- Joined
- Jan 24, 2021
- Messages
- 1
- Reaction score
- 11
- First Language
- Swahili
- Primarily Uses
- RMMZ
Hello.
This post may sound like a rant, but I just want to express my dissatisfaction with the product and explain why I decided not to buy it and go with a superior product instead. I don't think that anybody should care, but maybe someone wants to put it into salesforce
I remember using 2003 and XP quite a long time. When I recently felt the desire to spend my free time working on a toy RPG, I downloaded the trial. To my dismay, the software hasn't changed that much. It seems a bit brazen to rebrand the same editor I used 15 years ago and sell it as new. Now I don't mean to imply that nothing has changed, but the features that have been implemented are either details or the HTML runtime (not having that would have made the product irrelevant so in my view it doesn't illustrate the company's interest to improve it, which is what my whole rant is about).
The first problem is that the editor is as flexible as a slab of concrete. I don't expect it to be expandable a la Unity, but at least give me custom database records and event commands (the clunky plugin command is a makeshift solution at best). Why do I still have to put up with the text box system that can't handle word wrap, long text (without destructively converting them into multiple text box commands) or in-text choices a la ink, not to speak of variable references? Why can't I make events move via pathfinding, which has already been implemented for touch controls?
The so called database is a disgrace. It has barely changed, except for the very important 'notes' field. When I first read that peope use that to circumvent the editor's shortcomings (via plugins), I couldn't help but laugh. What is the editor good for if you can't change the specific game rules already baked in, character stats inspired by FF and similar games of old. Don't use hardcoded dialogs, allow users to add new fields to the database, like d&d attributes etc.
The second problem is that the default game is not good/fun. It obviously can be tuned to make fights meaningful and fun, but when I create a new project and start a battle test, it's among the worst the genre has to offer. Final Fantasy VI uses a similar system, is 26 years old and still much better than RPG Maker. That is quite an achievement considering how much game design has improved since then and tight game mechanics have displaced number pushing slugfests of old. I understand that nostalgia is a driving factor for many users (myself included), but the default should be enjoyable and guide users into the right direction when creating their own game design. Another pet peeve of mine is the bad UX. Of course JRPGs are infamous for their sprawling menus and I understand that RPG Maker has to honour that tradition of bad interaction design. But the battle system is arguably worse than many 90s SNES titles. It's basically text driven, so players have to read repetitive and sometimes verbose status messages to keep up. State is hardly communicated outside this window. That was fine in 2005, not today. There is often no discernible connection between the various elements on screen. Rather unimportant elements like character portrays have a tendency drown out the more important stuff like character stats. This is worsend by having portraits and stats clump together in one big blob of confusion (see fundamental design principles). The various colours used to display these stats might be considered pretty by some, but I will just call them meaningless and distracting. Important things should look important and they eye should have no difficulty finding them. Visual clarity should be the guiding principle in general, but especially when designing a UI for a fast paced battle system.
The third problem imho is the runtime and that it's arguably not written to be flexible and easy to adapt. Reading the window code reminded me a lot of the ruby counterpart from 15 years ago. Too much is hard coded, only what's in the editor is data driven. Why is the UI so rigid? The developers favour inheritance over composition and overall it didn't strike me as the kind of code that you want non-programmers/beginners to deal with (arguably the vast majority of your users). Also I'm personally offended to be exposed to ES5 without a warning, couldn't you have migrated to ES6 in the last few years or so? The documentation is lackluster, patchy and often not very descriptive (the language barrier probably doesn't help). I've seen a staff member providing a reference in a google spreadsheet! You know you can programmatically create documentations, right? I'm eternally grateful for the community member who provided a d.ts file, this should come with RPG Maker.
So that's it. RPG Maker had and has potential to be much more than it currently is, but on the other hand there are not many comparable products on the market so there's probably little incentive to change. There are vastly superior game engines, but those are also more difficult to use and there is no large community dedicated to making RPGs and hardly anything else. That's the dilemma I have. I would like to be part of this dedicated community, but I just can't bring myself to use the software it's centered around. If anybody reads this, thanks
This post may sound like a rant, but I just want to express my dissatisfaction with the product and explain why I decided not to buy it and go with a superior product instead. I don't think that anybody should care, but maybe someone wants to put it into salesforce
I remember using 2003 and XP quite a long time. When I recently felt the desire to spend my free time working on a toy RPG, I downloaded the trial. To my dismay, the software hasn't changed that much. It seems a bit brazen to rebrand the same editor I used 15 years ago and sell it as new. Now I don't mean to imply that nothing has changed, but the features that have been implemented are either details or the HTML runtime (not having that would have made the product irrelevant so in my view it doesn't illustrate the company's interest to improve it, which is what my whole rant is about).
The first problem is that the editor is as flexible as a slab of concrete. I don't expect it to be expandable a la Unity, but at least give me custom database records and event commands (the clunky plugin command is a makeshift solution at best). Why do I still have to put up with the text box system that can't handle word wrap, long text (without destructively converting them into multiple text box commands) or in-text choices a la ink, not to speak of variable references? Why can't I make events move via pathfinding, which has already been implemented for touch controls?
The so called database is a disgrace. It has barely changed, except for the very important 'notes' field. When I first read that peope use that to circumvent the editor's shortcomings (via plugins), I couldn't help but laugh. What is the editor good for if you can't change the specific game rules already baked in, character stats inspired by FF and similar games of old. Don't use hardcoded dialogs, allow users to add new fields to the database, like d&d attributes etc.
The second problem is that the default game is not good/fun. It obviously can be tuned to make fights meaningful and fun, but when I create a new project and start a battle test, it's among the worst the genre has to offer. Final Fantasy VI uses a similar system, is 26 years old and still much better than RPG Maker. That is quite an achievement considering how much game design has improved since then and tight game mechanics have displaced number pushing slugfests of old. I understand that nostalgia is a driving factor for many users (myself included), but the default should be enjoyable and guide users into the right direction when creating their own game design. Another pet peeve of mine is the bad UX. Of course JRPGs are infamous for their sprawling menus and I understand that RPG Maker has to honour that tradition of bad interaction design. But the battle system is arguably worse than many 90s SNES titles. It's basically text driven, so players have to read repetitive and sometimes verbose status messages to keep up. State is hardly communicated outside this window. That was fine in 2005, not today. There is often no discernible connection between the various elements on screen. Rather unimportant elements like character portrays have a tendency drown out the more important stuff like character stats. This is worsend by having portraits and stats clump together in one big blob of confusion (see fundamental design principles). The various colours used to display these stats might be considered pretty by some, but I will just call them meaningless and distracting. Important things should look important and they eye should have no difficulty finding them. Visual clarity should be the guiding principle in general, but especially when designing a UI for a fast paced battle system.
The third problem imho is the runtime and that it's arguably not written to be flexible and easy to adapt. Reading the window code reminded me a lot of the ruby counterpart from 15 years ago. Too much is hard coded, only what's in the editor is data driven. Why is the UI so rigid? The developers favour inheritance over composition and overall it didn't strike me as the kind of code that you want non-programmers/beginners to deal with (arguably the vast majority of your users). Also I'm personally offended to be exposed to ES5 without a warning, couldn't you have migrated to ES6 in the last few years or so? The documentation is lackluster, patchy and often not very descriptive (the language barrier probably doesn't help). I've seen a staff member providing a reference in a google spreadsheet! You know you can programmatically create documentations, right? I'm eternally grateful for the community member who provided a d.ts file, this should come with RPG Maker.
So that's it. RPG Maker had and has potential to be much more than it currently is, but on the other hand there are not many comparable products on the market so there's probably little incentive to change. There are vastly superior game engines, but those are also more difficult to use and there is no large community dedicated to making RPGs and hardly anything else. That's the dilemma I have. I would like to be part of this dedicated community, but I just can't bring myself to use the software it's centered around. If anybody reads this, thanks