INSTINCT'S PROFILE

RM games are better today? Are you joking? If by “better” you mean they “look” better… then ok I’ll give you that simply because the new engine allows you to utilize higher quality images.

What I’m talking about are the presentation techniques used…

I can’t remember the title, I’ve downloaded so many RMVX and Ace games lately. One game opened with these beautiful pictures… I mean stunning images. STILL images! With today’s engine you can’t make these move!? I sat there staring at a beautiful image sit still for about 3 minutes reading text upon text of introduction. “Move Picture” has been present since RM2k, you don’t need RUBY to do that.

And RM creators back then utilized this feature with great effect. Now, people are simply content of plastering a static picture on the screen and spend their time instead looking for scripts. And if the script they need does not exist… well then I guess what’s there will simply have to do.

I ask you to click on the link below, and see what I’m talking about. Watch the video on that page. An old member sent me this from one of his old projects. Keep in mind, EVERYTHING you are about to see was made with sequence of 2D still images… with RM2K. With the capabilities of today’s engine… the example below should be MINIMUM. Some of the sequence in the vid below would still blow me away even when done in today’s engine… and it will most likely look a lot better. I mean really, it looks like the guy isdiving through the clouds… using 2D images. And that aircraft looks like it flew right at you… and then it shifts to cockpit view and the guy smiles at you… it’s like straight out of an anime movie. THAT is the kind of innovation I’m talking about.

The guy now does the same thing commercially: http://littlevagrantx.blogspot.com/

The point I’m trying to make is that most people aren’t doing this level of production… yet they dish out comments to newbies as if they were creating this type of work.

If you’ve recently discovered the joys of RPG Maker, say within the last 5 to 6 years, then you will most likely not know who I am. As such, my name is of no consequence. However, if you have been around since 2000 or so… allow me to re-introduce myself. My name is Bloodrose… it’s nice to see you again.

Every now and then, a seasoned member of the community posts a topic such as this… I never have. I feel it is my turn. I have been an active member since 2000 through about 2009 or so. I began developing games, then moved on to operating a website called “Liquid Motion RPG” which was dedicated solely to reviewing people’s projects, and providing insight on how to improve them. The website itself received a moderate amount of visitors, but it was a one-man shop for the most part and I couldn’t keep up with the reviews. Slowly I gravitated towards 3D animation rendering for a hobby. One of my staff members, LittleVagrant if you remember him, has moved on to becoming a professional game designer. Proud to say he actually worked on the graphics to a game called “Darksiders 2” that is about to come out. And nowadays I simply code code code at work… that’s all I do 10 hours a day. But I haven’t lost the love for creativity, and RM itself. I always told myself, I would one day release one more game. The people who still corresponded with me in the community have urged me for years to do so.

Around 2009, I disappeared for personal reasons. Although I was still lurking in the community, and working with various minor projects as a hobby.

2012… I was eagerly awaiting RMVXAce, and finally bought it. I re-entered the community, and this website is the first one I found. I recognized some names, Legion (MaxMcgee), Mateui, Tau, Sbester… even Kentona. Now I remember Kentona when he first came into the scene as a noob. I remember the first traces of ads he posted as he tested the waters… what kind of criticisms he would receive. He’s had his share of bad ones, along with some noteworthy ones. Nobody knew him, and when he released Hero’s Realm I reviewed its first incarnation, put it up front page, and was pleasantly surprised as it introduced aspects of RM that has been lost for a number or years… simplicity of design and sheer playability. At that time, however, most of the RM “legends” that I respected have slowly begun disappearing, and the game-making community turned into a race of custom systems.

Enter RMVX era. These newer engines introduced systems that were not necessarily invented, but popularized (in RM) by the RM creators of circa 2000 and made them standard fare. That’s a good thing.

Nowadays, all of the techniques that took ingenuity to implement in RPG Maker 2000 can be done with simple settings in RMVXAce.

When Gaming World was young all the newbies came in, learned the program, and then started being overly critical of all the ones that came after them. People looked for things wrong in screenshots when none existed. That bird’s left wing doesn’t match the color of the rest of its body. The single tile looks a little too blue. Things that when you actually played the game you wouldn’t even notice depending on the presentation. This was a key factor that people who created games that will go down in RM history understood. A Blurred Line by Lysander had so many things wrong with it graphically, but you will be branded as a witch and burned at the stake should you dare to say this was not a landmark game. If you don’t know this game, or you cannot understand what makes it so good because you are comparing it to today’s graphics… then I daresay you have yet to graduate from RM school.

Such was the way for a number of years until the community finally dwindled as new blood were pushed out due to extensive elitism. Elitism that was successfully disguised as “constructive criticism”. In time people started to forget…

Enter RMN. The cycle starts again.

Let me put this into perspective. I have not seen, to date, any RM game made with RMXP or later that I would consider delivered anything innovative the way that RM2k broke boundaries. The games made in RM2k can still be found front page in international websites. Why? Because they did things that the engine was never meant to do. I have seen people provide advise on how things should be done in other people’s games left and right as if their word was gospel. If you know what makes a great game, then I challenge you to create something that will go down in RM history. Create the next Ydunn Ymiraldor. Create the next A Blurred Line. Create the next Dragon Destiny, Kinetic Cipher, Chimera Report, or Romancing Walker. It is not the quality of these games that make them stand out… it is their quality at the time they were made. Let’s see you push RMVXAce the way these greats pushed RM2k.

No, that is not entirely true about jpeg vs png.

@theneonheart: It is definitely in RTP under flame as stated. It's really easy to do. Simply set the event and turn on the Stepping Animation.

@Tau: Yeah, I've thought about doing pre-rendered backgrounds... not sure if that's what you mean by parallax mapping.

@UPRC: Hey there, I don't think I've been here before. Thanks... and I remember your name:)

@Sana: I like the mapping, although I would suggest reverting back to the smaller map for what its worth.