What could be good ideas to make RPG Maker games' gameplay a more pleasant experience to the player?

[Trihan]

How is this question more unreasonable than all those questions asking "how to make the battle system good?" and overall "how to make an RPG Maker game good?" that get answers with tips & tricks?

Asking how to make a battle system good is a more focused question but is still very subjective. Can you link me to posts asking these questions that got concrete answers and not just people's personal opinions?

 

[A_Higher_Plane]

Asking how to make a battle system good is a more focused question but is still very subjective. Can you link me to posts asking these questions that got concrete answers and not just people's personal opinions?

They may not be so "concrete" but they do tell you something instead of just repeating "It's all subjective".

 

[Trihan]

They may not be so "concrete" but they do tell you something instead of just repeating "It's all subjective".

That is the answer to the question you asked. I can only apologise that you're not getting the answers you apparently wanted.

 

[The Stranger]

They may not be so "concrete" but they do tell you something instead of just repeating "It's all subjective".

But it is all subjective. For example, you said you dislike exploration and that your game doesn't contain exploration. To me, this already sounds like something I wouldn't enjoy. I don't need an open world to explore, but I also don't like wandering through corridors with little room for deviation in an RPG.

You dislike exploration. I like exploration. Our tastes are subjective. If I were to tell you what to put in a game, it'd mostly be what I want to see in a game.

 

[A_Higher_Plane]

But it is all subjective. For example, you said you dislike exploration and that your game doesn't contain exploration. To me, this already sounds like something I wouldn't enjoy. I don't need an open world to explore, but I also don't like wandering through corridors with little room for deviation in an RPG.

You dislike exploration. I like exploration. Our tastes are subjective. If I were to tell you what to put in a game, it'd mostly be what I want to see in a game.

Oh, I got it! I have asked on Quora why FF13 is getting so much hate. And people say things like the first 40 hours of the game it is in "training wheels" and says that you just go corridor to corridor with practically zero exploration. And yet, I really like this game! I don't like games where there is a lot of exploration. I just want a story + gameplay. Maybe even no movement. That is my preference.

 

[Frostorm]

How is this question more unreasonable than all those questions asking "how to make the battle system good?" and overall "how to make an RPG Maker game good?" that get answers with tips & tricks?

Your questions are just really vague and generic, tbh...

 

[Trihan]

We actually had a thread not long ago about why those generic questions get responses like this.

Also I really like FF13 too, but it's entirely accurate to say that it's pretty on-rails until Gran Pulse.

 

[Iron_Brew]

How is this question more unreasonable than all those questions asking "how to make the battle system good?" and overall "how to make an RPG Maker game good?" that get answers with tips & tricks?

"How do I make an appealing battle system" is a much more specific and answerable question than "How do I make my whole game pleasant" because the latter is so subjective and touches every element of the game. Everyone has different preferences - you're basically asking how to please everyone and the simple answer is "you can't".

Hell, even the question "How to make the battle system good?" [sic] is too broad unless you give people insight into your desired outcome/gameplay style. If I were like "add an ATB" you could just as easly come back with "oh but I wanted zelda-like combat."

Maybe it's how you're asking the question? The question "what kinds of battle systems do people here like", allowing people to weigh in and then harvesting and using that information appropriately would yield much more usable results for both you and the people answering your question.

All in all, asking the question in the way you have isn't going to get you any answers which are actually actionable.

 

[A_Higher_Plane]

Okay guys, from now on reading this post/reply of mine, how about this: You tell me what you think will be pleasant in a game, as a list and preferably tell me why too, and I will think about it. I could use such a list of ideas. And I mainly mean "smaller" things like voice acting, emotion balloons and putting your battle face whenever you do a special move/skill in the battle system. Not the whole game or major.

 

[Iron_Brew]

 

[A_Higher_Plane]

If you guys don't want to do at least this thing, then what is the point of all these things in my thread here? You guys aren't being nice. Are you guys harassing me?

 

[TheoAllen]

Are you guys harassing me?

No, we are just telling you how to ask a question.

 

[Iron_Brew]

If you guys don't want to do at least this thing, then what is the point of all these things in my thread here? You guys aren't being nice. Are you guys harassing me?

No. We tried a whole bunch of times to explain to you why what you were asking was problematic/impossible to answer, and you didn't get it until I literally spelled out how to get the information you're looking for if you're trying to canvas for opinion.

At that point, you got belligerent, and the purpose of the thread is completely different, and I don't fancy an entire evening writing lengthy posts explain what my perfect RPG is purely for your benefit.

Nobody is harassing you.

 

[Lunesis]

Hire an artist to draw lots and lots of adult oriented artwork then slap it all in your game. The actual game doesn't need to be good after this. You can use default everything with no tweaks at all to the in-built systems, terminology used, etc. Just throw together a functional game (doesn't need to look pretty) with a flimsy plot, and be sure to trigger those naughty-naughty pictures. You'll get a boat load of positive ratings on Steam and elsewhere doing this. I mean, no one will actually be praising your game, just the work of the artist, but what does that matter? You've got high ratings after all.

Are we talking about Karryn's Prison or whatever?

 

[TheoAllen]

To add to this thread, actually asking what you dislike is more effective than what you like. We can just complain about things without context. But what makes something good needs context.

For example, what makes ATB good is more specific than what makes battle good, which is even more specific than what makes a game good. But we can apply a complaint about "high encounter rate is bad" and "RNG-based outcome is bad" to almost every game. Then from there, we can discuss how to avoid such a pitfall.

 

[Mr. Detective]

Pay me money to play your game.

Waifu characters.

 

[The Stranger]

Are we talking about Karryn's Prison or whatever?

Never heard of that one, but there's a boat load of adult RPG Maker games on Steam. I've yet to see a single one with negative reviews, but that could just be because I haven't browsed them all. lol.

 

[LadyBaskerville]

I agree that "pleasing" is too broad and subjective of a category (even what I personally like in a game varies a lot depending on (sub-)genre, style and execution), but in the interest of bringing this thread back to a productive discussion, I'll try to give an answer.

Since you seem to be mostly looking for improvements that are aesthetic rather than functional, I'll give a few points in that vein off the top of my head that I would consider relatively universal.

- A coherent art style that fits the tone of the game
- Character sprites moving in cutscenes instead of just one textbox after another after another... Sprite animations if you really want to put the work in
- Similarly, character portraits with different expressions for different moods
- Menus that aren't cluttered, contain all the relevant information in an easily accessible way, and require as few actions to navigate as possible (probably obvious in theory, but can be hard to do in practice)
- Maps that neither feel empty nor so cluttered that the player doesn't know where to go (many things can be said about map design, but just to give one point: be aware of where you place your clutter)
- Some way of communicating to the player which objects are interactable and which aren't (can be visual action indicators or simply consistency in design, i. e. make all objects of the same type either interactable or not)
- Consistency in general. Probably the main design advice I have. For example, I don't really care if an actor's face appears in the animation for their ultimate skill, but if it happens for one, it should happen for all (unless there's a narrative reason for the inconsistencies). This also includes things like voice acting, action indicators, character portraits etc.

 

[alice_gristle]

Okay guys, from now on reading this post/reply of mine, how about this: You tell me what you think will be pleasant in a game, as a list and preferably tell me why too, and I will think about it. I could use such a list of ideas. And I mainly mean "smaller" things like voice acting, emotion balloons and putting your battle face whenever you do a special move/skill in the battle system. Not the whole game or major.

Imma do this!

Stuff Alice finds pleasant (not trademarked, y'all can steal!):

-flowers!
-bein' able to like, plant a flower and see it bloom BUT DON'T MAKE IT HARVEST MOON I just wanna see the flower pop up!
-pretty portraits with people that have their hair done up nice!
-also really pretty smiles on those people, I get weak knees for a really pretty smile
-boobs, but not those balloon boobs you see on generic anime girls, like real boobs
-castles
-rooms and places that look like an architect actually designed them
-fun little nooks, spots, and passageways to find in those rooms
-porticos!
-cute little animations on things like chests, flowers, switches, doors, skulls, etc.
-having those animations play when I poke said things
-secret doors that open with cute little animations
-maids (LIKE REAL MAIDS not anime waifus altho I'm sure @Mr. Detective will disagree wid me)
-actually funny dialogue
-dialogue that actually surprises me like, not the stuff I expect from a generic RPG villager BUT NOT TOTALLY RANDOM JUNK EITHER ok? Like not, "Hello warrior, here is a goat, oh look a rubber chicken!"
-people that actually feel like part of their world
-said people being 16 pixels tall and wiggling their bums in a cute way
-nice graphics that are like, pretty minimalistic and very toned down effects and, uh, the like
-secret areas with rewards
-said rewards bein' something else than silver sword +1
-like maybe bits of poetry or I dunno PICTURES OF FLOWERS?
-stuff that makes me cry

 

[Tamina]

What can make RPG Maker games a more pleasant experience? I am not talking about making the gameplay better but making RM games a better, more pleasant experience? I thought that, for example, when during battle a character uses their ultimate move or something, to have the actor's face appear and a sound. I had also already mentioned voice acting in an another post. Also, I think that during the messages in the world map, using balloons a lot when appropriate makes things more pleasant. Would these be good ideas? What else can make things more pleasant? These can be paid or free things.

This is called "juice" in game development. It's sets of polishing techniques applied to the game after the game mechanic and art is done.
You can read about juice here:

Squeezing more juice out of your game design!

Aim to get the most satisfying and emotional ties from your gamers by adding more juice to your game.

gameanalytics.com

Or you can Google "juice game design" for many other articles and videos talking about it.

"Juice" is actually unrelated to game mechanic itself, as any genre can apply such techniques to make their game feel better. Although I can see RPG games having their own set of polishing techniques, such as "character face appear before a special move".