ENKER'S PROFILE

Firstly, read books, webcomics, anything that inspires you. I'm not saying to rip them off, but everyone at some point has said 'I could do better than that' when seeing what a tv or film writer has come up with. Use these moments of inspiration (maybe keep a notebook or sketchpad) and collate the ideas together to start the foundation of your story. Sometimes a whole scenario can be built around one key scene. Famously the film 'Jason and the Argonaughts' was scripted entirely around four concept sketches by the staff artist, and the script writers just had to make the characters move from A to B as seamlessly as possible.

Personally I always start by trying to come up with a character who feels like he has a story to tell. As a graphic designer and illustrator this normally begins life as a sketch or visual of some sort. Around that character you build a history, personality and decide what point in his life he is at when the story begins. That character then can go on to be a central influence on the plot or find a supporting role, but in having a deffinate history matched with motivation you already have an idea of what kind of worldsetting you will be using.

EG: Cecil is a Dark Knight who is questioning his motivation as a soldier when his king asks him to commit increasingly terrible acts.

Next I like to decide on what kind of skillsets the game will include, how characters learn magic and how that effects the setting.

EG: Characters in Final Fantasy 6 learn skills by equipping an Esper and taking magic from it, this means that magic is both rare and hard to come by as well as putting plot significance onto Espers.

Once these two mechanics are down I decide upon a lead character and what his personal story should be. How he developes through the tale and what lessons he learns. If there is an obsticle in his back-story that needs to be overcome and any relationships that are made. Always a believer in 'the bigger picture' I like to create a villain in the same way as the PC Party and his goals, how they affect the party and the world in general. From these building blocks you have a history, world mechanic and a nemesis to be overcome.

The rest, as they say, is in your hands . . .

(if this is overlong or preachy, I appologise - I have just finished a hefty professional writing job and it's all fresh in my mind. Feel free to slap me ;))

Nice thread, gives us a chance to look at what else is being done.

1. CARDS
Card games are a staple of RPG mini-games and Shadows Reach has gone for the classic rendition of 21s. Everybody is familure with the basic concept of getting as close to the number 21 without going over it in order to beat their opponent, and with the added bonus of winning in-game money and taking part in a national tournament, you'll be keeping your eyes peeled for likely challangers.

2. FISHING
Fishing is a great passtime, simply buy yourself a rod and head out into the wide blue yonder. Wherever you see a likely fishing point, you can whip out your rod and try your luck at catching one of fifty different water-dwellers. Ranging from catches that can be used as items, to dangerous foes who will cause you serious grief.

3. HUNTING
Once you've reached a certain point in the game you can get yourself a Hunter's License and join the biggest quest in the game. Spread out across the overworld map are literally hundreds of 'Marks' that when found will throw you into a series of boss-level battles to test your party to its limit. Defeating them will not only give you cash and experience, but provide rare items and raise your 'Hunter Level' to unlock even tougher foes.

4. COMPETITIONS
Errol is an incredably vain Bard, and when he encounters a Clown he's bound to put his entertainment skills to the test by challinging them to a contest. Ranging from juggling to balloon animal making, it's a test of speed and skill that will unlock special items that only Errol can use.

5. THE COMBAT ARENA
The arena is located in the very first town you visit and initially serves simply as a tutorial on combat. But come back later any you'll be able to take part in a one on one competition, as well as battling the toughest monsters from each new area you unlock with your full party. Later in the game new modes are added, including a boss-bash that sees you taking all of the bosses from the game on one after another with only one character, and a special tournament to win one of the two most valuble items in the game (the other is a prize for winning the cards tournament - and together they unlock an amazing set of new moves).

6. MATCH MAKING
Getting two lovers together may seem like a trial at first, but it kicks into action a series of events that runs throughout the whole game. Get them together, attend their wedding, find them a home, and help raise their children. Every action you take with these two young lovers will directly influence the way their lives turn out.

7. EEP'S ADVENTURES
Even Eep, Errol's kitten companion, gets his own mini adventure in this game, as finding the reclusive travelling Black Mage will encourage him to test Eep's skills through a series of pac-man like levels that must be beaten in order to unlock elemental weapons for the main party. Once a level is cleared the mage will vanish to another location and must be found again before the next level can be played. Hours of classic arcade fun packed into one tiny mini-game!

8. BUY A FARM
Why waste time buying items when you can grow your own? Shadow's Reach has a whole farm that can be brought and and used to grow seeds that you find scattered throughout the land. Plant the crops, wait and see them grow, then harvest the fruit for a whole wealth of items.

9. FASHION PARADE
Dress up lead female Aren in any of eight custumes available (not including her regular gear) and parade her down the catwalk before an audiance of judges who will grade both your choice and sense of style.

The above doesn't even begin to cover the full depth of optional play, not when there are secret dungeons, puzzles, quizes and even a music hall where you can hear the full original opening song sung by the composer herself. All this and much more yet to be added to the full game.

Because the poor worldmap in most RPGs is renegated to being nothing more than a way of getting from A to B, and because Shadow's Reach does not feature random encounters outside of dungeons, the following features are included only in this particular area of the game:

CONVERSATIONS:
At some points as you travel through the game an icon in the bottom right of the screen reading 'conversation' will appear. When this happens pressing the ok key will activate a short scripted sequence that features two or more of the characters in your party at that time having a conversation. This is used to explain the history of an area, flesh out character background and interaction, as well as provide comedy interludes. These conversations appear all over the world map throughout play (even in areas that you have already visited) and are not essential to completion of the main story. Fans of the Gamecube game 'Tales of Symphonia' will already have a rough idea of how this system works.

HUNTING:
After having joined the Hunter's Guild you will be able to partake in the biggest mini-game that Shadow's Reach has to offer. Spread out across the whole of the worldmap is a series of heafty boss encounters that become ever more challanging as you complete each one. In much same way as the conversation system, the text 'Mark' will appear in an icon at the bottom left hand side of the screen and pressing the ok button will automatically throw you into the battle. Once found, these battles can be fled from and returned to at a later date for completion, but only one mark can be inlocked at a time. Upon winning a battle the next mark will be set loose and will have to be tracked down.

TREASURE HUNT:
Later in the game you will be given a special mission to track down and dig up an ancient artifact that is hidden somewhere on the world map. In order to do this you will have to have a THIEF class character in your party, and when you walk across a spot where treasure has been buried a low sound will indicate that there is something in the area. After that it's up to you to dig down and see what that item is. It could be anything from the humble 1 GP piece to a special item. This minigame becomes available as soon as the character of Athena is unlocked.

lol I think it's worth it for the content included in the demo - after all on most computers it doesn't take long to download 100 megs now

Possibly a links section for other sites that host and review RPG Maker games? Nothing massive or mad, but maybe a small list of other high-quality sites like this, maybe affiliates? Actually I still uphold that this is the MOST professional looking and well run Maker site out there.

Interesting - is there a word limit for the blogs on the games pages? When I posted the promised Shadow's Reach walkthrough to accompany the demo (and let people see if they managed to find everything it has to offer) I got the following message:

UnicodeEncodeError at /panel/games/239/add_log_entry/
'latin-1' codec can't encode character u'\u2019' in position 474: ordinal not in range(256)
Request Method: POST
Request URL: http://www.rpgmaker.net/panel/games/239/add_log_entry/
Exception Type: UnicodeEncodeError
Exception Value: 'latin-1' codec can't encode character u'\u2019' in position 474: ordinal not in range(256)
Exception Location: /usr/lib64/python2.4/site-packages/MySQLdb/connections.py in defaulterrorhandler, line 33