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Hey GAF, let's make an RPG Maker Game Competition!

Dusk Golem

A 21st Century Rockefeller
RPG Maker was in a bundle between May 30th to June 5th. So a lot of people may just be getting into the engine, or maybe getting back to it. It's cheap and affordable right now, so I thought now would be the perfect time to have a fun little game development competition that both pushes people to try and practice with the engine and churn something out, and get a small little game out there for others to play.

A competition more for fun, but with prizes and some group teamwork and help to learn the engine, for those curious by it. A topic for both help on developing a game, and to show off what you've been creating, with a goal and purpose.

So let's define this competition!

The Competition & Rules

rpg-maker-title-screen-mc_6472900.jpg
capsule_467x181.jpg


Make a game in either RPG Maker VX Ace or RPG Maker XP before the deadline of August 7th, 11:59 PM PST. a little over 10 weeks since the contest started. This should give ample time for people new to the program to learn it (there will be some helpful tutorials below) and to develop at least a short game.

The game itself can be any type of game. You could make a JRPG like Final Fantasy. You could make a survival-horror game like Ao Oni. You could make an exploration-game like Yume Nikki. You could make a visual novel like Cherry Tree High Comedy Club. Anything goes, make the game you would like to make.

HOWEVER, keep in mind to keep scope in check. Try and make some hours-long game with a ton of depth and you'll probably flatline the date. With deadlines, scope is important. For people to play the game, it's recommended not to make a game over 2-3 hours long, as they probably want to play other peoples games too.

If you can't think of a game idea, here's a few theme ideas to get your brain wracking: Friends are the Enemy, Lake, Only Three Colors, Airplane, Entity.

Also, if you'd rather not work alone, you are free to team-up with how many other people you would like to join with. There is no limit, you can even join multiple teams if you really desire. However only one person can submit the game for the contest, and if you win, the prizes will be given to the winner to disperse between those involved. It'll also be on you to arrange and organize these teams, though I'd suggest posting about it here if you're interested in team-working, then going to PM about it and announcing teams in this topic, but keeping most discussion to something like Skype.

You are free to use any available resources. Either make your own, use the resources from the RTP, or use resources from online. However, it should be noted that if you use outside resources, you must credit them, both in the game and when you submit the final game for the contest. This includes sprites, art, music, audio, scripts, and resources. If you use anything not from the engine itself or not created by you, you must credit them.

However, do not use resources from other games without the developers permission, and don't use music from other games (an exception will be made on using fan-recreations of .midi versions of songs).

Submitting the game should mention who all worked on it (you, other GAF members), outside resources you may have used, a download to the game, a description of the game, what sort of game it is (like RPG, horror, puzzle-based, adventure, exploration, visual novel, etc.), and at least 2 images.

Also, you can work on a game you've already started, but it is kind of against the spirit of the whole thing. If you do decide too, mention in the submitted game that you did, and there may be a slight dock to points (slight, though). If you submit a game that you were working on before the competition without identifying when you submit it that you were, you may be disqualified from it.

An example may be;
IbBanner.png
IbScreen1.png

Ib
Created by kouri.
What type of game: Puzzle-Horror Game
Resources Used: Music used from http://yasupochi.com/ , http://pianosdauge.org/ , & http://www.presence-of-music.com/

"A young girl named Ib visits an art gallery with her parents.
While observing the many exhibits, she suddenly realizes she is alone.
And in her search for others, she finds things awry in the gallery...

The game is focused on exploration and puzzle-solving.
There are no battles, and it does not demand quick reflexes.
It's designed to be accessible to all kinds of players, so enjoy."

Download: http://www.vgperson.com/games/ib.htm

These games also must be freely distributed for anyone to play, and not be made as a commercial product.

After the August 7th deadline, there will be a five-week period for people to play and vote on games. The game playing and voting category will start on August 8th at the strike of midnight PST, and finish on September 11th at 11:59 PM PST. Voting can be done by anyone with a NeoGAF account, not just by people who entered the contest. Voting will have it so you leave an impression of the game for the user (however you wish to stylize these impressions), but also leave some numerical scores.

You should rate the game in six areas, which should be judged between a 1 thru 5 scale (though .5 decimals are allowed, like 4.5 or 1.5), with 1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest. You must rate the games on Fun Factor, Story, Graphics, Audio, Tone (Atmosphere, Hume, etc.), and Overall.

Submitting an opinion should be something like this:

I am reviewing BLANK by BLANKER. The game utilized some very interesting dialogue, and I enjoyed the story. However, the gameplay got a bit tedious, and I felt in this level you could of done a bit more emphasis on what to do. The music wasn't original, but it fit the tone of the game and added a lot. However, I thought the graphics clashed a bit and looked messy in places, but the effort put into the original character sprites was good! I could go more into depth with a user review, but it is up to me as the reviewer to keep it brief or go more into detail.

Overall, a solid effort.

Fun Factor: 3/5
Story: 4/5
Graphics: 2.5/5
Audio: 4/5
Tone: 3/5
Overall: 3.5/5

At the end of the competition and voting, we'll take all the opinions written by people who submitted them, and tally up an overall vote of results. I will post a ranking of how everyone did in every category, and the people who scored in the five highest places at the end of the competition will win some prizes (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th places). Prizes will be given out on September 5th and 6th to the winners.

However, the competition is not really about winning, but gain experience, learn the engine, have fun, maybe find some like-minded people, and really just learn the ropes and make something. It's a friendly competition to encourage fun, not be at each other's throats.

Posting progress, updates, and questions is not only okay, it's encouraged,

This is sort of a community thing, so posting questions, answers, progress, or even public demo's before releasing your game is all encouraged. We're all here to help, and many are using the engine for the first time, or may use this as an opportunity to delve into simple game development.

Anyone with a NeoGAF account can play and rate the finished games.

I said this in the rules, but I want to clarify, anyone with a NeoGAF account can vote and rate games. It's encouraged for people to try other's games rather than it being strictly for people who entered the competition, and all games made will be freely available.

For anyone using Mac

RPG Maker doesn't work with Mac... Normally. We have confirmed you can run RPG Maker and RPG Maker games using Wine on Mac. A guide to how to do this here, and it will work with RPG Maker: http://www.easypctutorials.com/windows-steam-on-mac-wineskin/

Prizes

prizes-callout1.png


These are still being fully decided, but I myself will be able to easily contribute to at least 200 Steam games to give away to the winners, including the likes of Resident Evil 4, Outlast, Killer is Dead, The Forest, Always Sometimes Monsters, Stanley's Parable, Year Walk, and a lot more for the competition.

Contributions from people as well is appreciated for the prize haul we should have going to distribute between the five winners. If you'd like to submit something for the contest, just PM me about it over NeoGAF.

There will be an overall 'Prize Pool' (that will be completely known by September 11th at 11:59 PM PST), with 13 winners that will receive a percentage of the prize pool. These percentages are:

1st place will receive 25% of the games in the pool.
2nd place will receive 20% of the games in the pool
3rd place will receive 15% of the games in the pool
4th place will receive 10% of the games in the pool
5th place will receive 7% of the games in the pool
6th place will receive 6% of the games in the pool
7th place will receive 5% of the games in the pool
8th place will receive 4% of the games in the pool
9th place will receive 3% of the games in the pool
10th place will receive 2% of the games in the pool
11th place will receive 1% of the games in the pool
12th place will receive 1% of the games in the pool
13th place will receive 1% of the games in the pool

In the spirit of competition, I've decided to contribute to the prize pool.


I'll give the 1st-place winner of the RPG Maker Game Competition a $100 cash grand prize, gifted to them through PayPal after the voting ends (sometime after September 11th).


I feel like $100 is enough to be somewhat noteworthy (you can buy a brand new, $60 game with it!)
But at the same time, $100 isn't completely ridiculous as a prize for a fun GAF competition.


This is designed to do three things:


1) Give some extra oomph to the grand prize. A highest percentage of games for the Grand Prize winner is great, but I wanted to do something to make winning the whole thing a little more valuable

2) Help foster competition.

3) Give back to GAF. This competition is a real blast to compete in, and I'd like to help out a fellow GAF member who makes something really special.



Terms and conditions:


  • The winner MUST be a GAF Member (at least 300 posts + has been on GAF for 3 months). If you're a Junior Member because you just joined GAF, then become a regular Member by September 11th at 11:59 PM PST. If you're a Junior Member because you're permanently juniored by the mods, that's fine. I want this prize to go to a member of the GAF community, not someone who just joined for the money. I'm going to be strict with this requirement (i.e. I will not make an exception for 299 posts + 2.5 months / no exceptions for people who barely meet the requirement but their tag hasn't switched over), so if you're still a new Junior, make sure you acquire the full Member tag in time.
  • If for whatever reason you're banned on September 11th and can't PM me, you can do so when your ban is lifted as long as you will come back relatively quickly (for example: 1 week ban is fine, 3 months ban is too long). If it becomes clear that you're permanently banned or going to be banned for a while, I reserve the right to give it to the second place winner. I will not give it to someone who is trying to collect on behalf of the winner, or to someone from a different GAF username claiming to be the winner.
  • Will give $100 to ONE PayPal account (only the account given to me by the GAF member who submitted the project). If multiple people collaborated on a project or the winner wants to give the money away, it's up to the winner receiving money to split it accordingly. I am not doing anything with the money other than giving it to the winner.
  • MUST have a PayPal account that can receive monetary gifts. I'm not going to use any alternative method of payment.
  • MUST correspond with me through GAF after the contest to send me your PayPal email address for transfer.
  • MUST give me your correct PayPal email address. If you mess it up and I transfer money before you can correct it, that's not my problem.
  • MUST be okay getting paid in multiple installments...but it's most likely going to be all at once.
  • MUST be okay with me posting a screenshot on GAF of the completed transfer (with all personal information blacked out, of course).
  • The transfer is performed at my discretion. That is, I reserve the right to give it to 2nd place, 3rd place, etc., especially if for whatever reason the competition has significant vote manipulation or any other funny business.
  • I'm not going to give the prize to someone who submits a project they've significantly worked on prior to May 30th...that's not the point of the competition. Here are some scenarios:
    - Submit a well-regarded, already-completed RPG just for the money = No prize if you win
    - Improve on / Finish an RPG that you created over 10 months with a dedicated 5-person team = No prize if you win
    - Submit a 30-hour RPG you had ideas for / worked on it for a little bit beforehand...but you did the good majority of the work developing it for this competition = $100 prize if you win
    - Submit a 30-hour RPG you started on May 30th that you worked many, many hours on with another GAF member = $100 prize if you win
    - Submit a 3 hour RPG you started on May 30th as your first RPG Maker project = $100 prize if you win​

^Also under the same giveaway restricts of Aquamarine (outside of PayPal stuff of course), esterk will offer the 2nd place winner a $20 giftcard for your marketplace of choice between Steam, PSN, and Xbox Live.

Robert at Zeboyd Games has confirmed that everyone who submits a game for the contest, regardless of placement, will receive a Steam copy of Cthulhu Saves the World+Breath of Death VII.

Examples of RPG Maker games you can freely play (maybe for ideas and inspiration?):
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=505570

screenshot-rpg-maker-vx-ace-01.jpg


Tutorials & Resources

This will be many people's first time working with RPG Maker I will guess, so I will post to some handy tutorials and resources you can use from online. However, keep in mind that practice will also help you learn a away from tutorials, and if you use online resources you must credit them both in the game and when you submit the game.

TUTORIALS for RPG Maker VX Ace:
Official VX Ace Beginner Tutorial
RPG Maker VX Ace Readable Document & Visual Beginner's Guide
RPG Maker VX Ace Complete Begginer's Video Guide Season 1, Season 2, Season 3
VX Ace Tutorial Video Series
Specific VX Ace Topical Tutorials on RPGMaker.net
Specific Topic-Based Tutorials on the Official Forums

TUTORIALS for RPG Maker XP:
Website Dedicated to RPG Maker XP Tutorials
RPG Maker XP for Newbs
RPG Maker XP Beginner's Video Tutorial (last video is first)
RPG Maker XP Video Help: Basic Quest Tutorial, Moving NPCs Tutorial, Importing Custom Characters
Create a Video Game with RPG Maker XP
Specific XP Topical Tutorials on RPGMaker.net

RESOURCES for RPG Maker VX Ace:
RPG Maker VX Ace Resource Collection
RPGMaker.net Resource Collection (includes resources for both RPG Maker VX Ace, VX, and XP, so be sure to read what tags they're under)
RPG Maker Web Topical Resources
RPG Maker VX Ace Master Script List
RPGMaker.net's Topical VX Ace Scripts
Amkrogh89's Music
Presence of Music
Ice Dragon's Music

RESOURCES for RPG Maker XP:
Sithjester's RPG Maker XP Resources
ZanyZora's RPG Maker XP Resources
Mutation Genes XP Resources
XP Scripts Chaos Project
XP Scripts RPGMaker.net
Tam-Music
Theo's Music
VG Music

COUPLE GENERAL TOOLS:
GIMP (better free art program than Paint).
Audacity (to convert some .mp3's to .ogg's for VX Ace Easily, or to record sounds).
List of Midi Composers (.midi is what XP uses).

SITES TO UPLOAD YOUR GAME ON:
Best to put in a zip or rar file, which you can download the codex's for here: http://www.win-rar.com/download.html?&L=0
Good site to upload a file: http://www.mediafire.com/
RPG Maker specific game Upload Site (need to make an account and submit it, but better for a more general audience, keep in mind it takes a few days for the admins to confirm a game and make its page public): http://rpgmaker.net/
Steam Workshop Guide: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=231996703

---

FAQ (TL:DR [But seriously, read]):
Q: When does the contest end?
A: Making games and submitting them ends on August 7th at 11:59 PM.. The voting on games ends on September 11th at 11:59 PM.

Q: Should I use VX Ace or XP?
A: Either is good. XP and VX Ace are debated if they are the 'best' form of RPG Maker. XP has a better mapping system (can use unlimited tilesheets, while VX Ace can only use 5 per map, can have event sprites of any size), but VX Ace has a better scripting system and audio functionality (script can modify virtually any element of the engine, audio player is much better and supports more than .midi now). It all comes down really to which one you want to work with, but if you're not sure, I'd recommend VX Ace as its simpler.

Q: What are the prizes, and when are they given out.
A: The prizes are still being determined, but most will probably be Steam games. Contributions from people who want to add to the prize pool are appreciated. Prizes will be handed out to five winners on September 5th and 6th.

Q: How are winners chosen?
A: Based on user votes and feedback in this very topic, will rank them on how they did by user impressions and ratings.

Q: What sort of game should I make?
A: Anything you can manage with the engine, though typically a good bet on an RPG, an adventure game, a visual novel, a horror game, or the like would be a safe bet.

Q: Can I post progress and questions here?
A: Most definitely.

---

Again, if any questions, feel free to ask, and will update the OP with more information when needed.
 

Dusk Golem

A 21st Century Rockefeller
(Reserving this Post for members submitted games, to link to their posts)

People Looking to Join a Team:
Chainsawkitten - "I can do writing, scripting, some graphics, atmospheric music and sound effects."
Verelios - "I can write, and edit I guess. If you don't mind an RPG maker beginner coding is also good."
HP_Wuvcraft - "i can write and test."
revisionup - "I can do scripting, eventing, map design, writing, pretty much anything that's not art/music. Especially scripting cause my main field is computer science. More interested in working on someone else's concept."
Servbot24 - Artist and Musician. Rather make an idea for a game together.
Einherjar - "Main strengths are definitely in game design / balance / writing. I have some coding background but not in Ruby."
L Thammy - " If anyone wants a writer, I don't mind helping out. Might be able to help a bit with coding, but I don't have the time or experience to be the main scripter."
SOLDIER - "Looking to write, co-write, or edit a project in order to bring out a natural-reading script filled to help create likeable characters who say interesting things during crazy situations. Can also offer input in regards to game mechanics and content if desired."


Members Willing to Compose Music for projects:
Dusk Golem (Myself) - I can do creepy, ambient, drone, ominous, and offbeat type music. However, any music I make I will make available for anyone, though you can requests specifics with the song.
BlueSteel - "I'm down to make some atmospheric and instrumental game music for anyone. "
Kogasu - "Mostly melodic-y or symphonic-y rock/metal stuff and some ambient stuff. Not sure if my quality would be up to snuff with some other musicians in here but I can be a last resort if you need one heh."
Mentok - Melodic 80s-90s style vintage-styled song.
Trejik - "I'm willing to help anyone out, and I compose a lot of orchestral, experimental, piano, industrial and club music. All a bit on the darker side of things."
Mabef - "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. "


Please post in the topic or PM me if you'd be willing to help out people with some resources making the game. I will keep this post updated until the deadline.
 

kubus

Member
This is a great idea! It's been so long since I last tinkered with RPG Maker. Maybe I'll join the competition but I have finals coming up so I don't know if I can find time :(

Hope this becomes a success!
 

JayEH

Junior Member
Cool idea. I may go ahead and pick up the software. I've been looking for some cheap engines I can mess around with.
 

sqwarlock

Member
Subscribing, but I don't know that I'll be participating. The month of June for me will be too hectic since I start a new, out-of-state job on July 7th. Still, I'm very curious about what the community can make.
 
Definitely thinking about doing this. I've had an idea for an RPG Maker game for a while, but I got lost working on another project's art...
Maybe this is the kick in the pants that I need.
 

Dusk Golem

A 21st Century Rockefeller
I'll also mention I'll be participating for fun, but even if I win one of the community voting top 5, I will pass it on to the next person as I don't think I should count for a contest I've created.

ALSO, for anyone who wants some original music, if you quote this post and ask for something atmospheric, creepy, or ominous, I can probably whip something up, but while I'll make it off request, I will let anyone use the song for their project.
 

SephiZack

Member
I've never done a RPG Maker game, I will at least try to make one



EDIT: Shouls I use VX ACE or XP? Which is more simple? Which is more versatile? Which has more resources?

EDIT2: Are all the bundle's DLCs compatible with both?
 

Copons

Member
Uuuuh cool!!

I have a game design document for a (overly complicated) RPGMaker game lying around since forever, so this could be the moment I finally do something with it!

Subscribed and I'll totally try to come up with something before the deadline! :)
 

Dusk Golem

A 21st Century Rockefeller
I've never done a RPG Maker game, I will at least try to make one



EDIT: Shouls I use VX ACE or XP? Which is more simple? Which is more versatile? Which has more resources?

EDIT2: Are all the bundle's DLCs compatible with both?

VX Ace is simpler and more versatile in all but mapping but event tiling. Both have a lot of resources, honestly.

DLC is only by default workable with VX Ace, however with some modifying they can easily be used for XP. But they were made for VX Ace.
 

SephiZack

Member
VX Ace is simpler and more versatile in all but mapping but event tiling. Both have a lot of resources, honestly.

DLC is only by default workable with VX Ace, however with some modifying they can easily be used for XP. But they were made for VX Ace.

I guess I'll use VX then, thanks for the info



I have some
IMO
great ideas, hope I'll be able to do it
 

IceIpor

Member
Someone correct me if I'm wrong.. But I also think XP doesn't work on windows vista or newer.

Edit: or maybe it was 64-bit systems
 

Dusk Golem

A 21st Century Rockefeller
Someone correct me if I'm wrong.. But I also think XP doesn't work on windows vista or newer.

Edit: or maybe it was 64-bit systems

I can confirm both of these things are inaccurate, as I have a Window 7 64-bit computer and it runs fine.
 
Sounds like fun. I'm in. Would be fun to team up. I know Ruby and can make music, graphics and sound effects fairly well. And write. A bit of an all-rounder, really.
 

CheesecakeRecipe

Stormy Grey
Maybe this will give me the incentive I needed to get back to working on that project with my friend. I created a proposal game using some of his art in secret over a week very late last year but shortly after he accepted and we planned to get started full time after the holidays I just ended up getting so busy with other projects that it fell to the wayside.

ibduKY998DWzkD.gif


But then again, I'd have to cut all of my CS:GO hours to make it happen so I don't know if I can make any promises here Dusky~
 

Zornica

Banned
gah.. I was just talking about the rpg maker the other day with some friends. Too bad, I'd love to get back into it, but I'll be writing my bachelors thesis for the next 5 weeks -_-

I hope there's going to be another competition...
 
hmm. i finish up school for good in a week or two. was going to get back to work on a dungeon crawler i've been writing my own engine for but this could be an interesting experience and i find external deadlines are always a good motivator.
 
If you plan to use it, but honestly you only really need one or the other, they don't work well together as they use different sprite sheet formating and export differently.

Just buy the Humble Bundle 1$ tier. Its enough to start making a game.

But I heard that XP sprites are similar with Snes games like FF6 and CT and VX being different, so I'm wondering if I should also get XP to make Snes like rpg games.
 

syko de4d

Member
Is 2months really enough to create something you can call a "game"? How hard would it be to make a combat system thats more like secret of mana (edit: but with a single character) instead of classic round based random battles?
 

kiguel182

Member
I might jump in on this after finals.

Currently I'm working on a game so I don't know if I want to drop that for a while instead of finishing it.

But, on the other hand, I do have a concept that could work with this competition and it would be a cool experience.

Decisions...decisions...
 
I thought ace was supposed to fix the tile issues? I remember people complaing about them when vx came out, and that was over 5 years ago.

Also, is the humble version of ace totally drm free?
 

TheChaos0

Member
Is 2months really enough to create something you can call a "game"? How hard would it be to make a combat system thats more like secret of mana (edit: but with a single character) instead of classic round based random battles?

Probaly enough to create some kind of prologue, of course depends how much time you have to burn in those these two months.
 

Dusk Golem

A 21st Century Rockefeller
Is 2months really enough to create something you can call a "game"? How hard would it be to make a combat system thats more like secret of mana (edit: but with a single character) instead of classic round based random battles?

I've created some stuff with original art and music in 5 or even 2 days in the program, not very lengthy but games all the same, so 9 weeks definitely should be enough, but I suggest keep your scale reasonable, don't go for something that's hours and hours long with a lot of depth to gameplay.

I thought ace was supposed to fix the tile issues? I remember people complaing about them when vx came out, and that was over 5 years ago.

Can be fixed with some coding, but the mapping system still is more limited, just much, much better than VX original. VX had a single tilesheet limitation, VX Ace has it so you can use 5 tilesheets and seperate ones for events. But without some coding, like let's say I make a sprite that I want to move that's 3 by 3 tiles, out of those tiles, only one tile will be active as it moves.


Interesting, I believe personally this may be more of a warning it won't work though as I can definitely say it works on my computer.
 

Dusk Golem

A 21st Century Rockefeller
A tip if you want to use any-sized sprite in VX Ace, this won't effect the amount of tiles your sprite will take up (it will still take up 1 event tile, which is 32 x 32, but for slightly larger or especially taller sprites, you can put a $ symbol in front of your sprite name. This alerts VX Ace to dive the horizontal sheet by three and the vertical sheet by four, which means you can have an any-size sprite on a sprite sheet as long as you align the sprites correctly to have four directions, three walking animations.

Or to word that better, basically putting a $ symbol in front of your character sprite sheet name will make it so that RPG Maker reads the sprite sheet as an sheet that has three animations, four directions, but doesn't care what size they are so they can be how big you want them to be as long as you align your sprite sheet to work with three sprite animations, four directions on your sprite sheet. However, defaultly and without some coding no matter how large the sprite is, it will still only take up one 'event' tile (32 x 32 pixels), which is notable if you want running into it to trigger an event.
 
Can be fixed with some coding, but the mapping system still is more limited, just much, much better than VX original. VX had a single tilesheet limitation, VX Ace has it so you can use 5 tilesheets and seperate ones for events. But without some coding, like let's say I make a sprite that I want to move that's 3 by 3 tiles, out of those tiles, only one tile will be active as it moves.

Ah, I see.

It's through Steam.

Crap. That's me out then.
 
ALSO, for anyone who wants some original music, if you quote this post and ask for something atmospheric, creepy, or ominous, I can probably whip something up, but while I'll make it off request, I will let anyone use the song for their project.

Hey, that is generous of you. How about some 'Stormy Night' type music - I've found that all the music it comes with is generally quite 'gamey' and light - could do with a decent atmospheric tune for walking around at night in a storm! I imagine that might be quite useful for a few other people too.
 
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