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Something happened to me last night when I was driving home. I had a couple of miles to go. I looked up and saw a glowing orange object in the sky. It was moving irregularly. Suddenly, there was intense light all around. And when I came to, I was home.
What do you think happened to me?
What do you think happened to me?
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Villians: how do you make them unique?
author=RyaReisender
From what I know, Kefka was globally very well received as villain.
Well, The Joker is a pretty popular character, so it shouldn't be a surprise that a carbon copy was also popular, but I wouldn't really hold it as a shining example of uniqueness.
Villians: how do you make them unique?
Kekfa is great because he just makes it so blatantly obvious that he really doesn't care about innocent people dying. Or maybe he just really enjoys killing. He really just seems like a side character for a while but then suddenly he manages to become super powerful so he can make everyone suffer. And you kind of admire him that he went through with his pure evil personality up to the point where is almost a god.No, that's why he's boring. There's nothing unique about his personality, either. It's just a lazy rip-off of The Joker. You could copy-paste any other "for the lulz" generic bad guy into FF6 and it wouldn't change the story whatsoever.
Stage presence improves the quality of an antagonist, and is important to consider, but no amount of polish will turn a lazy, generic villain into a good one. If you don't have an antagonist with well-developed characterization, then you don't have a villain, you have a plot device.
Going, Going, Gone
I think it's you that has changed, and I mean that in a positive way. RMN is ultimately a casual, social, hobbyist community and it doesn't have the community infrastructure, professionalism, or maturity to meet the needs of more mature developers. The more you grow as a developer, the less useful you'll find this place.
I agree with everything you say about the community, and I think it's been true for a long time, just maybe less obvious than it is now.
I think that a big part of the deterioration of the community is that the more valuable community members have been contributing less and less, probably because they've realized that this place is very creatively stifling. I've noticed some formerly prominent people here posting on other, bigger gamedev communities (like reddit's r/gamedev) and they seem to be getting a lot more out of it.
EDIT: To clarify what I mean by creatively stifling, there is a small number of acceptable opinions about game design on RMN. Every discussion here is framed in terms of the built in features of either the event editor or popular scripts, as if together they encompass the entire universe of what's possible in game design. Every game design thread boils down to talking about mechanics from SNES or PS1 games, rehashing the same ideas over and over again. There's just nothing new to get out of it.
I agree with everything you say about the community, and I think it's been true for a long time, just maybe less obvious than it is now.
I think that a big part of the deterioration of the community is that the more valuable community members have been contributing less and less, probably because they've realized that this place is very creatively stifling. I've noticed some formerly prominent people here posting on other, bigger gamedev communities (like reddit's r/gamedev) and they seem to be getting a lot more out of it.
EDIT: To clarify what I mean by creatively stifling, there is a small number of acceptable opinions about game design on RMN. Every discussion here is framed in terms of the built in features of either the event editor or popular scripts, as if together they encompass the entire universe of what's possible in game design. Every game design thread boils down to talking about mechanics from SNES or PS1 games, rehashing the same ideas over and over again. There's just nothing new to get out of it.
Villians: how do you make them unique?
author=RyaReisenderNo one suggested that.
Yeah, the whole "villain had a bad childhood" thing is getting boring too.
author=RyaReisenderNot automatically, but it is a requirement.
Giving a villain a good reason for why he is a villain does not necessarily make him a good villain.
author=RyaReisenderCan we please move on from villifying people with mental illnesses? Seriously. Not only is it a boring, lazy way to abdicate your responsibility as a writer to deliver a cohesive narrative, but it immediately projects to your players that you have no creativity.
A villain without who is just crazy can be fun too if well written.
But I'll play ball to be fair. If you're absolutely set on having a boring villain who's just "crazy," then do some research into mental illnesses. What is "crazy?" What specific mental illness do they suffer from? Why does it drive them to do evil things? And consider exploring the ethical ramifications of the protagonists trying to murder someone whose judgment is impaired by a disability. You're implicitly condoning killing people because of their disability, so at least try to raise an argument why you think that's okay.
Villians: how do you make them unique?
1: What is the most cliche, stereotypical or just boring backstory for a villain you can think of? I'd like to start from what not to do and work my way on up.The best way to identify a lacking villain is to start by asking yourself "why are they doing this?" If the answer is "because they're crazy/evil" or "because they hate people" or "because they think the world should be destroyed" or something like that, then you've got a boring villain.
An interesting antagonist inspires internal conflict within the protagonist and reveals some aspect about themselves or human nature.
If you already have a protagonist designed, then think what kind of person most strongly challenges their worldview. If your character is a strong advocate of freedom, then maybe the antagonist embodies the dark side of freedom (using one's freedom to limit the freedom of other people). This forces the protagonist to question and evaluate what it is they believe and why.
A common adage is that the villain should make sense as the hero of their own story. They should always believe strongly in what they're doing, because real people don't think of themselves as evil. This goes doubly if your villain has lackeys. After all, who would follow someone who they didn't agree with, like, or respect?
If you're looking for inspiration, two works with outstanding villains that I would recommend are Knights of the Old Republic 2 and Metal Gear Solid 2. In MGS2 in particular, you have multiple factions of characters all competing with each other, and everyone is acting in pursuit of their own personal goal. It has a lot of antagonists, and most of them stand out as very memorable.
Is there a language name for RM2K/3 event script?
author=Tor_Heyerdalauthor=MagiIf true, then this is probably the closest I can get to an answer to this question.
It's probably Borland Delphi under the hood, but most people just refer to event scripting systems as "point and click".
You're going to feel very silly if the person asking you is an actual Delphi programmer and they try to engage you in conversation about it. I wouldn't recommend it.
Is there a language name for RM2K/3 event script?
author=Tor_HeyerdalThe eventing system isn't a programming language, so I guess the answer would be "none." An event's underlying representation is just an array of commands which gets executed sequentially. If you use XP+, you can look at the event execution code to see exactly how it works.author=Liberty
Pretty much always just called it eventing or event script if you're feelin' fancy.
Right, and that's all well and good most of the time, but it doesn't work well as an answer.
"You make games? Cool. What programming languages do you know?"
"Eventing."
"What?"
lol. :P
There's not really any shame in admitting that you don't know a programming language. Most engines have some form of visual programming system that non-coders can use, whether it be first-party like UE4's Blueprints or third-party like Unity's PlayMaker.
That said, if you're afraid of making the jump, it's not that hard. There's a big learning curve in the very beginning, but once you grasp the basics, it's much easier and faster to script something than to try to do it with events.
Is there a language name for RM2K/3 event script?
author=Tor_HeyerdalThe text representation is only for your convenience. It's probably just binary data. If you're at the level that you can read and write that kind of data and are finding yourself limited by the editor, you're probably better off just scripting it in XP+.
Right. But a person well-versed enough in the event scripting's syntax and grammar could potentially write it out in an all-text environment if the program would allow such an input method. So that potential does exist, even if no one has ever made that potential happen yet, to date. Well... with the exception of a few minor (but still important) details that just don't seem to end up in the text area.
Censorship
You have a right to make anything you want to, just like the site owners have the right to approve or deny anything they want to. It's their site to do with as they see fit, not a public service. No one's stopping you from putting it up on your own website.
Vacant Sky Vol. 1: Contention
How low of a consiousness state does it take for a human to be unable to tell the difference between another human and an archon? I do not think the residents of East Naven could manage this; it is no wonder why Auria's mom chose that particular town to settle in.
There's no visible way to tell. Auria and Mia wouldn't have known if they weren't told.
These will probably go unanswered because I am sure I will miss Act III+ when it comes out. Regardless, I really liked this and I am glad I got to play it.
Thanks for playing! I'm glad you enjoyed it. Unfortunately, the remastered Act III is on hold indefinitely until we finish VSA. The original version of it is still available for download, with the caveat that saves from the remaster aren't compatible with it. But it'll do if you want to see how the story concludes.
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