WHAT ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT? (GAME DEVELOPMENT EDITION)

You know, I'm realizing that so many buffs and special effects in games last for exactly 3 turns.

Why is that?

Is there a special reason? It is just "The Rule of Three" kicking in? Is it because it's a nice reasonable short duration that feels like a round number? Was there some meeting of game devs where it was decided this was the optimal amount of turns, what?

Penny for your thoughts?

Well, for ailments, halving an enemy's effectiveness at something is a nice round number. Although I'm talking here about "reducing an enemy's effectiveness," this applies to both ailments that reduce enemy offense and buffs that increase your own defense. Blind and Protect both very commonly reduce the damage you take by half, because that makes them really easy for players to wrap their heads around. Players don't want to have to solve complex math problems to figure out whether a buff is worth using.

3 rounds is exactly the duration that those status effects need to last in order to be worth casting. If it only lasts 2 rounds, then you are just sacrificing one of your turns to remove half of two of the enemy's turns; that's an even trade and is almost never worth doing, especially if the enemy's actions are unpredictable.

Same deal for increasing your own effectiveness at something by half. It's a nice round number, and you get the same math. Doubling your own effectiveness at something is an even rounder number, of course, though in a lot of games it's too big of a buff. Buffs that double your offensive power can sometimes only last one or two rounds.

You can make these effects last longer than three rounds, of course, and lots of games do. But if you want the player to use status effects tactically instead of willy-nilly, then you often want to make them as short as possible.

and i think of making a new digimon fan game based on megaman character sprites that will match in a crossover game experience

author=diegorego75
and i think of making a new digimon fan game based on megaman character sprites that will match in a crossover game experience

Nobody will ever forgive you if you do this

You had me at Digimon, Diego. :o

Right now I'm debating on a game inspired by The Bard's Tale. Unfortunately I also have a follow-up to my latest event game in mind first. But I've also got writer's block for said follow-up, especially as I'm trying to recycle old ideas and am coming up short.

I've been interested in making a party/class-picking dungeon crawl for ages, and I don't feel there's enough of a fanbase for old-school computer RPGs here. My focus on projects is rough outside of events. :x

I just found out about some Pokemon mobile game called Pokemon Masters. I had actually planned to make a game that involves 3 on 3 Pokemon battles as my 2nd RPG Maker game, so I was taken aback to the similarity. My game is probably nothing alike in practice though, so I shouldn't worry about it. What's funny is that I was considering making it a Mega Man game instead. (because I realized that Pokemon and robot masters are interchangeable) The reason being I would only need to make 8 characters (minimum) if it were a Mega Man game.

I don't think MV allows this. It doesn't give an option for doing it under the traits on the armour tab. VX Ace didn't allow it either.

I've simulated a berserk status easily enough, and poison would also be doable. But I don't think sleep, or confusion could be done like this.

author=MoonWolfV
I don't think MV allows this. It doesn't give an option for doing it under the traits on the armour tab. VX Ace didn't allow it either.

I've simulated a berserk status easily enough, and poison would also be doable. But I don't think sleep, or confusion could be done like this.

Then you should be able to Yanfly auto passive states when applied to equipment to achieve a similar effect.

Sorry if I’m missing something

author=MoonWolfV
Thanks for the response. I didn't know about the passive states plug-in.

No problem! You can do a lot with the script if you can utilize the lunatic parameters. Check out yanfly’s tips and trick videos for some examples, and it will be a good starting point to making some interesting states.

author=StormCrow
Thinking about...

I'm really happy that a handful of people from the RM ghetto have managed to claw their way up and out and either into jobs in the real games industry, lucrative crowdfunding through relatively new platforms like itch.io that let them afford to spend more time on their passion projects, or some combination of the two. From SovanJedi to BlindMind (how about that BR Kickstarter guys!?) it's gratifying to see familiar names and faces at last making it to the bigs.

I've been thinking about this as well. It's been pretty cool to see people that you've played small games from here and other RM communities break out into a bigger audience. I wish them the best.