Suggestions for the next RPG Maker

[amerk]

Aaah, I forgot about that.  I wonder, in that case, what the Japanese forums users request, since that will probably be the lion's share of the results.  

Considering that

1. RPG Maker 2003 is no longer supported, updated, or sold even to the Japanese market and:

2. RPG Maker 2000 (updated to RM2K Value awhile back) is still doing pretty decent and:

3. Dragon Quest seems to be bigger than Final Fantasy

My guess is we can at least expect the next RPG Maker to have some sort of front view battle system.

 

[Knightmare]

They do have a maker specifically for tactical battle systems.



All of it basically comes out of the box.

http://rpgmaker.wikia.com/wiki/Sim_rpg_maker

It's really dated, but it was a pretty solid maker comparable to RPG Maker 95.

Probably wasn't any demand for it for further versions to be made though.

Yeah I've played around with that one a long time ago and it is good for basic Fire-Emblem style TRPGs but I was thinking along the lines of something more like Final Fantasy Tactics and the much more advanced capabilities (scripting, graphics, stronger eventing and mapping, etc.) of current RPG Makers like Ace.  Thanks for mentioning it though. 

 

[Creative Ed]

I actually think enterbrain should stop spending their budget into the RTP as you already have the XP,VX and VXAce ones, and I think it's enough. That way, the money they would spend on doing this they would spend it on actually improving the possibilities of the program itself which is what I think that it's really important.

RPG Maker seized to be a game a long time ago. It's now a game engine above all and should be treated as one. Which means, the content the game has should be more and more up to the dev and not to enterbrain. Considering all the graphic packs that you can buy already, I think more graphics by enterbrain itself are actually unnecessary.

I would be much more pleased to see the resourses that are put to those graphics, to be put into things like adding the possibility of creating plug-ins, adding shaders, etc.

Also, enterbrain should really add generic options like allow the programing of colisions (ex. event x touches event y, something happens)

I think plug-ins is by far the most important feature it should have though. Something that would really allow users to customize some parts of the program itself. That way, should you need a specific mechanic to make your game you would make those options available for the program itself. Instead of trying to find weird turn-arounds and loop holes in the program like scripting does through note tags, comments, etc.

 

[Ultim]

Make it 3D

 

[Andar]

Make it 3D

That will never happen - it has been asked before, and the reasons against 3D are too strong to be overcome by the few people who want 3D.
Search the forum, and you'll find those old discussions explaining why the RM's will never become 3D engines.

 

[amerk]

I actually think enterbrain should stop spending their budget into the RTP as you already have the XP,VX and VXAce ones, and I think it's enough. That way, the money they would spend on doing this they would spend it on actually improving the possibilities of the program itself which is what I think that it's really important.

Chances are high with what everybody is asking (especially concerning export options, resolution fixes, and mapping updates) the next maker will be brand new, built from the ground up, with new resource formats, making XP, VX, and Ace somewhat obsolete. So I don't mind the RTP, although it'd be nice if they went back to RMXP's composer.

However, I do agree some more thought and money should be put into the program itself. It may raise the cost considerably higher, but those who want something cheaper can stay with what they have and those who want something more flexible with more options can pay the larger cost for the new maker.

 

[Seacliff]

It may raise the cost considerably higher, but those who want something cheaper can stay with what they have and those who want something more flexible with more options can pay the larger cost for the new maker.

Or Steam sales, that works to.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

Though I think a lot of starters do try RM because it comes with the RTP... And remember that you can only legally use the RTP if you have a license for the maker where the RTP was bundled, so if the next maker will not have it's own RTP, then those who will be using that as their first RM product will have no starting resources to use...

 

[DS Piron]

And they cannot bundle it with an RTP comprised of assets from older, still adequate, RTPs?

 

[Creative Ed]

It's not hard for enterbrain to make previous RTPs legal to newer versions of the program though (it's kind of what they made with Ace, since it only has some more graphics). They actually can put a previous RTP into the installation wizard.

Although, isn't the RMVX Ace's RTP kind of free? Since you can use it in the Lite version.

Something I just remembered it's a must nowadays, is definitely multiple platform support. Not only would would widen its range, it would definitely make RPG Maker a much more powerful engine. (I'm sure this has been discussed already thought)

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

Lite is still Ace just with reduced capabilities and reduced license provisions... and the RTP in itself is free (you can even download it directly without any maker), you just can't use it legally unless you own the maker...


of course they can do that, though it's kind of hmmmm... IDK if that would actually be a nice thing... multi-platform capability is one of the most suggested I think

 

[Matombo]

thinking of the small resolution it would be perfect for smartphones or nintendo consoles

 

[James the Cheapskate]

Here's my wishlist (well things I didn't see in the lists above, but I'm lazy and didn't look so hard either.)

1) In-game script editing - at least the point and click stuff (place an npc & add dialog, place a door that works) 

1A) Also, just a rant.  The point of using a scripting language instead of a compiled language is that you don't have to compile it, it's interpreted on the fly.  You should just catch the errors if the end user makes a mistake (there are several ways you could go about this, saving states before running the script if you're in a debug mode would be nice).  I should be able to modify scripts while the game is running (If not, let's just use a compiled language - and get compile errors instead of program crashes).

1 Intellisense - Anyone who's programmed with a modern API probably likes the auto-completion/suggestion behavior of current clients.  If you have to do any scripting (and it seems like there are quite a few scripts out there), then this just makes the process easier.

2) In game tile editing. It's a bit rough that I have to exit my fullscreen game, then look at the tiny images on my TV (Probably in the minority here for using the largest monitor possible).  If I could edit maps in game, I would have an easier time seeing what I'm doing.  Alternatively allowing a closer zoom in the editor for maps could solve my issue.

3) Graphic editing support - This would be a nice thing to have.  I've used paint, paint.net and gimp for editing graphics so far, but I don't think any of them are well-tuned for pixel art (They're definitely usable for this purpose, but I feel that there could be something better - being able to pull up an editor on a running game and see graphics update in context would probably be pretty powerful).  This probably won't help me anyway, but maybe someone with artistic skill would appreciate it.

4) Better music support - I was surprised that I couldn't import midi files.  It seems that they can be added by being placed in a directory.  It's strange that there must be strange steps to import midi files, when that's probably going to be the most popular way to compose music for the non-professional artist.

5) Additional features - It seems like it's really hard to make the program use a weapon/armor, or to equip them during battle.  You could definitely use weapons/armor in FF and DW games, so it's surprising.  It was a real pain to make equipping items work, probably items were overclassed (could have just had a type variable instead and kept them all uniform and generally interchangeable).  There are workarounds (like having skills assigned for equipment), but there not exactly the same as old school RPGs that you might want to imitate.

I haven't messed around with this for very long yet; If there are good solutions for these things, let me know. I like getting things on my wishlist.

 

[Zoltor]

nevermind.

 

[redspark]

• I'd really like to see cross or multi-platform support for at least the runtime player.  (Windows, OSX, iOS, Android, Linux)  The editor should work on Windows and OSX at the very least

Support for higher resolution has already been suggested but I think hardware accelerated graphics support should also be included
Particle systems and built-in Editor
2D Shaders for effects and transitions
Built-in Mouse or finger touch support
Libraries of RGSS code that can be shared between projects and contains a single source of code rather than copied to each project but with the option to import the code into a project by copying it

 

[TheoAllen]

Ability to import midi using resource manager. Most of people (at least people I know) thought that RMVXA couldn't play midi because they couldn't import it

 

[amerk]

I never bothered with importing music in. It just seemed quicker for me to copy and paste them in.

I'm going to take a gander and say the top 3 things people want in the next maker is:

1. Higher resolution, if not the ability to control resolution.

2. The ability to use the maker on multiple platforms.

3. The ability to export to other platforms.]

My top 3 would be:

1. Having free movement in mapping, placing events, and character movement.

2. Conditional branches for how an event is triggered - so if the player touches something it would play differently than if the event touched the player.

3. A better music player to set your own loops, fast forward and rewind, and the ability to set events to only begin when it gets to the end of a particular audio.

 

[Creative Ed]

I never bothered with importing music in. It just seemed quicker for me to copy and paste them in.

I'm going to take a gander and say the top 3 things people want in the next maker is:

1. Higher resolution, if not the ability to control resolution.

2. The ability to use the maker on multiple platforms.

3. The ability to export to other platforms.]

My top 3 would be:

1. Having free movement in mapping, placing events, and character movement.

2. Conditional branches for how an event is triggered - so if the player touches something it would play differently than if the event touched the player.

3. A better music player to set your own loops, fast forward and rewind, and the ability to set events to only begin when it gets to the end of a particular audio.

I think not only allow resolution control but grid size control as well. (grid able/disable, plus an option to allow isometric would great) 

Addressing your top 3 I'd like to add:

1- I think the mapping editor could really follow the footsteps of Tiled map editor: http://www.mapeditor.org/ with multiple layer support as well as multiple parallax support.

2- Definitely a more advanced control over colisions so that you can set up conditional branches like: if event X touches event Y turn switch N on.

3- Allow 3D Sound as well as multiple BGS etc. 

 

[Andar]

I think not only allow resolution control but grid size control as well. (grid able/disable, plus an option to allow isometric would great)

Changing grid-size (or allowing isometric) would both require new artwork for each new form of mapping - and tilesets require a lot of work to be made, so I don't think there will ever be multiple grid sizes.
There might be a way to program that in as unsupported (that means only RTP for base grid size), but that would cause other problems...

 

[Creative Ed]

Hence why I think Enterbrain should just stop doing new artwork, if they end up limiting the program because of that, which they do.