ESSENCEBLADE'S PROFILE

author=Brent
@ Essanceblade - That's...a first LOGO!? O_O If so, that's pretty amazingly done for a first logo. Nice job! I'm just wondering if you're planning to animate it, as well, for the actual title screen... Anyways, awesome stuff, my man. :D

Heh, thank ye kindly :P I've been tweaking it constantly for about 4 hours and that was the outcome :o. I'll probably animate it in terms of how I see how it'll plan out and visualize. But thanks :D

In the tileset editor in the database, have you set the Passibility for the Lower Layers' water tiles (usually the first top left hand square) to the X symbol?

Also, make sure the object you want to walk behind in the Upper Layer has a STAR over it. Also, make sure the counter flags in the upper layer are all Unticked (small square dots).

Theory

Basically, I've been talking to a friend of mine whom has been ill a few days ago, and therefore cannot continue their game for quite a bit. For the past few days I've decided to give them an insight on what ideas they'd like in terms of detail in a game. For example, things like towns and villages have a little history or setting to them upon entering the area for the first time. The question is; do you add any form of background or history to them?

I've played many games--commercial games at that--that totally miss the whole concept of what I'm talking about in terms of informal detail. I know that not all games need it, or even want it to be honest, but do you see it as a drag down rather than a helpful hint?

And I'm not just talking in terms of text based ideas either, I mean the whole concept. Do you like those seemingly pointless things in RPGs.

Mini-quests or Optional Fights which would otherwise set you offside the story?

Crafting systems which you have the option to do, and do them--or do you ignore them and only use them conditionally?

Pet systems as another instance, I haven't seen these being used as much as in older games, and that's mainly because they take a drastically long amount of time for players to adjust to and actually reap benefits out of.

Most people nowadays tend to ignore things like crafting systems which would otherwise bore the player to an extent, but most people do it to keep the player interested. What drives you into adding these things, and if you don't choose to add them, why?

Ah, this is an interesting question indeed. But the thing we all know about is resources and credit. Those are probably the only two things that bind us from making games commercial. The problem is, if a game IS going to be commercial it has to be by your own hand, which comes at a heavy cost time wise because you need to make it look the worth, as well as the game itself.

Me personally, I don't make games for money, but I rather make them for the personal experience as well as a learning curve. When I feel I've developed enough to make good story-lines / zones and custom art worth paying for, then I'll consider it. I've seen people selling games with worse quality than games that are made for free. Again, this falls back down to resources.

If you can make a game with everything custom or done by your own development team, that is commercial material. You won't see a similar style / game with its resources like that around anywhere, and if you do, you can take legal action because it is your copyright.

Don't get me wrong though, if I was given the chance to be part of a commercially developed game, I would take up the offer as a Storyline writer / character creator and mapper. It really depends on what type of game we're talking about here. In RPG Maker terms, Enterbrain even said themselves you can sell RPG Maker games for money provided that nothing you sell is of enterbrain's material.

The only real reason I would NOT make games for money is because again, of quality, you can never be too certain about that, especially these days with so many types of gamers out there.

Overall, it really depends on what your intentions are in terms of how far you're going to take it in terms of a game developer, some do it as a hobby, but they prefer to maintain it at that, some don't like selling because it may hinder their development skills or simply strip away the fun from making games, while others see it as a career and reap at any moment to find some way to make profit from their game.

It really just depends if you're ready to journey into the marketing side of things in terms of your hobby.

What I mean by active is, the title screen moves during your selection of "New Game" "Load Screen" ect.

Well really, it's just a map with auto-tiles or events that move, like waterfalls and rain ect.