What are the #1 mistakes that RPG Maker games make?

[C-C-C-Cashmere]

Hey everyone!

I was wondering what are the mistakes that you think RPG Maker games make again and again? Sure, RPG Maker games are awesome, that's a given. But what are the same things that keep happening over and over that are typical of RPG Maker games that you think should get rid of?

Here's my list:

1. Slow walk speed - Some games decide to slow you down to a crawling, especially horror games. Sure, it can create mood, but gameplay wise it's frustrating as anything. I'd recommend using Yanfly's System Options script, to make running a default option, and use SHIFT to walk instead, so you don't have to use SHIFT all the time to run.
2. Too many descriptions of items - For some reason, a lot of games think it's cool to be able to interact with every single object on the screen. The problem with this is that it ends up ruining the pace, because completionists want to hear every single thing that every object says. So the game ends up being very slow and tedious. I encourage people to describe only a few items, and make sure it's obvious that they can be interacted with, to make sure that pace is quicker.
3. Takes too long to get to the main gameplay - Unless you can do cutscenes really well (which most don't), then I recommend that the player be able to get in touch with the main gameplay mechanics within the first 15-30 minutes of playing. Otherwise you just lose my interest.

It'd be great to hear what you guys think about it.

 

[Arin]

1. Crap mapping.

2. Not having a concrete enough story which just makes me lose interest within an hour of playing it.

3. The RTP.

 

[Dalph]

I can't really make them in order because they're too many:

- Polishing totally avoided (a lot of bugs, errors and spelling mistakes everywhere).

- Hit Rate of the characters attack not settled at 100% (this is frustrating).

- Too much useless dialogues and poor action.

- Random battles too frequent.

- Incoherency and poor balance.

- Slow walk speed of the characters as you say.

- A lot of useless (and probably also unused) scripts added.

- Bad Mapping.

- Not enough variety in the gameplay.

- Not enough strategy in battles (just the same attack, heal, attack, heal, over and over...)

- Uninteresting and clichè storyline with bland characters.

- Lacking of a good tutorial to explain the mechanics of gameplay.

Ok, I've been devilish enough now...but I can't think of anything else.

 

[Archeia]

My main gripe:


- Sideview battle systems that aren't done properly.

 

[seita]

Biggest gripes:

• Quality Control and bug testing is non-existent.
• Packaging aka pitching the game to the player is half-assed.
• No clear goal at the beginning, no direction. Don't use terms like "open world" and "exploration" to be lazy with your eventing and direction, unless you've got actual sandbox gameplay that makes traditional directions obsolete.
• Too much talking before you have my attention. Make me care before you unload your feels on me, I probably don't feel it yet. Seriously.
• I agree with what's been said thus far.

 

[Milkdud]

Being too ambitious with the game.

At least, from experience.

 

[Ksi]

- Slow walk speeds are a killer.

- Sow walk speeds on large maps are worse.

- People thinking that RTP is a bad thing. It's versatile as hell and gives a great basis to work from. It also has other sets that match it and a hell of a lot of extra resources in the same style thanks to edits. Also, freaking easy to edit and play with. People complaining about RTP obviously have never seen the power of RTP.

- Carpets that are not rectangular/square or don't make sense. Pet peeve.

- High cost items with low money kills. This is something I see a lot in new games. The creator gives enemies small amounts of money then amp up the prices of items. It comes with balance.

- Balancing. If you fight an enemy and they take 90% of your health before you kill them, give me either enough items or good enough healing skills to counter that. I can't make it through a 10 minute dungeon with five potions and a skill that heals me 20 life if every monster takes a huge chunk out of me every turn.

- Mid-speed healing/healing items. Make it either go first or go last because, frankly, it's a terrible thing to waste that precious healing spell/item on a dead body because you didn't know if you'd make it in time.

- DO NOT UNDER ANY fricking CIRCUMSTANCES USE THE DEFAULT PARALYSIS SKILL FOR A MONSTER ATTACK! It can destroy even the most prepared party. I have been wiped in so many games because of that fricking skill, you have no idea. It's party-wide, high-chance hit, does damage when it hits, costs little to use and is a fricking pain in the ass. Enemies will spam that fricking skill. Your party will be paralysed for between 3-5 turns and you can't do **** about it because Frick, that's why! It's an instant party wipe. Do not use it. (If you are stubborn and decide you want it, at least edit it to make it less rape-fest please.)

- Large-ass maps. Please do not make large-ass maps unless you either know what you're doing (in which case, why are you making a large-ass map?) or there's a good reason for it - say, oh, a plain or desert. And if you ever make an inner map over 50x50, you had better have a fricking good reason or I swear to God...

- Light effects and tinting. Please, unless you have a really good reason for a dark area, don't make that **** impossible to see. Also, don't cover that **** up with 10000 lighting effects. Subtle is best when it comes to them - big fricking lights blaring in like a sun? Not so much. Spotlights? Only for when you have real fricking spotlights. :/ So many great maps lost to the cover-up that is lighting effects.

- Ellipses. Use them grammatically, NOT dramatically. I have seen so many games... so many games that use... ellipses. They are used in ways that they shouldn't be used... and at times they even don't use them properly.. like, only two dots? Ellipses should only ever be used to show missing words OR when connecting a sentence that didn't fit in a text box. So, quotes that leave **** out like "I ... like mudkips!" or to show a fade off like "What did you want to... Elle? Elle are you okay?!"

I'm sure I could list a thousand other things - but frankly I think I've raged enough for the moment. I need to cool my head.

 

[Aurorain]

My two biggest pet peeves:

• When people use the water tiles meant for showing there's a wall underwater(like in a lake or something) as the "entire" surface of water.
• Grammar. Now, I know there're quite a few non-native English speakers, but if a game is being translated into English, it should be proofread, or implemented by someone who doesn't make the text so agonizingly painful to read, or just flat out laughable(because of how bad it is.). :x

Ksi also said a number of good points that I get rather upset with when I see people doing 'em. But, these two things are just what annoy me the most~ ;3

 

[Dalph]

@Ksi:
Do you realize that I have to change the title of my game now?:
 

Spoiler

 

[Ksi]

I remembered something else guys. A big thing that a lot of newer creators do nowdays.

- Scripts. Almost anything can be done with eventing if you put your mind to it - especially simple systems. Last night I created, within half an hour, a random encounter event that is more in-depth than the default. It allows different rates of encounters depending on if you ran from battle or not. It doesn't do one-two-step encounters and I can change it to add extra systems that activate before or after battle if I want (say someone has a special piece of equipment that kills certain enemies before we go into battle? I can do that. Half-rate encounters? Easy.) All through eventing.

 Yes, I could have used a script. But I didn't need to. I got what I wanted with just events. I didn't have to create a script myself or beg someone to create one for me and wait for their reply. 30 minutes and done.

 So much can be done with events. You can change your window skin to be a picture just by using the show-picture command. You can create a custom menu just by using the button input commands and pictures. You can even make your own battle systems (though they do take more work, of course). It's just a matter of knowing how. And learning eventing is something you have to do anyway to create a game so why not expand beyond the knowledge of message screens and dive head on into switches, variables and other pieces of the engine to see what you can do?

FYI - I once made animated enemy battlers in RM2K. Yeaaaaah, eventing sexy~

 

[Hollow]

^A thousand times that. Eventing can be almost if not just as powerful as scripting is you put a good bit of effort into it. I'd highly recommend checking out some RM 2k/3 games (those engines, for the most part, had no access to scripts) like Hero's Realm, Fey, and a whole slew of others to see what sorts of really cool systems you can make with just eventing (plus the fact that XP, VX, and Ace are even more powerful than RM 2k/3 so you could probably make even cooler evented systems with them--as Liberty has already demonstrated above).

Anyway, beyond what others have already posted, I think my list would be this:

*Parallax maps for the sake of having parallax maps. Bad mapping is bad regardless of whether or not it was done in the editor.

*Slow-paced battle theme songs.

*Melodramatic dialogue.

...And I think that's it. Most of my other peeves have already been posted here. :>

 

[kerbonklin]

I haven't played too many games/demos flying around, but I notice these:

• Duplicate player-touch event-scenes forming a wall, but when one activates, the others are not locked into not activating afterwards.
• Rats with OP stun-lock.
• Bad encounter rates.
• Not much of a "battle system" going on. Some people toss in a side-view script and some standard skills/states and call it a day. There's a lack of an "inner system" to add strategy or difficulty. I've seen some titles use that Ao no Kiskei turn-order script but never use the special functions that the script supports (Slow, Charge, Cancel, non-default Delays, etc.) or they don't USE THEM AS A SYSTEM.

I love these kind of topics by the way. Great way to list out and learn from the DON'Ts without pointing obvious fingers.

 

[Dalph]

About the RTP:

I also love to use and edit the RTP, as Liberty says here, the materials are a good base and they have huge power and versatility when in proper hands, it's all a matter of how you use them.

Most people have this twisted idea that RTP materials are ugly because they don't know how to use them properly, since most RTP games have relatively bad mapping.

Even a simple recolor\edit can manage to look awesome ingame...don't you believe me? Just check Indrah's games, they're mostly RTP and basically better than a lot of other games.

I'm a decent mapper myself, but I don't really like Parallax for a lot of reasons (too time consuming, possible collision problems, file size increase), as much as I consider it beautiful, it's not worth my time.

Ok that I'm a lazy guy, but come on...losing a week or even 5 days for a single map is not healthy...

Call me crazy but I still prefer the normal tileset mapping, you can easily obtain a lot of details if you know how to rearrange the tiles properly and use event graphics. Also RM Games with Parallax mapping have a very high chance to never be completed.

I also think that the RTP characters doesn't get enough credit, they're awesome (yes, even Ralph), people don't seem to understand that they're in truth the soul of the tool. I mean, how can you not use Ulrika in a game? Come on...look at her... *_*

About the Scripts:

Most people are lazy, that's why they add a lot of scripts into their games without even trying to find the alternative with events, they also understimate the power of eventing, you can manage even to create a full BS with events, it's all a matter of hard work.

Adding a lot of scripts isn't the answer...NEVER.

And yes, as said here, just play the classic and awesome RM 2k/3 games, scripting didn't exist at that time, and they're still a lot better than most modern RM games.

Personally, if I can't really replicate my idea with events, then and only then I go into scripts, that's why I have only 12 scripts in my game while most people use at least 70 of them without even trying to customize them.

Sorry for the rants but this is what I think...XD

 

[Cozzer]

Well, a lot of balancing errors are issues that commercial games have too. If I had to list problems exclusive to RM, I'd say...

1) Implementation before ideas

The problem with scripts aren't scripts. Scripts are a way of implementing an idea, and in most cases they are more efficient than eventing.

The problem is that before you implement your idea, you have to have an idea. Sadly, it's easy to look at the enormous list of easy-to-add scripts and add things to the game before actually thinking about them.

Sure, you can add a battle system with events, but it's way more difficult and you don't really gain anything.

The point is not doing it with events or scripts, the point is that the battle system has to exist in your head before you add it to your game.

2) As everybody said, mapping

Large and empty maps, and everything.

3) Basic balancing errors

As I said before, even commercial games make balancing errors. In RM games, though, it's easy to make very basic errors, like the stun-locking rats somebody mentioned.

Lack of testing (and sometimes, of cynical self-examination) is the key, here. It's also worth noting that often these errors can completely put off players, since they're so basic they give an idea of "the developer wasn't even trying!".

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

Slow walk speed - Some games decide to slow you down to a crawling, especially horror games. Sure, it can create mood, but gameplay wise it's frustrating as anything. I'd recommend using Yanfly's System Options script, to make running a default option, and use SHIFT to walk instead, so you don't have to use SHIFT all the time to run.


Too many descriptions of items - For some reason, a lot of games think it's cool to be able to interact with every single object on the screen. The problem with this is that it ends up ruining the pace, because completionists want to hear every single thing that every object says. So the game ends up being very slow and tedious. I encourage people to describe only a few items, and make sure it's obvious that they can be interacted with, to make sure that pace is quicker.


Takes too long to get to the main gameplay - Unless you can do cutscenes really well (which most don't), then I recommend that the player be able to get in touch with the main gameplay mechanics within the first 15-30 minutes of playing. Otherwise you just lose my interest.

I decided to agree/disagree first with these:


1) Agreed


2) not really, some people prefer to play like that... it's your choice if you want to interact anyways...

because completionists want to hear every single thing that every object says. So the game ends up being very slow and tedious.

A problem if ur not a completionist, but then again, if ur a not a completionist, you won't even interact with all anyways...


3) Situational...


Anyway, my main gripe is really number 1... not just walk speed, but also gameplay wise, most RM games I played are slow

 

[Cozzer]

Personally, I really like when my characters make comments when I examine things.
Expecially if it's used as a way to subtly insert very small bits of character establishment/development.

And yes, slow walk speed is terrible. There are situations in which it can be used for dramatic effect, but none of these is when you're exploring a town or a dungeon.

 

[Ksi]

Personally, I really like when my characters make comments when I examine things.

Expecially if it's used as a way to subtly insert very small bits of character establishment/development.

And yes, slow walk speed is terrible. There are situations in which it can be used for dramatic effect, but none of these is when you're exploring a town or a dungeon.

Yess, or add to the world lore or just make a place seem more real and alive. Bonus points if it's tongue-in-cheek at times, or references things that may not be explained within the plot but still matter. I love learning about places and cultures in games. I love to delve into a world that's not my own and find cute, funny things. Of course, being made to search every little thing is a bother - or forcing interaction for no reason, but optional cuteness is always awesome. It shows you really got into the nitty-gritty of creating your world and/or characters. ^.^

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

as long as it's optional, it's fine... forcing is maybe only fine if that's the whole point of the game...

 

[Dalph]

I'm surprised that nobody mentioned a very important thing here: ""MUSIC""

Music is very important in a game, it's the soul of the game itself, and gives life to characters and locations, to not count the fact that adds emotions to the game.

Most developers rip the music from other games, as much as I'm completely fine with that...for god's sake don't mix everything and create a total mess! Ok for ripping from different games (I also do that sometimes), but the music themes must be consistent between them!

Don't mix Crash Bandicoot themes with Suikoden ones! (ok this is a stupid example but it's just for give an idea of what I'm saying).

Plus, most people can't even create decent Loops during battles (it's easy as hell), and this makes me sick!

I get angry when the music suddenly stops or fades out during battles and then starts over. OMG...I hate this...

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

me, I'm against ripping... anyway, I just don't notice music that much on PC games since I normally turn off music when I'm playing PC games...