DID YOU WANT TO MAKE AN RPG/GAME? BE HONEST!

Posts

LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
author=StarSkipping
As I'm constantly trying to do everything as custom as possible, I do at times wonder why some people who use rtp or ripped graphics can take up to 3 or 4 years to finish their games.

It is because we go long periods of time without actually working on them. Or only work on them for an hour or two a week.

If I worked an hour every day on my game it would be in a presentable state in three or four months. I haven't actually touched it in three weeks though. I have to script this obnoxious visual effect for my next few battles and then draw or find some pixel graphics for it, and I dread that sort of thing.

The real reason I lose motivation isn't because I don't have the right reasons for making my game; it's because I utterly hate dealing with graphics. Without exception, having to create or manipulate graphics is the reason I have quit every project I've ever abandoned.
I love rpgmaker. When I was in grade 6, my friend gave me a copy of the rpg2000 english translation by don miguel. I was like, "holy mother of nerds! This is amazing!" At the time I was a huge fan of Link to the Past and the early Final Fantasy games, so naturally I clung to it.
I've been fairly self-conscious about making a full game for some reason and have only just started one about a couple of months ago. I've played around with the program, finding out the final limitations of the program so I would know everything I couldn't do, and work around it.
chana
(Socrates would certainly not contadict me!)
1584
" Do you have any similar experiences or insights about it?" No, NewBlack, apparently, you're the only one here.
The first half of my reason for entering the RPGMaker realm is that I'm a writer. I need a creative outlet.

The second half is that, deep down, I've always wanted to make video games. Back in the 90s/00s it seemed like an impossible venture. Making video games required huge companies and big finance. So I settled for shooting to become a novelist. But I never successfully wrote more than a chapter of a story. Composing walls of text just wasn't the same.
With the advent of the internet, it became possible to expose my products without relying on cavorting myself to entrenched bricks-and-mortar companies.
So now I'm working on my first real game to share with the world. Yay!
Adon237
if i had an allowance, i would give it to rmn
1743
Wait, so it seems like all of you pretended and acted this stuff out like 3 year olds when you were young.(In grade school.) I have barely ever done that. I just write down all of my ideas.
And then shove them as far as I can into the storage room. (I might need to get those back.)
Anyway, I love RPG's, but there was no need to act it out because I was already surrounded by playable ones. D:
(Now I realize how young I am.) Anyways, I wanted to make an rpg 2 years ago.
And I found it by searching rpgmaker. Which in the long run got me here.
Though, I don't think I will ever be good enough to make a commercial game, (nor do I think, or want, my current project to go commerical.)
author=LockeZ
If I worked an hour every day on my game it would be in a presentable state in three or four months. I haven't actually touched it in three weeks though. I have to script this obnoxious visual effect for my next few battles and then draw or find some pixel graphics for it, and I dread that sort of thing.


Completely agree with you! It feels like I can achieve all my goals if I were to go into RM zen mode for a solid period of time, but it's just having to wade through all the unenjoyable shit that ruins the motivation =o=
author=Adon237
Wait, so it seems like all of you pretended and acted this stuff out like little 3 year olds when you were young.(In grade school.)

Maybe because I was like 3 years old when I did? I can't really write stuff down if I can't write :3
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
Oh why not? Story time:


Well, like I said earlier, my first foray into game making in general was on the Commodore 64 with the Shoot 'Em Up Construction Kit when I was about ten years old. Aside from terrible graphics (I had 16 colors to work with, but I think I only used 8), and a non-existent story (It was a shoot-em-up, and I was 10), it was a completed game. Then again entry to get to playing the game was quite high, as loading times on the Commodore 64 seemed to take forever (loading the engine, then loading the resources for the game).

My next foray into game making (I approximate this to be some time in junior high) was another shoot-em-up with an engine called Game-Maker, or something close to that. I'm nigh-positive that engine has nothing to do with the engine with a similar name supported on this site, but I could also be horribly mistaken. Regardless, I never got very far with making anything.

At some point (again, some time in junior high), I got Forgotten Realms Unlimited Adventures. I had some experience with the "Gold Box" games on the Commodore 64, and the idea that I could make my own intrigued me. Of course, I never got very far, as I never really had a focus.

It must have been late high school, or my early college years (since that's when we first got internet) that my brother randomly came across this oddball program called RPG Maker '95. I think I got as far as the first town, but not much else.

Eventually (I must have still been in college, though I cannot be more specific), we came across RPG Maker 2000, and Don Miguel's translation thereof. I made a complete game with it, but I eventually deleted it. My brother made two games with it. One was Legacy, which I tried to remake later on as Legacy Reborn. The other game, (never completed, and probably deleted) was known as Summoner. The only remnants of Summoner are the names of certain characters in Matsumori Days.

I never picked up RPG Maker 2K3, and generally fell off the game-making hobby for years. In late 2008, I picked it up again after the purchase of my first laptop and, eventually, the purchase of RPG Maker XP. I made three games with that engine, but one was outright scrapped. One of them eventually became what is now Matusmori Days.

I'm not exactly sure when I picked up RPG Maker VX, but I knew that some of the things that XP did annoyed the hell out of me. Not that there are some things that annoy the hell out of me with VX, but whatever. Anyway, I hit a very creative streak in the early days of VX (read: before I found RMN). I must have made ten or so games, each barely having two weeks of development time. Some I outright deleted, some I still have in some way, shape, or form.

At some point, despite my utter lack of knowledge of what was available to be created/played with RPG Maker, I thought it would be cool to share my crazy games (and ideas) with the internet. I came across RMN, and saw Avarice. I don't know if I can properly describe this feeling, but it was like everything I've ever done thus far was for nothing. I mean, there was this game that took as long to develop as any of the ones I had at the time. The major exception was that Avarice looked awesome. It's a miracle that I didn't quit the hobby right there.

I'm not sure why I joined RMN to showcase my work, particularly after seeing, and playing, Avarice. In retrospect, none of my work at the time was necessarily made for an audience. Not even the audience of "myself". Indeed, it occurs to me that I made games just to have an outlet for my muse to use the creative energies it's been storing since who-knows-when. It's a theory.
I must say I'm somewhat impressed with the length of time the game making bug has been in a lot of you who've replied :| Like you're finishing unfinished business now or something? :P

Marrend, I had a somewhat similar experience although not as dramatic. See when I was younger and had no knowledge of a community, me and my friends always assumed, and actually said, that "nobody ever actually finishes making a game with rpg maker" because it seems such a ludicrous notion to do so, at least to us back then. Then I stumble upon RMN and I'm like WHAT?! I immediately download and complete Sore Losers (just so happened to be what took my fancy at first) that very night and get instantly enamored again with the notion of home-brew game making.
When I was in the third grade I made a "game" on one of the black and white Apple Macintosh computers at my school. It was called Pholders and it was a choose-your-own-adventure. Basically, it was just a series of folders embedded within folders, with each folder representing a player's choice. Most folders contained a text document describing the scenario. It never really got finished because I ran into some kind of folder cap. That was it, really, though I've made a few board games if those count.

RPG Maker came into my life over a decade ago. I was at a Castlevania ezboard and somebody posted a link to Don Miguel's ezboard. The big new game that was just released was called Robocks, which I thought was amazing since it was only created by two people. Of course, once I downloaded the editor and a few other RM2K games, I realized Robocks was pretty generic... weird how that works.

It was pretty easy software to learn and it is also the reason I started drawing pixels. I will say, I make jRPGs because it is RPG Maker. It kind of leads you in that direction when all of its event functions and interface lend itself to that genre. If I could just as easily create a hack-n-slash game like Diablo in it, that is probably what I would've done. Or a strategy RPG.
I've kinda wanted to make games. But recently I realized that wasn't actually true. I was drawing levels in crayons in kindergarten and exploring game ideas in the schoolyard yeah. But in the end I always wanted to play said games more than I wanted to make them.

I have a fair amount of game ideas that I'd like to see realized. Not because I'd like to make them but because I'd like to play them.

Of course there's another angle as well. One that is sort of on the opposite side of me wanting to play enjoyable games. I'd like to tell stories. Games are one way of doing that but my game design philosophy is all about non-linearity and choice. And it's pretty hard to make stories like that. (though not impossible. But that's more of a game/story I'd like to see rather than want to make)


As for genre... I don't know. To be honest. The story is what I want to make. The gameplay is what I want made.
author=Shinan
I've kinda wanted to make games. But recently I realized that wasn't actually true. I was drawing levels in crayons in kindergarten and exploring game ideas in the schoolyard yeah. But in the end I always wanted to play said games more than I wanted to make them.

Me and a school friend in primary school used to make "manuals" for games that didn't yet (and never would) exist (because old games manuals used to be awesome, some games the manuals were better than the actual game). I guess that's where all this started.

Maybe you'd be good at/enjoy writing "graphic novels" or something like that? No graphics to have to deal with because you have an artist handle that based off the script and directions (kinda like stage directions in a play).
Max McGee
with sorrow down past the fence
9159
author=StarSkipping
Quick story~ I quit my job, wanted to make a videogame in my spare time. Was aiming to find a way to make a 3D hack and slash composed entially of scantily clad women, found rpgmaker... I end up compromising =/

To be honest, a rpg isn't my preferred gerne at all. Sure I like some of its elements like leveling up and exploring towns, but things like grinding, medieval settings and the chosen one cliche really hits a nerve with me.

As I'm constantly trying to do everything as custom as possible, I do at times wonder why some people who use rtp or ripped graphics can take up to 3 or 4 years to finish their games. (TTHW looking at you.)

Because graphics are not everything, sir, and some of those three to four year wonders are amazing in the areas that really matter.
I've had this desire to make a game in the RPG genre for a while. I've actually had to cancel potential projects long before they even got a chance to shine, mainly because the tools available just weren't right for me. During that time, I was brainstorming (and playing around with) a lot of neat and not-so-neat ideas to work with, which is what I still do to a certain extent. Even though plot development was involved in such ideas, it was never really the signature focus.
Oh god, where to start...

I think my gamemaking days began in random notebooks that I drew area maps in. I used to go nuts writing adventure stories, and imagining myself playing them with the gameplay of a 16-bit Final Fantasy entry. My cousins and I always built worlds with Lego blocks and imagined ourselves playing a kind of weird D&D-style game (there were no real "rules"..we just had a blast ^_^), and when they lived in a rural area at one point, we sometimes LARPed in a nearby forest.

I also had some experience with Forgotten Realms: Unlimited Adventures, but at that time I didn't really have a PC (my cousins had it on theirs). It was fun to use, but it wasn't really when I honestly began to make my own games...I attribute that to the StarCraft campaign editor! I also played around with Clickteam's Klik and Play a little, but it didn't quite work well on my PC back then...from what I've heard about Multimedia Fusion 2's problems today, it seems like they have not really improved too much.

I've probably played more StarCraft RPGs than actual StarCraft games themselves (even more so than any other custom games either lol ._.). Toward the end of my StarEdit days, I was on my way to creating -- and finishing -- a very long RPG on StarCraft, when I was told about a fangame to a MMORPG that I also played back then (Nexus: Kingdom of the Winds) created in RPG Maker 2000. Needless to say...I was really impressed by it. I almost immediately abandoned StarEdit (actually, StarCraft entirely...) and downloaded RPG Maker, joining Don's forums and various other little RM microcosms in that world.

When RPG Maker 2003 was released later on, I eventually migrated to it, not really finishing any other games on RM2K either...heh... I didn't really stay in the RM community for too long after that, though (it began to grow too poisonous for my tastes). I continued to play other random games, but I didn't really restart on planning/creating games until maybe mid-2007, when I was inspired to create a kind of sci-fi RPG. That idea has long since been converted into something far different now...but it probably marked my reentry into the gamemaking world.

It is also when I really saw that I wasn't interested in my current college major (Mechanical Engineering, if you're curious), and I converted it into a Digital Media major. I wanted my future to be with...the games... I don't regret having taken M.E. as my major beforehand, though; if anything, it has made me much more aware of the laws of physics than most other people. A few years after that, I started to look into the RPG Maker world again, and I found that most of the places that I had known have long since disappeared. Most of today's RPG Maker communities didn't really impress me at all, but RMN stood out from everything else, so I decided to create an account here.

Now, however, I'm learning a completely different tool...Scirra Construct...having found RPG Maker to be a bit too limiting for what I want to accomplish. Supposedly it is rather hard for someone to create an RPG in Construct, but I find its eventing system to be remarkably similar to StarEdit's trigger events. As you can imagine, we have been getting along very well together thus far, so it looks like I will probably not return to using any RPG Maker anytime soon. :P
chana
(Socrates would certainly not contadict me!)
1584
"having found RPG Maker to be a bit too limiting " as a means of creative expression, Has any one felt that?
Adon237
if i had an allowance, i would give it to rmn
1743
author=chana
"having found RPG Maker to be a bit too limiting " as a means of creative expression, Has any one felt that?

and you aren't an artist how?
chana
(Socrates would certainly not contadict me!)
1584
I am quite creative and art is a passion with me, I just don't make rmgames, but I like them.
Yellow Magic
Could I BE any more Chandler Bing from Friends (TM)?
3154
I think I can safely say I wanted to make RPGs first and foremost, remniscient of SNES-era ones. As it so happens I have yet to make a complete RPG but I don't think it's something I will ever completely abandon as the desire to create an RPG, even a cliché-ridden clone of one of my favourites, has taken up quite a chunk of my life.

At the end of the day any hobby's going to have both good and bad sides to it. The good side being, you know, enjoying your hobby and the bad side being all the strings attached. (e.g. I will never like graphics-editing ever, and other RMers' expectations will always influence me one way or the other, to the point where I give up my wish to make another FF clone - not kidding, that's the type of game I honestly want to make, as opposed to something quirky and original).

Sure, one could just not bother making a game and commit to something else that requires less effort, or not do anything at all as all goals in life require effort to achieve, but in the end that is a boring, soulless life.

Now if only I practised what I preached...

@LockeZ: That's a pretty inspirational post, dude. Thanks for that.

EDIT: Yeah fuck it I'm making an FF clone. Sorry guys. Or not. 8D
chana
(Socrates would certainly not contadict me!)
1584
" that requires less effort", or more , did I get you right?