/rpgmg/ - RPG Maker General #166

I write down the story first. For your first project don't bother making custom assets, that will just slow you down.

Whether you start out from the story or the mechanics is probably a preference. But since you don't know the difficulty of mechanical implementation yet, I'd recommend you to start out with the story first and then try to recreate it in the game. Even if it is just fanfiction or even a direct copy of another game. If say, you want to remake a dungeon from Dragon Quest V or an episode of Avatar the Last Airbender for your game, that is just fine as a learning exercise.

When you change tilesets is also preference. I am using a combination of the game tiles and my own tiles, even if they don't fit, because my own tiles aren't finished yet and probably won't be finished for a while.

Thank you guys.

What if I simply can't stand the default assets?

You can probably find free assets other people made online. If you have them on steam, the recent versions have workshop integrations, which is super useful (when it works).
Otherwise you just need to dig a little.

bump

ded

So here's a question that might get some life into this thread again.

While I'm not able to actively work on my game these days, I still think about it a lot and recently I've been wondering how I could balance out leveling, experience, and encounters.

I don't want to have random encounters, except for in one endgame area, so to speak.
That means I'll have set encounters with specific enemies.
I also want to allow exploration and a somewhat non-linear game play, so I can't just slap a linear progression onto these enemies. The player is not supposed to beat every enemy at any given point in the game. Some are supposed to be a challenge for later, but I don't mind if they can be encountered beforehand.

To keep things interesting, I'd have to group these enemies together to have certain levels so there's always a fair fight out there, or at least an opportunity to level so you can fight the harder bosses. But how to balance that out with experience? Have every enemy give a set amount of experience, according to level, without having any penalties if you're too many levels above?
Have every enemy give a level?
Not use levels but determine power via spells and equipment that has been gained, turning levels into power levels?

And in general: What things do you hate in games that have their individual experience or leveling system?

So question, is there a way to pull a Breath Of Fire where you can have transformations and fusions with VX ace?

I've been playing around with this HUD script.

atelierrgss.wordpress.com/rgss3-battle-hud-ex/

I'm probably gonna try a different one of the templates, but I wanted to see if it works (and yes, I know the face graphic is kinda fucked up). Kind of a pain in the ass to set up since it's not an English script. Any idea what the terms of use on this shit is?

>atelierrgss
Oh you poor thing. I tried to use the rhythm minigame script and the difficulties still give me nightmares.
I hope you can figure out that hud script, good luck.

There are definitely Transformation Scripts for VX Ace. Not sure about Fusions, though.

I think you need to have a set experience for the encounters and have the bosses be set up in a way that the player needs to have fought the normal fights.
I'm also not sure if I like that concept very much, it turns more into a puzzle game because you can't overcome the enemies with different approaches but there is most likely only one way to truly fight them, this means that even if you give the player different paths to explore he can only take a certain path because the enemies will simply be too strong otherwise.
Now if you were to somehow be able to scale the enemies to the party then it would be completely different but otherwise I just don't feel it.

>because you can't overcome the enemies with different approaches but there is most likely only one way to truly fight them, this means that even if you give the player different paths to explore he can only take a certain path because the enemies will simply be too strong otherwise.
Yeah, that's exactly what I want to avoid. I don't want to turn it into a puzzle.
Some enemies I definitely want to be too strong for the first encounter, so you actively have to level and gear up for them - similar to the weapons in FF7.

Scaling I don't want to use either since that kind of defeats the purpose of leveling up.
Using tiers might work, but beating the first enemy of a tier and gaining experience from it makes beating all the other enemies of that tier successively easier, which also kind of defeats the point and waters down the experience.

I wonder what else could be done to make a game with no random encounters fun and not a puzzle game.
I feel like the podcast talked about this before but I can't recall what they said.

Who's the second party member in your game?

bump

A sapient glitch à la MissingNo.

How hard is it to learn to make games in this thing? Looks interesting, I never heard of this before tbqh!

Paladin waif

A female cultists who dreams of destroying the world but has very little powers. She is very naive about a lot of things and despite everything she is kinda bubbly for the most part.

There isn't one. It's a one man show.

Your sibling since you play the guy character and the girl character at the same time but can switch between the two.

A small criminal in oversized nun clothes and priest hat, you can't see anything below the clothes so you never know if the little freak is a guy or a girl.

Is it possible to make a game similar to snes harvest moon with rpg maker?

I imagine it would require a lot of plant sprites for each growth stage, but aside from that would this be too dificult to make?

I don't think so.

>I don't think so.
Why not? Is it too hard to code it?

What exactly is the problem? Other than it requiring a shitload of sprites for each plant, animal and character I place in the game?

Entirely possible, yes.
You don't even need scripts but you have to learn about switches and variables quite a bit.

I was replying to this part of the post:
>would this be too dificult to make?
Should have made it clearer.

feeling pretty good about this version
any issues/nitpicks you guys can see?

Ah, k.

>You don't even need scripts but you have to learn about switches and variables quite a bit.
Well, guess it will be a nice first project.

When I was a kid I messed with rpg maker quite a bit, but never managed to make anything because I was too imature to finish anything I started.

Gonna need a lot of sprites though, and I suck at drawing, might need to find some premade art resources or someone willing to help me with them.

What programs do you guys usually use to make sprites?

I own VX Ace on steam so that is what I will use.

Yeah, he's crying. I'm going to call the cops, asshole

and the death frame; probably changing the limbs

why is the baloon static

So, why is OFF so good?

hm.. the possible movement to it would be:
>the bottom part that's tied off can shift around
>the balloon can 'deform' as if it were a bouncing ball

i don't consider things like
>the balloon swaying left and right
as options because the wolf sprite is going to be moving around already as though the balloon were carrying it.

Personally I use Gimp because I also draw normal pictures but any program aside from paint should be okay.

I'm not that sure of that myself. I feel like the gameplay is the weakest part of the game but it is serviceable enough.
You get a rather interesting world/story with great characters. I loved how blunt The Batter is. "I'm the Batter and I jumped down the chimney" is a line I won't forget.
The hand drawn art style isn't very good on a technical level but it has its charm.
Also the music is very unique.
youtube.com/watch?v=V81DlvZkxGE
You can simply feel that a lot of love was put into this game.

What if I rip off the sprites of the original snes harvest moon? Will I get sued?

I don't plan on selling it or anything, just want to do it because of nostalgia towards the game.

Yes it's quite strange. I'm not sure WHY i love it but I do. Also that damned song has been stuck in my head for a while, it's oddly catchy.

Possible? Yes. Difficult? Probably.

It would be quite a large undertaking.

Graphicsgale is my go-to for pixel art and spritework.

Nintendo is REALLY sue happy about stuff like this. Maybe you would be safe because they probably won't hear about your game but
they hand out cease and desists like it's candy on Halloween, even when there is no profit involved at all.

>Any idea what the terms of use on this shit is?

atelierrgss.wordpress.com/about/

>1 – You’re free to use all Atelier-Rgss scripts in commercial or non-commercial projects.
>2 – You’re free to edit and adapt my scripts.
>3 – Some demonstrations contains copyright materials (Anime stuff), they are used for demonstration purposes only.

>It would be quite a large undertaking.
Daam, guess I should pick something else for a first project...

>Graphicsgale is my go-to for pixel art and spritework.
Thank you for the suggestion.

>Nintendo is REALLY sue happy about stuff like this. Maybe you would be safe because they probably won't hear about your game but
>they hand out cease and desists like it's candy on Halloween, even when there is no profit involved at all.
Guess I would be better off paying someone to make the sprites for me imitating the snes style? How hard could it be to find someone willing to do that for me?

I am ok with throwing some money at it if it allows me to create a quality game in the likeness of harvest moon that I could sell on steam for like $5.

>How hard could it be to find someone willing to do that for me?
It would be not hard at all, there are a lot of artists out there who could do that for you. I'm not sure about the prices however.

It's pretty easy to change the graphics you have, so you can work on your game and use placeholders for the time being.

People love quality Harvest Moon clones, Stardew Valley was a huge success after all.

I don't care if I profit out of it at all, I just want to make a quality game for nostalgia's sake.

I haven't hired anyone myself before but maybe this site can help you.
pixeljoint.com/forum/default.asp
Otherwise you would have to search on Tumblr/DeviantArt I guess.
Anyways, have fun with your project user!

Will do! If I run into some trouble with coding and stuff I will be sure to ask here again!

Another game I would love to try to make is a sim ant clone, god I fucking loved that game!

I tried registering at that site, but it says that due to forum spam they put on hold login of account that dont have 24 hours or some shit like that...

Gonna try again tommorrow I guess.

Anyway, How hard can it possibly be to make a system in which you go to sleep to pass a day and calculates the changes of each crop when the day changes? Cant be too hard to make it I think...

Might look for some tutorials to learn more about variables and stuff.

I googled around and found this forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?/topic/26353-make-a-harvest-moon-game/

Seems like there have been quite a few people who have done this before me! This will help me make a game just the way I want it to be!

Yes that is easily achieved with some switches/variables but it may be confusing at first.
If you need help we can help you out.

>Yes that is easily achieved with some switches/variables but it may be confusing at first.
>If you need help we can help you out.
The first thing I need to do is set some kind of farming system and sove time system, something that would let you end the day and each passing day would change the plants as long as they have been watered...

Does that sound like something that would be hard to set up? I could add like 16-32 stages for a plant, several of which would be the same sprite...

So the sprite would just repeat itself for 3-4 days and then change to the next stage of growth of the plant...

All I would need is for it to check if the plant has been watered, and if it has change to the next stage.

I would obviously have to make 4 different sets of sprites, one for each season...

Does this sound like a good place to start? I never made any game, this is the first project I decided to go through with.

A blue haired robot girl who's your sister.
And the only reason she's your sibling is because I didn't felt like writing any sort of romantic implications for my characters.

For your very first project I would start with the very basics.
Write down all your ideas for your Harvest Moon game and put it away for now. It can be incredible frustrating if the game you really want to make sees no progress because you don't know how to do stuff.
Not sure how good this tutorial is but he seems to cover a lot of stuff.
youtube.com/watch?v=TXPYlRXPbeM
He speaks about switches and variables in the next videos and this will be very important for you.

Ok, will make a generic medieval fantasy rpg then, should be a nice place to start until I learn all the basics of the program...

Will come back in a few days to post my little rpg for you guys to rate...

So pretty much as long as I don't use the characters, I should be okay, right?

Also, how about this? Or is the bust too much?

Not quite sure how to make this HUD show TP though...

Shilling myself here for a second, but what I think EVERYONE should do with their first RPG Maker project is something similar to what I did with Slay the Dragon.

forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?/topic/35525-slay-the-dragon/

It contains one town, one dungeon, and a fairly limited number of things to do. But it's much more sensible than trying to make a big ambitious project as your first project. Heck, I made a big ambitious project as my first and it ended up dead with no one giving two fucks about it. So I went with something simple and it was a lot easier to handle.

I am going to play it and try and make something similar, thanks for the advice!

Seconding this. It also helps you with general game design, since it forces you to pack as much fun as you can into a very short piece.

Does /rpgmg/ like MV yet?

Rather, is it safe to dev an MV game? I remember on release a lot of people could hardly even run it.

I think it is okay with the updates now, haven't had any major problems so far.
Do not use the Steamcloud, though.

Game wont lauch for whatever reason...

Did you install the RTP?
rpgmakerweb.com/download/additional/run-time-packages/thankyou-rtp-vx-ace

If you did, what OS are you running?

I really suck at fashion. How do I decide a character's clothing and palette other than just stealing costume designs I find in google?

>Did you install the RTP?
That is probrably it, will try now.

Give them something appropriate according to who they are.
A beggar wears some dirty rugged linen clothing while a queen wears colorful dresses made out of silk or something equally expensive.

Nope, Doesnt not work.

The game doesnt even start or give me an error msg, I see the game running under processes but it doesn't do anything...

Im on windows 7.

Bump
Danganronpa is kinda fun even if the characters are mostly stereotypes and the story is very Anime.

Yeah, it was alright. I'd say that it's inferior to Phoenix Wright or the Zero Escape series though

It's all good fun until the ending where everything goes completely to shit. Never even bothered with the rest of the series cuz I got burned so hard on DR1.

I do get that, but I was thinking more about the details. For example, how do I decide the colors and patterns of the queen's dress, and how they should match with each other, what accessories she would wear, etc.

I see.
Yes in that case references are very good to have/search for.
Even the best artist will look for references, you may feel a little cheap for using them but it is crucial to use them in order to improve!

If I have a character who wants to protect allies / save people, would they be better off as a tank or healer?

>Why not both?
Cleric would be great but it doesn't fit in my setting, Gods aren't there and dont respond to prayer because they are doing stuff on the other side of the galaxy.

However you'd interpret a paladin if you had to choose between either.

No dying allowed

Either a nurse or a knight.

here's a progression of character sprites im planning. doing them all in stages to make sure they stay consistent.

the idea is to have them be a progression from stable to a total breakdown.

A dog you meet in the first dungeon

You did a good job at portraying these emotions.
The proportions are somewhat off but I guess that is your style you are going for.
I would like to see them finished.

Good night bump

I was digging around my old files and found a story analysis that I wrote 5 years ago for a game I made stuff for.
At the time it was just a demo. But I was really frustrated with the guy; he never revised anything. He wouldn't fix anything.
I mean, it was his game and he had the master copy. So even if I fixed a bug in order to play through it - guess what? - it was still there when he sent me the "updated" version.

Most of my story analysis was questioning the character motives. Like, one guy follows a stranger he meet in a pub out of town...aaand across the continent. Well, I shared the strangers bewilderment when he said "You followed me?!"
I KNOW he was just making the story up as he went. But, omg... he'd set up a relationship between characters like it was something important, and then walk away. Your life long orphan pal got himself arrested so you could escape. Do you go back and save him? No. You go off on an unrelated adventure with strangers to save the world, and never speak of him again.

Oh, but when one of these strangers gets caught, of course you set out to rescue them because they were actually your family in a past life. Fucking logic.
There could have been some nice parallelism between those two events. But like I said, he didn't revise anything.

are you insane? go play dangan ronpa 2, it's so much better than the first one and the twists are much more mind blowing. I do agree that zero escape is better though

It's funny because I remember chatting with him in messenger. He'd type paragraphs about the plot details and character histories.
But he wasn't able to pull it together into something coherent.

Actually I know a lot of people like that. It's inside their head. Sometimes it's even in the character profiles. But they fail to convey it in the actual medium.
Something like never establishing two characters as siblings. It's not suppose to be a secret, but their shared last name isn't mentioned in the game. Its only written in the character dossier in a project thread on a forum somewhere.

Sometimes it's the opposite. The writer puts out information that isn't relevant to the story at all. "They're a class clown but get straight A's." Implying a school life you never see because the character was thrown into a fantasy world at the start of the game.

That's odd... I've had lots of other people run the game before.

Could anyone else try and download it to see if they're having issues too?

There's no way to work on a project simultaneously with someone, is there? Like see each other's work?

No, not with real time updates.

The best you could use is a change control system like Git, which can consolidate changes multiple people make to a single project.

Even with that, though, the people should be working on separate aspects of the project. Git is really designed for traditional programming languages, so its consolidation approach might not be the best thing for RPGM.

For instance, RPG Maker MV seems to rename the data files on the fly to keep map numbering in sequential order. Two people might delete two different maps in their local repositories, and then you've got filename conflicts.

Do you guys work in any teams or alone?

If so, where'd you find ppl to work with? Wondering if that'd help my motivation or if it'd just fuck ppl over.

I don't work with anyone right now but I probably will down the line as I get closer to completion. I wouldn't know where to find someone either.

I work mostly alone and hire people for the areas that I can't touch if needed. Like music and voice acting.

So I've got something (very) partially done in VX but it's not really that great. Should I invest in porting it to MX or is it not worth it?

Also, is it okay to do the bulk of the game in RTP and find art assets for it later OR I should do both at the same time sacrificing dev speed?

You should only move if you need a MV script or if Mobile compatibility is huge for you.
You should work on assets when you feel like working on assets.