Should I be parallax mapping from the start or after completing the project?

Hi everyone.

So I have a dilemma, I have seen article somewhere recommending to first focus on completing the skeleton of your project. What I mean by it is to finish the game play, story, all quests, equipment, mechanics, basics maps etc. Then after get it tested and ask for feedback but only about the playability, flow, engagement, difficulty, story and mechanics. When that's done I should go back and focus on art and esthetics, so changing to new tiles, do parallax mapping, new sprites, adding my own art graphics, special effects, new plugins, ultimately redoing maps so they don't look generic and games is unique and special. My question is, shouldn't I be doing this from the beginning?

Please advice , I don't have much spare time and I'm not sure if I want to be redoing same maps 50.000 times. What are your technics?

 

Hi!
I think in the cas of plugins, you have to choose what you will use from the beggining. Because if you add some later, after the skeleton of the game, could have incompatibility issues, and then, hurt your mechanics and other things of the game, depending in which plugin you are using etc.
As for the parallax mapping, i prefer to do map by map. Or scene by scene. If you make a scene in the game that have two maps, then make 2 parallax and then test your game within.
To check if player can go there, and there. If he can walks around the map, if the events and other grafics are displaying correctly etc.

As for the art of sprites, menu etc. I think this can be done later. Make only one sprite with the size you want to test the game, like 48x48 or 64x64 etc...

 

So would you say install all plugins at the start, and everything else like maps,Photoshop as I go.

But how do I know what plugins do I need?
Also does that mean I should install battle mechanics plugins now before I start my project?

 

Yes and yes. To know what plugins you'll need you need to search online and ask people. For starters, I suggest looking at Yanfly's plugins since there are a ton of free to use plugins there.

 

Thx. To be honest I'm very new to this. I'm watching a lot of youtube videos about RMMV but with all this parallax mapping and plugins it is very overwhelming. I don't want to start something and give up just because I made mistake or I'm stuck with some bug issues and at the same time spend days and weeks trying to figure out 1 glitch. Could anyone maybe suggest the process from start to finish and must haves or should this be another thread?

 

I think you should first think / write your game on the 'paper'. Think about which style of battle you will use, if there are battles. How will the mechanics be, how will the menus be, the character will jump on the stage? Can you fall in the hole? Which items, which weapons, etc.?
Think about the game, and from this you will find here in the forum and google the plugins that you think you need. If you have no idea where to look, first go to yanfly, see his plugins. And then go to partner sites. Enter the partners' partner site and continue until you find what you need.
If there is no plugin that can do what you want, then you will adapt.
At least that's what I think.

[edit]Start with little projects.
Actually at the beginning it's a lot to do. But you do not need to start with parallax mapping. This is just a mapping style. Good maps can also be made with the publisher.
Searching graphics, sounds, plugins, really is a lot in the beginning. It is part and at the same time it does not, because it depends on your goal, of what you want. I suggest you first try doing something without plugins to get to know the engine. Use variables, switchs, conditional branches

 

Thx Elaquim.

Now I'm more confused, what are conditional branches ???

 

Conditional branches are those things that you put in the events page.
"If player has item x:
-Do something
If not:
Do sometging else.

Open an event page and see

 

My head is spinning. This sounds scary. Do you have link to a tutorial about events and brunches but it has to be super simple to understand otherwise I panic and give up

 

I have a bunch of tutorials for beginners. In my signature is a video explaining how to do basic events and branches (3-part beginner series. You can skip the first if you already know your way around the program) -- they were made for VX Ace, but they work exactly the same in MV.

 

Calm down! Ypu dont have to catch up everything now!
I also learn from a lot of videos in youtube. But from brazilian guys, in portuguese br :/
So i dont think it help you.
But you can start with the tutorial that comes with the rm mv!
Its in the editor, and it will be a good start.
But you have to be patience. It will take some time but you will learn.
I have no background in games or code. I'm from human resources. And I got to learn.
You will do this too.

I know there is Echo66 in YouTube that can help you.
Also tips and tricks from yanfly on youtube. But certainly are more.

If I was you, I will start with the tutorial that rm mv have. Then I go search the things in the tutorial that I can't understand very well!

 

@Kage First, you have to decide if you want to go parallax maps at all.
An artist once explained it to me this way: regular mapping is 20% of the work of parallax mapping for 80% of the quality of parallax mapping.
If you go parallax mapping, you'll have five times the workload for a quality increase that is within limits, at least if you want your game to be playable. Because the most beautiful parallax maps are usually not playable due to too much clutter.

You need to learn how to construct your maps (what goes where in which size) first, and that is easier with regular mapping.

as for the other things:
There is only one rule that affects the order of things to do, everything else can be done in whatever order you want as long as you don't erase the defaults without replacing them.
And that rule is that after every change in the plugin manager you need to start a new game at the playtest title screen.

This is due to the fact that most plugins change the savefiles to store their own data, making older savefiles incompatible to the new plugins.
This is why most people prefer to do plugins early, but that is not automatically required as long as you accept that you have to play from the beginning again and again - and sometimes you need experience to know which plugins you need, as a new user you simply don't have that.

 

Thx. I absolutely adore Echo66 she is awesome, I even bought her game Gaia's Melody. It's an amazing game

 

Thx. @Andar are you saying that installing plugins at different stages of the project can cause issues and crush the game?

 

This depends if there's a conflict with another plugin. Generally you do it first because you don't want to be wasting your time trying to fix something you already worked on.

Andar was saying that every time you install a new plugin, don't load up a save file in playtest as it could have negative results.

 

Ah, ok. I get it now