Experience with RPG maker(s)?

[danzibr]

I recall, back in the day on the original PS, there being a game called RPG Maker. I never used it, but I knew people who messed around it. After some googling, it turns out they have a ton of versions of it, the newest one being RPG Maker VX Ace or something.

I personally have almost no experience with coding or art, and think it would be neat to mess around with making an RPG (nothing major, mind you). I was wondering if people online have tinkered with RPG Maker, or perhaps other RPG makers, and the thoughts on these things.

[Driderman]

In my own experience, this isn't the right forum for getting feedback on RPGmaker projects. That being said, RPGMaker VX Ace is the most recent version of RPGMaker and it's a pretty fun tool to work with. It has room for scripting but you don't really need any experience to learn it. It has stock art included and you can buy more packs of **** from Steam, although I don't really recommend most of them.

[lesser_minion]

The main thing you're going to get from any version of RPG Maker is access to the art assets it comes with. A handful of people have been able to actually make money using the tool, IIRC, although it's considered inadvisable to try to do that with default assets, despite being possible.

Otherwise, it essentially works, but like any such tool, at least some programming talent is required to use it successfully.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

I got both of them from a Humble Bundle, tinkered a bit with VX Ace because apparently it's a flat-out upgrade. It's really cool, because it's an engine for making games that you can do a lot of customization on if you want. The only somewhat tedious part is redoing all the spells and stuff, because every new project comes with a default JRPG setup. (Though, my easy way of doing that is to reduce the number of spells/attacks to 1, then restore them to however many I need: it erases all of them but the first.)

I was working through this tutorial (http://www.rpgmakerweb.com/support/products/tutorials) when I accidentally wiped out my Windows partition (long story), but it's really good, and great for getting a handle on the basics of VX Ace. The way I see it, learn how to make a straight JRPG-style game first (to learn the engine), then you can start branching out and doing weird stuff.

I wouldn't necessarily agree that you need programming talent or knowledge to be successful with it: you just need to be willing to learn a bit, because you can do a lot with just the engine.

[danzibr]

Thanks all!

And Carpe, that link is great. Just the sort of thing I'll need, I reckon (though, at a glance I wonder what the difference between parts 8 and 9 is). In about 2 years, I'll reply to this thread with a novice game made :P

[CarpeGuitarrem]

I hadn't made it that far, but a quick click-through shows that apparently they're "Part I" and "Part II" of the events tutorial. Makes sense; events can be complicated!

[SharpWolf]

I played a lot around with RPGMaker 2000, 2003 and XP. Actually, it's even what got me into professional software development, so I have many fond memories about it (though I wouldn't like to look at my old code *now* :smallyuk: ).

Years ago I had a friend who decided to make a fan sequel to Breath of Fire 2 in RPGMaker 2003. The result was pretty impressive: he painstakingly recopied then upgraded the world map and each town map in the game, then set out to do the same with the battle system, with full animations and the like. Unfortunately, the whole thing was eventually lost in a hard drive crash, but it did spark his own interest in 2D / 3D animation.

So in short, in my experience, this kind of project can be a very good introduction to programming (though not on a professional level) and tangible game design (by which I mean, actually producing something instead of just being the "idea guy"), kind of like modding. If you ever get around to making something playable, even if it's just a demo, send me a PM and I'll be happy to give you constructive feedback on it.

[Felyndiira]

There used to be a sizable RPGMaker community back in the RPGMaker 2000 and RPGMaker 2003 days, which weren't officially released but were fan-translated by someone that I forgot the name of. Since it was new and shiny back then, a lot of us formed communities dedicated to building resources and collecting games made from these (and other similar) tools. Scripting didn't exist back then, but people came up with all sorts of creative methods to, for instance, make custom ATB battle systems using clever number sprites and use of loops/branches.

Heck, a lot of games developed back then were actually pretty spectacular. Particular fond memories go to "A Blurred Line", a game with pretty poor graphics but an absolutely awesome storyline (though sadly never finished).

I think a lot of those communities are dead now, though ever since leaving one of them (many of them unfortunately became very xenophobic), I just stopped keeping track of them altogether. Some of the sites may still be alive, though, and if so you may still be able to find the huge wealth of free resources developed to support RPGmaker fans. Most of them are made for 2k and 2k3, so you may have to do some tweaking, but do believe me when I say a huge wealth of free resources - as in, hundreds and thousands of sprites, animation components both ripped and original, and land/texture pieces painstakingly developed by other artists for community recognition.

*

Also, if you just want to pursue it as a hobby, I've seen plenty of budding RPGMaker games that succeed through the likes of Kickstarter and Steam.

[danzibr]

Thanks for the input!

I've been playing some RPGMaker games, and I must say I'm impressed. I've played a good few made with 2k and 2k3. They're about what I was shooting for graphics-wise, and certainly seem to have enough features, so I was wondering if there's a reason to use VX instead of 2k or 2k3. I mean... if 2k or 2k3 would do the job and have abundant fan-made resources, why use VX?

Btw, Schuld is a mind-screwy game.

[heronbpv]

If these resources are compatible between versions, then yes.
What, of course, raises the question if the resources are, indeed, compatible between versions. I believe most of the graphical resources would be (tiles, portraits, etc.), but I'm not sure about the rest.

Does anyone know?

[danzibr]

If these resources are compatible between versions, then yes.
What, of course, raises the question if the resources are, indeed, compatible between versions. I believe most of the graphical resources would be (tiles, portraits, etc.), but I'm not sure about the rest.

Does anyone know?
Hmm great question. If all the fan-made stuff can work for VX, might as well use it.