Support NeoGAF

[Aquamarine]

It looks like the OP has been updated with the $100 grand prize post I made earlier, and esterk's 2nd-place $20 Steam card offer.

Dusk Golem said that the 1st-place winner is going to be spoiled rotten, so I can't wait to see how crazy the prizes end up getting!




Speaking of projects, might as well give a small update as to where I am with mine.

Essentially, all I've had time to do for the past two days is write dialog...now that the base story outline is completed. My project is going to be more story-heavy than gameplay-heavy just so it can play to my strengths.

 

[Relix]

Damn so many competitors. Making me want to step up the game.

 

[DryvBy]

I'm making a game based on my cousin's many lies he's told me over the years. The main villain is G.W. Bush. I need help on a few things:

1) Can I use a generic character throughout the game and change the art on him later?
2) Any good tutorials on pixel-art that looks 16-bit? I suck at it.

 

[Spades]

Slightly OT but FYI:

Humble ‏@humble 8m
RPG Maker has now officially set a record for best selling weekly bundle! Buy it now, tip the scale even more! http://bit.ly/HWRPGMaker

 

[Dragonborn]

Slightly OT but FYI:

Well deserved. The best bundle in a long time.

 

[Sandfox]

I finally got a good idea for my game and it should be pretty interesting if I can do it right.

 

[ThreePiMatt]

I fired this up last night. I have a pretty rad idea just need the motivation to actually put it together.

 

[mattmanp]

Just out I curiosity, can RPG Maker VX Ace do New Game+? I have an idea for a tongue and cheek rpg but I haven't really started yet.

 

[Mr_Appleby]

i've been mostly exploring the scripting side of things. putting fields in the note box of weapons so i can tag them with a stat and a scale factor so eg. ranged weapons get a dex bonus to damage and melee weapons strength. my art is going to pretty shonky but my systems are shaping up nicely! had a daft moment though where i was testing the damage output from enemies and couldn't work out why the final amount was so low compared to what my script was showing in the console, even accounting for variance.

was a good 10 minutes before i realized having all the player characters guarding may have had something to do with it..

I'm making a game based on my cousin's many lies he's told me over the years. The main villain is G.W. Bush. I need help on a few things:

1) Can I use a generic character throughout the game and change the art on him later?
2) Any good tutorials on pixel-art that looks 16-bit? I suck at it.

1) yes you can replace the character art at any point.
2) that i don't know.

 

[Data Elemental]

2) Any good tutorials on pixel-art that looks 16-bit? I suck at it.

Maybe this one can help a little: http://www.petesqbsite.com/sections/tutorials/tuts/tsugumo/

 

[Aon]

Just out I curiosity, can RPG Maker VX Ace do New Game+? I have an idea for a tongue and cheek rpg but I haven't really started yet.

Like with the guy looking to add character select, although we traditionally think of this as a menu option, you can accomplish this functionally by creating a teleporter at the end of the game that loops back to the beginning, as well as resetting all the switches you've used up to this point.

 

[Mr. Luchador]

I've had a play around with RPG Maker and it's way more in-depth than I've ever given it credit for. I think I'm going to enjoy this!

Hardest decision I'm having at the moment is deciding which tilesets to use, and how best to use them. The import function seems a little whacky at time and sometimes imports the tiles offset, which messes up their alignments.

 

[kai3345]

Just out I curiosity, can RPG Maker VX Ace do New Game+? I have an idea for a tongue and cheek rpg but I haven't really started yet.

Yep

 

[PaulExcellent]

Doing the art for one of the bosses, but having a few issues with his spine and ribcage.
What do you guys think? Does it look right? >.<

Excuse the lack of arms. Those are somewhere around here. lol

 

[RMI]

was busy moving all weekend so finally got a chance to fire up VX Ace tonight and it's a tad bit more complicated than I expected, haha. I think it will be best if I focus on making a game with a very narrow scope.

Time to work through some tutorials.

 

[ZServ]

Doing the art for one of the bosses, but having a few issues with his spine and ribcage.
What do you guys think? Does it look right? >.<

Excuse the lack of arms. Those are somewhere around here. lol

What.. is it? It looks like a dreamweaver.

 

[Mabef]

I can compose! I'm very busy tho, so I think I'll wait til July before getting involved with any specific projects.

I dabble in a lot of genres, but overall I tend to focus on tone, emotions, weird stuff. Mostly using synthetic sounds. Here's my soundcloud. Scroll through the page, there'll be some stuff you hate and (hopefully) some stuff you like.

 

[esterk]

Doing the art for one of the bosses, but having a few issues with his spine and ribcage.
What do you guys think? Does it look right? >.<

Excuse the lack of arms. Those are somewhere around here. lol

Depends on what style you are looking for. I think it looks pretty cool as like a stylized creature. very graphic oriented. Reminds me of some sort of demonic Chinese dragon.

 

[PaulExcellent]

What.. is it? It looks like a dreamweaver.

Depends on what style you are looking for. I think it looks pretty cool as like a stylized creature. very graphic oriented. Reminds me of some sort of demonic Chinese dragon.

Kinda both! It's a boss inside a "PC".
Don't really want to get into the plot until all four bosses are done~

 

[esterk]

I'll post a couple screenshots of what I've got right now. I'm mostly trying to get all the art assets out of the way right now so I can just plug everything into the database. I'm gonna start trying to draw out some of the maps tomorrow using Parallaxes to implement my own drawn backdrops - if I fail at that, I'll just use actual tile sets instead.

I may go back and redo these portraits but for now they are fine.

This is a cutscene image.

(hopefully these aren't too large - I'm on crappy internet right now so it's running really slow to preview)

 

[Raticus79]

All right, I'm in. Going to see if I can get that TRAPT-style game to work with scripting.

Edit: sweet, doesn't look like anyone's done it yet.

 

[kai3345]

I'll post a couple screenshots of what I've got right now. I'm mostly trying to get all the art assets out of the way right now so I can just plug everything into the database. I'm gonna start trying to draw out some of the maps tomorrow using Parallaxes to implement my own drawn backdrops - if I fail at that, I'll just use actual tile sets instead.

I may go back and redo these portraits but for now they are fine.

This is a cutscene image.

(hopefully these aren't too large - I'm on crappy internet right now so it's running really slow to preview)

that thigh shadow reeeallly looks like a dick

 

[esterk]

that thigh shadow reeeallly looks like a dick

Haha it kinda does. I may have to alter it.

 

[ZServ]

Haha it kinda does. I may have to alter it.

definitely thought it was a penis

 

[Earthpainting]

This takes me back. I'll definitely dip my feet in the RPG Maker pool once more. I'm a RPG Maker 2000 kind of guy, but I'm interested in seeing what they've changed in the last decade. A small project to mess around in seems like the perfect thing to contribute here. I just hope I don't fall into my usual trap, where I see too much potential and increase the scope beyond what I'm willing to put into it.

--edit--
Oh lord, full-blown scripting.

 

[BGBW]

1) Can I use a generic character throughout the game and change the art on him later?

This depends on how many times you reference the graphic file. If you are going to keep changing it i.e. for poses you may want to make a rough image first which you can edit later. Since you will not be changing the image's filename all references will work. Otherwise you'll have to go through all your code and change all the placeholder code to reference your new art.

 

[ZServ]

I need some opinions. I'm trying to consolidate to make things "feel" better and ensure that players feel like they're playing an actual game, not some shitty shit shit I made. So I defer to you guys:

Which do you feel looks better?

 

[BGBW]

Second one. Full screen houses tend to give off a my first RPGM game feel.

 

[Earthpainting]

I need some opinions. I'm trying to consolidate to make things "feel" better and ensure that players feel like they're playing an actual game, not some shitty shit shit I made. So I defer to you guys:

Which do you feel looks better?

I'm not a fan of walls touching the edge of the screen, immediately making the screen on the right look better. That said, even ignoring that, the second one looks denser. Having less open space makes it look less sterile and more lived in. It's probably aiming for, so I'd go for the second one all the way.

 

[ZServ]

Okay. Thank you guys. Anyone else with opinions on it feel free to comment, but I'm calling this my "design rule of the day." Less is more.

 

[PaulExcellent]

I need some opinions. I'm trying to consolidate to make things "feel" better and ensure that players feel like they're playing an actual game, not some shitty shit shit I made. So I defer to you guys:

Which do you feel looks better?

Really feeling the right one. Looks nice and 'fun', like what an RPG inn would look like.
Great use of the tilesets.

So, just got my new mouse. (Cooler Master Recon Gamer Pro XXL 1018p No-Scope), so I'll be able to actually work on the game side of things!
Also drawing hands is hard.

 

[ZServ]

Really feeling the right one. Looks nice and 'fun', like what an RPG inn would look like.
Great use of the tilesets.

So, just got my new mouse. (Cooler Master Recon Gamer Pro XXL 1018p No-Scope), so I'll be able to actually work on the game side of things!
Also drawing hands is hard.

Thank you! Since i'm pretty much sticking to the stuff included, I'm having trouble making things "look" right. So, glad to hear I'm doing a decent job.

And.. you're kidding, right? That mouse name is just a joke, right?.. Please?

 

[Ourobolus]

I need some opinions. I'm trying to consolidate to make things "feel" better and ensure that players feel like they're playing an actual game, not some shitty shit shit I made. So I defer to you guys:

Which do you feel looks better?

I like the right one, but are you able to walk on the stools? If not you've blocked off the entire left side of the room.

 

[ZServ]

I like the right one, but are you able to walk on the stools? If not you've blocked off the entire left side of the room.

Yes, you can.

Also, does anyone know how to make a shop that does item trades as well?

And how in the world to actually even begin balancing combat in an RPG? I was hoping to have a very preliminary demo build up and out this weekend, but I've thus far been pushing on content that didn't involve combat.

 

[TangerineCloud]

I need some opinions. I'm trying to consolidate to make things "feel" better and ensure that players feel like they're playing an actual game, not some shitty shit shit I made. So I defer to you guys:

Which do you feel looks better?

The one on the right definitely looks better, but the layout feels too cramped and a bit awkward. I think it'd look better if you had the food preparation area in the upper left corner. That way it'd be sort of out of sight (like it would be in an actual restaurant), and the player would have some more room to navigate around the tables and chairs.

 

[ZServ]

The one on the right definitely looks better, but the layout feels too cramped and a bit awkward. I think it'd look better if you had the food preparation area in the upper left corner. That way it'd be sort of out of sight (like it would be in an actual restaurant), and the player would have some more room to navigate around the tables and chairs.

Hrm. I see your point. I'll toy with it. The fireplace and bookshelf are necessary for quest reasons, and the piano has dialogue tied to it as well. Because of this, moving things is kind of a pain. Removing the wall in the lower left is also rather bad because then there's a lot of room doing nothing there-- adding NPCs could be a potential benefit but who knows. I'll I've made a new copy of the map and am toying with it now. I'll post back with more options, get some opinions.

 

[esterk]

Yes, you can.

Also, does anyone know how to make a shop that does item trades as well?

And how in the world to actually even begin balancing combat in an RPG? I was hoping to have a very preliminary demo build up and out this weekend, but I've thus far been pushing on content that didn't involve combat.

Balancing can be tough. There are a couple scripts I've been toying with that level the enemies up based on your party, so the game effectively balances itself. You just have to fill in the actual numbers so that they are okay, which can be kinda tough.

 

[Copons]

Uhm...

I was going to export a brief demo of my game for a friend to test it and suddenly I realized that in like 15 years of tinkering with RPG Maker, I've actually never ever exported a game.

So, while I was checking the box to include RTP Data, I thought if I should know something before exporting.

Like, RTP data are actually needed for people without RPGM?
And, should I remove unused RTP assets before compressing (I mean, when the game will be complete)?

 

[Aquamarine]

Uhm...

I was going to export a brief demo of my game for a friend to test it and suddenly I realized that in like 15 years of tinkering with RPG Maker, I've actually never ever exported a game.

So, while I was checking the box to include RTP Data, I thought if I should know something before exporting.

Like, RTP data are actually needed for people without RPGM?
And, should I remove unused RTP assets before compressing (I mean, when the game will be complete)?

Yes. IF YOU USE RTP RESOURCES, exporting games without the RTP are for people / computers that already have the RTP installed.

So if your friend doesn't have the RTP at all, and you use RTP resources, you need to export it with everything. But that creates a bloated file size.


Now what you can do to minimise size is uncheck the "include RTP" box and import any RTP resources you use separately.

Here is a quick program that shows you what Resources you're using:

http://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index...ing-rm-resources-in-rm/?hl=+resource +checker

 

[Copons]

Yes. IF YOU USE RTP RESOURCES, exporting games without the RTP are for people / computers that already have the RTP installed.

So if your friend doesn't have the RTP at all, and you use RTP resources, you need to export it with everything. But that creates a bloated file size.


Now what you can do to minimise size is uncheck the "include RTP" box and import any RTP resources you use separately.

Here is a quick program that shows you what Resources you're using:

http://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index...ing-rm-resources-in-rm/?hl=+resource +checker

Woah! Thank you!

I gave it a try myself and I noticed that WITH RTP my game is almost 200MB, and WITHOUT is like 3MB.
I'm using RTP (almost only RTP actually) and most of my testers don't own RPG Maker, so I just need to include at least what I use of the RTP, and so that program seems perfect for me.

Thank you again!

 

[BlazeBreak]

Quick question as far as the bundle goes. How useful is the Game Character Hub? I'm reasonably proficient with photoshop, so imagine I can look at existing assets and be able to cobble together new characters on my own - so I guess the question is whether the character hub's a huge time saver or has potentially more advanced utility.

 

[udivision]

I always feel like it'd be cool to make a traditional JRPG with RM, but then I begin thinking how often do I even play RM games to begin with.

 

[legacyzero]

Hmmmm

 

[Xenon]

Oh well I threw them $20 bucks. I doubt Ill ever do anything with it, but it's always something I've wanted to try.

 

[Relix]

About to start designing my first dungeon. Hope I can pull off some nice puzzles haha

 

[KiraFA37]

Thinking about joining this, just some questions:
- What's the workload in a project like? Is most time spent creating asset, scripting, mapping, fiddling with some obscure GUI, ect?
- Any teams/persons working on a turn-based RPG (Fire Emblem-ish)? Would love to work on one of those.

 

[Darksol]

I lack any discernible talent, but I very much enjoy reading the status updates provided by those of you who do have talent. Keep at it

 

[legacyzero]

Thinking about joining this, just some questions:
- What's the workload in a project like? Is most time spent creating asset, scripting, mapping, fiddling with some obscure GUI, ect?
- Any teams/persons working on a turn-based RPG (Fire Emblem-ish)? Would love to work on one of those.

1: Mostly asset creation/management, unless you're using stock assets that come with the engine. Mapping is also something that take a lot.

2: Not final, but I'm possibly looking into a Final Fantasy XII - like combat system.

 

[VandalD]

Thinking about joining this, just some questions:
- What's the workload in a project like? Is most time spent creating asset, scripting, mapping, fiddling with some obscure GUI, ect?
- Any teams/persons working on a turn-based RPG (Fire Emblem-ish)? Would love to work on one of those.

Workload depends almost entirely on the scope of what you're trying to do. If you're not using included assets, that adds to the workload severely. If you're making your own scripts, that's also huge unless you're already familiar with Ruby. I'm using RTP sounds, imported music I didn't make, and all RTP graphics, and still a hell of a lot of time is spent just wiring up events, playtesting them to make sure they work, playtesting with more changes to make sure they have at least a little bit of polish, and then trying to make battles that aren't overly difficult or easy, while also giving the player a decent amount of choice so that it's not just "use Attack until I have to heal." And with all of this, it's easy to become so familiar with your game that you lose capability of outside perspective, and you start designing things as if the player would know all the things you know.

Making a game is a bit of a mess! It's been fun so far, but I think if this were my job, my sanity would suffer a bit.

Anyways, start small if you haven't tried RPG Maker before. Don't start with Fire Emblem. Start with Dragon Warrior.

 

[SixMachine]

I'll give this a try. I have experience fooling around in with stuff like GameMaker but never tried RPG Maker so I want to give it a shot. Though I was thinking of entering the rpgmaker contest that ends this month too. I was thinking that I can give that a shot and try to work on a quick project to gain some experience, then try something new for this competition. I'm probably not on expecting on creating a lot of new assets though, I sort of just want to fool around with what I can do.

I'm trying out the Sapphire Action Battle Script to see how some real time battling like the Legend of Zelda series would work out, while trying to make changes to see if I can work something out. Though by this weekend I'm thinking of trying a different genre to play around with if this would take too long and save the real-time action for later.