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Post by nerussentia on Aug 14, 2006 22:23:48 GMT -5
So far my game is suffering to the point where I might erase it and never play it again becaue it just tears me to see it so wicked. The first game of the series on RPG Maker wasn't so bad. So far I noticed my start screen is horrible, but I need to learn more about VFX in order to perfect it. It has four options "New Conquest", "Quick Return" (for if you didn't turn the game off after last save), "Astral Plane" (collect extras after first game is beaten), and "Leave Game".
The camera angles are horrible. The game jumps into the plot way too fast so I gotta have some CS to build up the suspense. The buildings look horrible and the towns are too small. I can't get the screen to move to another part of the dungeon without making the party move or making them invisible.
If you guys want to add your two cents please be my guest. When I fix my webcam I might post a video of it so far.
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Post by realitybites on Aug 14, 2006 22:29:13 GMT -5
Why not just get a MaxDrive and take advantage of my services?
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Post by nerussentia on Aug 14, 2006 22:54:57 GMT -5
Well I no longer owe the bank money so I can get it now.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Aug 15, 2006 2:50:22 GMT -5
Oiy, I can't really say I wasn't expecting something like this, since we've all done it at some point. You've jumped in pretty quickly and made several pretty advanced features in your game already, many of which weren't really necessary additions to the game. Don't get me wrong; I'm not at all criticizing you. Play the Paladin demo (my second work with RPGM2, first 'serious' work with RPGM2) and you'll see that I completely lacked direction as well. I had a slew of unnecessary and unbeneficial things I made in it including pointlessly humungous cities, a dungeon that was way too long, way too many items and equipment, way too many abilities, way too many RPGM2 default 'Classes', etc. to where not only did it force me to quit making the game, it actually made the game less enjoyable for the player. Literally everyone of us, with our first work on RPGM2, doesn't know what we're doing, programming-wise, and is bound to not make a good game. It's inevitable; trust me. Often times it's not even until someone's third or even fourth game that they get the hang of the designing side of game-making down well enough to make a very good game. Story designing ability seems to take even longer. Fortunately, we're all ready and happy to help with both the designing and programming aspects of game-making. My best advice would be to just always come here and search for insight in both game designing and programming. I guess some general advice would be... Before making something in your game, ask yourself 1) how will this improve the player's experience with the game and 2) is it worth the amount of time/effort/memory it will take to make it? Similarly, if there's something in another game you enjoyed, ask yourself why you enjoyed it. Perhaps there's a similar but even better thing you can do for your game. doansdomain.proboards27.com/index.cgi?board=williamkirk&action=display&thread=1143929829www.freewebs.com/hitouspalace/rpgarticles.htmI especially like how you define a theme as being a life-lesson learned through the story such as 'stealing is wrong' and that your theme probably won't have any meaning unless you really understand it. I've found that that's pretty much the only way to get a meaningful story and is why I've gone from using the word 'cliche' to 'uninspired' when critiquing story summaries. A good way to put it is a princess being kidnapped and saved by the hero isn't the problem, the problem is the empty feeling of despair the player will likely get when he realizes what he's done (wasted his time). The life-lesson will not only tie the various characters' stories together (broad, lame definition of the word theme) but will also likely give the audience a feeling of completion and satisfaction from the story. Use music effectively with your cutscenes to make the audience feel the same emotions the characters are feeling. For excellent examples, play The Solemn Truth or watch Scrubs without sound then with sound and pay attention to how the music makes you feel during the cutscenes. Focus on what's necessary first. Try to start small before thinking big and gradually build on your abilities with RPGM2's various tools (technical scripting, cutscene scripting, DBS stuff like direct effects/indirect effects/abilities, ABS stuff, VFX, etc.). Just use your first 'game' to mess with stuff and try to figure stuff out.
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kennyken
RPGM2 Helper
superboy teaser video is on youtube right now
Posts: 184
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Post by kennyken on Aug 15, 2006 4:44:18 GMT -5
I've had RM2 for less than 6 months and Superboy, the Last Son of Krypton is my second project. The first one was a complete mess and eventually became unworkable, Scripts were unorganized and thrown together haphazardly, which is a no no. Now, I'm much more organized, Every now and then I actually sort my scripts now and have them organized together with similar scripts. I still make mistakes, but at least now I see them. I spent the last few sessions dividing up my scripts into separate functions and then calling the script when it's needed. I had everything in one huge script like an idiot. I am almost done with my clean up and when I am the system will increase exponentially in expandability and add so much more to my game. So, what I am trying to say is that it gets better. Making a game is not an easy thing with RPGM2, it's open ended nature can be scary at first, It doesn't make the game for you like 3, and it's easy for our ambition to race ahead of our capabilities. That's why I always preach preparation, If you've got most of the core of your game designed beforehand, its easier to stay focused and add to it. Of course, you can't really prepare well, until you know the program better.
Hang in there dude, you'll be alright
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Post by Doan the Nado on Aug 15, 2006 10:53:30 GMT -5
I'm not going to sit here and tell you not to scrap your game. I highly suggest starting over. I started right in on my first project and made a super-detailed first castle, reworked the whole thing about 4 or 5 times so that it was all laid out reasonably, and then I realized that my current story didn't have much use for that castle all that much, anyways. That is, I had this huge place that I had put a lot of time into, taking up a pretty good chunk of memory, and I didn't want to change or waste it. So I started thinking of ways to change my story to incorporate it better and work in return trips. As you can see, this is a problem, when you start altering the character of your game in order to fit the mistakes that you've already made.
Do not feel as if starting over is a bad thing, or that all your previous time is wasted. The fact that you now realize that things are screwed up is a pretty good indication that you have learned a lot from the process of your initial attempt. If you start over, you will put these principles to work, the creation process will go more smoothly, everything will be better organized, and adding new stuff will now be much easier because you won't have to spend hours debugging old problems or trying to remember what you did to get it working in the first place. Basically, unless you've created a ton of maps, VFX, and cutscenes, starting over will actually probably save you time. If you have created your maps, VFX, and cutscenes, save those, delete the other stuff, and start over on the stuff that really needs redone.
When I first played RPGM2, the first thing I did was follow the walkthrough in the guide. While this gets you quickly into a sample game, it is totally the wrong way to go about creating a game on here, and it teaches us bad habits. When I started my first project, I went straight to the Dungeon Editor, started building a castle, added some characters, some dialogue, and so on. This means that you start investing time immediately in things that could end up changing quite a bit as you progress in the game. The key is to start with the stuff that will not change. The core is the important part, and for me, those are all of my custom things.
I have started a completely new game file now, and I did this one right. I started in Hard mode and deleted even more, and as it stands, I don't have anything that is remotely playable. What I do have, however, is the beginnings of a really nice custom system built from what I learned in my first project. I have configured my own default Enter Map and Exit Map scripts. I have coded my Custom Camera System. I have set up certain variables, like ExitSound variables, that will allow the flexibility to set a variable on a Warp event so that the Exit Map script will automatically play the desired sound, without having to mess around in the Exit Map script itself.
I didn't want to spend a lot of time promoting my own project, but the whole point is that things that I have applied in my latest work are techniques that I learned during my first project. Everything is now organized in a much better way, and working on my game will now consist of building on a strong foundation instead of dreading the drudgery of going through old scripts and figuring out how to add stuff to them without breaking everything.
So start over, be smarter, plan more, and you will have a much better game, one that you actually enjoy making.
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Post by nerussentia on Aug 15, 2006 15:46:06 GMT -5
Well I kept the game for the most part and all the features it provides like the telephone and the tools and minigames. I got rid of the CCS because it didn't look right since my game is all at a 45 degree angle and looks good enough with just the standard camera.
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kennyken
RPGM2 Helper
superboy teaser video is on youtube right now
Posts: 184
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Post by kennyken on Aug 16, 2006 4:43:14 GMT -5
doans suggestion is a good one and it seems like you followed it somewhat. Keep your custom elements and start designing the story from the beginning.
I haven't even started on my story yet. I'm finishing up the whole battle system and every enemy. I've designed quite a few dungeons but feel like I will probably scrap most of them, since I've gotten much better with the D editor. So all my elements will be done and it will be just a matter of placing them in cool configurations.plus, my story is somewhat simple as its more of an action game, so it's no big deal.
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Post by Bigfoot on Sept 8, 2006 3:20:56 GMT -5
Hippy Hunt 2 sucks and poeple still love it. It was so badly designed, terrible camera angles. bad use of the DBS. But still, it won best RPGM2 game at the pavilion. Learn from it.
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Post by Rodak on Sept 8, 2006 4:12:34 GMT -5
Why worry about "what the story needs" or how it compares to "real" games.
Just have fun with it.
Like Bigfoot said, HippyHunt 2 had a lot of design problems, but IT WAS FUN!
If you can make the story fun and have enough storytelling, then gameplay can suck and the battle system can be unbalanced.
Especially on a first effort.
I am going to disagree with Doan here...
Finish it if you can.
People like Doan, Myself, Dungeon Warden, The Final Rune, even Vespuleth and More have all got decent talent with the system, but have NEVER FINISHED A GAME!!
That is telling.
I say if you can stick it through and finish that you will be better off.
I now am working 2 jobs and have so little time for gaming that I wish I put out a crappy game long ago, rather than restart!
Just to have something to show for my efforts.
Demos just are not the same!
My coupla sense worth!
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Post by Bigfoot on Sept 8, 2006 4:51:40 GMT -5
I am going to disagree with Doan here... Finish it if you can.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 8, 2006 14:02:45 GMT -5
It's up to you. Each game attepmt/game's a learning experience that will improve your next game attempt VASTLY. I think most of us have restarted at some point. I think perhaps DW, truecoolness, Doan, Ves, and perhaps a few more haven't, but most definitely have. RPGM2 is just difficult to learn at first (though not possible!); that's the simple truth of it all. Whatever you do though, leave it on your card/computer for now in case you do want to come back to it later! I had this ty practice game I used to learn the basics on my card for a whole year (never released to the public of course! ), then eventually deleted it. With story help, Neo's articles at his site (check is forum), KingSpoom's articles at the mag, my in-need-of-an-update-that-will-happen How to Make a Good Story Guide at the Solemn Truth Forum, and of course posting at the Creative Development Forum here will all help vastly your story-writing, in my opinion! Just, if you care about it, don't give up (wow, can you believe I, of all people, said that?!).
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