GRETGOR'S PROFILE

Thank you all for the replies :)

author=Cap_H
Go ahead and try to make the move. You can always return to 2k3. I would only say that building a simple ABS isn't difficult. You just need to have realistic expectations from it. Expect it to be little clunky.

The problem is not so much that it's hard to make an ABS, the problem is that it's probably gonna be kinda bad regardless of how much effort I put into it :(

The few RPG Maker 2000/2003 ABSes I'd call good simply don't work with my current ideas :(

I'm working on deciding which engine I should move my project to. I love RPG Maker 2003 as much as the next guy, but its grid based movement absolutely sucks for real time stuff, and the only way around grid movement is through some picture-based wizardry that I would totally be able to do, but would never be elegant or pretty.

So far, I've looked into the following engines (keep in mind that by "expensive" I mean anything that costs more than RM2K3).

RPG Maker VX Ace:
Pros
- Allows me to break free from grid movement elegantly thanks to RGSS
- Familiar event and tileset interface would make things easier
- Bajillions of good tutorials available
Cons
- Expensive
- Would have to learn RGSS

Game Maker:
Pros
- Easy to use
- Extremely flexible
- Great tutorials on the Internet
- GML is deliciously elegant
Cons
- Expensive

Godot:
Pros
- Free
- Almost as easy to use as Game Maker
- Almost as flexible as Game Maker
Cons
- Lack of decent tutorials means I'd have to waste precious months of my life learning everything by myself

LOVE2D:
Pros
- Free
- Tons of tutorials
- The most flexible of all
Cons
- No graphical interface means I'd have to do everything in text mode, which I'm not looking forward to

IG Maker:
Pros
- Has literally every system I need built in
Cons
- Very buggy
- Expensive
- Devs seem to have abandoned it

These are looking fantastic! Keep it up! <3

Didn't feel like writing a full review, but I'd like to say that this game is very fun and adorable. Lovely graphics, lovely music, nice little puzzles and just endearing in general.

<3

author=LockeZ
There are lots of people out there who release royalty-free music and there are even sites that collect that music in one place. The Newgrounds audio portal is still as poppin' as it was fifteen years ago, too, though I'm not sure how to search by license on there.

Of course if you're just making your game as a hobby and not to sell, then who the fuck cares if it's royalty-free or not, use Final Fantasy music or whatever. Picking the soundtrack that's right for your game is important for creating the correct mood. Leaving the default zero-effort stuff is never the right choice.

Thank you, LockeZ. If it's still okay to use SNES music, I probably will, as I have in the past. I still have most songs I used back when I was a teenager, so yay.

Speaking of bad choices, my current project is an RM2K3 ABS project. The reason why I want to make an ABS in RM2K3 is for closure, so to speak. The main focus of my current project is "concluding" my teenage years with RPG Maker 2003 before I move on to something else, probably Game Maker. I understand that ABSes usually suck in RPG Maker, due to the grid based movement and other problems, so I'm planning on cutting it to basics: no fancy combos, no special moves, just focusing on making attacking, dodging and (maybe) blocking as smooth and pleasant as possible. Luckily, I have rather advanced skills with the RM2K3 event-command "coding" system, so the actual implementation will never be a big problem.

The ABS is the only bad choice I intend to make in this project (on purpose), as a bit of a "personal challenge", for I am absolutely insane. However, I'm trying my best to avoid any other bad choices, such as using RTP music, so thank you all for your feedback on this.