BULMABRIEFS144'S PROFILE

author=Darken
SO...

It's almost half way through 2019 and you didn't play any RM games this year and you probably forgot that the nominate function exists.

Let's just spend some talking about RM games! Doesn't have to be super critical opinions or feedback, could just be a casual impression of what you played so far / game you want to play or a "What RM games are you thinking about" equivalent. Ultimately though it might also be a good chance to fill up your nominate lists (even if super relative) and talk about your personal favs, what might win overall, or even what you hope might get released in time. If you did a review of a recent game, feel free to share it! Post what you've been browsing and how you've been choosing which RM games to play lately.

Games I've Played:

Theia - The Crimson Eclipse

Given that it's been featured, this game needs little introduction. It's an epic Italian RPG Maker game recently translated and fully playable in English! I've been playing it off and on and it's really a treat, feels like a super pretty RM game you'd see posted in screenshot topics never to be released because of how polished it is. Only now it exists! I enjoy a lot of the visual details and how the animations all come together, there's some pretty cool stuff. I'll probably post more opinions when I get farther into the game, I've also been meaning to set this up to be played on my TV with a SNES controller because I'm one of those people.

Get an HMDI cable, and a crappy Logitech controller, set the computer settings to Do Nothing when you close the cover, and just plug it in and close the case. Voila, your computer is now a Nintendo Switch (not really)

Slimes

A GAME where you fight SLIMES and... that's it, there's no literal title joke that's actually all you do. I think the low download count is a bit sad considering there's some really cool stuff worth appreciating here. It's set in a fictional country with a heavy religion thematic backstory involving a slime epidemic. The slimes start to develop a very continuous personality throughout the demo and I like a lot of the world building documents you get for clearing every floor. It's got a bleak outlook on JRPG tropes but I think it has its own voice regarding the dynamics of how society chooses to deal with an impending threat. I highly recommend it.

That actually sounds interesting.

Steamed Hams, but it's RPGMAKER2003!

The meme game to cap off the decade of what we thought was a good idea to make youtube edits of. It's actually quite enjoyable playing this and being amazed that this is happening inside of an RPG_RT and almost checking to see that this isn't some elaborate mole box prank. As someone who's seen all that RM2K3 has to offer, it's cool to see the amount of detail that went into condensing all of this inside of rm2k3's rather limited (and "beloved") default battle system.

When I finished the game, I was never clear whether the creator forgot the fire engine graphic due to running out of elements or whether that was exactly the joke.

Games I've been meaning to play:

Final Fantasy: Sky Warriors

I'm not big on fan-games, but I think the fact that this is made by a very oldschool RMer has me interested (also what RM game isn't a fan game these days ohohoho gotem). I remember when RM2K3 had a bit of a phase where people were making 8bit games left and right (Dragon Fantasy, Hellion, Ocean Blue) and it makes me nostalgic for... games that were trying to be nostalgic. I also think the battle charset edits look pretty cute.

I played this for awhile, and personally I enjoyed it, but I think I got frustrated at the game's midpoint. I got a boat, and they said something about heading to the west, but I went to the wrong spot and got killed really quick. Also, when I played it at least, there was a terribad glitch with the boats, and I somehow could phase through stuff but couldn't land the boat properly.

Crescent Prism - Chapter 1

So I'm getting to the demo/episodic category of games that I admittedly hold off on because there might be more content later. But given the recent shift in development maybe I should just sit down and play the first damn chapter. It looks like fun little romp that resembles a Nintendo-like RPG if mario didn't exist or something. I keep seeing good things about it and the creator's other games.

Ooooh, I saw that on the Screenshots page. And then I forgot about it for awhile. Thanks! (Skipping some of these)

Villnoire

"Wait people still make games like this?" Yeah man, yeah man, they do. Rocking the FSM chipsets and settling for nothing less than ambition. The game quietly made itself to 80% completion and while that might be some bs a teenager would put in their gamingW sig years ago... I choose to believe. Your so called rational mind will lack the glory of being right on the money when you see that bright green Completed status one day.

Edit: the prophecy came true

It's done? Yay! I played Villnoire as a demo and it was great.

Alright now its your turn to talk about recent RM games, go on, jog your memory if you have to. (You don't have to be as elaborate or screenshot pasty as me btw).

I'm pretty obsessive about UI especially for making a game in a genre all about menus. Any and all help with getting these to look nice would be appreciated.

• Never ever ever use variables for storing database-style events. You can use it for figuring out item IDs, doing the math, etc, but the final storage of items should always set an equip to a dummy hero (Thea_Equip set, Scrap Sword). Use variables for things variables excel at (like when you need a precondition, or need to do math). Yes, I know everyone uses variables. And they wind up wasting more. There are two major reasons for this.
• First, every hero (which, any programmer worth their salt can make a dummy hero) has at least four useful stats for condition branches: checking the hero name (this will allow your main screens to be broken down into multiple item screens), skills, conditions, and equips (probably best here, but you can use skills). The three most important of these are name, skills, and equips. This saves variables/switches for the important events of your game, and for things that absolutely must use those.
• Second, for a database, two things are crucial. Easy labeling and the ability to break order. Variables fail on both counts, which is why they tend to do poorly on a ring menu. Hero names and equips are unfixed, meaning they can be renamed/reset easily. This allows you to move completely around a ring menu without having to add then reset to 0. Skills are fixed, which makes them important for something like marking treasure chests you've opened.
• For the art aspect of it... I knew what I was doing when I made the ring menu like that. A full screen template allows you to have a fixed position for items. Using lines and dividers can help you align further, and you simply remove them when done.
• Doing a database menu like this saves alot of the headache you would get trying to manage variables, and it is more user friendly. You should use variables still for this menu (unless you're me, but I'm insane), but figure out how not to overuse them, and how to organize you code for readability.
• Lastly, you mentioned an issue with displaying the numbers. Typically, if you're having trouble with something, you're probably thinking about it wrong, and you should work on drawing (I mean literally drawing) out a design, until you have what you're looking for. It might be that you need to break numbers into parts and have as a picture, or maybe a number pictures up to 255 (or 999) is what you need.