RMN SNEWS - ISSUE #1

A newsletter - RS!VI, ECAs, Team-Captin RMN, Everything Turns Gray, Lost Legacy, Max McGee

  • kentona
  • 04/13/2009 12:00 AM
  • 11580 views

..:: Issue #1 ::..






RS!DVI officially occurred on March 20th, with a respectable 21 releases, all of them - amazingingly - downloadable demos or full games. The event was a little toned down from our previous RS!Ds, but far from a flop. In fact, we had quite a few gems in there, some excellent reviews, and generally good turnout!

halibabica has been the standout member of this RS!D, tirelessly playing and reviewing the releases, day in and day out, no food or water. Wotta guy!

For more on RS!DVI, including the standout games, please read halibabica's upcoming Release Something Roundup.

** UPDATE **

Halibabica's Release Something! Day Roundup is ready! Read it now!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~




Inciting controversy, high emotions, and eliciting both praise and scorn, the Educated Choice Awards exploded on the RMN scene.

With no need to recap the drama, here is the 2008 list of awardees:

#11. Harbinger
by Karsuman

#10. Master of the Wind
by ArtBane

#9. Quintessence - The Blighted Venom
by Reives

#8. The Mirror Lied
by Reives

#7. 1873
by ChaosProductions

#6. Alter A.I.L.A. Genesis
by Neok

#5. U.S.G. ~A New Beginning~
by hima

#4. Cavern of Doom
by bobthebobish

#3. Mage Duel
by Max McGee

#2. SkyE
by Anaryu

#1. Demon Tower
by Craze


Congratulations to all of the winners! We look forward to what you have next in store for us in 2009!







My Brute would kick your Brutes ass. Prove otherwise.
Feldschlacht IV has enlightened us to a fun little web-based dueling game called MyBrute. In Feld's own words...

"So I came across this fun site today called My Brute,, where you generate a Brute, which is basically a personal little gladiator, to fight in your name against other created Brutes for experience, abilities, and glory. The fights are automatic, and your Brute fights other Brutes whether you're there or not, however of course you can (and should) manually enter your Brute in fights to build up his/her strength. Your Brute can even take up other Brutes as pupils to further his abilities and gain experience!"

My Brute is kicking ass in popularity here. Prove otherwise.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~


Team-Captin RMN


The Arabian Knight -- One of the many ass-kicking Captins

Dudesoft is bringing his popular superhero Captin vs. Villin comicbook to RMN! Request a Captin and a Villin by providing him with a superpower, name and looks and in virtually no time Dudesoft will craft a superb looking character! He claims that it takes him only an hour to complete each one but it is hard to believe; they are just so good!

Get in on the action before it's too late. And try to be more creative than a certain admin...




Map Design Fun #8: Befuddle Quest!

kentona is taking Map Design Fun in a BOLD NEW DIRECTION. In his own words...

"Welcome to Map Design Fun #8: Befuddle Quest, a collaborative puzzle/maze game community project. Using a specific product, RPG Maker 2003, we will each make a single map puzzle using RTP and I will link them together in a quest. Why RM2k3? Because it's accessible to the majority of people and because it's pretty easy to link maps together using it. That, and I'm running the show and that's what I use (because I'm old)."

This IS different, but will it be better than the old MDF format? Only time will tell.

Submission Deadline is April 19th, 2009 @ Midnight, so sign-up soon if you are interested.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~


Max McGee's Upcoming 3 Hour

Sometime in April, Max McGee will be hosting the next 3 Hour Competion, wherein the participants have 3 hours (duh) to create a new, original game from scratch using the agreed-upon theme.

Theme suggestions have ranged from Super France to Playing as the Badguy, so if you have a clever idea, post it now.




RPG Mechanics V : Skill Progression/Skill Sets

ChaosProductions has posed the community another set of game design questions, this time revolving around skills. How do you determine when a character learns a skill? How do you decide who gets which skills? How are skills divided amongst characters? How are your skills divided amongst themselves?

Have an opinion? Join the discussion in Game Design & Theory.








Everything Turns Gray
A Post Apocalyptic Open World RPG



"It is the big one, the one I really care about."
--Max McGee


What is it?
Everything Turns Gray is an open-world sand-box style CRPG set in a realistically bleak, harsh, and inhospitable post-apocalyptic wasteland. This survival horror revolves around you battling the cold, dehydration, starvation, fatigue, and omnipresent radiation. The emphasis is firmly on survival.

Why should you care?
Everything Turns Gray has recently released a playable demo. The game is smart, challenging and gripping. The story is presented quite well, even deftly delivering the standard "amnesia" plot device. The potential for the game is great, matched only by the community's frevored anticipation of the next installment.


~ ~ ~ ~ ~




A (semi-)community project chaingame idea!


What is it?
Missiongarde is self-decribed as a generic mission-based RPG in RM2k3 designed with the communty's help. kentona vows to build a game framework implemented in RM2k3 - classes, weapons, spells, items, attributes, conditions, battle commands - based on a community design effort. Furthermore, he promises to deliver it and a basic mission in May (if possible). After that he will then pass it off to another community member to make the next mission, chaingame-style.

Can he pull it off? Hard to say at this point, as his last community game attempt flopped. Time will tell...

Why should you care?
It is a community game generating a lot of interest. People have been eager to contribute and refine a plethora of great ideas. Anyone can contribute and you should, too.



Putting the spotlight on a oft-overlooked game



LOST LEGACY: AN ANIMANIA STORY
By Christian Roule
Platform- RM2k3
Status- Complete



Lost in the noise...


What is it?
Lost Legacy: An Animania Story is a popular RM2k3 game created by MayorAnime that few frequenting the forum here have heard of. It's fans rave "Great story, great characters!" and "entertaining" and "tastefully done".

MayorAnime explains...

"In late 2008, I got an email from someone from Amaranth Games, telling me that Lost Legacy was very popular there, and that people were stuck on some of the puzzles and needed help. Quite amazed, I went ahead and got back into the RM community on Amaranth, and started to follow support my game, patch it, and help develop a walkthrough for it. So, I guess you could say that Amaranth was my first REAL foray into the RM Community, and that was in the summer of 2008."

Why should you care?
Lost Legacy is generating a lot of buzz everywhere but here. Are we missing out on a hidden gem? Darken says no, but Xchain, SilverSoul and DawnFire say yes! Judge for yourself here: http://www.rpgmaker.net/games/930/






Max McGee

Butcherin' yer art since ninteen dickity two!
..:: Games :: Articles :: Reviews ::..


Max joined rpgmaker.net on September 3rd, 2008, boasts an impressive 10.512 posts per day, is a prolific game maker and writer, and has a penchant FOR UPPERCASE TYPING.

In his own words...


RMN HISTORY:
I've been a member of the larger community since at least 2001, but coming back to RMN in the Fall of '08 represented my triumphant return/epic comeback to amateur game-making. I drifted away from the scene in late fall of '06 for two reasons.

1) I had a girlfriend, job, school work, and active social life.
2) After I quit GW in an explosion of ostentatious drama and formed Ghostlight (currently being resurrected as http://ghostlightgames.net/ ), number 1 kicked in and I no longer had time to be a good admin for the site I created.

As a result of that and other factors, Ghostlight died, and I grew frustrated with the limited and ever-diminishing audience for my game. So, between that and finally having a life, I quit amateur game making "for good".

Until September, 2008 when finding nothing to do I finally gave in and made Mage Duel, and then posted it on RMN. The rest is history.

Out of all the places I've hung out to make games, I like RMN the best.


PERSONAL BLURB:
"Max McGee is a 23 year old writer/game designer with a BA in Creative Writing from the prestigious Charles & Lily Lieb Port Creative Writing Program at the not-so-prestigious SUNY Purchase.

His story "Revelations", published under his pen name, Devon Oratz, appears in the Spring '08 issue of Space and Time Magazine, which you can pick up . (Of course Max receives no proceeds of any kind from this, but it is a good magazine and he thought you might like the story.)

Max McGee has been making video games since he was ten years old, and making up just plain games in his head at least since he was four."


SPARE TIME:
Not surprisingly, I am a total geek. So when not writing speculative fiction, making video games, reading speculative fiction, or playing video games, I tend to play live action and tabletop RPGs, make live action or tabletop RPGs, or play live action or tabletop RPGs that I have made. In short, I avoid the real world as much as possible.

I am also a HUGE film buff, and I know a lot about movies.


FAVORITE FOOD:
Most commonly eaten-meal, you mean? That'd be a foot-long tuna sandwich from Subway, half for now, half for later, with no condiments or toppings except Swiss cheese on half. On half because even after all these years I haven't decided if I like swiss cheese or not. (I detest most other forms of cheese, especially if melted, extra sharp cheddar, especially dry Irish cheddar.)

The food that brings me the most pure joy is bacon but it's really bad for you so I'm trying to cut down.

Dessert wise, I am very partial to milkshakes; anything but strawberry.


FAVORITE SAYING:
Here is one I discovered recently that I really like:

"I am so beastly tired of mankind and the world that nothing can interest me unless it contains a couple of murders on each page or deals with the horrors unnameable and unaccountable that leer down from the external universes."
-Howard Phillips Lovecraft

I could not agree more, Howie.


PET PEEVE:
So many things infuriate me that I walk around all day in a state of constant rage, muttering obscenities and punching nuns in the face. "Now is not the place" for the venting of the bilious humors, though.

I will say this much: I HATE reality television.


LITTLE KNOWN FACT:
1) Nothing brings me to a state of childlike delight more than birds. This affection for birds is neither feigned nor ironic, although I am aware of exactly how silly it is. I'm also not alone in this.
2) My girlfriend has been a member of this site since late last year. I will not reveal her identity, of course. We decided to keep it secret to avoid an Asalieri/Suzuricho like level of "I wub you more/No, I wub you more!"

She spent a lot of her time stalking me online on RMN, so I bugged her to join so she could support my projects openly (mwahahaha). I am lucky because not only is she the love of my life, but also my biggest fan.


From Max McGee: "Please also mention that I am "PROUD TO HAVE GOTTEN MY POSTS DOWN FROM 14 A DAY" and also that I support "CAPSLOCK FOREVER"."

Sure thing, Max.



Recognition for a dedicated member.


VideoWizard for his excellent work on maintaining the Games released in 2009 thread. The list is greatly appreciated, even if no one says so!

Posts

Pages: 1
This is pretty awesome. Great work, Kentona.
Craze
why would i heal when i could equip a morningstar
15150
So sam sI seducated snow?

Salso, snifty sarticle. SI shall sremember sthe sbrids sbit...
This news is a great Idea loved it top to bottom.
Starscream
Conquest is made from the ashes of one's enemies.
6110
As if we cannot guess the identity of Max's girlfriend. She's always viewing his profile.
WIP
I'm not comfortable with any idea that can't be expressed in the form of men's jewelry
11363
Hey I like this!
LouisCyphre
can't make a bad game if you don't finish any games
4523
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Amazing. Maybe we should circulate a print version as well!
Good job on this. Great idea.
Awesome! This was a great read.
O_o (quietly watches download count double from previous day)

Thank you. I'm very touched.
Wow, this received a lot of positive feedback. I wasn't expecting that. Who knew that a newsletter about the contents of a site POSTED on the the SAME site would be well received by the people who frequent that site?
WIP
I'm not comfortable with any idea that can't be expressed in the form of men's jewelry
11363
I think I might have fixed the comment bug.
I really think this should be a recurring thing.
I wanted to start something ever since we had that discussion in the News Post thread in Site Feeback all those months ago. So I did.
This makes knowing what's going on a lot easier. Are you thinking of making this weekly or monthly?
Haven't decided yet, except that weekly is too frequent. I am currently debating bi-weekly, tri-weekly, monthly and bi-monthly.
Pages: 1