But I had an 80+ hour epic in mind... Tips for a starter game

[BloodletterQ]

Keep in mind I've got double duty with working my pet project as a novel and an RPG!


 I just can't stay focused on my many starter projects and I'm sure others feel the same way. Thought I'd create a topic that can help us set the groundwork for our future endeavors rather than jumping on the Next Final Fantasy (TM) bandwagon.


Anyways all I can say is that if I don't want to work on anything overly ambitious for my first project I may suggest sticking to the RTP and keeping plugins to a minimum.

 

[Jiffy]

Hey BloodletterQ!


Here's how I tend to develop my own games:


Elements: I always look at my favorite RPGs and try to find out WHY I like them so much. This helps a lot when coming up with things such as mechanics.


Now on the story side of things, it's much more of what you want. Be creative! Even if your first few ideas don't feel right to you, right them all down and combine the best elements of them all.


Good Luck with your game!


~Wolf

 

[bgillisp]

I've said a few times that the way to do a small first project is to pick one concept, and make the entire game about that. Want to focus on battles? Then make a simple dungeon crawler, no plot (or a very basic plot). Then the only goal is to get from point a to point b alive, and you focus on just putting battles.


To give you an idea, I actually did this last year, where I took MV and make a very short (20 map, no map bigger than 40 x 40 tiles) dungeon crawler. Sure, there wasn't much of a dungeon to crawl through, but it allowed me to focus on just the battles, and nothing else. Ended up with a really short 5 - 6 hour game in the end (though since it is all fighting, I've never released it, as it was just to practice anyways).

 

[BloodletterQ]

@bgillispThat is a good point but in my case, I also want to build on my narrative skills. I mean it's important to know the engine, especially if the resources you're interested in aren't immediate (I'm sure it's common knowledge here I use PV resources.) I keep on thinking too much ahead with smaller projects. The furthest I got was a dungeon in a project based on a GameFAQs board I frequented before getting into an ugly fight with one of the resident trolls there who happened to bully someone the main character of the project was based on. I cancelled it because it felt like bad taste after what happened. Besides, it was kind of advanced since it had a Suikoden-like recruiting system.

 

[bgillisp]

So in that case, if you want to build the narrative skills, why not make a game with no battles and just tell a story in one or two locations? Can make it more adventure game style even (find the items, solve the puzzles, etc). That way you still focus on a small game.

 

[LightningLord2]

@WolfFS Honestly, I do the exact opposite of that - take my favourite game and see what you don't like about them and see how you'd rather see them made. It's better to improve on the flaws of a game you like (albeit with an original title) rather than trying to do what it does right without completely understanding the use of that mechanic.


About the 80+ hour epic or so: Try plotting out what elements of the story you need and outline what happens at which point. Instead of contracting the whole plot, try and flesh out like a 4-5 hour segment (or 1-2 if you're doing your first ever game) and make a self-contained story around that. Not only will you finish games easier this way, you won't be at a loss about what your next game should be about (since you have like 75-78 hours worth of content to work out). Cut down on the length, not the depth.


Working out the plot of the game and planning out what locations you need should be your first priority - in fact, you can/should do all that before you even touch the map making tools (however, making rough drafts of areas to help visualizing your planning is acceptable). Setting up the framework makes everything else a whole lot easier.

 

[shadefoundry]

While I'm certainly not a veteran game designer by any means (still working on my first project) I find that if you're new and trying to just put something together to learn, maybe look at your big epic that's sitting in your mind and take one character or concept from it, then ask yourself how they/it came to be that way instead. Put together a small short story with only a few maps, and don't let your ambition blind you to what you're actually going to be able to finish. There's always more time to make your massive epic after you've got some experience under your belt.

To give you an example, my current project started as a world spanning journey to stop an evil cult from summoning a demon , but has now been trimmed down to the story of an old man encountering this cult for the first time, with the entire story taking place in one city.

 

[Dr. Delibird]

When working on smaller projects I tend to run with the concept "do the bare minimum possible to convey the experience the game is about".

If it is a survival island game where you have to go from being stranded on an island to successfully leaving a carefree life on said island and then somebody runs the game and they do not get that feeling of it being a survival game at all then I have failed.

 

[Llareian]

Yanfly has a terrific video on making a project. I think I will adapt this technique for a "first project" so that I can easily build up a start-to-finish game and hit all the highlights of story/battle, eventing/mechanics/dialogue, etc. Just adapt and flesh out the basic structure they have here and you can go into as much or as little detail as you need on each aspect. Check the spoiler.

Spoiler

 

[SimProse]

That's what i've consistently heard about RPGM: Do NOT make your first formal project with it an 80-hour epic. You'll get lost and the resulting game will either be unfinished -- or not very good on the off chance you finish it. I think 3-5 hours is about right for a first formal project with it.

 

[Blinn]

This might just be the reason my first game came to a halt. Even having split the entire story into 6 segments, the segments themselves were very large and my fairly ambitious project kinda went silent after a while. It's not too late to brush it off and apply what I'm reading in this thread. Thank you guys.