WHAT ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT? (GAME DEVELOPMENT EDITION)

Posts

Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
Maybe a day or so ago, I was working on something as an alternative to the encyclopedia script that's in this game. However, I stopped working on it, and summarily scrapped it, since the only reason I can think of where I would want have universal rights to a script like that is if I was going commercial with that game, or a future game that might use that kind of script.

To be fair, I've had a non-zero number of thoughts about going commercial with Baclyae Revolution. However, I just don't know what all it would cost to allow it to go commercial in the first place, and maybe even make me some money on the side. I certainly don't feel comfortable going with it as-is. Like, my first thought is concerning graphics. I rely pretty heavily on the RTP, which might be a thing against the game. At least with the facesets, I might be able to get a deal for 109 faces that are 96x96 pixels each?

I dunno. The whole "unknown cost" is always the thing that shoots down the idea, and I'm... pretty sure this isn't the first time I've talked about this?
Various things in this screen may or may not be placeholders (okay that earpiece icon is totally wrong) but what I'm thinking about (I guess 'fretting about' is more accurate?) is whether this font is legible enough, or I should try another one (this is the font used on menus, not in messages).



author=Marrend
I dunno. The whole "unknown cost" is always the thing that shoots down the idea, and I'm... pretty sure this isn't the first time I've talked about this?

For like most of 2018 and a good portion of this year I was seriously flush with moneys that I spent stupidly and recklessly until I arrived again at poverty's doorstep where I am now, making getting a crap job in retail feel less like the responsible adult decision it totally wasn't, and more like the "trapped and have no other option" desperation move it is. ANYWAY, I hate myself really hard for all of the various bad and terrible financial decisions I made, but possibly the thing I regret most is not setting aside more money I actually had for the purpose of buying custom art and whatnot for my games. (I do have $93 or something that I purposefully left in my Paypal for that express purpose, but like you say, I'm not sure how far that will get me.)

The good news is that there are very talented people in this community willing to work for very cheap. Back when I was financially secure and comfortable I worried about exploiting them but that concern has evaporated in the face of my present bank balance.
@Marrend
I also have some thoughts about going commercial with my game. I wen't the cheap route and bought licensed art to use (got lucky with a humble bundle too), so I'm no too worried about art costs if I go commercial, just using whatever I have from my asset folder and free stuff on opengameart. For me a bigger worry about going commercial is that the development time on my project is relatively short, so I don't want to commit yet in case something comes up. At the same time, if I have the mindset that I am coding my game as a hobby, I can code it however I want and have fun while doing it, vs thinking of it like a product where you may need to appeal to others, in which case it may feel more like "work".

@StormCrow
When looking at the image, some of the font is hard to read, like the box on the bottom left with all the equipment.
author=Marrend
Maybe a day or so ago, I was working on something as an alternative to the encyclopedia script that's in this game. However, I stopped working on it, and summarily scrapped it, since the only reason I can think of where I would want have universal rights to a script like that is if I was going commercial with that game, or a future game that might use that kind of script.

To be fair, I've had a non-zero number of thoughts about going commercial with Baclyae Revolution. However, I just don't know what all it would cost to allow it to go commercial in the first place, and maybe even make me some money on the side. I certainly don't feel comfortable going with it as-is. Like, my first thought is concerning graphics. I rely pretty heavily on the RTP, which might be a thing against the game. At least with the facesets, I might be able to get a deal for 109 faces that are 96x96 pixels each?

I dunno. The whole "unknown cost" is always the thing that shoots down the idea, and I'm... pretty sure this isn't the first time I've talked about this?


It wouldn't hurt to get price quotes from artists that accept commissions, just to give you an idea of how much overhauling the graphics would cost.
author=StormCrow
Improvement?


Yes, that's much better.

I would try to not have multiple font sizes at all (for example like "Ace Armaments Protector" compared to "Remove"). Better make some terms either shorter to make them fit, or increase the available space so that the font doesn't get automatically shrinked together.
Thanks.

Unfortunately, I think the auto-scaling is wedded to one of the core Yanfly plugins that like two dozen other plugins are reliant upon, or at least to the Yanfly plugin that enables auto-wordwrap which is like the MVP of convenience. There might be a setting to change in the plugin that will turn off text scaling but I kind of like it. Even if it's not aesthetically delicious, it is very convenient to well..not have to shorten various names and descriptions in order to fit, tho I could if I had too.
GUYS

FinalEmblem x Hamilton (yes, the musical)
or
BloodSouls x Salem Witch Trials/Witch Hunts in general (the literal kind, like where women were burned at the stake)
Do you guys think that choice of Maker can influence how popular a game has the potential to be? For example, if I made a game in RPG Maker XP, do you think it would be less popular than if I made it in RPG Maker MV?
Gretgor
Having gotten my first 4/5, I must now work hard to obtain... my second 4/5.
3420
Thinking about volume balancing for sound effects. I want to avoid making them too loud or too silent.

My general guideline is that, using RM2K3 with 100% volume music, I can set the more "plosive" sounds to something like 60% and the more silent ones to like 80%, but I'm still afraid it's gonna turn out weird and I'll be forced to change a sound effect's parameters in every single instance I used it in the game.

How do you guys deal with this kind of thing? I guess I could set every sound to a common event, so I only need to change one instance of each sound if I need to, but I've read somewhere that event calls can cause a subtle delay in processing, and many event calls can make the game run slowly, so I dunno.

Thing is, I'm running a handful of custom systems with tons of event calls already, so I'm trying to avoid adding even more.

Also, it may be that my earphones make things sound louder or more silent than other people's speakers/phones, and that can also be a huge problem. I'm kind of anxious about this these days.

author=dethmetal
Do you guys think that choice of Maker can influence how popular a game has the potential to be? For example, if I made a game in RPG Maker XP, do you think it would be less popular than if I made it in RPG Maker MV?

Unfortunately, there are jerks out there who frown upon the more classic RPG Maker installments, like 2K, 2K3, 95 or even XP. Not only that, but many "gamers" out there will not play an RPG Maker game out right simply because it's made on RPG Maker.

So yeah, unfortunately, some people are jerks. Don't let that discourage you, though, as a lot of good stuff has come from older RPG Makers, and not everyone is a jerk.
AtiyaTheSeeker
In all fairness, bird shrapnel isn't as deadly as wood shrapnel
5424
I want to stop giving up. I want to have faith in my abilities. I want to love the journey, no matter how long it takes. And if I keep on trying, I know I will get what I want.

These last few days, I've been making a "novelization" of a solitaire RPG adventure I've played. It's the one based around my Apocalypse Fox setting, which I'd completed on my writing blog. I've been writing it in a first-person point of view with Dana as the narrator, and I've been sharing the files with my relatives over Facebook.

My one aunt, an English teacher and an avid reader, called me up last night in an excited tizzy. She was impressed by the first chapter I shared, feeling that the story feels like a graphic novel and that I wrote as if I was a reader. She commended my abilities and offered some critique, but was overall positive about the whole thing and is psyched to see me complete the story.

When the call ended, I broke down into tears of joy, constantly telling myself "I can write". Between the critical acclaim of some people here toward my games (y'all know who you are~), I took a lot of it with a grain of salt. Especially over time, as the endorphins of the praise wore off. One of my biggest wishes is that I could bottle up some positive emotion when I'm enraptured by it, saving those emotions when I felt I needed them the most.

Sadly, my wish will never come true. Well, not *that* specific wish. More and more I'm realizing that the only thing stopping me is... me. More and more I'm understanding what people see in me, and the value people see in my imagination. I never want to become this pompous jerk about my art, but I want to value my art and know that others do, too.

I'm mostly writing this to remind myself to stop being a coward about my problems. Even though I wrote this revelation to remind myself, and to tell y'all what I'm feeling, actions speak louder than words. I will hold myself accountable to my goals, no matter how long they take.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
I'm not sure if it's merely that I finished off Persona 5 within the last fortnight or so, but, the concept of how that game does Confidants might be something to consider if I ever get off my butt with rebooting/revising Uchioniko. Like, the idea of gaining abilities for the playable cast as the player increases Ruri's relationships with others throughout the game makes a lot of sense for what the game wants to do.
I'm just wondering about the cut scenes in my "completed" game. I played through it again tonight, this time with a small audience, which is usually a good way for seeing errors which I've overlooked.

During the cut scenes, characters from the party appear using variables. Even though everything makes sense, it still manages to mess things up. Do you think it would be a big deal if I just had your party appear in the normal "followers" fashion, and then just have the dialogue going on between them?

It might look better than how it currently looks, when trying to do something clever. The thing is, is that there are about 20 characters in the game, which you can usually change around as you please. When it comes to a cut scene, I simply can't have it as "place this one, this one and this one" I'd have to do this for twenty possible characters which would make things very cluttered.
i have a weird makeshift rpgmaker-like switch system in gamemaker, but instead of making an equivalent variable system I'm just storing variables inside ths switch names themselves

AtiyaTheSeeker
In all fairness, bird shrapnel isn't as deadly as wood shrapnel
5424
Holy cow, did I make equipment matter in my design doc plans. And I cut content I didn't need, while fleshing out how to implement the bits of crunch too. I still intend to wing the story stuff from my outline, but hey. Especially as this will be my longest game yet, a design doc seems like it'll make all the difference!

It's one thing to just buy consumables and tiered gear, but another thing to have some of those upgrades available from the dungeon itself. Playing off that old trope of purchased gear becoming obsolete has its benefits. On top of that I planned some side quests to get useful equips, with the most powerful being relatively quick for the endgame grind (I hope).
Thinking of how much shit I've left to do.
Currently I'm working on a rpg in Godot so pretty much everything has to be made from scratch. Thanfully my husband is the programmer so I can focus on story and graphics. Still with that there is ALOT left to do.

Starting to regret my 64x64 tile size for the tilesets but it looks good and I've done too much to go back now XD
Currently working on my game, Shadow Seeker. Spending a lot of time with the aesthetics and animations, but coming along great!

Thinking about making this game a bit challenging, which relies on good reflexes, movement, and management, without all the clunky/faulty gameplay. Going to implement some really fluid mechanics like dodging/crouching at precise timing to avoid damage, countering projectiles with a knife ala RE:4 style, and the works.

I know some people are put off by games that are naturally difficult without any difficulty options, but it's a design choice to keep it this way as of now, it would take waaay too much work to implement a difficulty system with the way the combat and game works.
Gretgor
Having gotten my first 4/5, I must now work hard to obtain... my second 4/5.
3420
Is there, like, a historical reason why RM2K3 does not support full keyboard control in its Key Input controls? I can understand not allowing us to use the entire keyboard, but they could have afforded us one or two more keys, like A S D for instance. Does anyone know why it was made like this, or have a good hypothesis at least?
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
I've had a non-zero number of thoughts lately to remaking this. Though, there were some things elsewhere that I wanted to check, thanks to aquatorrent's review.

I dunno. It's becoming very difficult to to perform any kind of game-making project lately, so even the "fix this crap up" job seems daunting at best. To say nothing about the other project that is basically asking me to scrap what I had, and start afresh.
I've been thinking about trying to get back onto my Lunar inspired JRPG idea again due to the quarantine and being shut in for so long, and here is the latest thought I've had as far as part of the core concept for the story:

author=The Giant Hand
Like in Princess Maker 1, the story begins with a demon army attacking the kingdom, led by Lucifon the Prince of Darkness. Lucifon was sent by the Deities to punish the people of a medieval city for their sinful ways.

A wandering Swordsman  sneaks into the camp one night and defeats Lucifon in hand-to-hand combat. He and his armies retreat. The grateful King invites you to stay and grants you an annual salary of 500 gold pieces.

Then, one night, the Swordsman hears a voice and goes out to see a girl floating in an orb of light. He is then spoken to by the girl's patron deity who asks him to raise her. How he raises her will determine if mankind has truly repented.


The inspiration for my "Luna" character in my game. The original idea was that she would be sent into the human world to see if they deserved a second chance and that an evil god (I think I was going with a version/form of Loki at the time) would try to corrupt her and destroy the heroes so the world would be destroyed.

That would be the base concept for the game. I think where I hit a wall was filling in everything in between and figuring out what all the game world would be like.