NEOPHYTE'S PROFILE

author=chana

author=Neophyte
There is a lot I have to say about this, but I agree to an extent. I can't speak for the other projects listed, but my game has almost 300 maps and about 4 hours of gameplay. Half of that could only be played if you hopped around in the editor. It crashed and burned because I spent too long making it. Ideas changed, concepts and designs were altered, and was just a huge mess! It was a failed experiment, but it was something I learned a lot from.

I'm very happy to read this, I have very longly wondered why quite a few of the funnest, prettiest, most innovative and inspired rpgs I've played were demos, I now have at least one explanation : in a way, too good for the engine...

A lot of times demos can be a death wish. Most people are fueled by that "first time" release of their product. That's why screenshot topics are so popular, creators need a way to release a little bit of whatever they're working on to fuel themselves. Once you release a demo though, there's a lot less fuel you can go on. Based on feedback and hype level afterwards, this can lead to a lot of people giving up their game, regardless of how good it is or can actually be.

author=Tau
@Neophyte - Woah, didn't expect to see you pop up. I have more screenshots of that particular version if you're interested? Also your story is exactly like mine with my last project. It was a mess in the end but was oh so pretty and ambitious.

Haha, no I don't want anything to do with that version. I am glad it is dead.

author=hedge1
Luxenith
You made me sad Neophyte! I, too, had hope you'd complete your game and it was one of the major reasons I periodically return to these forums! Ah well, at least we all know now. I have to ask though: how did the battle system end up? Is it playable? It'd be really fun to have a short demo just showing off the work you did in that.

The battle system was playable. I had 5 dungeons done, 3 of which were complete with battles, puzzles, story, etc. But the battle system...ran into a plethora of issues. I might possibly do a video of what I had done.

author=TFT
i remember neo showing a screenshot of the battle code once and it was literally 300 pages of events. it was pretty bonkers.

Well, RM2K3 is terrible. No human being should be forced to do the amount of workarounds needed to create a stable battle system in that engine.

I started off creating the project when there were no RM2K3 patches. So a lot of the animations were done using battle animations and a lot of the code had to be done through battle events. Cherry came along and created this great thing called the picture patch, which reduced the amount of work I had to do by 99%. It changed a lot of core mechanics of the battle system. But at this point, my game already had a lot of gameplay done. I would have had to literally remake the entire game (which I started to do, and quickly conceded) for things to work again.

A lot of it though really came down to how RM2K3 was constantly fighting back at every little thing I tried to do. I was a defender of the product for a long time, but even I have come to the conclusion that it's terrible. The default battle system doesn't even work correctly if you have 3-4 party member or set it to ACTIVE. Not to mention it can't even do basic math correctly. I think Neok said it best after he finished AAG and talked about the frustrations he came across in RM2K3 and ambitious games in general.

1. You should also hate your characters.

Not hate in the sense of writing for them, but for the actions they do in the world you created. I find these to be the most interesting characters, rather than the protagonist who can do no wrong.

I hope you do more articles...

comment=38615
Oh and as an added note, when was the last time anyone here saw a completely original game on this website or any other amateur/indie game website with graphics/music/story or anything that wasn't stolen or re-appropriated from someone or somewhere else? I'd say that you'd be hard-pressed to find something like that anywhere on the internet. I'd say that only a slim maybe 5-10% of all the amateur games being made out there have everything made completely from scratch.

Um, there are thousands of completely original indie games.

The same can't be said for RPG's, though. A side scrolling adventure game or puzzle game is much easier to create than an RPG. If you took a game like Exit Fate and wanted every tile to be original, the cost would be vastly higher compared to something like Spelunky. It would be unattainable. RM communities as a whole sort of contradict themselves. The 12-18 year olds are ambitious on their projects (20-100 hours!!), but at the same time are too lazy to even configure a script.

Making an indie game is all about cutting corners. Making an indie RPG means you have to do that even more. You can start by attempting to create a 4-6 hour game. At some point though, you have to draw the line on how you manage your graphics, music, and overall design. Some things are just not cool to do, and that's when you've cut too many corners and have lost all originality.

This is great stuff for someone starting out. I like it.

I hope you don't mind if I plug something that I think will also help in this area of game making. Strangeluv made an article (I dunno if you could call it that since it's almost a book) on this and I feel this is a great time to share it if you guys missed it from GW. It's long, but I learned a lot from it, and I hope it helps if you guys want something that's more...lengthy.

http://rpgmaker.net/users/Neophyte/locker/StrangersTips.doc

I've only played 3 of those games, wow.

Nobody should be discussing/arguing anything here, that is unless you've played every single game on this list. Either that, or you could have asked to have been a judge yourself.

Nice list guys. It's a great addition to the site, and great for recognizing the lesser known games. I wouldn't want to see a carbon copy of the misaos. That would be no fun!