What are the biggest mistakes begginers do?

[Kage]

Hey Everyone.

So I'm just starting my journey with RMMV but I don't want to set myself up for failure from the get go. I'm wondering what are the most common mistakes that beginners do? How should I prepare myself? What is the most annoying thing you find in a amature rpg game? What are the big NOs? What are must haves, do's and that's? Any advice and tips?

There's so much information out there and it's very hard to collect everything. Can you recommend amazing and simple tutorials, especially about variables and switches?

 

[Mrs_Allykat]

Save any really unique and big ideas for later. If you're really invested in an idea, and you learn more of the system -- it's rewrite city. Also, backup backup backup backup.

 

[Arin]

Trying to make something big right out of the gate. There are many beginners of the program who want to make the next Final Fantasy, or the next groundbreaking project that will shake what we know about RPGs, or something along those lines. And yet when they realize the complexity of what they are trying to achieve, it backfires on them.

Start off making something small, but you would still be proud of. It doesn't have to be the next biggest hit in RPG gaming (news flash, it probably won't be), but as long as you are happy with what you make, that is all that matters. Over time, once you get more and more accustomed to the program you're using, then start to expand your horizons. Start adding in custom resources, using custom other assets instead of RTP, among others. People don't just make great games right off the bat; that takes more time and effort than you could possibly imagine.

 

[Finnuval]

As mentioned above, don't shoot for the stars the first time. Also expect everything to go wrong, take longer and be more difficult then you imagine.
Be prepared for the negatives like not knowing what to do, things not working, feeling lost and down because of it etc.

And never ever forget to have fun!!!

 

[punchybot]

To add to the advice above, a lot of people think they can handle it and ignore said advice. Nope. Don't do it!!

I really like these comics by Yanfly. It's a good way to make your first game.

If you really want to get going on your game, keep it in the same universe somehow. That way it adds a little something to it in a way.

Build a game with what you have. If you don't have the battle system you want, then find something else. Don't get hung up on art or music.

 

[TheoAllen]

Obligatory Andar's post a starting point for new users.

 

[OmnislashXX]

If you want some good tutorials as well, follow SmnRdnDude's tutorials over on youtube.

 

[Kage]

Thank you everyone for the advice. Would it be safe to say I should just make my first game with what I have, experiment with it and use it as a learning curve? How long did take you to make your game and how many times have you reworked your game? What did you start changing and updating?

 

[megumi014]

I would also suggest you to refrain from using plugins until you have played around with the engine for a bit. There are awesome plugins and it's so tempting to start installing them all, which might lead to incompatibilities and maybe you don't even need them for your game.

 

[Mrs_Allykat]

I'll add this, once you've made some test games to toss in the trash-bin... Go have a look at The One Map Challenge. It will help you with making limits for yourself and your project.

 

[Shaz]

what are the most common mistakes that beginners do?

"I must have ALL the plugins!"

 

[Kage]

You're all correct. In my head I have this vision of me creating spectacular game within one year, hoping that learning process will be intuitive and easy. It's so hard starting from nothing without any knowledge. So what are your horror stories,and common mistakes you have made while working on the project ?

 

[Andar]

take a month or so to learn the engine. During that time, use a tutorial project that is intended to go to the trash bin from the beginning, no need to plan to complete it.

you need that time to learn how to handle the engine, and what you learn in that time will cause you to scrap whatever you were working on anyway because you later know how to do it better.

and whatever you do later, remember one thing:
"A titanic list of features is the surest way to go Titanic (to the bottom of the ocean) with your project".

That said, someone already mentioned the tutorial I wrote for people like you, it's the "starting point" linked in my signature.

 

[Kage]

Thank you so much. I'm reading it now

 

[Emanzi]

my biggest mistake was not playtesting enough when I made "ghost lantern" my first game made with rpg maker 2003 back in the day.

Spoiler: ghost lantern

https://ekamu.itch.io/ghost-lantern

You really need to get someone else to playtest, not yourself or your friends otherwise you end up with a weird game nobody gets. Its kind of embarrassing.

 

[Kage]

Wow Ghost Lantern looks impressive

 

[Milennin]

The biggest newbie mistake is thinking they're going to make the next Final Fantasy or Elder Scrolls all on their own with zero experience.

 

[Emanzi]

Wow Ghost Lantern looks impressive

Yes but it got a really bad review.

Spoiler: review

https://rpgmaker.net/games/5844/reviews/4649/

As a beginner this really killed my motivation to make games. I quit for a few years after that then MV came out and here I am. I plan on making a spiritual successor with MV but I have to set realistic goals this time.

Another beginner mistake is over ambition.

 

[JazzGotBlues]

Tbh as someone who just started out themself and... also asked for tips.
The biggest mistake I made the first few weeks was thinking I couldn't just not understand.

Now I'm working on a small game max 10 maps and just try to experience how it is to make and finish a game. Just trying to make it as best as possible.

I didn't hear any mapping tips (I used Mv in the past already)
-Don't do squares, bring unnatural shapes.
-play some similar styled games for inspirations, but don't copy!
-adapt a certain style, if your houses are 2 tiles high, keep it that way.
-Use tiles differently, treehouses don't have be premade by pixel artists!
-RTP Edits, (if it's called that) make the game a lot better, just a different type of grass, walls trees. Nothing to spectecular. There are a lot of free tilesets out there, be sure to credit them!

Also in a month, when you are looking for that one plugin, just google it. Scroll trough Yanfly's pluginlists, but also plugins from others.
The're so MANY Plugins out there, it's amazing!



And a very basic one, when doing a game longer then 45m, plan it out ahead. Have the story written out, characters planned out, possible maps, backstories, quests, mechanics you want for your game. Plan it out, know what you are trying to make. It can really save you a lot of time in the future and keep your games from losing track and becomming confusing.

Good luck!
Greets!
A Noob

 

[bgillisp]

Making too big of interior maps. I did it too, as I made a mansion which was 90 x 90 tiles. It was ridiculous in the end. I think the kitchen if you tried to translate it to real world would have been 36 feet by 42 feet. No one has a kitchen that big, for any reason. As to how to prevent it, most adopt the convention that since the bed is 2 x 1 tiles and most beds are near 6 - 7 feet long, then a tile is about 3 - 3.5 feet for interior maps. Since many rooms in the US are 10 - 12 feet, that means if you were mapping US stye rooms it would be 3 - 4 tiles in each direction, total.

Mis-setting the To Hit/EVA ratios. I did it too so I can testify to this. I tried 75% to hit in my demo initially, and people complained about how often they missed. Now I do know really old games had hit rates this low, and I went back and played one, and you know what? It wasn't fun. Battles were miss, miss, miss, miss, miss, just hit that stupid Goblin already! And even the games that used low hit rates well it worked because you could manipulate things to improve it. For example, Jagged Alliance is a game where you miss a lot in gun fights. But you can improve your hit rate by getting a better gun, finding a sniper scope, or just moving to a better position. Fire fights across 10 - 12 tiles of open terrain with everyone in cover would have a lot of misses in relaity, so if you want to hit, someone has to get closer and flank the other. Or you can just rush them and pray, which can work too. Or you can grenade them and blow up their cover while at it. Or you can blow up the stairs and the walls and make them fall to their death. Or you could blow up a hole in the wall and go around them and surprise them from the back with another group (I did this many times). There were options. We can't do that in RPGMaker without massively re-writing the battle system though, so for us, we should avoid really low hit rates unless we want to completely redo the battle system to make it fun still.

Making too big a game at first. This has been said already, but I say it too as I did this, and here is how well it worked:
June 6th, 2014: Started game for the IGMC 2014.
June 10th, 2014: Started over as first idea was awful.
July 2014 sometime: Started over
August or September 2014: Started over. Released demo of this version for initial feedback.
November 2014: Started over
February 2015: Started over. This version became the version I'm still working on to this date.
August 2016: Game was playable from start to end, though very buggy.
July 2018: Beta version released to testers.
Today: Still Beta testing. It's slow though as I got to test 20 - 25 hours of playtime (for me) over and over and over. Hope is to release in February or March of next year though. I could probably release it now, but I refuse to release during the holiday deluge of winter sales as it will just get lost in the mass of black friday and steam winter sales. So I'm using the remaining time to polish it up more in little ways, aka fix those little things that work as they are, but could be improved (hint: Make a backup if you do this, sometimes you end up undoing your change as you make it worse).