MAX MCGEE'S PROFILE

Craze, I don't think anyone on this website except you and maybe Brandon are even capable of reading or even seeing something with the word fashionista in it.

With that out of the way, I will now endeavor to piss off everyone on every side of the argument. ;D

Just kidding. Not trying to piss anyone off. Seriously, I do have very strong feelings both ways on this topic, and I think a lot of things a lot of people said are wrong in one way or another.

RPG Maker isn't from scratch. You can't compare rpg maker games to something someone coded from scratch. No RTP, no database, no templates. Just hard work. This guy is on a whole new level than us.

Fjuck that. Have you PLAYED Sunset over Imdahl? How about Wilfred the Hero? Grave Spirit? The only things these games took from Enterbrain is an ENGINE. Everything else was made from scratch.

The coded the game from scratch comment was for the guy that said "The Hard Way is the longest one man game made." Games made on the RM doesn't count.. it hurts me to say it but it's kinda like cheating. We have a premade engine maker. Now, Game Maker games are -a little- more difficult.

Look at the above examples. Have you played those games? Are you aware of their existence? I guess you could argue they weren't from scratch because they used a prebuilt engine, but then again...SO DO 90% OF COMMERCIAL GAMES. Hence your opinion is retarded squared.

Also, creativity doesn't work in a vacuum. Anyone who is "immune to criticism" is also "immune" to improvement and hence is more likely to ship a shitty product.

Look, here is my method, applied to writing, too:
During the first draft of anything, the door is closed. You don't listen to anyone's advice, you don't give a shit what anyone says, you just produce art like a machine.
But when it's time to revise, or in this case, AGGRESSIVELY PROMOTE YOUR GAME,you damn well better be ready to take criticism, because you have already OPENED the door by aggressively promoting your game.

At the same time, I think his game looks great. I wouldn't criticize it until I played it.I think the game looks awesome, like a 2D Shenmue/Bully with all the heart and quirky character of Earthbound or The Simpsons. I would like to play it. And I have not said anything negative about it. All I said is that making a game, from scratch, in RPG Maker, counts.

But as to him having an ego because he made a complete DS game by himself....I dunno, I have conflicting feelings on that. Part of me wants to tell him that I have spent three years making a complete game, which puts me at the same level as him.

But the other part wants me to tell everyone that outside the RPGmaker community, with the exception of fundamentalist Christians, perhaps, having an ego is not considered an unforgivable, blacklist worthy sin.

It's all good that this guy had a vision for his game, and worked extremely hard to make it. But there's a line that you shouldn't cross when it comes to things like this. In my opinion, he went a little too far in boasting his abilities.

What you don't get, Neophyte, is that this isn't some forum post he made in our community. This is not him talking among friends. This video is OBVIOUSLY a (well-produced) attempt at marketing. He is clearly in the marketing/advertising phase. And in that phase, being modest is not one of your priorities. Your priority is to show off and make your game look awesome sauce so people will buy it. Think about commercials and add campaigns for other COMMERCIAL GAMES, which this is. Do you recall any of them being modest? Because they're not. Marketing isn't about being modest, it's about selling yourself, pitching yourself, repping yourself. It is the opposite of modesty. Would anyone expect modesty from a trailer for Halo 3? For GTA:IV? Would we get pissed off and be like HOW COME THEY THINK THEIR GAME IS SO GREAT THOSE JERKS! It is a commercial game, he is selling it, welcome to capitalism. You can't hold everything to the standards of a GW Forum post for cripes' sakes.

So because one guy worked on something for five years the project becomes immune to criticism? When I play a game I don't think "Well the dev team wasn't very big, so I guess I can't complain too much", I think "What an awful game". Besides giving him "9/10!" and Internet high fives aren't going to help him besides stroke his epenis. Considering he's been working on it for five years, I'd hope he would take the criticism in hand to improve his game so the last five years of his life isn't possibly some boring game that few will care about.

I agree with this, GRS, but I think it's 90% sure he had a select group of beta testers who have given him feedback on this game throughout his development. They were probably his friends, but so what. The whole "100% on my own" thing is probably a fake, like I said, a gimmick for him to sell the thing with. I'm pretty damn sure he's taken at least some feedback into account.

Also.. I wouldn't respond to criticism either if I did something -by myself- from scratch. What are RPG Makers professional game designers now? Even commercial projects for RM uses teams. LoH has a scripters, spriters, voice actors, composers, and etc. I agree whole heartedly that he shouldn't take criticism -especially- from RM Makers.

Finally, back to Rose again...as some jerk around here famously said, CRITICISM DOES NOT WORK ON A "DO BETTER" BASIS. The right to criticism is not based on "merit" or being able to do better, at least not in anything resembling the real world. As a matter of fact, most professional critics and reviewers are ONLY good at being critical.

And I hate how you view us as some kind of underclass, like our work is somehow innately less real than anyone else's. Well fuck that shit. Making games in RPG Maker is HARD, at lest if you're trying to do it RIGHT.

I might make a thread like this too. I've been thinking about it for a while, but you beat me to the punch (damn you). I did review three games in the last week.

Anyway, I'll ask you (and everyone else) to review Mage Duel, when it's out, on RS day, three days from now.

noooo my sig? is this any better guys? I removed some of it.

Well, actually, my attitude is better than it used to be.

My attitude at one point was "well, I hate mapping, so I'm just going to spend no time on it and do a crappy job." Now it's changed to "I hate mapping, but since mapping is all most people care about, I need to spend enough time on it to have good looking maps".

Anyway, in spite of my hatred for it, I've made three complete games in my indie game making "career", so, that amounts to having made more maps in RPG Maker than just about anybody but like, iishenron or harmonic. I guess it's more that I'm damn tired of it than that I just abhor it. Gameplay, story, etc. these things hold some interest for me still, but I feel like I've already derived all the pleasure I was ever going to derive out of mapping.

How so? Just curious.