There are a million methods, really. I personally like to use spritesheets of each animation, saved as PNG files. Then I can just cut up each animation in the Animation Importer and easily set the origin points. However, this requires you to know each spritesheet's dimensions, and the frames all need to be the same side if you want it to be as efficient as possible.

Your best bet if you're not intimately familiar with each animation you're being sent is to have your team member make each animation frame as a separate PNG file. That way you don't have to worry about dealing with transparency or trying to figure out frame sizes and things like that. All you end up having to deal with is having a lot of PNG files! <img src="smileys/smiley17.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

I learned a ton a ton a ton from Deadeye's Platform School and scidave's Mikey's Adventure tutorials.

Platform School

Mikey's Adventure

You can also find a lot of other methods and such in the Tutorial Section.

Good luck!

Not dead, just mistyped. <img src="smileys/smiley9.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

Post updated with the proper links.

Sorry about that. I did use Color Overlay on the hero and enemy sprites, but I got rid of it since it'll be better to use the Color Fusion that I also have. I am not using either right now though (they had no in-game function yet).

Anyway, I updated the download to the current cap file. It has in it an early but functioning version of the save system, and features numerous tweaks to the UI. I still need to work out a few kinks in the Save System (if you have multiple save files and delete a save file in the middle, you can't save over the later save files, but you can still open them). It's just a matter of tweaking some numbers in the save menu, not a big deal. It does save and load properly though.

Yea, main post updated.

If you're looking for a standalone .exe, Construct Classic does that. Construct Classic's IDE can be a bit unwieldy sometimes, but once you learn her quirks you can work around the few instabilities in the IDE. Quite powerful.

Ashley has it for the most part spot on.

I'll also start with the disclaimer that I'm no lawyer, but as a semi-professional original musician I've had to do a lot of studying up on copyright law in order to better protect myself.

So, first off, to clear up a few misconceptions about U.S. Copyright Law:

* If the character itself is someone else's creation, you need a license given by the copyright holder to use the character (in most famous characters' cases, it is a company, often cold and heartless <img src="smileys/smiley2.gif" border="0" align="middle" /> ).

* Non-profit does not equal fair use. Copyright is what you'd call "as advertised". It means that only the copyright holder has permissions to control how their creation is copied, in any way, shape or form. They can issue licenses to third parties, for a fee or for free, but they still get to control who gets those licenses, with a couple exceptions.

* The exception, in the case of music, is a compulsory license. That, however, is not applicable to your case, as that deals only with covering songs, not for doing things like compilation albums, which needs a different licensing deal. You'd need to obtain a different license to use someone else's characters.

* Fair Use laws come into play when dealing with commentary and parody, or for educational use (though educational use is more meant for examples to teach classes, does not actually qualify for fan games). It has nothing to do with percentages or an infringer's economic profit. A copyright holder could sue you for dilution of brand if they'd like (I make a god awful Mario game that could give people who don't know Mario a bad impression of the plucky plumber, which would hurt future Nintendo sales), or if an infringer's product obtains the specific demand the copyright holder's product or potential products would have held (if I made a free Mario game that was better than Nintendo's $50 Mario game and people substituted Nintendo's game with mine instead, that equals lost earnings for Nintendo).

Some companies don't mind people using their sprites and characters in free fan games. Capcom is famous for unofficially supporting it. Others, like Nintendo, often turn a blind eye to it, unless it could potentially compete with their own products, in which case they almost always just send a cease and desist. There are just so many people out there, and sending a cease and desist to them all would be a waste of time. You still risk a lawsuit of course. That's their right.

I'm sorry if that's a lot to digest, but copyright law is a complicated affair that's meant to protect everyone from all sorts of scenarios.

Short version:

Are you allowed to, by law? For the purposes of your fan game, not without a license from the copyright holder. You can decide for yourself whether or not you feel your use would be ethical and if the risk of you being taken to court is worth it.

I couldn't download the cap. Try reacquiring a public link? Or reuploading?

How sad. It happened to a pal of mine too, though he got it to work in a short time. Never told me how he did it, but I think he tried running in Windows XP compatibility. Not sure why that would help though, since it runs just fine on my Windows 7 system.

What kinds of graphical glitches? Got a screenshot?

It's late and I'm about to go to bed, so I'll check it out tomorrow, but as a quick thought to do what you want, here's my suggestion.

If Coins > Cost

--> If Spend Coins : Add 10 to global('Temp Boost')

If global('Temp Boost') > 0 : Set global('Temp Boost') = global('Temp Boost') - 1 * TimeDelta

--> Trigger Once : Set Progress Speed = Progress Speed * Boost Multiplier

If global('Temp Boost') <= 0 : set global('Temp Boost') = 0

                             :Set Progress Speed = Default Progress Speed

Where "Progress Speed" is how fast your Progress speed normally is, and Boost Multiplier can be 1.5 for half time faster or 2 for twice as fast.

Like I said, didn't look yet, but I feel like that would do what you're asking. That's what first came to mind anyway.

Oh, by the by! You press ESC to do a quick shutdown, and F1 will reset. I plan to make those customizable, too.

Right now, when you go into the in game main menu, a party member is added. This isn't a bug; it's for debugging purposes really, but I left it in to show that you can switch between heroes in the equip and status menus and have Hero specific equipment. Also that you can select to use items on specific heroes.

I don't have the actual spells implemented, but they're essentially the same as item use except they use Rune Charge (RC) as energy.

That yellow bar below your health meter is your stamina. Your attack power is also based on what percentage of that stamina you have when you attack, to a minimum of 1 damage (because I don't want to completely block those persistent players from doing things they shouldn't).

And that enemy is supposed to be a pain in the butt. Most enemies will be immobilized while attacking, making them easier to hit. He's still got some special boss code on him making him try to dodge your attacks.

EDIT 29/09/13!

I am no longer supporting this demo. I had abandoned it ages ago in favor of developing in Construct 2 for a million and one reasons. I may share some of my code for my upcoming game, or at least describe a few ways I went about the upcoming ARPG. I expect to show something off in the near future, possibly late Fall for that, but it will be in an entirely new thread separate from this.

I no longer have the original cap file this post describes below. I am leaving this post up more as a testament that I had created an engine at one point, and that it is in fact possible with Construct Classic, but I honestly recommend upgrading to Construct 2. It's come to the point where Construct 2 is much much MUCH more fully featured and stable than Construct Classic. Do yourselves a favor.

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So a lot of new folks come in asking if Construct can make RPGs, and a lot of old folks sayin' "Yea, it can" and then there's the whole "Well, where are they?" and then you get the thing about "Well they're really really hard to make and take forever!"

All of the above is true, and as an added bonus you get a few migraines along with your RPG!

BAM!

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20459682/action%20rpg%20demo.zip

This is my Action RPG game that I'm working on. I included an exe, a cap, and a couple text files that show you just how I keep track of all those darned variables and formulas! (Hint: haphazardly!)

Engine Features:

* your standard 8 way top down player navigation

* support for changing player characters

* extensive menu system

* branching message system

* inventory / spells

* equipment

* combat / enemies

* leveling and stat growth

* map transfers

* customizable controls

* fullscreen / windowed modes, and aspect ratio changing

* save system

Engine To-Do:

* finish ally system (need to give them field representation and AI)

* damage display

* UI tweaks (some text display and sprite positioning stuff)

* area map menu

* music playing (still have to compose something first)

I do use a number of third party plugins. These plugins have SAVED MY LIFE!:

*Linkman's Magicam

*Lucid's Spritefont

*sglorz's Input System

and a number of other plugins from Ashley and David that came with Construct Classic.

I also owe R0J0hound and Tulamide, and a number of the other Construct vets my life as well. Many a time I came onto the forums with a problem, and then you guys come running in with a bag of enlightenment. Expect an NPC tribute some time down the road. <img src="smileys/smiley2.gif" border="0" align="middle">

I felt like posting the cap in case people wanted a peek at how I did something (I know a lot of people ask how to do fullscreen while maintaining ratios on here). I wouldn't recommend doing things exactly how I did them, especially since so many systems are dependent on one another, but it might give some of you a step in the right direction.

Oh, yea, by the way, Construct Classic can make complicated RPGs!

BAM!

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20459682/action%20rpg%20demo.zip

You should post a cap so that someone can find the problem. Dropbox is best, though I've seen people use Mediafire without complaints.