Tips on Making a Good RPG

[Cartool457]

any tips on how to make a good RPG because I keep trying and I constantly fail, I even watched many videos and yet that doesn't help either

 

[Hyouryuu-Na]

I'm not sure if I should even provide advice as I'm pretty much on the same boat as you XD But I've been using MV long enough to have gained considerable experience so I'll just say this. It's pretty hard to define a 'good' rpg. What are you facing problems with and what do you expect from your game?
Have you started working on your game with a clear idea of what you want to do? That's really important. Often we get sidetracked and it becomes hard to understand what we really want. You should have a small synopsis ready for your game before you start working on it.
I've seen this advise given to new devs a lot of times and have also taken this advice: start small. You seem to be fairly new to game development so you may want to start with something simple. I'd advise you to take part in the one map game challenge event.
Game development is tricky. What you define as good may be not so good to other people. You can't please everyone. Focus on one target demographic but make sure you enjoy what you make.
Your first few projects don't need to be very good. You just need the practice. So don't worry about making a very good game just now. Start with anything and just go on with it for now. If you get stuck, there's always this forum to help you out.

 

[Soulrender]

There is no one specific recipe for a good RPG (assuming that we talk about a game made with RPG Maker MV), keep that in mind that games made with MV (or any RPG maker) are very recognizable due the specific tilesets style and turn order battle system, but if I were you I would do following:

- Think your project to whom you're making a game and create a small community that would support you with your project development.

- Read some books, or listen few interesting stories and develop your own story (without haste)

- If you're no artist, then fine, keep with default tilesets, after all there are not so bad as people think

- Play some other games and see how they do battles, there are dozens plugins that alters default battles in MV

- Create charismatic/memoriable heroes, you should find inspiration in heroes from your childhood, a heroes you really liked/admired.

- Sounds and music also is important, you should check Creative Common libraries to find a music matching climate of your project.

Now this is pretty generic, but if you totally focus on one of these elements then you're half way of success, the rest is up to you, managing free time to spend on game and other stuff.

Finally, the most difficult part - marketing, because even god damn good games without marketing (a good one) marketing won't be able to get through all other s**t you can find on steam. In other words you need to know how to tell people that your game is better than others.

I think that's all for now.

 

[Wavelength]

@Cartool457 Please give your threads useful names that are relevant to the thread's content in the future. "I need help" won't be useful to forum readers who are looking at a list of thread titles, or searching the forum for answers on a topic. I've changed the title of this thread for you.

I recommend checking out the "General Discussion" board in the Maker General area. Go back at least several pages. There are lots of good topics there about finding inspiration, about making the best game you can, and about how to avoid or deal with burnout.

 

[Andar]

plan ahead

have the full story outline down and all game meachanics selected before you open the editor the first time, including an assignment on how much work time you expect to use for each part.

The last is only possible if you had a small project before starting your dream game to learn what game development is about, but you always need a scrap project just to work through the tutorials needed to really learn what to do - watching videos alone is ALWAYS a waste of your time, you need to DO the tutorials (replicating every step described in your own tutorial project) to really understand everything.

you can follow the link to the "starting point" in my signature to get a better idea on game development.

 

[hiddenone]

These type of general design tips can be used with any engine, not just with MV.

I'll move this to General Discussion.

 

[DarkFrost]

What can be called "good" is VERY subjective... It's something that is easily diving into opinions that could differ between each person.

But what can help in attempting to create something are a few basic things:

-Decide on a clear cut vision of your idea and try not to stray too much from it. You should always have a sense of direction to lead you.
-Focus on a general audience that would most likely enjoy the style and feel of your game.
-Test out EVERYTHING because there's so very much that can go wrong and chances of it can grow with more stuff added. It's best to try and reduce those chances as best you can.
-Allow others to give feedback and criticism as you progress. Having others to test your work out could lead to some interesting ideas and maybe even things you might have overlooked or never even considered.
-Don't strain yourself too much over an idea. The more you stress about something, the more you tend to struggle with it. It also doesn't mean to slack too much either as there needs to be a good balance.
-Try to have fun with what you do. If you're not enjoying it, there's a good chance others may not either.

Also, this vid does help a lot with some things involving development too:

 

[Storyteller-Hero]

RPGs have different subgenres so think about what you want to actually make within the genre.

Consider who your desired audience is and choose a theme based on that.

If you find yourself lacking in an aspect of making RPGs then either find a collaborator or learn new things to improve yourself.

Play different RPGs, or even just different games in general until you get a sense of quality in various aspects.

Study playwriting/screenwriting and read, read, read anything and everything relevant if you want to improve your storytelling.

 

[RayGarden7]

any tips on how to make a good RPG because I keep trying and I constantly fail, I even watched many videos and yet that doesn't help either

You will need a storyline for the game and you need to organize the information. I wrote the storyline and I have all the character written out which helps knowing what you genre your trying to write does help.

 

[garorey]

Good storyline and character but I am not so big expert in game developing. I am interested in app developing and have already found good idea here for my project. I hope it will be successful.

 

[Volourn]

Step 1: Strive to make a game you'd enjoy playing. If you don't enjoy the style of game you are making; chances are very few others will either.

Step 2: Accept criticism but try to be aware of others' biasness (and, yours) too.

Step 3: Stay as focused as possible and don't try to do 'too much'. This is where I personally get stuck. I always have a bad habit of adding more complex things (espicially in terms of player choice) which just leads to never ending work. The more focused you are and more pre planning you do the better off you and your game will be.

Step 4: Have fun!

 

[Tiamat-86]

play test your own games a LOT. both sectional playtests and full run playthroughs

A ) bug checking. wrong passibility on event making an invisible wall. open box, see text for new weapon but new weapon didnt get added to inventory. wrong page triggers, broken quests, wrong dialog. "if something can go wrong it will go wrong" - Murphy's Law
B ) spell/grammer checking. games with no capitalization or punctuation usually means the creator doesn't care enough to make it look at least decent and chances are they didnt make sure there is no game breaking bugs either. also just plain annoying trying to figure out what NPCs are trying to say
C ) lore staying consistent. unless it's part of the main storyline throwing a curve ball the lore should stay relatively consistent for each region in the game. and if you are going to have tweeks to the lore have the NPCs be a part of the confusion too. don't just abruptly change the lore part way through. broken immersion can feel like when try to pick up game an load an old save after you completely forgot where you are and what you were doing.
D ) replay value. if you know EVERYTHING about the game and you have played a section 200 times in playtesting but jokes are still funny (or the damn licker STILL makes you jump (RE2)) chances are the players will enjoy it too.

E ) You
F ) Can't
G ) Please
H ) Everyone

no matter what you do some people will complain "it's to hard" while others "it's to easy"
"i hate random encounters" "fixed encounters are predictable and boring"
dont make a game to please every tom, dick and harry because its not going to happen.

just make a game to please you.
then everyone with similar tastes as you are enjoying magic cards, meanwhile dick and harry can go argue somewhere else about pokemon vs yugioh being the best

Edit: Balance testing. you dont want to leave dungeon 3 at level 17 and have dungeon 4s mobs able to 2shot you characters until your level 25. no grinding required isnt always a good thing but to much grinding required can be just as bad. full playthrough tests you should try with 3 different mentalities.
1 run where you avoid all shops and NPCs as much as possible (this should be a hard playthrough where you are impersonating a speed runner)
1 playthrough where you talk to EVERYONE, buy 1 of EVERYTHING, and grind 1 extra level every time you reach a new rest area. (this should be the easyest. the "completionist" or "perfectionist" playthrough)
1 where you play as you knowing "dont buy armor but do buy the longsword, cus dungeon gonna give you free armor but no free weapons until after the next town" (this playthrough should be slightly harder then the completionist playthrough because you are lower level but still be far easyer then the speed runner playthrough because you have better gear)

 

[Milennin]

Got nothing new to add, but some points I'd like to re-emphasize:

• Plan ahead. Don't go in without knowing what you want to do with your game.
• Make a game you'd enjoy playing yourself. It's not worth making a game that might attract a larger audience, if it comes at the cost of not enjoying playing it yourself.
• Specialise in the fields you're strong at. If you're good at writing, make something that largely consists of storytelling, letting gameplay take a backseat. If you're good at mechanics, make a game heavily focused on gameplay, with being low on story. Don't try to do everything at once.
• Playtest as much as you can. At least half of your development process should consist of playtesting your game, in my opinion.
• Play other RPG's, and take notes about the things you like and dislike in each. It's never wrong, taking ideas from other games.

 

[rechronicle]

For me,
don't think too much, your understanding about it (game dev) will shape itself the more you do it.

I wish I know this sooner than later in my game dev journey. Actually, it applies to many things in life.

 

[duty]

Title the project: "a good RPG".

Even if it's awful, it's still "a good RPG".

 

[ADMtn]

Title the project: "a good RPG".

Even if it's awful, it's still "a good RPG".

Hahaha. Nice.

Tempted to piggy back and suggest the sequel's name, but it seems too obvious.

Oh, to stay on topic: whatever is fun for you and allows the player a decent amount of choice in controlling the character so the player feels somewhat like they're in the player character's shoes (hence the role playing part of the role-playing game).

 

[duty]

@ADMtn <-- this guy gets it

In all seriousness, there are very broad definitions of "GOOD" for role playing games.

You cannot control how others will interpret your work. It's no good if you're miserable the whole time you're crafting and then nobody else understands or enjoys the result.

So focus on what you do have control over: how you feel about making your game. Whatever happens when it's done, you can guarantee that it was a positive experience for you.

It seems like creating a really nice product is important to you. It's an intrinsic motivation. So start small. Focus on one aspect of your game that you want to do really well. And we're talking really small. Less "let's make the combat engaging" and more "lets get the HP balance right". Less "let's make a big, open-ended world for the player to explore" and more "Lets make one really nice looking dungeon".

 

[Dr. Delibird]

Make the game that you'd enjoy playing. Or at least that's where I begin. Its very doubtful that nobody enjoys the same things as I do, just statistically speaking, so therefore I purely see myself as the target audience.

You also should keep in mind whether or not your game is heavily reliant on the story or gameplay. If it is a purely gameplay focused RPG where there is either no story or the story is just a means for your game to be conveyed then you need to make sure that the game is fun to play, playtest as you make it and find other people who can playtest it too. If your game is going to be primarily story focused then it's just all about good writing. Games that are a mix of these two essentially require the same advice however generally speaking if you split your focus between those two areas it becomes harder the more evenly distributed your focus is, that is why I suggest you put more time and effort into one over the other even if both aspects are important to you.