I know this may sound silly, but what do you do after you finnish your game?

[Skyes]

Hello!


First of all, sorry for my bad english, it is not my main language.


I am new here, but not new to RPG Maker, to be honest. I remember using RPG Maker 95 waaaay back there, around 2000, when I was still but a young teenager. I had loads of fun with it, before I eventually went to RPG Maker 98, and then XP.


Right now I have a huge story to tell that I have been developing for the past 6 years. Yes, the same story, for six years. Call me lazy, I know  but I have so much hope in this story. I know I HAVE to share it with the world for some reason, its one of my life goals, to help people in difficulty, since it is a beautiful story about love, friendship, forgiveness, hope, perseveration, etc. It is a Medieval Fantasy tale about a boy who's dream is to become a knight. I have spent the last 6 years developping the world, the kingdoms, the politics, the character and of course the main plotline. 


I started writting a book, but when I got to the middle of it, I realized I didn't want it to be a book, for some odd reason. I thought for a while and decided to make it a comic book / manga, since drawing is really one of my passions (well, all kind of art is, but drawing is something I got at least a little better at doing). The point is: I am still not a professional artist. I am still not in the level I want to be to start my manga and tell the story I want to tell to the world. I could do it, but it still consumes TOO much time (It takes at least one day to finnish a single page, with 6 hours of work at minimum), and the point that I am not receiving a single cent for it is very dismotivating, specially when I am at college. Hell, I live in South America, so the thought of ever receiving a single penny for making a manga sometimes sounds delusional  Besides, I wan't to do it out of passion, I don't really mind about the money. Even if its free, I wouldn't mind.


So, last week, while watching some Final Fantasy 6 movies to torture myself with a bit of nostalgia, I pondered: "Why not make a game to tell my story?" I mean, I have the plot, all the characters, and I love gaming and I had so much fun back when I was young and used to mess around with RPG Maker. So, it's like every piece connected.


But, we are not in 1998 anymore, let's be honest. Most people don't play 2d JRPGs in these days anymore, specially if they are not made by a professional group, but instead, made by an amateur.


So, what am I supposed to do after I have finnished my product? What do you guys do? 


I see now we have the option to sell our games on Steam and even on Google Play. This is quite an advancement! I remember back in my days, hell, I barelly even had internet. Not even dial up. Just imagine how hard it was to search for resource and tutorials for the program. Those were old, difficult days! 


But would people really buy a game made from RPG Maker? 


I mean, I could eventually show the game to other game creators in hope they would like it and make a "real" game out of it, or maybe to a bookwritter, or a real manga / comic book artist. So, the game would  work as a raw material, to be later conveyed and give birth to a bigger project? Like a real manga, a real book, a real game with a lot of investiment, or a movie. 


What do you guys think, or suggest?


What do you guys do after you create your games? Show it to your friends, and thats it? Or try to sell it on Steam, Google Play, etc? What really motivates you to make your games?


I am sorry for my english once again, I trip on words a lot. And sorry for saying "real games" as if RPG Maker games were not real games. They are, sometimes much better than other retails games released out there. But I hope you got my point.

 

[Kes]

This doesn't really fit into this forum, particularly as it is asking several different questions.  Although not a perfect fit, I think the nearest is General Lounge.


Moving.

 

[watermark]

6 years is not at all a short time to develop a story. Take for example fantasy writer Patrick Rothfuss, who took 14 years to write "Name of the Wind".  But Bam! it took the world by storm when it finally came out. I am sure you can think of plenty of examples like this too.


I suggest that you don't even think about the money yet. Instead, try to release a demo first. It could be a 1-2 hour game that tells a very small part of your story. Making this will take you about 2 weeks of full-time (8 hours daily) dedicated work, so 100 hours total more or less. It takes this long because I assume you haven't touched RPG Maker in a while. So you will need time to learn, make mistakes, and re-do major parts of your game. It will go much faster once you're familiar with it.


Once you release it you will get some feedback. At that time you can decide whether you want to go further with this or even go commercial.

 

[kaukusaki]

Right now I have a huge story to tell that I have been developing for the past 6 years. Yes, the same story, for six years. Call me lazy, I know  but I have so much hope in this story. I know I HAVE to share it with the world for some reason, its one of my life goals, to help people in difficulty, since it is a beautiful story about love, friendship, forgiveness, hope, perseveration, etc. It is a Medieval Fantasy tale about a boy who's dream is to become a knight. I have spent the last 6 years developping the world, the kingdoms, the politics, the character and of course the main plotline. 

Don't feel bad about that. Greatness takes time to develop! If anyone asks how your game is coming along, just tell them it's stuck in DH (development hell) percolating.

I started writting a book, but when I got to the middle of it, I realized I didn't want it to be a book, for some odd reason. I thought for a while and decided to make it a comic book / manga, since drawing is really one of my passions (well, all kind of art is, but drawing is something I got at least a little better at doing). The point is: I am still not a professional artist. I am still not in the level I want to be to start my manga and tell the story I want to tell to the world. I could do it, but it still consumes TOO much time (It takes at least one day to finnish a single page, with 6 hours of work at minimum), and the point that I am not receiving a single cent for it is very dismotivating, specially when I am at college. Hell, I live in South America, so the thought of ever receiving a single penny for making a manga sometimes sounds delusional  Besides, I wan't to do it out of passion, I don't really mind about the money. Even if its free, I wouldn't mind.

I used to work for a comic magazine and completing 1 page a day was fast (this includes drafting, pencils, inks, colors, lettering). We had to have 32 pages done in a month, so there was usually crunch time for the final 2-3 pages near the end of the month. Don't beat yourself up!

So, last week, while watching some Final Fantasy 6 movies to torture myself with a bit of nostalgia, I pondered: "Why not make a game to tell my story?" I mean, I have the plot, all the characters, and I love gaming and I had so much fun back when I was young and used to mess around with RPG Maker. So, it's like every piece connected.


But, we are not in 1998 anymore, let's be honest. Most people don't play 2d JRPGs in these days anymore, specially if they are not made by a professional group, but instead, made by an amateur.

Indie games are getting popular now. As long as you do your best with your project, and know your conventions, folks won't know you're an amateur at all.

So, what am I supposed to do after I have finnished my product? What do you guys do? 


I see now we have the option to sell our games on Steam and even on Google Play. This is quite an advancement! I remember back in my days, hell, I barelly even had internet. Not even dial up. Just imagine how hard it was to search for resource and tutorials for the program. Those were old, difficult days! 


But would people really buy a game made from RPG Maker? 


I mean, I could eventually show the game to other game creators in hope they would like it and make a "real" game out of it, or maybe to a bookwritter, or a real manga / comic book artist. So, the game would  work as a raw material, to be later conveyed and give birth to a bigger project? Like a real manga, a real book, a real game with a lot of investiment, or a movie. 


What do you guys think, or suggest?

Yes, folks will buy RPG Maker games if it doesn't look an RPG Maker Game (that is, doesn't use defaults).

What do you guys do after you create your games? Show it to your friends, and thats it? Or try to sell it on Steam, Google Play, etc? What really motivates you to make your games?


I am sorry for my english once again, I trip on words a lot. And sorry for saying "real games" as if RPG Maker games were not real games. They are, sometimes much better than other retails games released out there. But I hope you got my point.

After everything's debugged and tested and ready to release into the wild, I sleep. lolz. I usually give my gamer friends first shot to play it before releasing it commercially (because they're cheap sob's but they know what's hip). As for my motivation for making games, it's basically making money doing what I love and creating games is one of them. USE YOUR SKILLS TO PAY THE BILLS! if you feel strongly about something that makes you happy, do it for pay and it doesn't feel like work, lolz.

 

[Skyes]

Don't feel bad about that. Greatness takes time to develop! If anyone asks how your game is coming along, just tell them it's stuck in DH (development hell) percolating.


I used to work for a comic magazine and completing 1 page a day was fast (this includes drafting, pencils, inks, colors, lettering). We had to have 32 pages done in a month, so there was usually crunch time for the final 2-3 pages near the end of the month. Don't beat yourself up!


Indie games are getting popular now. As long as you do your best with your project, and know your conventions, folks won't know you're an amateur at all.


Yes, folks will buy RPG Maker games if it doesn't look an RPG Maker Game (that is, doesn't use defaults).


After everything's debugged and tested and ready to release into the wild, I sleep. lolz. I usually give my gamer friends first shot to play it before releasing it commercially (because they're cheap sob's but they know what's hip). As for my motivation for making games, it's basically making money doing what I love and creating games is one of them. USE YOUR SKILLS TO PAY THE BILLS! if you feel strongly about something that makes you happy, do it for pay and it doesn't feel like work, lolz.

Thanks man, I really appreciate your words, they were very motivational


Have a good weekend!

 

[Kes]

Okay, the way this discussion is developing I was wrong to move it out of General Discussion, 


so I'm moving it back there.


Sorry for shifting it around like this.

 

[Skyes]

Hey, it's ok, don't appologise

 

[Wavelength]

People willi pay for a really good RPG Maker game - but (like any democratized medium - books, manga, to some extent indie movies...) there are a ton of RPG Maker games and other indie games out there so your game needs to be exceptional in some way if it's going to make enough money to support you.  The best case scenario is selling hundreds OF thousands of copies... a much more common scenario, even with a good game, is to sell hundreds OR thousands of copies.   A truly great story is absolutely something that can make for an exceptional game.  However, be prepared to spend a lot of time with things that aren't what you necessarily love doing (creating/commissioning graphics, testing playability over and over, marketing your work...) if you are trying to make this a commercial venture rather than one that's done just for passion.


As far as what I look forward to doing when I complete a game... releasing it, and hoping that thousands of people out there play and enjoy it.  That's what would make me really happy.  So far none of my hobby projects really reached that level of popularity, so this time around I am going the commercial route so that I can take on the extra costs to make the presentation beautiful, get it into big digital distribution services, and financially justify going for years without a full-time professional job.  I'm really hoping it pays off and the game becomes popular, because knowing that something I created is doing good for people is what really drives me.