BREAKING THE FOURTH WALL: FUN OR NOT?

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Well, here is the thing about breaking the fourth wall; Sometimes it is done correctly, and other times it is done really poorly, and most of the time in rpg maker it is done absolutely terribly.

It comes down to how the deleviery is; For example, let's look at two dramas that I have recently been watching, that is "Castle" and "私の嫌いな探偵; The Private Detective That I Don't Like"(And yes, one is american and the other japanese)
In Castle there are a ton of forth wall breaking moments where the main lead Nathon hints that he was on "Firefly". These are well executed, and overall lead to making people smile, which in the realm of fourth wall breaking is what you want. You don't expect a laugh when you break the fourth wall, you expect a smile.

In "私の嫌いな探偵", both of the main characters realize that they are in a ridiculous japanese detective show, and at times they break the fourth wall with hints at being self aware, only to cover it up hypothetically. This is very playful, and amusing, but it is not very funny, just enough to make you smile. In other words:

That is the main problem with fourth wall humor; Not everybody takes a hint or quite understand if this is supposed to be funny or not. Now I have addressed the common pitfalls in television, let's address it in rpg maker games: It normally does not work well at all. The reason this is a hard form of humor to come across in a rpg is because of the medium. At the beginning of playing the game, often the player has experienced years upon years of bad humor in games, and is desensitized to it.

Now I am not saying for you not put fourth wall breaking humor in your game, by all means go ahead! Just don't be disappointed. In the end, my best advice is these 3 things:
1.Do some research: Watch some Carlin, watch a couple of movies where the fourth wall is broken on a normal basis(Wayne's world comes to mind sadly -_-'''). The more research you do, the funnier your jokes will be. Also, play Kentona's "I expect you to die" for a short, but good example of old school rm2k humor.

2.Make a rant: Grab a friend and come up with a few bits. If you can make them laugh(Borrow jokes if you must! Everyone does that in the beginning!), you are well on the way to making your game absolutely hilarious. Also, remember your audience!

3.Don't overuse it: Over using a joke can do one of two things: It can make it funnier by reference, or it can make it feel cheap. And cheap in this case is bad. It all comes down to how you deliver in the end.

EDIT: I spent the entire time people were putting up replies to type this. Sorry about that! And yes, Deadpool is a perfect execution of breaking the wall.

Some webcomics have tendency to break 4th wall as well, so browsing Smackjeeves/DrunkDuck may help as well in research step (and you'll find many great webcomics to read).

Anyway, just do it when you feel it fits (if it is serious game in general, I'd suggest to do it in more carefree and relaxed parts of the game, doing it at fight with main boss for example would seem forced.

Anyway, for my project I am putting some of it (currently there is devroom and other 4th wall breaking and game is even able to figure your name), but not overdose. My game is pretty easter-egg oriented though, so it may not be best example for your game. My aim is for amount of easter eggs similar to those in Duke Nukem 3D or (more recent) Retro City Rampage.

I don't thing that joking with the player is a good idea. 4th wall can be broken in many ways, like the characters going out of their plot, the game breaking itself, or the player being able to change something that "would" not be able to do normally (?)

May be this can be useful in your research, if you haven't seen them yet:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WocjtVabfho
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTaN6wyMwCY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCGJcMYI3Ig

Good luck!

Dammit! I hit the submit button twice by mistake.

It's a fine line. Using Suda51 as an example:

In his 2001 game Flower Sun and Rain, one of the chapters involves a little boy kicking a soccer ball at the protagonist's head. When the protagonist begins to reprimand the boy, the boy starts complaining on how shoddy the game is; the character models look cheap, the plot makes no sense, and the music is simply remixed classical music. The protagonist flips out and the boy runs away--the player has to spend the rest of the chapter chasing after the boy "so word doesn't get out". I thought this was rather clever, and really funny.

In his 2013 game Killer is Dead, the protagonist sometimes flashes a grin at the camera and says "hey, it's just a video game". I thought this was lazy and annoying, an attempt at postmodernism with nothing backing it up.

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Did you ever play Snatcher? There's a great bit early on in the game where you can hear a faint beeping. The protagonist's sidekick advises the player to turn the volume up on the TV if they can't hear it. It's soon discovered this beeping is coming from a time bomb, followed by a loud explosion. The protagonist complains how bad the explosion hurt his ears, to which his companion replies "That's because you left the volume turned up." I liked that a lot.

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author=karins_soulkeeper
I was planning on having an npc named 'Dev'. He'll be the player's guide throughout their adventure. And I was planning on having him constantly spill out stuff, like: 'Hey up there. Mind if you play faster? I want to be home before supper.' And comment relating on the aforementioned plot.

This reminds me of in Earthbound, there's a random dog you can talk to who becomes "possessed by the spirit of the game developer" to give some gameplay tips. I thought that was cute.

Make references to the act of "breaking the fourth wall" without straight up acknowledging the player's existence. If there's a moment when things become a bit too existential during a talk with the king, have a random decorator walk in mid-scene and have the conversation go a bit like this:

D: "Sir, we're finishing the castle extension for your study but we've just now realized that there's no natural light coming in. What would you have us do?"
K: "Are all the walls set?"
D: "Not the final one."
K: "Then collapse the fourth wall and install a couple of windows."
D: "Yes, sir."

Then if you have a moment where something needs to be lamp-shaded, have the same decorator walk in:

D: "Sir, we've come to realize that limiting the use of your study to the daylight hours would be criminal. Do you have any recommendations?"
K: "Simpletons! Place lanterns on the walls; it's not difficult!"
D: "But sir, what about your glaucoma?"
K: "Then place a shade on it to control the light."
D: "A "lantern shade", sir?"
K: "Did I stutter?"
D: "Right away, sir."

It depends on the nature of the game.

In a turned based RPG it might not be a good thing. Especially since this genre takes itself soo soo seriously (most of the time.)

Though in some other kind of game it may work better. I'm actually designing a game where the main character talks the narrator (but the narrator isn't necessarily identified as the game designer.)

It devfitely varies depending on materials,subject, and tone; for

author=amerk
Personally, I think it works better with fun, quirky games (light hearted in theme) than it would for something that's much more serious and dark.

So games like Super Mario RPG, Pokemon, and maybe even a Chocobo or Moggle spin-off to the Final Fantasy games, I could see it working. Even games like Chrono Trigger (while dark at times) could work.

But games like Xenogears, Final Fantasy, survival horror-styled games - I don't know. I approach these games expecting darker or more mature subject matters that to be thrown out of the game's reality would ruin the immersion.

You forget that in FFVI Locke once appeared to be waving to the player,and that one of the options during the fight against Bahamut in FFVIII is "because my mom said if i pent this money on the game i'd better lay it" or something. It's like a spice- used wisely and wel ifit gives flavor; misuse or overuse destroys it.