Balmung Cycle Part I: The Messenger and the Heretic

After completing the enormous task of finishing The Messenger and the Heretic, I acknowledged that the product needed time to set in with the community before confronting the enormous task of crafting a sequel that should surpass the original. Over the past seven months Balmung Cycle has seen a fairly successful run, turning up on a couple non-rpg maker oriented pages and in websites in several different languages. In terms of such an amateur game I consider that a far greater accomplishment than I could have hoped for.

Regardless of that, I recognize there are numerous flaws that persist in the game itself. The storyline though sufficient is not Pulitzer material, lacking a strong central theme. Several systems although present, hardly received enough exposure; and then there is the matter of challenging battles that are a scarce sight in modern role playing games. I was never fully content with my final product, but then again why should anybody ever be? I then started thinking about how the rest of the user base is approaching development of their own games and how these new users reflect upon the community at large. It's not pretty, and it likely won't get better. Should any of you choose to stay on-board with the others who will ride this sinking ship to the very end, I have a few things I'd like to say.

A great mentor once told me that an artist is never satisfied with a final product, and there's wisdom in that statement. Though many of us come from different backgrounds and areas of expertise, we are still artisans of a craft dismal at times. If you understand what I am saying, I'd like to issue a challenge: Never settle for what you're only capable of. Raising the personal bar in your projects and adopting professional practices is the most important striking feature that separates poor projects from the spectacular.. There are a number of conventions that even simple hobbyists should familiarize themselves with to make their projects easier to develop, and I hope to one day explain these processes in detail. For the time being simply study from the great masters of the 16-bit era, and for the love of God newcomers; stop submitting your first game projects on the front page.

By now most should be thinking "What's with this pretentious faggot, what makes him thing he can lecture ME?" A couple days ago I had been discussing the direction of a community that is becoming an increasingly niche hobby and the clear source of it.

The truth is that there's no single reason. The distribution of older programs such as RPG Maker 2000/3 has dramatically decreased in the past several years as newer more powerful development environment have emerged from the same company. Even with that in mind, the role playing genre itself is changing to accommodate the tastes of mainstream society. Turn based battles, tile restricted movement, and low-resolution pixels are all the trademarks of yesteryear; the age of HD has transformed pixels and reinvented 2d in a new light. This a great thing, but not so great for the few nostalgia-ridden enthusiasts such as myself that hold onto aging software.

Make no mistake, RPG Maker 2003 and it's earlier incarnations have gained a bad rep and currently are on their last legs. Most of us still left using these alternatives do so simply out of preference and the lack of time/willingness to learn something new when we are comfortable with what there is. RPG Maker 2003 regardless of what others may say is a powerful tool to create Super Nintendo era role playing games, and if that is the type of genre and age you wish to emulate, then why look elsewhere? There are a number of new tools that have been developed to extend the potential of this older program without having to sacrifice much on the user end, and these are things everybody should be looking into in the future. Consider using some of these following patches in your project:

Innovations
- Rm2k/2k3 font changer:
The same old two fonts have become a defining staple of an RPG Maker project. However did you know that you no longer have to be confined to these? A program developed by the now widely-known cherry replaces the font that your RPG_RT.exe file points to. This means that you too can have a cool font like Balmung Cycle! However you should be well-aware that only bitmap fonts should be used and True Type fonts should be avoided at all costs!

Image Positioner:
Have you ever had to make use of many pictures on screen but never can figure the exact coordinates they should be placed at without extensive testing? The image positioner solves this by allowing you to place your image on a 320x240 grid in real-time revealing the coordinates. This is sure to save developers from countless headaches!

Power Mode 2003!:
The subject of much discussion in recent times, power mode is much like its name implies. It is rather complicated however and not recommended to new users. Some of its functions include disabling the default title screen and enabling the ability to load save data in-game, grabbing mouse pointer coordinates, detecting many additional keyboard strokes, the inclusion of new mathematical algorithms, and the mapping of picture rotation angles to variables.

Fmod plugin:
If this alone doesn't get you excited I don't know what will! Fmod extends the audio capabilities of RPG Maker, allowing you to use many additional formats such as .ogg even tracker files like .mod! Additionally, Mp3 playback is also much faster and powerful than RPG Maker's default playback is. This package is included now in Power Mode 2003.

Picture Pointer Patch:
A godsend to anybody creating custom systems, this patch applied directly to your RPG_RT.exe that allows you to call pictures from variables and file! This cuts out a heavy amount of work and allows custom systems to be finished in a fraction of the time that they used to take.

Rm2k/3 Hyper Patcher
Allows you to quickly change many values that RPG Maker locks and makes unmodifiable. There is no English translation of this program so I can't explain in detail what it does.

Auto-enter patch
Bypasses the default title screen, userful for making custom titles.

On the use of commercial and copyrighted graphics
Balmung Cycle is particularly guilty of shamelessly taking the great majority of its graphics from a single commercial source, a sacrifice made under an informed decision to maintain the project's consistency. Since the early community "rips" have had a prominent place in most projects in an effort to distinguish games from one another. It has long been a necessary evil and while the practice persists it is difficult to design a game that is uniquely you.

A slightly less-shameless approach is to mix and match until there is some semblance of unique style. This doesn't mean use Rudra and Suikoden tilesets in your game, but rather create an array of tilesets that are blended from two or more sources. Through this technique, people can identify a map designed by Meiscool simply because his alterations follow a unique set of processes that no others apply to their games. On the other hand, just about every other game designed after Ara Fell defined Mac and Blue tended to resemble BadLuck's project.

The sad truth is that most of us are no pixel artists, and that is why one graphical style tends to be overused to the point of exhaustion. Unless you fully understand what you are doing, be aware that a unique approach is necessary with popular graphics. Mix and match, color correct and adjust, add an aesthetic texture, tint, or tone to all of your graphics. If you are studying some medium of art, don't hesitate to integrate it into your project. This extra work goes the extra mile in your final product.

Time constraints and efficiency
While RPG Maker has always streamlined certain aspects of the development pipeline it has strangled other aspects. This means if the user has never developed a game before or just doesn't know about organization, the production process will slow over time! Follow stricter naming conventions for files and develop a hierarchy for your maps. Organize your map tree in a way that makes sense, such as the order in which locations are visited. Create several root folders for "World Map", "Cut Scenes", and "Custom Systems" and create embedded hierarchies for your world to organize locations such as "Northern Hemisphere." Name files appropriately and group them with a prefix such as world-mini and world-large. Use digit buffering to organize files numerically (BatAn-0001, BatAn-0002.) Comment all your events and make markers indicating a special action so you can easily find it later. There are so many little things organization-wise that are essential to keeping your project production fluid from start to finish.

I've seen some great projects suffer from poor organization and I often stop to think how much better it could have been if the creator had only paid more mind to good housekeeping. It's true in the realm of programming and it's true in the realm of visuals and design.

Conclusion
The problem with this community is that it's centered around "me". Play my game, review my screenshots, critique my story. Too few people have a genuine interest in what others are producing, and that's because the quality of development is so low. I can't possibly expect others to play my game if it's only 30 minutes long and consists of a premise so tired and tedious that it pushes interest away from it, that would be my fault. Try new things, and push boundaries where you aren't comfortable, because that is the only way to gain recognition in this community. Offer and accept scathing critiques, don't be afraid push the bounds of what community is. It's not about posting rosy screenshots on a forum, nor is it about seeing who can make the most successful advert thread, and it's certainly not about hyping shallow ideas of little thought or substance. It's about expressing the total sum of your creative ideas and talents to and beyond your personal best. Make the sacrifices, make the committment, and ground yourself in reality.

You have my best wishes for 2009. I've told you much of what needs to be done, so make this year better than the last.