HORROR GENRE IN RPG MAKER

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Reading this has given me hope for the RMXP horror game I wanted to make. I got the monsters, main character, story sorted out and everything. I just stopped before I even started because there seems to be a stigma attached to RPG Maker horror games.
Sooz
They told me I was mad when I said I was going to create a spidertable. Who’s laughing now!!!
5354
author=Liberty
As Sooz said, from what I've noticed it's not about masculinity at all (the audiences are all about shrieks and being terrified), but about being easy to react to. People apparently like watching people being extreme and it's easier to play up fear in reaction to a game than to play up other emotions. In fact, it's one way that people do 'comedy' - they use the overreactions to make people laugh. It's a cheap comedy, sure, but it works for the audience I guess.


Rage games are also popular for the same reason. Watching someone either pee their pants in terror or flip a table in rage is just funny,* whether or not it's fake.

* to some tastes

author=Pyramid_Head
Reading this has given me hope for the RMXP horror game I wanted to make. I got the monsters, main character, story sorted out and everything. I just stopped before I even started because there seems to be a stigma attached to RPG Maker horror games.


Well, I mean, there IS a stigma, but it's the same kind of stigma as any other group of games flooded with a lot of poorly done, cookie-cutter examples. Shit, there's a stigma against RPGMaker games in the greater gaming populace for a similar reason. (And, of course, any kind of indie horror game. Look at the glut of terrible first-person horror junk on Steam sometime.)

Basically, fuck the haters, make the game you want to see in the world, and you'll probably find people within your little niche who are super into it. :D
Yeah, as long as you make a great game that stands out, go for it. If anything, look at what makes the cookie cutter games cookie cutter to avoid falling into that trap, and if you're doing something similar but well done, just make sure it doesn't -look- cookie cutter. A lot of the great games done in RPG maker tend to be just good ideas executed very well, where the same idea executed poorly has been done a thousand times.

Edit: Technically, that could go for any media actually...
author=Max McGee
It is really not that popular I would say. Probably less than 10% of games made in RPG Maker are 'horror'.

It greatly depends on where you look. Anime horror isn't really a popular genre on RMN and similar sites, but if you look on tumblr specifically, a very large portion of games currently being marketed are anime horror, Yume Nikki/Ib fan games, etc.

More so in recent months, it seems like. Everyone wants to get one in while the gettin's good.

Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it's starting to get a bit crowded.

author=Pyramid_Head
Reading this has given me hope for the RMXP horror game I wanted to make. I got the monsters, main character, story sorted out and everything. I just stopped before I even started because there seems to be a stigma attached to RPG Maker horror games.

If there is any sort of stigma, it seems to be a two-way street. I understand that there are people view RPG Maker horror games as easy to develop and derivative, but on the flipside, there are people who will raise eyebrows if your RPG Maker game has combat.
Pulits
Jack Daniel's Evangelist
1168
I think terror has been downgraded not only in video games but also in movies and literature. Movies and video games now rely on cheap jump-scares more than anything. What is even worse, sometimes the audience actually expects that. Cheap scares have their place, but I don't think they should be abused.

Back to topic, I think terror games are possilbe in RPG Maker, or any other pltaform. It all depends on the atmosphere. Speaking of which, that is exactly what I'm trying to do with my own game.
Sooz
They told me I was mad when I said I was going to create a spidertable. Who’s laughing now!!!
5354
I don't think there's been any particular drop in quality over time, it's just that nobody remembers the crap that happened before.
Ratty524
The 524 is for 524 Stone Crabs
12986
author=Sooz
I don't think there's been any particular drop in quality over time, it's just that nobody remembers the crap that happened before.

True words
Have never
Been so spoken
Sooz
They told me I was mad when I said I was going to create a spidertable. Who’s laughing now!!!
5354
I WILL HEAR NO WORDS SPOKEN AGAINST TYPING OF THE DEAD. TYPING OF THE DEAD IS PERFECTION.
Max McGee
with sorrow down past the fence
9159
haha did someone actually just say 'toxic masculinity' upthread lololol srsly??

author=Mobh
author=Max McGee
It is really not that popular I would say. Probably less than 10% of games made in RPG Maker are 'horror'.
They actually might be the most popular genre of RM games right now. Just look at the most downloaded games on this site, they're mostly horror games. It's probably because some mainstream YouTube channels have done Let's Plays of them.

Damn, seems like I missed out on this fad back before Mainstream YouTube Channels and Let's Plays were a thing in 2004 when I made one of the most popular RM games ever (I don't really know how popular, I'd guess top 20, and of the top 20 in a very small niche). Just my luck, honestly.

It greatly depends on where you look. Anime horror isn't really a popular genre on RMN and similar sites, but if you look on tumblr specifically, a very large portion of games currently being marketed are anime horror, Yume Nikki/Ib fan games, etc.

I make it a point not to look on or even directly at tumblr. Specifically. For my sanity.

More so in recent months, it seems like. Everyone wants to get one in while the gettin's good.

Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it's starting to get a bit crowded.

The idea of it being a fad is kind of funny. Hell, I have been delinquent on a sequel to my horror game for the better part of a fucking decade now. Gawd I suck.

***

Somebody made the point that horror games...even weird topdown 16-bit looking horror games...have more cache for "filthy casuals" than JRPGs. Not sure if actually valid, but certainly an interesting point to consider.
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