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2018's Punniest Game Alive Winner, shares history with Newgrounds flash movies and rpgmaker.

First of all,
I want to thank everyone who voted last year. This would not have been possible without you guys, this really meant a lot, Thank You!♥




...For awhile I've been lamenting whether or not I should write this follow up post. But after seeing this really cool tweet about FFvD* and the cool reception the new tech demo is getting. I thought I'd give some background info on my history and why I've stuck with rpgmaker for so long:

As I mentioned in this thread. I got my start playing stuff like MegaMan RPG and AOL vs. Final Fantasy on Newgrounds back in 2001. These games look kind of dumb now right? Well, to be honest, they always looked dumb. But back in 2000, with the success of the Final Fantasy series here in the west, for the longest time Macromedia Flash was the only thing a lot of us had access to when creating our own Final Fantasy games.

With that said however, I thought AOL vs Final Fantasy, was the coolest thing ever!! Since I didn't have FF9, I played this game like, a thousand times studying how this guy got this thing to work, cause at first glance it looked like this dude got so close to creating a living breathing Final Fantasy game in Flash!! It starts off with Cloud and Vincent - in aim chat gif format - facing off against one of those AIM Buddy Icons, before Vincent disconnects in the first round!


( ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) any of this look familiar?)


...Anyways the game ends with Cloud performing an "OmniSlash" on the Aim Chat Buddy Icon, before a little Chocobo lands on his head asking the user to replay the movie - Yes, you heard that right folks, this little tech demo, wasn't actually a game but an interactive flash movie. But that was the reality back in 2000! We knew how to make these games look like Final Fantasy, we just didn't know how to program them - But a lot of people came close.


Final Fantasy Game Engine, FF A Flash RPG, Grayer's Quest RPG


In fact, if you follow the creator of AOL vs. Final Fantasy's other works. You'll see, he starts out using Flash, but over time, as he discovers rpgmaker2000, he starts putting rtp resources inside his flash movies, before he stops making flash movies entirely, - a couple of years later, the best Final Fantasy game I came across that was made in flash was Final Fantasy AA in 2006:


FFAA was a really cool parody web/game series created by the denizens of the 2ch community.


What was remarkable about this series, was how they finally got a fully functioning Final Fantasy battle system to work in Flash. - However, what was unique about this format, was the platform it was created for: web distribution. Because file size was still such a huge point of contention, back in 2000s, these guys had to figure out, how to create the shortest amount of "Final Fantasy" in the least amount of time.
So each episode consisted of: an animated cutscene / followed by a final fantasy battle / and then ending with another cutscene.

As a result, they created a new format, one that was short enough for episodic content and online platform distribution, but unique and compelling enough that it still reached the same emotional heights you'd find in traditional jrpgs - With FFAA, I thought, for sure this format was going to be one of the many futures of indie rpgs going forward.


...So once I came to GamingW in 2007, I was immediately taken aback, not only by, just how far behind we all were, but over what I saw: a community that was still at odds with itself, fighting over the future of rpgmaker games, before rpgmaker could even truly begin.

During 2000, in Flash and sites surrounding Newgrounds we had guys like Nelson Hurst on FlashKit.com, the creator of Genryu's blade, he made a short flash animated movie, that was so good and seen all over the world on the internet, that it premiered on TV in the states on ShowTime. Adobe contacted him immediately and asked if they could license the .fla file for research and development to help make flash more animator friendly.



Genryu's Blade(2000)



This changed the way, not only how future animators approached flash, but changed the accessibility of digital animation and animation overall, forever - When you go to animation festivals now, and ask new students what inspires them, it's not disney or pixar, it's a cartoon they've seen on Newgrounds or an animated short they saw youtube by one guy that made it big that inspires them.

...But with rpgmaker, it's an entirely different story - I've been here since 2007 and I've seen a lot of things, but there's one thing I can say with absolute certainty: Our community is so incredibly small, that whatever feud you may have against some rpgmaker game developer, or how their game somehow got popular on youtube, tumblr, reddit or some other social media distribution site, is not worth fighting over - rpgmaker still has something to prove.

With rpgmaker 2000 and 2003, finally available in English, legally, we now have a tool that can make games like Final Fantasy and more for commercial distribution.

I've waited years, for a program like this, but it feels like not only are we still fighting with each other at times, but we're constantly playing catch up with the rest of the world - Please don't squander this opportunity.

If you need to, become a better writer, learn how to draw, take an art course, take up programming, start a band (Yes, there's actually a great set of soft skills and leadership skills in there too!) - do anything and everything you can get your hands on, so your game can stand out, just a little bit more while approaching these programs, because it all matters when you're making these games. RPGMAKER won't make your game for you, there are shortcuts, but you still need to know these fundamental, principle things - It all matters!

But most importantly, we can't afford to fight with each other.
We have so many hours and so many years ahead of us, to make these great games with. We can't afford to waste them.

Now is the best time to be an rpgmaker!

Thank You! Everyone♥♥♥

WAIT FOR APPLAUSE

FINGER GUN DARKEN♥

EXIT STAGE LEFT
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(*if there's anyone in the comments, who can speak japanese that can help translate the twitter retweet, please let me know - google translate is not cutting it here, I've tried for hours to translate this thing and it still doesn't make sense. :( )

Posts

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Yeah it's interesting that we have the same origin but different trajectory when it comes to the infatuations of FF looking battles. Personally I didn't even know much about FF until the newgrounds parody stuff and got pretty interested in the look of the interfaces, the finger cursor, the odd sound effects. I imagine most people got into Squaresoft RPGs because they wanted a swords and sorcery game for their SNES and adopted the appreciation of it from there. But with me only growing up with a gameboy and on the internet, it was a weird reverse where I appreciated the aesthetics first and the story/gameplay later via emulation.
It's a great time to be an rpgmaker!
author=Darken
Yeah it's interesting that we have the same origin but different trajectory when it comes to the infatuations of FF looking battles. Personally I didn't even know much about FF until the newgrounds parody stuff and got pretty interested in the look of the interfaces, the finger cursor, the odd sound effects.

This is what was really fascinating to me too! especially the reversed part you mentioned! Like there are some peeps out there who hate it, but like Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy did a lot to bring roleplaying games away from the pen and paper rpgs and more towards mainstream audiences for the same reasons you described: the interface, the sound effects etc, this is what Final Fantasy was to a lot of people at one point during the 2000s.

Like, FF6 came out in 94' and I became a huge fan of those and other jrpgs, (I never said as much, because everyone has said pretty much everything that's ever needed to be said about these games now)…but back then, it was actually really hard to be a fan of these games because not only were they not popular, but they were also really expensive. Like, I remember hearing arguments over Chrono trigger and Super Mario Rpg - someone didn't like how Mario would whiff air when he attacked in the game. Or one of my friends was in tears because they couldn't find a shop that had Chrono Trigger in stock. This kind of rudimentary stuff is why jrpgs were so slow to catch on here in the 90s.

But I think Newgrounds, during the 2000s was interesting, because the first thing people did when looking up stuff on the internet, was look up what they liked, and eventually form a community out of those common interests - But what was really interesting about that, is how those communities like starmen.net or final fantasy webrings etc, would recirculate this interest and those ideas, long after traditional media had failed or expired. So you had people, still talking about Final Fantasy 6, Chrono Trigger, Earthbound etc. Long after these games were released.

But then they started making webcomics out of them, flash movies out of them.

MortisLand had the Secret of Mana, Boy vs Sprite movies. Razoric had a couple of really cool Final Fantasy 6 sprite movies as well. And of course, there's Final Fighting Fantasy by SplashKhat. But what was really interesting about these flash movies was, not only how they started to mix genres, but how in these flash movies, the characters could do things you'd never be able to do in the real games. Like Locke standing off against Yuffie, two ninjas in a fight to the death over the Masamune, over the backdrop of Ninja Gaiden - This sounded like a really cool idea, why not turn this into a game? Back then we all thought that the next step would be to turn these really cool ideas into actual games. But flash is just too difficult to make Final Fantasy games in - And even then, it just never happened for an assortment of reasons, I'm still trying to figure out.

author=kentona
It's a great time to be an rpgmaker!
Can we turn this into a tagline?♥ Please? XD
Man, I missed out on ALL of this. All of my friends growing up were oblivious to RPGs, too. It was just me and the handful of SNES/GB games I could scrounge together, played on repeat.
author=Kaempfer
Man, I missed out on ALL of this. All of my friends growing up were oblivious to RPGs, too. It was just me and the handful of SNES/GB games I could scrounge together, played on repeat.

Embarrassing childhood memory: I actually had to pay my friend, I think, it was 5 or 10 dollars, just to borrow Phantasy Star IV from him, lol! Because like, not only was Phantasy Star IV like, $100.00 dollars back then, but, it was always out of stock at BlockBuster. XD

But once my friends and I played it, we thought it shared so many really cool similarities to Chrono Trigger, just because it was such a great game. Like, we thought the dualtechs and the fact that you could see your characters actually attacking the monsters was so cool. Also, those manga cutscenes were really cool - I think that's sort of why, rpgmaker games like Neok's Alter Aila Genesis stand out more, because stuff like those manga cutscenes, hasn't really been done, since then.

Like, back when Phantasy Star IV was released. People barely knew what "anime" was, like we'd seen pieces of it here and there. But it was never, like, what it is now. Where you have access to more than just the popular stuff or what's on TV.

Yeah, I'm rambling here, but yeah I truly think there was a small, sort of renaissance period during the 2000s on the internet, for jrpgs here in the west.
I remember buying Earthbound in its giant box for an exorbitant 89 dollars just after its release. I was so obsessed by the fact that there was a new RPG for SNES and the awesome strategy guide (that my brother lent to someone and never got back, thanks dude) came with it that I couldn't resist.

My brother did have one friend who let me borrow FF4 and Secret of Mana as well as FF:A, FF:L1&2 for GB, so I guess that sort of made up for it. He was like, my go-to guy for amazing games I never saw for sale.
I bought Final Fantasy 3 (VI) used from the videostore I frequented after the N64 came out, for $40. It was something like $118 new at the local Woolco. I still have it!
author=Kaempfer
I remember buying Earthbound in its giant box for an exorbitant 89 dollars just after its release. I was so obsessed by the fact that there was a new RPG for SNES and the awesome strategy guide (that my brother lent to someone and never got back, thanks dude) came with it that I couldn't resist.

My brother did have one friend who let me borrow FF4 and Secret of Mana as well as FF:A, FF:L1&2 for GB, so I guess that sort of made up for it. He was like, my go-to guy for amazing games I never saw for sale.

Lol! Nice! Man, I rented Earthbound so many times and gotten so far in it, when I went to rent it again months later, I convinced myself someone with the same name as me, also really liked Earthbound, lol! But yeah, I think at that point the clerk jokingly offered it to me at a discount, but I passed on it, cause it was too much and I wanted the box and the guide. I eventually bought my own copy, as i mentioned in Darken's Magazine thread. But my asshole cousin, (well he wasn't an asshole, he was actually a really smart kid, still aggravating tho) But he spilled juice all over on the cover of the strategy guide, so there's like this circle where the cover is elevated. But later on he eventually bought a copy of Earthbound for himself, lol. Eitherway the scratch and sniff cards still work and they still make me want to gag, so that's cool, lol!

author=kentona
I bought Final Fantasy 3 (VI) used from the videostore I frequented after the N64 came out, for $40. It was something like $118 new at the local Woolco. I still have it!

Holy shit! Yeah man, I had to do something similar. I can't remember how much I got mine for. But I eventually got FF6 used. I remember the manual for FF6 being really cool cause, like Illusion of Gaia, it had a mini walkthrough in the manual to get you through the early parts of the game and it had all this really cool character art. It was so cool, I really wanna do something like that at some point for an rpgmaker game, just like for the art and stuff - But yeah, since we got it used all we got was the white slip cover and box, no manual. But yeah I loved FF6 so much I'd carry around the snes cover and sometimes try to redraw the cover art from it. I remember painstaking trying to tape it back together, just so it wasn't so dilapidated and it'd be an actual box.

...Do we have a game memories thread? I know this is mostly nostalgia talking, but I feel like this stuff is important to talk about, because it's not like what it is now. And what we have now is so much easier than what we had back then. I feel like "the magazine thread" and the "post old shit" thread, this is kind of like important reflection or something? I dunno. But yeah it'd be cool to gab about this. Like, I think it's really interesting how we're introduced to games in different ways. Like Darken's story I thought was really cool about mostly having a game boy and being introduced to some of these games, later through emulation. Similarly, my friend was cleaning out his desk in 2003ish and like found a copy of Final Fantasy Legends 2, he laughed cause he wasn't much of a gamer and asked if I wanted it. I said hell ya! And I looked it up it was actually a prequel to one of my favorite jrpgs, SaGa, etc. Those kind of connections are really interesting, how we find games in different ways, how much they were worth, It'd be cool to start a thread on this.
Yeah, the FF6 manual is filled with Amano concept art. It's pretty amazing.

I bought my copy of Earthbound at a Zellers that used to be a Woolco. Feels good to mention defunct Canadian stores and have people know what the hell I'm talking about.
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