Suggestions for the next RPG Maker

[Seacliff]

Just curious, is the development of VX Ace's successor underway yet? 

Averagely, we have an RPG Maker game every three years. This would be the third year of Ace, so at first you would think that we will have another maker this year. But with the Huge successes Ace was and also being the first in the series to get on steam, I wouldn't be surprised if the developers would wait for Aces sales to drop before working on the next maker. Degica is no big company by any means, so I bet they are in no hurry.

 

[Marsigne]

Averagely, we have an RPG Maker game every three years. This would be the third year of Ace, so at first you would think that we will have another maker this year. But with the Huge successes Ace was and also being the first in the series to get on steam, I wouldn't be surprised if the developers would wait for Aces sales to drop before working on the next maker. Degica is no big company by any means, so I bet they are in no hurry.

You forgot that Degica have no control over the next RPG Maker whatsoever, it is Enterbrain

What I would want is for them to take out the program in this year or the next year, which VX to Ace were 4 years (while others were 3 years, this one were 4 years). I want to see it's hopefully new features lol. I wonder how much time before Ace's release was known before it's actual release, that might actually tell us a hint if it's close or not, or if it's even in development xD

 

[Seacliff]

You forgot that Degica have no control over the next RPG Maker whatsoever, it is Enterbrain

Entertainer is just a publisher. Degicia actually did develop ace, but I don't believe they had any part in XP or VX.

 

[Andar]

Entertainer is just a publisher. Degicia actually did develop ace, but I don't believe they had any part in XP or VX.

You're wrong here - Degica is only the international publisher and worked together with Enterbrain on the translations, but all newer makers (XP, VX, Ace) were developed by Enterbrain, who also distributes the original japanese versions.

 

[Seacliff]

You're wrong here - Degica is only the international publisher and worked together with Enterbrain on the translations, but all newer makers (XP, VX, Ace) were developed by Enterbrain, who also distributes the original japanese versions.

Goshdarnnit, Wikipedia, stop lying to me.

I'll give in, but it still doesn't add up. Enterbrain is mainly known for licensing, mainly magazines and light novels. Not many licensing companies 'develop' programs. But again, I'll just drop this.

Back on topic, who here thinks it would be more efficient to just update Ace with all the minor problems and wants we have for the program? I'd prefer that over spending $100 for a program I'm not ready to use because I'm still working on projects on ace.

 

[Bex]

How about included Ragdoll Editor and Animator with Vektorgrafic for 2d Grafics.

More possibilities to Edit the existing Menus and possibility to create own .

And HUDs and different Textbox possibilities and Grafic Settings .

 

[cabfe]

Don't know if it's been said already, but as I'm struggling with it now...


Please allow for collapsable condition branches in the event editor. With long ones (having more conditionnals inside) it's difficult to read.

 

[Ralpf]

Don't know if it's been said already, but as I'm struggling with it now...

Please allow for collapsable condition branches in the event editor. With long ones (having more conditionnals inside) it's difficult to read.

To add to that, being able to scroll horizontally would also help in these situations.

 

[Marsigne]

Back on topic, who here thinks it would be more efficient to just update Ace with all the minor problems and wants we have for the program? I'd prefer that over spending $100 for a program I'm not ready to use because I'm still working on projects on ace.

Why don't you just pass the project over to the new RPG Maker? it might be troublesome but it's better if they release the next RPG Maker with actual new useful features (don't just fix stuff, but things like Android or iOS support, and Linux and Mac support too, especially since .NET is open source now), than holding up with good new features they could add that isn't possible now. Also, you don't have to move if you don't want to, like some people that kept being on older engines, while other people moved their project to the new engine, but if they bring up good new features, you'd want to pass over

Off-topic:

Spoiler

How come I don't see errors on wikipedia often, despite what other people says. Well, that's why it's good to have references, lol. By the way, what's the webpage that says that? fixing it would be nice to prevent future misleading, not only you but other people

 

[Seacliff]

Off-topic:

Spoiler

How come I don't see errors on wikipedia often, despite what other people says. Well, that's why it's good to have references, lol. By the way, what's the webpage that says that? fixing it would be nice to prevent future misleading, not only you but other people

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RPG_Maker

Kinda of a misread on my part honestly. If you go down the list, you'll see that it says Degica distributed Ace while Enterbrain published it. I guess I misread distribute as developed or something. I doubt that part is wrong anyways. (^_^; )

 

[Marsigne]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RPG_Maker

Kinda of a misread on my part honestly. If you go down the list, you'll see that it says Degica distributed Ace while Enterbrain published it. I guess I misread distribute as developed or something. I doubt that part is wrong anyways. (^_^; )

Yep, but your reason for thinking like that is reasonable, because distributing it could sound like developing it, while publishing would sound like it would be it's publisher, but on marketing their definitions are different

Anyways, to bring up to this topic, and what we've discussed earlier, is that they bring up actual new features. Features that stand out above older or also other engines (like Game Maker). One of these would be multi-platforms/cross-platforms, and again the .NET thing. Others would be increasing performance, which mostly can be done by increasing their efficiency with scripts and adding support to things like using the GPU to render the game instead of it rendering solely on the CPU, if possible of course. Just making fixes and adding things that could be done with scripts (note, I said "just", not that they shouldn't) and such won't be a big deal or be much of "New Features".

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

Back on topic, who here thinks it would be more efficient to just update Ace with all the minor problems and wants we have for the program? I'd prefer that over spending $100 for a program I'm not ready to use because I'm still working on projects on ace.

You mean as a free update? User wise, that will be good... But company-wise? Not so good... That new maker will be a chance to get more money which is first and foremost why a company exists. See XP->VX and VX->Ace, especially VX->Ace. Ace is essentially just an updated VX.


Plus, they're not forcing you to buy the new maker if it comes on anyway... see how people are still getting XP and making projects on it even if we're now on Ace...

like using the GPU to render the game instead of it rendering solely on the CPU, if possible of course.

Of course that is possible

 

[Tsukihime]

You mean as a free update? User wise, that will be good... But company-wise? Not so good... That new maker will be a chance to get more money which is first and foremost why a company exists. See XP->VX and VX->Ace, especially VX->Ace. Ace is essentially just an updated VX.


Plus, they're not forcing you to buy the new maker if it comes on anyway... see how people are still getting XP and making projects on it even if we're now on Ace...

There are a number of developers who do not want to switch to Ace because they've already invested a lot of time on their XP/VX projects.


And there is no backwards compatibility.


And even if there was, you'd have to deal with collecting scripts again if your project relies on them.

 

[amerk]

I wonder how much time before Ace's release was known before it's actual release, that might actually tell us a hint if it's close or not, or if it's even in development xD

I think it was something like 6 months prior to the Japanese release. I remember it being June or July before hearing about the new maker, and December or January when the new maker came out in Japan; March when it came out in English.

Goshdarnnit, Wikipedia, stop lying to me.

I'll give in, but it still doesn't add up. Enterbrain is mainly known for licensing, mainly magazines and light novels. Not many licensing companies 'develop' programs. But again, I'll just drop this.

Back on topic, who here thinks it would be more efficient to just update Ace with all the minor problems and wants we have for the program? I'd prefer that over spending $100 for a program I'm not ready to use because I'm still working on projects on ace.

I recall a few people mentioning that because of how heavily the current makers rely on Windows OS, trying to upgrade these to include some of the features people want has been difficult. My guess is that the next maker will probably be made from scratch (from the ground up), which will hopefully make it easier to import many of the features that have been left off (ie., export options, resolution options, etc). Doing so may require much more time and effort, though, especially since the focus has been on the android / iOS export add-on for Ace. I'd venture to say we will experience an even longer wait time before the next maker than what we saw with VX and Ace (maybe an additiional 2 to 4 years from now?).

Back on topic:

If making a new maker requires more effort than what's been had in the past, what if they took a step back and decided to do a sort of RMXP-Ace version that upgrades RMXP to be more functional and include some of Ace's features? With the effort they've put into adding export features to Ace, this may be able to do the same with XP without as much programming / debugging time, and the people who've invested in XP may actually get a chance of getting some artistst to make XP assets for the company store.

 

[Marsigne]

Of course that is possible

I meant if there is no technical limitation to making it like because of it's programming language or such, but if it's possible then nice, although they may not have implemented it because it costs a lot of money or something xD like getting an DirectX API or something xD

 

[Seacliff]

Back on topic:

If making a new maker requires more effort than what's been had in the past, what if they took a step back and decided to do a sort of RMXP-Ace version that upgrades RMXP to be more functional and include some of Ace's features? With the effort they've put into adding export features to Ace, this may be able to do the same with XP without as much programming / debugging time, and the people who've invested in XP may actually get a chance of getting some artistst to make XP assets for the company store.

RPG Maker: XP Ace? I would LOVE that.

Only problem is that they'll have to go back to RGSS1... compared to RGSS3 it's incredibly frustrating. I don't script, but I do edit a lot of them to fine-tune it to what I want for my game. RGSS3 makes it pretty easy what lines of code I need to pin down, RGSS1 is just a mess IMO.

 

[amerk]

Not necessarily. VX was RGSS2 and the upgrade for that was RGSS3. It'd be no different than the upgrade from VX to Ace. I wouldn't be surprised if they went with RGSS4 for an XP Ace edition.

 

[Clord]

I think one feature that most would rather have than not is that when importing RTP data, it would detect what files are actually being used.

 

[Seacliff]

I think one feature that most would rather have than not is that when importing RTP data, it would detect what files are actually being used.

I'm confused on how helpful this would be, I'm fine with importing the last saved version of whatever I selected. If anything, I think it would be a chore to finally find the file I wanted in my labyrinth of folders only to be told to close the import box, close whatever file I had open, then go through the labyrinth again. I guess there's something other people see in this that I don't?

 

[amerk]

I think what Clord is suggesting is that it only includes bits of the RTP you are actually using, rather than an "all or nothing" approach or having to revert to adding these manually.

I see the benefit in that it saves me from either creating two versions (one with the RTP included and one without), telling others to download the RTP themselves (especially when they have no use for it outside of playing games), or having to manually insert portions of the RTP I've used myself and risk missing something.

But the problem is it's not just the database. RTP can be pulled from a variety of areas (the database, the map properties, scripts, etc). If a tool like this were used, it would need to also ensure it can detect changes to the default scripts and 3rd party scripts that use the RTP.