How Do I Make A Game?

[Magicphobic]

Okay, this is my first post on here, so let me flesh that title out a bit more before I get some nasty messages or complaints.

I know HOW to make a RPG game in RPG maker, however I have many MANY questions about how to make the kind of game I want, and I don't know where to go to find these answers. I have tried google but the search results are not returning what I am looking for, I guess I lack the key words, so it's just easier for me to make this post and have the good friendly people of the community point me in the right direction.

So, when I say I know how to make a RPG maker game, I mean I get the basics, can do your average boring RPG game. The programs pretty simple. However, I'm seeing stuff online and I wanna know how to do what I am seeing. This includes stuff like more involved fight scenes, games that aren't even RPGs made in the engine, different character sprites and tiles, etc.

First of all I want to ask, if possible, what OTHER kinds of games can you make in this engine? I did try google searching this and it gave me just answers related to the TYPES of games, like Fantasy, Horror, etc... I want to know if you can make other games in RPG maker by "exploiting" some of the tools? For example, can I make a platformed in this game? Can I make a side scrolled, like Mario for example, stuff like that. Can it be done and where do I look find tutorials for stuff like that?

Second, I cannot find for the life of me the details on how to make "larger" map sprites. All of the defaults are single tile characters and objects, backgrounds are only larger because they are backgrounds etc. However I am seeing people using sprites that are taller than 1 tile, and are fully animated etc. I cannot find a tutorial or know of the right key words to search to find one. I want my characters larger so I can add more detail, my method to just draw them larger doesn't work as the game defaults to the 1 tile height and now suddenly I'm just getting my character's torso as one tile, and their body as the other tile, maybe the head will show up sometimes. I hope you guys know what I mean by that description as I cannot post pictures right now but will go through the trouble to get them if you really need to understand what I mean...

I suck a pixel art, so being an artist it would be ideal for me if I could make an RPG game with sprites that are big enough to just be basically drawn by hand and tossed into the game. Like you would for full body bust character portraits on a text exchange but obviously smaller than that as they need to fit on the map. (only thing I figured out how to do actually on my own was the fully body characters vs the face icons while displaying text.)

Third of all, how do I customize my experience? How do I customize a title screen so the title is actually to the side not in the middle in the default 3 textbox, etc. I see video tutorials showing this as a tip to make it look better but they never explain HOW you set that up. I get the concept of a lot of stuff may be custom/triggered with images rather than actual sprites, but I don't know how to get it to operate and set up how I want it to.

I have the basics and ideas of what I want. For example I also want to have an animated character sprite on the map, so they have idle animations and such when not moving, etc. I can draw and anime, its about how do I translate that to the game. This is what I need answers and help with, and I don't know what to google or what questions to ask. I'm hoping someone out there can read this, and tell me what I need to do or where I need to go to find what I'm looking for. At this point I'm just stuck, lost and confused with so many questions. I want to make game, I really do, but I want to make it how I want it, not just default and sub-par with the bare minimal included in the program.

Thanks in advance, you have no idea how big of a help this would be to me.

(I also tried to post in the right form, so if its still not correct I'm so sorry!!! >.<)

 

[Kes]

It is better to have one question per thread, as otherwise it makes answering them all difficult and the thread can end up very confused/confusing.

However, here goes on some of them.
You can have sprites any size you like - but the sprite sheet must be formatted correctly.
Each 'image' is a "cell", for want of a better word. So you have 3 cells across each row, and 4 down each column. Each of those cells must be the same size. The default is 32x32. You could have 32x64 to have a sprite that is 2 tiles high. Or 64x64 if you want a wide sprite as well as a tall one. Or any number you like - as long as it is divisible by 8.

If it is just one sprite on a single sheet (i.e. there are only 12 cells in total) then the file name must have $ at the beginning. That tells the engine that there is only one sprite there.
If you want to use the sort of sprite sheet that has 8 characters on it, you still have to have all the cells the same size, even if some of the sprites are e.g. a little shorter.

For customized title screens, you have a range of options, depending exactly what you want. If you look at the title screens in my signature you will see that the titles are all in different places. That is because I unchecked the box on the Systems tab of the editor, bottom right, so that it doesn't draw the default title screen and then used a custom screen. You could ask for a bit of code (I'm sure it already exists) which just redraws the position of the default title system to a different location if that is all you want. Or there are scripts which give animated title screens. For those you have to give a better description of exactly what you want to happen before anyone can recommend one to you.

I'm not sure what you mean by drawing animated sprites on the maps - do you mean NPCs? If so, just check the 'Stepping animation' box on the graphic section of their event. If you mean something else, you will have to explain more fully.

 

[Andar]

Theoretically, anything can be done as long as you have the programming knowledge and time to implement it.
There already is a platformer script for Ace for example.

That said, some tasks are more difficult than others - it took good scripters several years to make scripts for ABS-type combat systems, and no one has succeeded in programming a multiplayer for Ace yet.
Additionally, Ace is locked to a maximum screen size of 640*480.

However, Ace (the forum where you posted this) is legacy and no longer developed. It might be a better idea to switches to MV if you haven't started your game yet.
MV is newer and there are not (yet) as many other gametype scripts (for example no platformer and only one or two ABS), but the screen size limit is removed and a lot of other features added.

 

[Isabella Ava]

for(i=1; i<=10; i--) {
Eat - Sleep - Develop - Eat - Sleep - Develop
}

 

[MushroomCake28]

You can do anything provided you can code. The real limit is the limit of javascript and computer hardware.

 

[TheoAllen]

for(i=1; i<=10; i--) {
Eat - Sleep - Develop - Eat - Sleep - Develop
}

You're subtracting everything, which mean, dying?

I don't know where to go to find these answers.

Right here, friend. There're some other sites as well like RM reddit, discord, steam, and many more if it's not enough.

so it's just easier for me to make this post and have the good friendly people of the community point me in the right direction

You did it right.

First of all I want to ask, if possible, what OTHER kinds of games can you make in this engine? I did try google searching this and it gave me just answers related to the TYPES of games, like Fantasy, Horror, etc... I want to know if you can make other games in RPG maker by "exploiting" some of the tools? For example, can I make a platformed in this game? Can I make a side scrolled, like Mario for example, stuff like that. Can it be done and where do I look find tutorials for stuff like that?

The engine is basically PLAYING with graphics, moving here and there, and it becomes a game. It just happen that the "default" script is already made for RPG. However, you can just scrap it all together and make your own game based on the engine. Boil down to this fundamental, you can create shooting, platformer, and anything that is not RPG. I always send this video whenever people ask the capability of the engine.

Second, I cannot find for the life of me the details on how to make "larger" map sprites. All of the defaults are single tile characters and objects, backgrounds are only larger because they are backgrounds etc. However I am seeing people using sprites that are taller than 1 tile, and are fully animated etc. I cannot find a tutorial or know of the right key words to search to find one. I want my characters larger so I can add more detail, my method to just draw them larger doesn't work as the game defaults to the 1 tile height and now suddenly I'm just getting my character's torso as one tile, and their body as the other tile, maybe the head will show up sometimes. I hope you guys know what I mean by that description as I cannot post pictures right now but will go through the trouble to get them if you really need to understand what I mean...

You ask here, create a new topic about it. Named it "How to use bigger sprite". It will also helps other people who have same problem if they're using their search engine. But Kes already explained it to you.

Third of all, how do I customize my experience? How do I customize a title screen so the title is actually to the side not in the middle in the default 3 textbox, etc. I see video tutorials showing this as a tip to make it look better but they never explain HOW you set that up. I get the concept of a lot of stuff may be custom/triggered with images rather than actual sprites, but I don't know how to get it to operate and set up how I want it to.

This goes to script / plugin request. Describe what exactly you want, and some scripters might guide you. We don't bite you.

 

[Magicphobic]

You're subtracting everything, which mean, dying?


Right here, friend. There're some other sites as well like RM reddit, discord, steam, and many more if it's not enough.


You did it right.


The engine is basically PLAYING with graphics, moving here and there, and it becomes a game. It just happen that the "default" script is already made for RPG. However, you can just scrap it all together and make your own game based on the engine. Boil down to this fundamental, you can create shooting, platformer, and anything that is not RPG. I always send this video whenever people ask the capability of the engine.


You ask here, create a new topic about it. Named it "How to use bigger sprite". It will also helps other people who have same problem if they're using their search engine. But Kes already explained it to you.


This goes to script / plugin request. Describe what exactly you want, and some scripters might guide you. We don't bite you.

Aye, thanks for all the information! And that's actually really cool, I didn't know you could make a shooter with this, but that's exactly what I wanted to know and Id like to know what I should search for to find other games that are not rpgs so I can get a feel for what I might like to try and replicate and go from there. Atm I kinda want more of an open world game, with role play elements but I want like a more open battle system than the turned based one, a more interactive world/puzzel based, (hence trying to figure out bigger sprites) and have it more story driven as well.

Also thanks for telling me the correct place to put certain questions! I'll do my best to keep those questions in the correct topics as I learn my way around the forms.

I'm not sure what you mean by drawing animated sprites on the maps - do you mean NPCs? If so, just check the 'Stepping animation' box on the graphic section of their event. If you mean something else, you will have to explain more fully.

Thanks for the information on the larger sprites, and the title screens. I'll give it a go and see what happens. Also I'll keep in mind keeping one question per thread for the future, I'm sure I'll be back here often with lots of questions.

As for what I mean by an animated sprite on the map, I mean my player, or "actor" i guess, having things such as an idle animation when the player is not moving. Like rocking back and forth on their feet, or stretching. Y'know just waiting for the player to start moving again. I mean It'd also be cool to have npcs do little actions like that such as water some flowers or something too I guess, but I do get the basics of making them walk around with the event mapping. Would I perhaps have to look to another game engine entirely if I wanted to make a game like that?

It seems like in theory I'd just need some way to animate the sprites on the map since it seems simple enough to just create another sprite sheet that will load in via an event or something when the player isn't moving and thus play the animations. Would I be on the right track with that theory or is what I want just not possible with this program?

However, Ace (the forum where you posted this) is legacy and no longer developed. It might be a better idea to switches to MV if you haven't started your game yet.

Switching the program isn't an option atm unless MV goes on sale or something. I'm just learning/poking around with this in free time so I can't really invest the money until I have enough know how to make a game I could actually profit from. When I say I'm a beginner, I mean it quite literally. I'm also trying to teach myself hence why I'm here looking for help and also checking out online tutorials and videos.

The current program doesn't bother me and I like how it's set up, and is easy to use. I also like the stuff people can do with it, and there's lots of content available even though there's a newer program. I'm comfortable sticking where I am right now for learning purposes. thanks though!