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Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
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Prayer of the Faithless
On the brink of the apocalypse, two friends struggle to find what is worth saving

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[RGSS3] [SOLVED] Yanfly Command Equip & Luna Engine works

Good news: I think I figured out how to get Yanfly's Command Equip to work with the Luna Engine. Bad news: it requires a defunct Window_EquipStatus, a pretty important component of the equip scene. Hopeful news: I think I may know what to do, but I have no clue how to go about doing it. Hence the topic.


First, here's the temporary solution: Go to YEA's Equip engine line 1109 and add:
return if $game_party.in_battle

Just below the line: @last_item = item. Now Yanfly's Command Equip should work during battle:


Don't mind the battle HUD. That's an issue that can come later if this can work.

Battle HUD aside, do you notice something odd? That's right: the price you pay is that you can't see the changes in parameters when you highlight the individual equips. They still occur, don't worry, but you can no longer see it.

Now comment that line out, because the rest of my process doesn't have that line in. I just mentioned it so anyone who's fine with not seeing parameter changes can now use the script.

The reason the line is added is because the game crashes is due to the very next line:
temp_actor = Marshal.load(Marshal.dump(@actor))


In battle, the Luna Engine adds extra classes/properties to actors that Marshal's dump method doesn't recognize (mostly sprite properties). These new classes have neither marshal_dump nor marshal_load(obj) methods defined, so the game crashes. Well, okay, that's easy enough to fix. Those new classes aren't necessary for the equip scene to function, so creating some blank functions just to keep the game from crashing should work. After doing this for all the classes that cause the game to crash, I've got this little piece of code:

class Sprite_Base
  def marshal_dump; end
  def marshal_load(obj);  end
end


class Sprite
  def marshal_dump; end
  def marshal_load(obj);  end
end

class Bitmap
  def marshal_dump;  end
    def marshal_load(obj);  end
end

class Window_BattleActor < Window_BattleStatus
  def marshal_dump; end
  def marshal_load(obj);  end
end

  
class Font
  def marshal_dump;  end
  def marshal_load(obj);  end
end

class Method
  def marshal_dump;  end
  end

class Viewport
  def marshal_dump;  end
end

I run the program and... the game still crashes. However, it's no longer because of a lack of Marshal dumps. Instead, I've got:



That. And here, unfortunately, is where I'm stuck. It appears that something's screwy with marshal_load(obj) now that it won't even recognize the info. I don't think I messed anything up too badly, but I could be very wrong.

Now, I'm aware that the Command Equip script is listed as incompatible with the Luna Engine, and I'm also aware that, even if I can figure this out, there's no promise that it'll make everything work right. However, I've gotten this far in getting it to work, I feel like it's not much more before it'll work as intended unless I royally screwed something up with my current adjustment.

If anyone sees something I don't, I'd really appreciate it.

IGMC 2015 Results!

Look like the results for the IGMC 2015 have finally arrived! Here's the breakdown:

Grand Prize Winner:

Corrine Cross' Dead and Breakfast: by Badchalk


2nd Place: Nanuleu by Carlos Villagran

3rd Place: Symbiote by Des


Genre Prizes:

RPG: Grist of Flies by Razelle

Puzzle: Robocoder by Herco

Shooter: Bosstardian by Ricardo Baeza

Adventure: ZIZ by nerdvsgame

Action: Little Big Runners by Renato Duchini

Simulation: Soil and Rubble by Daniel Mullins

Strategy: Toy Blockies by Delitaru

Platformer: Oh! I'm gettin' taller by ElfGames


Engine Prizes:

RPG Maker: Free Spirits by Pentagonbuddy and emmych

Stencyl:Flower Child by Alex Moreland

Axis Game Factory: Fishing Sim: Keep or Release by jason

Game Guru: Area 52 by Ted Cullins

App Game Kit:Nerius by noel baldacchino

Play Canvas: Chicken's Day Off by BenBean

GG Maker: Project Gemini by Sean Arseo


Other Prizes:

People's Choice: Omega Carinae by Federico Jose Diaz

Embrace the Theme: Feed Your Beast by baxgamedev

Prize Pig: The Lone Skeleton by Black_Clone

Golden Reviewer: Jtrev23


Congratulations to the winner and everyone who took part in the contest!


Check out the official page here.

Balancing challenge and hype

Imagine you're playing Final Fantasy IV for the first time. You've made it through the final dungeon and are ready to confront the last boss. After a long cutscene ending with the entire party brought to near submission, Cecil alone manages to stand back up to confront the villain. Battle begins. Cecil starts alone with 1 HP and everyone else KOed. However, one by one, the party members pick themselves up from the ground and stand with him. The spirits of those that helped him along his way heals the group and brings them back into fighting shape. Cecil is granted a crystal to reveal the true form of the last boss. Now the true final battle begins. "Alright," you think to yourself, blood pumping, hands shaking in anticipation, "I'm gonna beat this guy and save the world!! YEAH, LET'S KICK HIS ASS!"

Except you don't. Four turns after the battle begins, your party is wiped out. And now you have to go back through those cutscenes again to get another shot at the boss. Only this time, the hype is only a fraction of what it was the first time.

Or even worse, failing the battle two or three more times and realizing you have to go back and grind a few more levels before going through that long cutscene for the 5th time. By then, the game's pacing has been completely shattered, the adrenaline has run out, and you're just interested in beating the boss, screw the plot.


Just like a well timed scare in a horror game, the impact of a well executed pivotal plot moment in an RPG can evoke a powerful emotional reaction from a player. However, that impact is very often at its height only once. Seeing that same scene again would, in most cases, not be nearly as memorable as it was the first time. However, we are making GAMES. And games, after all, are supposed to CHALLENGE a player in some way. What happens if players fail the challenge and have to go through it again? If an RPG places its story front and center, then should its gameplay be easier in order to move the player through the tale? Though in that instance, the fight wouldn't be as memorable if you could breeze through it with no problems.

In the event of a game over, it'd be easy enough to add an option to skip the cutscene or even to retry the battle. But no matter what sort of solution devs come up with, there's no reinvigorating that initial hype.

What I'm asking is, if this is even a concern to you, what do you do to make the fight challenging without losing the magic of that initial hype? Do you just make the fight easier than you would normally? That would certainly keep the flow of the plot going, but you wouldn't really have the satisfaction of beating a really tough enemy. Personally, I've been thinking about giving bosses multiple phases. The first phase would be simple enough and mostly to keep the adrenaline flowing. Then, as their HP wears down, have the boss adapt new tactics and gradually up the challenge.

Maybe you don't care and just want to let the players get by the fight so they can watch the rest of the cutscene? Or maybe you want to give players the satisfaction of beating a really hard enemy? If they fail once or twice of ten times, tough. What are your thoughts?

[SCRIPTING] How to test for script compatibility?

I'm writing a script in Ace that brings forward certain features you can't change by default in the database (maximum battle members, keeping EXP upon changing classes, etc.) for convenient customization, and I wanted to submit it when I think I've got enough to warrant a submission. The problem is that there are loads of scripts that mess with these features as well. Since it's obviously impossible to test every script ever written for compatibility, what are some general guidelines one can follow to make sure that there are as few issues as possible?

Here's what I've done already:

- Tested in vanilla Ace.
- Tested in Yanfly's core and battle engine scripts.
- Tested in Luna Engine Base (which contains Yanfly's core and battle engine).
- Placed script at the very top and very bottom of custom script list.

All of these have produced little to no problems with method overwrites (though there's not much this script actually CHANGES), but the settings can be overwritten by other scripts that adjust the same settings as mine if not placed on the very bottom of the script list. So far, that's the only issue I see, and there's nothing I can do about it.

So, unless there's a step I didn't take, would this be enough testing to justify an initial release?

The RMN Skill Exchange

Not every collaboration has to involve joining up with a team for a long term project. Sometimes, all a dev needs is an example of something to give their creative sides a jolt. Hence, this topic. Here, you can pair up with someone and have a short little skill exchange where you do something for someone else and get something in return. Hopefully, the result of these exchanges will help inspire you and let you see your project in a new light. And perhaps, by helping someone else, you might strike upon an idea that you could use for your own projects!



Examples of skills you can offer:

- A couple of maps.
- Writing a character's backstory.
- A dungeon gimmick (This includes a working prototype).
- A character design sketch.
- Testing a short segment of your game.
- A simple script.


Rules:

- You can only have one exchange going on at a time. After the exchange, you are free to post in this topic offering up a service.
- Only pairs are allowed. No exchanges involving three or more people.
- You must offer up a service first before asking anyone for theirs, and they both have to agree on the exchange for it to take effect.
- Unless agreed upon otherwise by the individual parties involved, what comes out of these exchanges are free to use in each other's games. That's the whole point of this exchange.
- You do not have to share what you have created here if you don't want to. Only the original creator is allowed to share what they have created here.
- If you're creating something for someone else, you need something tangible for it to count as an exchange. Don't just tell someone an idea and not do anything yourself.
- How credit is given to each other is up to the parties involved.
- This is not a long term commitment. Nobody is joining any team here unless they wish to do so after the exchange has been completed.
- You must both post in this topic if you are committing to the exchange so I know to put you in the Current Matchups list. Also, you must post here when the exchange is done so I can take you off the list.


Current Matchups:


Available:

- SnowOwl: 1-2 Parallax maps.
- LockeZ: Scripter. Looking for some sprite work.
- jomarcenter: character backstory writing.
- captainregal: mapping/dungeon gimmick work
- charblar: Sprites/tilesets and/or audio.
- AubreyTheBard: Scripting. Looking for some map tilesets
- GoatBoy: Sprite work. Looking for music or puzzle designs.
- ESBY: Mapping. Looking for a writer.
- PacifisticKiller: writing. Looking for character design sketches or mapping
- the13thsecret: Story planning, review & critique, or Sound looping. Looking for RTP Face edits. Details here.
- Novalux: Title graphic, playtest, character writing, battle mechanics help.
- AceVII Character designs. Looking for pixel artist.
- NeverSilent: Puzzles, testing for XP, Ace, and VX. Looking for feedback on an idea.
- Zephire98 Mapmaking/story. Hasn't specified what they're looking for.
- Mushi420 Music composition. Not looking for anything specific.
- sinnelius Artist. Looking for a writer.
- AbominableFunk Music composition. Looking for artist.
- Kotakota Artist and music. Not looking for anything. Link to portfolio here.

The President of Nintendo has passed away

Yeah. The title speaks for itself:

http://www.engadget.com/2015/07/12/nintendo-chief-satoru-iwata-dies/

Damn. I mean... damn. He will be sorely missed.

... Damn.

Design Your Nightmare!

We all enjoy making the games that we love. Last night, I wondered what would happen if I made a game that I hated. For example: Since I hate grinding in RPGs, I was wondering what I would do if I was ever in a situation where I had to work on a grind-heavy RPG (like if I was in a team where my partner(s) enjoyed grinding).

I'm curious as to how you would handle such a situation. What if you had to work on a game that you hated but, for one reason or another, you could not go back and make any major revisions? It's an interesting exercise that should help you think outside the box and perhaps help you come up with some ideas that you can use in your own games!

Normal Mode: Design a game in a genre you like that includes 1-2 elements from your chosen genre that you hate.

Hard Mode: Design a game in a genre you like that includes 3+ elements from your genre that you gate.

EXTREME MODE: Design a game in a genre you hate including all the elements you hate!

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I'll start us off:


Normal Mode: A dungeon crawler RPG with lots of grind and a monotonous, uninspired battle system.

How I'd do it: I would write a complex and intricate backstory and deep characters, both playable and NPCs. If players are interested in what's going on in the world, that would hopefully be on their minds while they slog through the dungeons. I would also implement questlines for each NPC that require revisiting them and seeing how they develop.

To get around the monotonous battles, I would do three things: A) add an AutoBattle option so players aren't slogged down by repeatedly selecting the same commands for each party member every battle. B) Make all battles generally easier. Monotonous and uninspired beat out broken and unplayable any day. C) Put more emphasis on stuff to do outside of battle, like solving puzzles or utilizing gadgets to make field movement more dynamic and interesting.


Hard Mode: An RPG with boring battles, lots of grind, and no strong storyline.

How I'd do it: Pretty much what I'd on Normal Mode, just without the story segment. To get over the story problem, I would allow players to create their own party, allowing them to choose names and classes for each member. Throughout the game, each character will have random lines to say at random times depending on their class, allowing players to have a more personal run through the game. Each class would also have an on-field ability to make traversal of dungeons easier. For example: A warrior could break down certain walls, while an archer could hit distant switches with a bow. This system would encourage high replay value because players can explore different parts of an area if they go through with a different party of classes.

Going one step further, I would implement a system similar to Etrian Odyssey's where you create individual characters whenever you wanted throughout the game.


EXTREME MODE: A puzzle game that's entire focus is on the puzzles. No story, no characters, no general tone. Just a list of puzzles to complete (the type of puzzles don't matter). For reference, have you ever played Polarium? That's the kind of game style I'm talking about.

How I'd do it: For this particular game, I'll use a Rubik's Cube puzzle design as the core concept. Each time a puzzle is solved, the screen will slowly start to fade to white, and then players will return to the puzzle selection list. This is important, as this fade to white is actually a different puzzle that players will solve later. As they work their way through the puzzles, players should eventually notice the solved cubes will have one single letter shown on it. These letters are actually a jumbled message that must be deciphered by players themselves.

Once the message is deciphered, players must solve any puzzle to invoke that white fade again. This time, though, players must type in the deciphered message before the game takes players back to the puzzle list. Doing this will open up another set of puzzles for players to solve, thereby increasing the game's content and variety by making players think outside the box a little bit.


... It's not amazing, but that's what I would do if I had to make a puzzle game using those restrictions.

The Bad End

Disclaimer: Due to the nature of this topic, there will be an UNAVOIDABLE AMOUNT OF SPOILERS being discussed! Read at your own discretion.

Let's try to shy away from spoiling too many bad endings to games and talk about the logic behind bad endings in general. If you HAVE to actually spoil endings, make things easier for readers by listing the games you will spoil either at the beginning of your posts or just above the hide tags. Thank you!



So... bad endings. I'm not sure what to make of them. One one hand, the possibility of failure is great incentive to play the game properly. One the other, the very idea of playing a game, "properly," goes against the very nature of games.

I've been playing Suikoden 2 lately (holy shit I am loving it, by the way! Go and play it if you haven't!) and I recently got a bad ending. Without spoiling anything, the bad ending (the one I got, at least) was not the result of some arbitrary action I had taken earlier in the game. I was straight up given the option to go for it. At the time though, I thought that it was just the characters showing a little bit of weakness or exhaustion at the situation they found themselves in, so I chose the options to admit that they were tired of fighting.

To my surprise, the game rolled with it. I had fully expected the character I was talking to to suddenly go back on her previous statements and reassure me that we're doing the right thing, but nope! The game took my choice and changed the story accordingly!

I won't go into any more specific details, but that alone actually doesn't lock you into the bad ending route! You already went down a path that makes a fairly significant change to the story, but you still have a chance to return to the main story and continue on. But you don't have to. In order to get the bad ending, you have to practically beg for it.

When the band ending finally came around, I was... actually satisfied. This was an ending that I saw as an option, went for, and achieved. No random action or choice in the past that locked me into it, no invisible roll of the dice to determine the outcome. This was perfect.


So it got me thinking about bad endings in general: there are plenty of games that handle achieving them wildly different than Suikoden 2 did. Some work well, some not so well. Yes, I do think it should be possible to fail at your objective if you don't do enough work, but overall, I don't like the idea of getting a bad ending through some random choice you made earlier in the game. If they don't handle them the way Suikoden 2 (or Silent Hill 2, which is too lengthy to talk about in this initial post) did, then I can't really get behind them as legitimate endings.

What do you think? Should bad endings exist? What are some games you think handled them well? Which didn't? How would you go about designing a bad end?

Developing like a lazy bum!



Making games is hard, there's no doubt about that. Hell, that's a tagline on this very site! Thankfully though, there are many things we can do to make the developing process less tedious. For example:

Create a base project
Have you ever noticed that you use some of the same scripts between many different projects? For example, maybe you like that lightning engine a lot, and want to integrate that into your future projects? Or maybe you hate some of the default sound effects that come with a new project? Well, instead of creating a vanilla project each time you want to start a new game, try creating a project with all your preferred assets, scripts, sound effects, etc. already imported. Now, when you're ready to start a new project, all you have to do is make a copy of your own personal base project, and you'll be one step ahead of others who have to integrate a bunch of assets already!

Don't make sprites from scratch
This is kinda the same thing as the previous bullet, but because the process is a little different, it's in it's own category. Some people like to make their own sprites. It's fantastic, and it gives your game it's own identity, especially if you're going to make a character-focused story. However, it could be very tedious to create a new sprite from scratch every time you want to make a new NPC. So instead, you create your own sprite base and a bunch of premade clothing and hair items! Now, when you want to create a sprite, you just have you add those items to the base, edit the outfits a little bit to make them more unique, recolor them if necessary, and voila! A sprite is done!

For a more visual representation, this is Loose Leaf, a sprite generator that allows you to create your own Mack style sprites from a handful of bases and premade clothes. What I'm suggesting is you replicate this process using your own created base and clothes.

Of course, you'll have to do a lot more work in the beginning of the process, but you don't have to do it all at once. As soon as you make a new clothing item, just add it to the collecting of premade items and you can draw on it any time you want to. As you continue development, you can take the time to draw up more clothes to use, so it's a constant process that you can do whenever the need arises, as opposed to getting it all out of the way at the beginning.


Have a lot of events you like to copy/paste? Create an event dump map that just houses all your events
Again, similar to the previous two, there are some events that you like to use constantly. Maybe some events change the screen effects, or maybe you have a script command that can accessed via event (for example, if you have an event that allows your character to jump forward a certain number of tiles), instead of taking the time to event out that process over and over again, just have one event placed in the dump map that you can just copy from and paste into the desired location.

To take it a step further, you can delegate that event logic to Common Events. Don't be shy about using a lot of Common Events, as they can make your life so much easier!


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What do you do to make life easier for you as a dev? What sort of shortcuts do you take to expedite your processes? If you learned something, or if you have your own ideas, share them here!

New Game+ and how to make it fun.

This probably boils down to personal preference, but I have rarely found any enjoyment in New Game+. Carrying over stats from a previous cleared game when there's no changes to the game itself, or being given a super weapon that makes the game itself trivial just destroys any sense of balance and/or challenge that the vanilla run tried so hard to maintain. Usually, when I want to start over again, I'll just make a new save file and start the game over from the beginning.


What I like to see in New Game+:

Earn the OP abilities, weapons, etc.: this probably contradicts what I said in the initial paragraph, but the key difference between the two is the fact that you have to EARN these weapons. I don't mind having them if I feel like I've done something to earn them. If I beat a game that was relatively easy and am given a room clearing weapon, then I just feel silly. There's no fun or challenge in just walking into a room, press a button, and clear the room. You can add them as rewards to new side quests. Oh, speaking of which:

New side quests: Of course, you can't really go overboard with this, because then you'll be detracting from the initial game.

New game modes: I like games that remix enemy waves, or add an unexpected twist to the formula (like making all enemies invisible) to keep players playing. Resident Evil REmake is a perfect example of this. Three different modes are added on after beating the game at least once: Real Survivor mode, where the difficulty is set to hard and item boxes are no longer linked, forcing you to make decisions on what should be carried over and what shouldn't. Invisible enemy, which is pretty self explanatory, and One Dangerous Zombie, where a random zombie in the game is replaced by one strapped with grenades which will result in a game over if shot. Those kinds of additions make additional runthroughs feel fresh and exciting again.


What I DON'T like to see in New Game+:

Boosted enemy stats: Yeah. We beat the game. We've already gone through all of this before. Simply increasing the numbers on the enemy's side doesn't particularly engage me, especially if the strategies for beating them do not change.

Carrying over all stats from a previous game: Do you find enjoyment stepping on grass while walking? I don't. I don't even think about it because I'm concentrated on where I'm walking, not taking pleasure on stepping on grass. It's this reasoning why I don't like carrying over stats, because all the battles at the start of new game+ will draw your attention to stepping on grass, a deed that one would think to be so boring and uneventful that you would just want to breeze over it.


Some games I felt handled New Game+ pretty well.


Tales games: Throughout your initial run, you are given GRADE, which is a score that increases or decreases based on how well you performed in the various battles. At the end of the game, you are taken to a shop which allows you to spend GRADE to carry over your equipment, abilities, records, etc. as well as unlock new features, like double EXP, give a slight boost in initial stats or even HALF all exp gains if you're looking for a challenge run. To me, this feels like you can customize subsequent runs to make a playthough that you personally want.

Dark Souls 2(Before the expansion): As soon as you begin your second journey, you are greeted with a bunch of enemies that have not made an appearance in a game until now. In addition, you are attacked by very power Red Phantoms at different locations as well, and many of them will even drop equipment you can't find anywhere else. There are also small, subtle tweaks to enemy behaviors that will throw you for a loop, like a boss suddenly ambushing you on your way to fight it. Dark Souls 2 does so many awesome things on New Game+ that it kinda sorta makes the initial game boring.

Resident Evil REmake: By the time you've beaten the game two or three times, there's not a whole lot left to discover. At this point, players who play through the game a third or fourth time will be given a plethora of new game modes to play in, keeping the experience fresh and exciting. This is especially helpful in horror games. By the time you actually beat the game, it just isn't scary anymore because you already know what's going to happen. I think it's safe to assume that subsequent playthroughs will be more about beating the game than it will be about being scary, so new game modes will made the game fun as opposed to scary.


Anyway, what are you thoughts on New Game+, RMN? Agree with my points? Disagree? What do YOU personally want to see in New Game+?