"This is great for an RPG Maker game"

[MachineElf]

Hey guys - very new here and to game development in general, and in the first stages of putting together my own game.

One thing I'm seeing, as all of you would have, is the negativity directed at RPG Maker games by the public at large. Those that are successful are often seen as good despite the engine. I don't like this - to my mind, a good game is a good game - but I do want to avoid the pitfalls other newbies have fallen into.

What do we need to do to make a great RPG that stands on its own feet? One that can be enjoyed without any disclaimer? If I asked this on reddit, I'd probably get people telling me to use another engine, but I like it and this community so I'm wondering what has worked for any of you.

 

[HexMozart88]

Unfortunately, as long as you use RPG Maker, there will always be people who aren't satisfied. Unless you use the stuff the big companies use, people will assume that every game made with that engine is trash. But then, there are people who don't care about engines. Aim for those people, and if your game is just plain good, you'll get a pretty good review.

 

[MushroomCake28]

The engine doesn't matter, but stuff with default rpg maker assets badly done often comes out. The secret is really simple: just try to make the game not "rpg maker"-ish, meaning the more you can get away from the overused stuff, the better.

• RTP tiles and characters: the first that stands out is the RTP tiles and characters. The good thing though, is that it's only the case when the game is badly done and rushed. If you put time on a map with rtp resources, it's actually fine. You can achieve beautiful with the RTP.
• Battles: the second thing that stands out is the default battle, with or without the YEP plugins (yes... those plugins are overused so people associate them with RPG Maker and bad games). If you can somewhat get an unconventional battle system, meaning anything that isn't default or YEP, that's a huge help.
• Menus: change the look of your menus, add unique stuff, etc.
• Music: kinda of secondary as some people play without music, but get a music pack or commission someone.
• Title screen: have a custom made title screen. It's the first thing people see when they open the game, and you want to make an good impact, not "Oh... this is a background image from RPG Maker".
• Get third party assets: there are a lot of free stuff on this forum. Take a look around, get some nice tilesets, different battlers, etc.

There's much more I could go on, but you get the idea: make things unique and different than other games. The beauty is that everything doesn't need to be very different: you could have custom art styled characters, but more generic music, it doesn't matter since your game already stands out.

Shameless self-promotion: If you want to fish around a bit, you could get my achievement plugin:
https://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?threads/mush-advance-achievement-system.93569/#post-884327

 

[phamtruong1992]

Well said, buddy. Can't analyze that better myself. And you don't have to be ashamed as your plugins are always very good and useful. (Wow new emotes )

Well, have a good day lads.

 

[BlueMage]

anything... anything that you made from passion and hardwork! Will always get people respect and admiration.

 

[OmnislashXX]

Yep. What they said.

Look, you aren't going to make a masterpiece. Frankly, most of us don't have the time or the money to make anything that will be competitive. But. But. You take the time and you work on a game. Work at it. Maybe do a little each day. And you work at it some more. And you keep working at it. Use the resources from this site. Expand your library of things you might use, whether it be tiles, music, Etc.

And above all, don't listen to the critics. People are going to complain. That's what people do. There were people complaining about FF7 when it came out, but the majority of us still play that game.

So make the game you want to make and damn all everything else. As long as you are happy with it, who cares what anybody else thinks?

 

[TheoAllen]

Hey guys - very new here and to game development in general, and in the first stages of putting together my own game.

but I do want to avoid the pitfalls other newbies have fallen into.

Based on your question, it is about exactly your question. If you're new to the general, don't think too much about this. Unless you're a very rare case, most of the people's first game is trash, and that's okay. So, you should learn the engine and development in general and try to finish a game.

But let me try to answer the actual questions. I can think of two things for this.

First, the presentation (or story, for the sake of simplicity). Some of the well known RM games are the one that focused on the presentation. RM is an engine built for storytelling rather than gameplay even though there is nothing stopping you from focusing on gameplay.

Second, the graphics. While it can be counted as presentation, but graphics may deserve their own spotlight. Remember, some people might try your game because of the aesthetic. No more RTP all over again. And some people might try a game just because the female mc is cute (I mean, I do).

 

[mathmaster74]

@MachineElf As MushroomCake28 said and others have echoed, make it your own as much as possible. Start from the start. Make a custom splash screen to add to the game and consider customizing even the MadeWithMv file in the project img/system folder as well. RPG Maker comes with an installed plugin by default now that lets you reference your landing page image, so the suggestion would be to use it. Go to the icon folder and replace icon.png and icon1.png with your own game icons. Put a custom image in the title folder to use as your main title backdrop and set the database system tab to use this image. (Note: I'm guilty of skimping on this one, but title screens do get early if not first scrutiny from skeptical players!) Find a commercially available font that works in RPG Maker engines, put it in your fonts folder, and change the GameFont name in the gamefont.css file in the fonts folder to match your font's filename. [May require some trial and error as some font creators are more thorough than others...especially where free fonts are concerned. Caution: Other programs running simultaneously with RMMV (your engine per your profile) can cause buggy text behaviors. I suggest making your title part of the backdrop picture or using an animated title plugin as opposed to checking the checkbox for Draw Game Title to avoid these behaviors.] Acquire as many free assets/resources/ideas/suggestions as you can. There are a lot of people around here who know what they're talking about. I aspire to be one of them someday.

Anything you can creatively customize yourself is going to stand out because you made it uniquely, but know your strengths and weaknesses and rely only on your strengths here. For anything you can't DIY there are resources available and the paid ones usually come with reasonable price tags. Just do your due diligence before you buy. Now you're ready for the meat of the project. You can start with maps and eventing, or start with your story, but either way...make it yours and not just another FF, LoL, Pokemon, etc. Get your game made to a minimum viable product. Is there a proof of concept you need to work out? Work it out. Ask here if you can't get it on your own. Are you overwhelmed yet? Not to deter you, but I just scratched the surface here.

The most important thing to remember is this: being an Indie developer means you're independent...not alone. I believe we are all Indies here...but united Indies with a passion for RPGM engines, games, demos, etc.

Last notes on originality (at least, for now,) consider parallax mapping as much as possible over tilesets to avoid the gridded look most stereotyped RPG Maker games end up with (again...guilty myself). And (I promise this is it, for this post, anyway...) customize your in-game menus...meaning everything from typing original content in the database Terms tab fields, to editing the Window.png file in the img/system folder, to (and I really recommend these as the last part of customizing your project, if possible,) using plugins which will improve your menu setup, look, and functionality optimally for your baby. In short, leave no stone of RPG Maker unturned...and turn as many of its defaults as possible into something...let's say "more original". Best!

Sincerely,

 

[LycanDiva]

The first thing you can do is to use custom tilesets, window graphics, and character sprites, not the built-in ones or any of the publicly available DLC. Giving your game a unique look gets some people to take you a little more seriously. That might include looking into the parallax mapping technique and mods that allow you to increase the animation frames for character walk cycles to enhance your game's visuals.

Next, learn JavaScript so you can do things like fully customize your combat system, add new features, and make custom menus. Sure, there are existing plugins for these things too, but learning to make your own is really rewarding. As a bonus, if you know how to code, if something you add to the game (your own plugin or one by someone else) breaks something else or isn't working right, you'll know how to fix it.

Making or commissioning your own custom soundtrack helps too, because music is incredibly important to setting the mood of a scene and the overall tone of your game. At the very least, you should have a custom theme for the game, custom battle themes (1 for regular battles and one for bosses at the very minumum), and a custom overworld theme. These are the most heard themes in an RPG, so having unique ones for your game will help give it a unique identity.

Finally, a good story and memorable cast of characters. Even if your basic plot is a generic "Chosen One and friends save the world" thing, making your heroes, villains, supporting cast, and even a few random NPC's memorable and even enjoyable for your audience goes a long way to make your game stand out. Even a mechanically sound RPG can be ruined by bland characters and a boring or disjointed story (*cough*Legend of Legaia*cough*).

 

[Kes]

There are, actually, a lot of threads covering this ground, most saying pretty similar things to what's been posted here.

I do, however, want to add a strong caveat to the suggestions in the post by LycanDiva. Custom tilesets which are not publicly available means that you would have to commission them privately unless you are a really decent artist already, who knows what all the technical requirements are and have a lot of time available. So think thousands of dollars. For a first game? While you are still learning how the engine works? When everyone warns new users not to try and make their first game their dream game? Not, imo, something you should be considering. The same for custome sprites - those have to be paid for, and if you are using a sideview battle system, you will need matching battlers as well. Expect to shell out a fair bit for all those.

Next, learn Javascript. No. The first thing to do is to learn all that the engine is capable of doing. Time and again we see people asking for a plugin for something which the engine does by default, but they haven't learnt how to use the eventing system well, let alone creatively. Dreadshadow has an excellent playable tutorial on the Event Menu Commands which I strongly recommend you go through.

Starting off with the idea that everything must be custom is usually a bad idea. There are remarkably few people who are sufficiently good as an artist and as a musician and as a coder and as a writer and as..... to pull it off with zero experience. Trying to do too much for a first game is one of the major reasons why the internet is littered with games which have not been, and never will be, completed. Even if you have deep pockets, it is very easy to waste a lot of money getting stuff that, in the end, you don't use, because the game changes as you develop it.

I would suggest that you make a fun, shorter game to start off with to learn the engine, balancing, debugging, and the other skills needed to bring a game to a successful conclusion.

 

[Aesica]

Battles: the second thing that stands out is the default battle, with or without the YEP plugins (yes... those plugins are overused so people associate them with RPG Maker and bad games). If you can somewhat get an unconventional battle system, meaning anything that isn't default or YEP, that's a huge help.

Actually to be fair, the YEP stuff can be used to make a really good non-cookie-cutter battle system...with a bit of willingness to work on things a bit. The actual problem here is that people don't bother customizing their battle settings or the YEP plugins much, if at all, and that's what makes all these YEP-based battle systems appear lazy and cookie-cutter.

Developers using YEP stuff need to be a bit braver:

• Roll up those sleeves and dig into the plugin settings. Don't be afraid to change anything, because you can always remove the plugin and re-add it to reset everything back to the plugin defaults.
  
• Work on your timings and delays (in everything) to make things feel a little less slow and clumsy.
• Slim down the fat gauges Yanfly seems to love because (personal opinion incoming) honestly, I think they make the UI look really low-quality, like something from an early-era Flash game.
  
• Learn, then master the action sequence system.
• L2Code, or find/pay someone to help make a patch plugin to fine-tune the YEP stuff to better fit your game in ways that the YEP plugins' parameters alone can't alter.
  
• Change the default YEP skill/spell/reflect/enemy attack/etc animations. Dear god please, the default-settings ones look really bad, but to be fair, there really aren't any good use skill/cast spell animations available out of the box. That said, the RTP animation assets and sounds give you a lot of options to make something more unique, faster animationwise, and less annoying/intrusive overall.

Next, learn Javascript. No. The first thing to do is to learn all that the engine is capable of doing.

While I agree that it's important to learn everything the engine can do, knowing javascript does help one to not be restricted by what their YEP plugin armada can accomplish for them. To give a few examples, I liked Yanfly's damage over time plugin, but it lacked anything for MP over time until I added it. The Enemy ATB plugin is another, as it had limited visual customization options (compared to the Enemy HP plugin) until I added them in. Things like that are why it's a good idea to at least try learning some javascript if possible--yes, I know not everyone's brain is wired for code, just as not everyone's brain is wired for art, language, or music.

 

[Kes]

@Aesica I absolutely agree that learning to code is a great aid. My point was that this is not where you start. First learn the engine, then learn how to change what's there, because by that time you'll have a much clearer idea of what you need to do.

 

[MushroomCake28]

@Aesica Although they can do a lot of things, the YEP have already been used by thousands of thousands of people. It's the same thing than with the RTP tilesets: it can do great things, but since they are overused, people can get the feeling of "it's RTP" or "it's a YEP plugin" even if it's well done. That's the unfortunate truth. In order to really have a unique battle system, the safest (and best) route is to code it yourself or commission someone. Of course, that's not realistic for most people, but using YEP plugins won't achieve that level of customization and uniqueness.

 

[TheoAllen]

@Aesica Although they can do a lot of things, the YEP have already been used by thousands of thousands of people. It's the same thing than with the RTP tilesets: it can do great things, but since they are overused, people can get the feeling of "it's RTP" or "it's a YEP plugin" even if it's well done. That's the unfortunate truth. In order to really have a unique battle system, the safest (and best) route is to code it yourself or commission someone. Of course, that's not realistic for most people, but using YEP plugins won't achieve that level of customization and uniqueness.

I'm just gonna link this here http://blog.rpgmakerweb.com/interview/virgo-vs-the-zodiac/

Not a single plugin used in the RPG Maker demo was customly made, actually! All the ones I used back then were found on the internet. Kudos for Yanfly, SumRndDde, Moghunter, Galv, Himeworks and a bunch of other amazing people! I probably edited a 5 or so lines of code from the base RPG Maker code as well, but nothing other than really tiny details.

 

[MushroomCake28]

My case still stands: look at how many more authors there are, not YEP alone. And a 100% custom made will always have more possibilities.

 

[Aesica]

@Aesica Although they can do a lot of things, the YEP have already been used by thousands of thousands of people. It's the same thing than with the RTP tilesets: it can do great things, but since they are overused, people can get the feeling of "it's RTP" or "it's a YEP plugin" even if it's well done. That's the unfortunate truth. In order to really have a unique battle system, the safest (and best) route is to code it yourself or commission someone. Of course, that's not realistic for most people, but using YEP plugins won't achieve that level of customization and uniqueness.

If it's well done, I don't think people actually care about whether or not it has the YEP stamp on it. A lot of Yanfly's plugins strike me more as "additional features you can play with" rather than "a complete system to be used right out of the box."

I think it's FAR more important to have a clear vision of what you want your battle system to feel like going in. That's what I did, and it made me approach Yanfly's battle plugins like, "how can I make this thing do what I want it to do?" rather than "I'll just take what these plugins give me and do something with it" which is the category I suspect most of those "thousands of people" fall into.

Now I definitely agree with you on "not YEP alone," provided the vision you have for your battle system demands more than the YEP suite provides. I made myself a few battle plugins to fill in all the gaps for things I wanted, such as smart heals, limit breaks, extra control over attack/guard behavior, racial bonuses/penalties, harming undead with healing, and a bunch of other crapola. But like, if you're already making a turn-based battle system, completely abstaining from Yanfly's plugins (what it seemed like you were implying, sorry if I misinterpreted) is just a case of reinventing the wheel. More effort (and potentially, commission money) than it's worth in the end.

 

[Wavelength]

I think the biggest thing you can do to both improve a game's quality (assuming you have a good game design in the first place) and make it seem less "RPG Maker-y" is to change the feel of the game. This generally requires some scripting and manifests in elements like:

• Changing the way menus work - especially using pictures instead of text, and improving their interface to require fewer button presses
• Displaying extra information that will be useful to the player (and changing up the formatting of this info while you're at it)
• Adding in extra little features that you don't normally see in RPGs (whether RPG maker or not)
• Having multiple sources of movement onscreen while on the map, and choreographing the movements of characters/objects during events so that several move at the same time

 

[LycanDiva]

There are, actually, a lot of threads covering this ground, most saying pretty similar things to what's been posted here.

I do, however, want to add a strong caveat to the suggestions in the post by LycanDiva. Custom tilesets which are not publicly available means that you would have to commission them privately unless you are a really decent artist already, who knows what all the technical requirements are and have a lot of time available. So think thousands of dollars. For a first game? While you are still learning how the engine works? When everyone warns new users not to try and make their first game their dream game? Not, imo, something you should be considering. The same for custome sprites - those have to be paid for, and if you are using a sideview battle system, you will need matching battlers as well. Expect to shell out a fair bit for all those.

Next, learn Javascript. No. The first thing to do is to learn all that the engine is capable of doing. Time and again we see people asking for a plugin for something which the engine does by default, but they haven't learnt how to use the eventing system well, let alone creatively. Dreadshadow has an excellent playable tutorial on the Event Menu Commands which I strongly recommend you go through.

Starting off with the idea that everything must be custom is usually a bad idea. There are remarkably few people who are sufficiently good as an artist and as a musician and as a coder and as a writer and as..... to pull it off with zero experience. Trying to do too much for a first game is one of the major reasons why the internet is littered with games which have not been, and never will be, completed. Even if you have deep pockets, it is very easy to waste a lot of money getting stuff that, in the end, you don't use, because the game changes as you develop it.

I would suggest that you make a fun, shorter game to start off with to learn the engine, balancing, debugging, and the other skills needed to bring a game to a successful conclusion.

I made my suggestions as a next step beyond learning the core engine, and I agree that all of these things don't have to be done all at once (there are lots of great games that only do one or two of the things I listed). If you can only do one thing to customize your game, go for the thing that you're most talented at, be it artwork, code, music, or story. I was simply listing the most impactful things one can do to set their game apart from the crowd, particularly if they want to release it to the general public.

But, learning JavaScript at some point is still a good idea. The eventing system and all of the engine's built-in options are great and can take you a long way, yes. However, sometimes you just need a plugin. And, one of the most common problems that happens is when someone is using two plugins that have conflicting code and doesn't understand how to fix it so they can have the functionality they want without the error. Knowing at least the basics of JS is a big help in those moments.

Really, your first game should be a practice game where you muck around with the engine; see what it can do in its base form; experiment with existing plugins and making your own; see what changing the default color pallet on the text box graphic does in-game (I definitely recommend that one, it's pretty interesting); and play around with typefaces, graphics, and music. Because of that, you shouldn't worry too much about a public release and just focus on amusing yourself and learning new techniques and skills.

 

[L.W. Flouisa]

Hey guys - very new here and to game development in general, and in the first stages of putting together my own game.

One thing I'm seeing, as all of you would have, is the negativity directed at RPG Maker games by the public at large. Those that are successful are often seen as good despite the engine. I don't like this - to my mind, a good game is a good game - but I do want to avoid the pitfalls other newbies have fallen into.

What do we need to do to make a great RPG that stands on its own feet? One that can be enjoyed without any disclaimer? If I asked this on reddit, I'd probably get people telling me to use another engine, but I like it and this community so I'm wondering what has worked for any of you.

I love the engine itself. A lot of my issue is whether I can even really translate my scripts. ( Note, when I say translate, I don't mean it's not in English--I wish. But whether they would carry over into the engine. )

 

[VitaliaDi]

Yeah, pretty much make it look unique so avoid the RTP resources. If you're using MV there are lots of plugins to change around the menu and pretty much everything else to make your life easier. And make something in your gameplay unique.
Also tip from someone who just finished their first game, watch your map sizes.
The rest I'd say just goes with the gameplay and the writing. Avoid typos and boring characters. Have at it.