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(Mods: please move if this is the wrong place for this)
It's been about three years since I began working on my game LifeWeaveR. I'm approaching the finish line with it, and that's given me time to reflect on some of the things I wish to God I'd done from the beginning, since it would have saved me a whole lot of problems later down the line. Here are some of those, feel free to add your own.
1) Use the crap out of the character generator:
A lot of people will use this to create party members and certain high-attention NPCs, but what about common, everyday people who's only function is to stand near a town entrance and give you the "Welcome to blahblahblah" spiel? It might sound overly tedious and/or a waste of time, but at least consider trying to custom-make as many NPCs as possible instead of relying
solely on the defaults the game comes with. because going from place to place and seeing clones of NPCs you've already used 100 times is going to get real boring real fast. If you decide to go this route, look around and find some add-on parts for the generator before you start.

2) Incorporate custom tilesets:
Much like generator parts, custom tilesets will go a long way towards making your game world stand out instead of looking like just another crap-tastic RPG Maker game. You don't have to replace literally every single tileset you start with, but adding additional assets can do nothing but help you.

3) Organize items, weapons, armor, and accessories:
Before you start setting up shops or filling up dungeons with treasure chests, get a spreadsheet going so you can make managing items/weapons/armor/accessories simple. For items, make a list that includes what the item is named, how much it costs, and where to find it. For equip-ables like weapons or armor, list what it's called, how much it costs, where you can get it, and what properties it has (atk power, def power, etc...) Using swords as an example, your list might look something like this:
Wooden Sword - 50G - +2 - Greentree Village
Copper Sword - 75G - +5 - Town of Autistickitten
Or if it's not sold in stores:
Razor Sword - 4,500G - +15 - Bunnyhug Tower (4,500G being the resale value)
This may take a while and it's not very fun, but you'll thank me for it when you decide to add new equipment to your game and don't have to dig through the database for an hour trying to figure out what stats to give it and where it fits in with everything else.
4) Wait a while before adding enemy troops:
Much like items/weapons/etc, it's a good idea to organize enemy troops before you actually add them in. That doesn't mean don't create enemies (it wouldn't be a bad idea to list them by name, HP, exp, and $), it means before you fill your maps with enemy region IDs, take the time to plan out what goes where and with who. In my case, I created a ton of "Overworld" troops, took the enemy list, and started assigning enemies to troops based on difficulty. For example, Overworld1-3 might contain "beginner" enemies, Overworld 4-7 might contain harder enemies than OW1, and Overworld 8-12 might have even harder enemies than both of those. Once you've got your troops organized, start adding region IDs. The starting areas of the game should be low ID numbers, with the late-game areas having the highest region ID's (trust me, you don't want to run into 25HP slimes right outside the final dungeon).

5) Make a "credit record" so you'll know who to thank once the game's finished.
This record should include not only what scripts you used and who made them, but who made whatever custom assets you're using. Open your game folder, start a new text doc, and record who made what. If you used one of Yanfly's scripts, write down what the script name was and add his name next to it. If you have some of Ayane-chans furniture sets, just write something like "Tilesets" and under that write her name. This will help avoid situations where you use somebody's custom assets without crediting them for it.
It's been about three years since I began working on my game LifeWeaveR. I'm approaching the finish line with it, and that's given me time to reflect on some of the things I wish to God I'd done from the beginning, since it would have saved me a whole lot of problems later down the line. Here are some of those, feel free to add your own.
1) Use the crap out of the character generator:
A lot of people will use this to create party members and certain high-attention NPCs, but what about common, everyday people who's only function is to stand near a town entrance and give you the "Welcome to blahblahblah" spiel? It might sound overly tedious and/or a waste of time, but at least consider trying to custom-make as many NPCs as possible instead of relying
solely on the defaults the game comes with. because going from place to place and seeing clones of NPCs you've already used 100 times is going to get real boring real fast. If you decide to go this route, look around and find some add-on parts for the generator before you start.

2) Incorporate custom tilesets:
Much like generator parts, custom tilesets will go a long way towards making your game world stand out instead of looking like just another crap-tastic RPG Maker game. You don't have to replace literally every single tileset you start with, but adding additional assets can do nothing but help you.

3) Organize items, weapons, armor, and accessories:
Before you start setting up shops or filling up dungeons with treasure chests, get a spreadsheet going so you can make managing items/weapons/armor/accessories simple. For items, make a list that includes what the item is named, how much it costs, and where to find it. For equip-ables like weapons or armor, list what it's called, how much it costs, where you can get it, and what properties it has (atk power, def power, etc...) Using swords as an example, your list might look something like this:
Wooden Sword - 50G - +2 - Greentree Village
Copper Sword - 75G - +5 - Town of Autistickitten
Or if it's not sold in stores:
Razor Sword - 4,500G - +15 - Bunnyhug Tower (4,500G being the resale value)
This may take a while and it's not very fun, but you'll thank me for it when you decide to add new equipment to your game and don't have to dig through the database for an hour trying to figure out what stats to give it and where it fits in with everything else.
4) Wait a while before adding enemy troops:
Much like items/weapons/etc, it's a good idea to organize enemy troops before you actually add them in. That doesn't mean don't create enemies (it wouldn't be a bad idea to list them by name, HP, exp, and $), it means before you fill your maps with enemy region IDs, take the time to plan out what goes where and with who. In my case, I created a ton of "Overworld" troops, took the enemy list, and started assigning enemies to troops based on difficulty. For example, Overworld1-3 might contain "beginner" enemies, Overworld 4-7 might contain harder enemies than OW1, and Overworld 8-12 might have even harder enemies than both of those. Once you've got your troops organized, start adding region IDs. The starting areas of the game should be low ID numbers, with the late-game areas having the highest region ID's (trust me, you don't want to run into 25HP slimes right outside the final dungeon).

5) Make a "credit record" so you'll know who to thank once the game's finished.
This record should include not only what scripts you used and who made them, but who made whatever custom assets you're using. Open your game folder, start a new text doc, and record who made what. If you used one of Yanfly's scripts, write down what the script name was and add his name next to it. If you have some of Ayane-chans furniture sets, just write something like "Tilesets" and under that write her name. This will help avoid situations where you use somebody's custom assets without crediting them for it.