehow? Is music needed? I assume you want a physical cartridge, not just a rom? Is there a world associated with the characters to help make the level graphics? Is there a hard deadline for all of it? Before an anniversary or something?

I could likely make sprites of the characters, and have them walking around in a couple of days. I'm capable of world graphics as well, but would hope there's some kind of reference for that to go with the characters. How long the rest of the game would take/how much it might be would depends some answers to the above questions. I'd say expect absolute bare minimum of $250 for something really quick/short, though. And music (at least good music, heh) is outside my skillset.

I want this to be as nice as possible. I have more than a years time limit-I wanted to do this early to give plenty of time for it to be done well. This will be exclusively for our own personal collection. Preferably on a cartridge. It would be great if the rom was included. I would like music, even though it doesn't have to be anything special.
My husband is a gamer through and through and plays titles from Intellevision to Xbox 1. Some of his all time favorites are Zelda, Final Fantasy, Sonic, Mega Man, and one we like to do together, Mario.
Any game would be great, one based off of one of these even better.
The characters I would like used are the furies he draws him and I as-him as a humanoid cat and me as a humanoid bunny. There is not much background on these characters other than that they are married. Stage setting doesn't really matter much as long as they are both used, wither in a party like Final Fantasy or maybe two player or like mario-humanoid cat and peach-the humanoid bunny.
$250 is very reasonable, I do not mind paying more for a more complete and in-depth game.

Do you really want a game or just a rom hack?

I really want a physical copy. It can be a hack, but I want a hard copy.

*AHEM* Little Ninja Brothers Damn this cough!

A romhack is probably a better idea.


Creating 1 world of a quality game is almost as challenging as creating 8 worlds of a quality game. There is so much overhead before you can get to the point where you can make the first finished looking level in a game. Don't think you are saving lots of work by asking for only 1 world, it does not reduce the scope as significantly as that sounds.

Even a game as simple as Super Mario Bros. you must consider was the work of several talented people over the course of at least a year. Consider what it would cost to pay 5 people even minimum wage for a year.


That said, there are lots of people who are willing to do quite a lot for free, and some people may have some ready-made things available to throw something together more quickly, and we do indeed have better development tools than in the past. Making games, though, is difficult work, and there's probably a triangle here of TIME vs COST vs QUALITY that will limit what you can get.

It's difficult to get one-off non-commercial projects like this done, usually because the cost or time involved isn't worth it. People who will work for free, or for very low cost, probably won't be able to stick with it long enough unless they are passionate about the project. The game you're proposing would be played by only two people, so, honestly this would be a very strange thing for someone besides to be passionate about.


I'd offer to do it for a fair price (if you told me your budget, I could estimate the scope of the kind of game you'd get), but I'll be occupied by my own game project for the next few months. I expect it will be difficult, even with cash in hand, to find someone who is capable and available.

A hack of an existing game, though, would be lightyears easier to accomplish, and there are many people here who could do it. (I could find the time to do it, myself. It's much quicker than creating a new game.)

One hacked world of say, super Mario would be fine, I just want my characters and an original title screen and credits.

Maybe instead of a screenshot we can get some pics of the characters instead?

If you mean SMB1/SMB2J it's not that simple coding-wise.



I can take you up on this offer. Though, I require pay. Check my SMB hacks in Homebrews; I'm a very talented hacker. I fix glitches and optimize code, too (all at an extra fee). Harder glitches such as small fiery mario are $50 USD (per fix). Easier ones like Minus World etc are $30 USD (per fix). Code optimization are $40 USD per 20 bytes I save (and believe me, I can save you hundreds of bytes on an NROM game like SMB). I've already fixed every known glitch so I know what to do.

Bottom line: $25 USD down payment to me through Paypal if you accept and on a pay-per-code basis. (For security reasons.) No refunds; changing mind on an idea still requires payment, too.

But it might look simple to a person with no programming knowledge whatsoever, compared to everything that's available today.


It doesn't seem like the OP cares for these things. Specially code optimization, which is completely invisible. If keeping the hack at 32KB of ROM is important, I'm sure that getting rid of several levels will free enough space for the new features.

A one world hack without coding changes and only titlescreen/gfx changes and credits? I'm still interested. OP please PM me about pricing and we'll work something out if you are interested. Though I'm not an artist and the NES has PPU limitations, too. So keep that in mind.

I would also advise a 3rd party hold the money, as we should make sure the person will get paid for the work they put in, and not do a lot for the other party to back out, or so much at progress points in development.

For this project, I would suggest not to use "Super Mario Bros.", but rather a game where both main characters are on the screen simultaneously.

My suggestion: A hack of "Binary Land".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_Land

Advantages:
It has a relationship topic.
It's a bit more obscure, so there's a chance that you and your husband haven't played it yet.

Thanks

So, how will you proceed now?

Someone sent me a message saying they could do it. Hopefully it will workout.

My offer for SMB1 still stands, if you are interested. --ShaneM

And? Which game do you want to take?

Why didn't the member post here? No one has to negotiate in secret. This isn't Elance. We're all friends here.

I'm just saying that I'd be concerned if I were you, Savvy, as a new member who's not familiar with people here.

It could be entirely possible that it is someone on another forum that OP made this deal with and wishes not to share it here. OP, I think everyone here means you the best by making all these helpful suggestions/followups/tips. It may be wise to adhere to them for safety reasons. 3gengames is right on suggesting a 3rd party holding the money, too.

(It may be entirely possible that OP has changed her/his mind on this and may be saying "one" offered for personal reasons. Though I doubt this and believe that it is a legit (real) person.)

Thank you for your concerns! Hopefully it will not come to that. I personally don't see anything wrong with someone messaging me directly. I will proceed with caution.

Unfortunately the person did not respond back. Anyone else interested?