Newbie here, sorry

[Volpe]

Heya guys,

I bought my MZ today and never worked with RPG Maker before. I'm a great fan of RPG in general from D&D to Neverwinter to Dragon Quest, Fable, TES, Dark Souls... alas every type of RP game that has ever lived. So I actually created this thread to get some obscure tips of some kind. Yes, I was working in creating a RPG on Unity but this "new" Engine really got my attention with the improvement and easy design.
Just ignore it if there isn't nothing to add here, thanks anyway.


p.s: Every type of tip, even about sourcecode if I do say so myself.
p.s again: Yeah, English is not my first language.

XOXO, Volpe.

 

[Aerosys]

So my personal top tips:


- understand that RPG Maker is made for RPGs. It provides a great base to create a RPG and when you look into the Database (that is the icon with the gearwheel) you will get a nice UI to define Heroes, classes, skills, even states, enemies...
- The RPG Maker follows some "fixed" rules. Each hero has one class, each class has multiple skills, etc. Everything is well made and makes sense, but it's hard to make significant changes here. Eg an item is either a usable Item, Armor, Weapon or Key Item. Without using Plugins you cannot add any more category here. Or for example a skill is either physical or magical. Everything follows some rules from the Maker.

- The Maker provides you with a let's say Game Flow. When you start the Game, you always will see the Title Screen with "New", "Load" and "Options". When you press Esc during Gameplay you will get the default Ingame Menu with "Items", "Equip", "Skills" etc. Without using Plugins you don't have many ways to customize this behaviour.

- Understand how the Event System works. Most engines use some kind of objects or classes that you instantiate x times on the map. In RPG Maker every event is its own NPC-alike. When you want multiple monsters that behave the same, you will need to copy-paste your event.
- try out Plugins NOT before you are confident with eventing

- when you are a programmer, learn JS and then you have access to 100% of the exported Game code base. You can do literally anything! There are even Plugins out there to make your Game in 3D!

That is RPG Maker, easy to start - powerful as soon as you mastered it!

 

[slimmmeiske2]

This might be an interesting read: https://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?threads/what-to-do-before-you-make-your-rpg.125851/

 

[Volpe]

So my personal top tips:

....
- The Maker provides you with a let's say Game Flow. When you start the Game, you always will see the Title Screen with "New", "Load" and "Options". When you press Esc during Gameplay you will get the default Ingame Menu with "Items", "Equip", "Skills" etc. Without using Plugins you don't have many ways to customize this behaviour.

- Understand how the Event System works. Most engines use some kind of objects or classes that you instantiate x times on the map. In RPG Maker every event is its own NPC-alike. When you want multiple monsters that behave the same, you will need to copy-paste your event.
- try out Plugins NOT before you are confident with eventing

- when you are a programmer, learn JS and then you have access to 100% of the exported Game code base. You can do literally anything! There are even Plugins out there to make your Game in 3D!

That is RPG Maker, easy to start - powerful as soon as you mastered it!

THANK YOU

This might be an interesting read: https://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?threads/what-to-do-before-you-make-your-rpg.125851/

Everything I was looking for, thanks

 

[Frogboy]

I would recommend starting out by making a really short, standard RPG with just the base engine and resources. This doesn't need to be a game that you ever plan on showing off to the public if you don't want to. It just needs to be a complete game with a beginning, middle and end, all the standard stuff like random battles, weapons, items, armor, skills etc, and a few cut scenes to get the hang of how those work. The story doesn't have to be anything special. It can be a run of the mill "Save the Princess" or "Collect the Four Orbs and beat the BBEG".

The point of all of this is just to learn the engine and get a firm grasp of what you can do without any plugins or code modifications. You'll learn all the basic functionality like mapping, what all of the options and parameters do and it'll be a small enough project that you can actually finish on your first go around, even if the game itself isn't particularly good. It doesn't need to be as it's just a learning experience. After this, the sky is the limit. You can set out to make whatever you want and you'll be much more likely to accomplish a larger, more complex project.

 

[h0tWalker]

Like Frogboy mentioned, start with a small project. I've mostly lurked on the forums across the years, but one thing i always found interesting were the game challenges the mods hosts every now and again. A game evolving around a topic, a game taking place in just one location and so on. After watching them, i thought that a great way to start with a new engine in general, is to start small. The latest one I saw was to make a game with just one map.

Once i saw that, i found a great introduction practice to follow. Start with a small project containing just one map. This will serve as an introduction to the engine. After that, create a project taking place in a village or town. This serves to connect multiple locations and variables. Once you've gone through those two, I'd make a third project, not necessarily on a larger scale, but make a project taking place in a dungeon. A few floors. This serves to create puzzles and understanding the event menu better, as well as character progression and combat encounters. By three small projects you'll learn a bunch, as they focus on different aspects of the engine. There is of course more to it than just those, but i feel those three serves as a great introduction to rpg maker in general.

 

[Volpe]

I would recommend starting out by making a really short, standard RPG with just the base engine and resources. This doesn't need to be a game that you ever plan on showing off to the public if you don't want to. It just needs to be a complete game with a beginning, middle and end, all the standard stuff like random battles, weapons, items, armor, skills etc, and a few cut scenes to get the hang of how those work. The story doesn't have to be anything special. It can be a run of the mill "Save the Princess" or "Collect the Four Orbs and beat the BBEG".

The point of all of this is just to learn the engine and get a firm grasp of what you can do without any plugins or code modifications. You'll learn all the basic functionality like mapping, what all of the options and parameters do and it'll be a small enough project that you can actually finish on your first go around, even if the game itself isn't particularly good. It doesn't need to be as it's just a learning experience. After this, the sky is the limit. You can set out to make whatever you want and you'll be much more likely to accomplish a larger, more complex project.

Yeah, planning on doing it small the first time. Thank you for your support.

Like Frogboy mentioned, start with a small project. I've mostly lurked on the forums across the years, but one thing i always found interesting were the game challenges the mods hosts every now and again. A game evolving around a topic, a game taking place in just one location and so on. After watching them, i thought that a great way to start with a new engine in general, is to start small. The latest one I saw was to make a game with just one map.

Once i saw that, i found a great introduction practice to follow. Start with a small project containing just one map. This will serve as an introduction to the engine. After that, create a project taking place in a village or town. This serves to connect multiple locations and variables. Once you've gone through those two, I'd make a third project, not necessarily on a larger scale, but make a project taking place in a dungeon. A few floors. This serves to create puzzles and understanding the event menu better, as well as character progression and combat encounters. By three small projects you'll learn a bunch, as they focus on different aspects of the engine. There is of course more to it than just those, but i feel those three serves as a great introduction to rpg maker in general.

I was actually thinking about something like a mini JRPG, most likely inpired by Dragon Quest and Chronno Trigger. And also forgot to mention it but, thank you.

 

[Marquise*]

Hullo and welcome. English is not my native language eighter :3

 

[Finnuval]

Start small and keep it relatively simple, dont add more then you really need gamemechanicswise and dont fear it being good or bad - thats not what first games are for.

Also hang out on the forum, get engaged and get feedback from ppl. Bounce around ideas etc.

And most important : have fun!!!

Anyway, welcome

 

[Riazey]

Weeeelcome~ I have a few things I like to say to beginners myself~


The biggest indicator of a new game mapper is leaving too much open space on a map with nothing to fill it~ ie. a small town with large empty sections of grass around homes or the edge of the village.

It's good to do smaller projects before a larger project, but make sure to finish one once you get the hang of the editor, events, and plugins (getting it to the point of being deployed and giving it to a few people for feedback will help point you in the right direction). This comes from a saying among artists "You'll gain more experience from completing a drawing you hate than making a lot of sketches you love." which really gives great insight later on!

Try to do something unique without relying on too many plugins. Often you'll see a lot of projects use the same flashy plugins but all in the exact same way, so it ends up being really flashy but has no substance to it. Plus using a high number can lag a PC and makes room for more bugs; don't take this as a "don't use plugins" but more of "don't use 100 plugins".

Some plugins are incompatible with one another so make sure to test them out and read instructions carefully. Usually, issues arise between plugins that try to change the same thing (ie. two battle hud plugins). If you suspect something may be buggy try putting the plugin(s) into a new project and see if the bug can be reproduced. Additionally, the order of plugins matters so make sure to read the thread carefully!

Learn the difference between parallel and autorun! These are two options for event triggers~ Autorun will run the event and won't let the character move until the event finishes. Parallel will run alongside gameplay without stopping it, but if you have too many of these events running at the same time all that processing will start to lag.