FLOWERTHIEF'S PROFILE

Nah, just 8 character-specific endings, one for each built-in character.
However, the actual ending is preceded by an event where you meet Miki after school, and there are 3 variations of that. Then, you either get the non-generic (character-specific) ending, or else you get a very short generic ending. (I think there are 3 variations of the generic ending, too, but I don't remember exactly)

But I think it should allow mouse-scrolling. Thanks for the suggestion; dunno why I never thought of it. You can, however, do page up or page down on the phone screen with the L and R buttons. ('q' and 'w' on the keyboard iirc)

Please, no fighting! Dozen, please try to be nice.
Toby, thanks for reporting the typo.

I'm getting that insular, provincial feeling again. "We'll steal from others but we won't steal from our peers!"

author=KingArthur
Personally, I believe that the overall quality of games (with certain exceptions) have dropped since RMXP and subsequent RM engines came out and using rips somehow became a no-go zone overnight (not to mention copy-pasting scripts willy nilly). Story and gameplay have always been on the crappy side on average in most RM games, the visuals using rips were a saving grace because it made the game at least presentable (and when combined with good writing and programming it just brought those points home even stronger).

I don't think presentation can save a game lacking in story/gameplay. Granting exceptions for particularly artsy games, story/gameplay is of primary importance without which a game is a shallow experience dressed up in bows and ribbons.

Developers invest too much in presentation--time & resources that could have been spent making the gameplay deeper. I'm talking about mainstream developers as well as RM developers who try to ape them. Presentation can surely enhance a gaming experience, but in today's climate there is too much emphasis on it. Not everyone agrees with this but I feel strongly about it; I'll be happy to argue the point further :)

Regarding developer/game respect, there have been plenty of games that used rips, and in some cases combined them with public resources like REFMAP, to great effect and to those games we give due respect, praise and critic just like any other good game. Assuming a good game, what's the problem?

I assume of course that all of the above is concerning free games, commercial games are an entirely different story.

The same issues apply to free games as well as commercial ones. As Roots said (and I'm the same way) there are those among your audience who aren't going to appreciate what they've seen used before and in a better way (what is being used was created expressly for its purpose the first time around). They may lose respect just knowing resources were used without permission. And this is to say nothing of the legal troubles that can arise if a game chances to make it big.

My advice to new game developers is plan to make it big! Maybe not at first, but have such a goal. The 14-year-old kid ripping sprites & music from Chrono Trigger to make derivative games intended only for an audience of others like him is probably hurting nobody; I get that. But the sooner he breaks the habit the better off he'll be. Do you want to go on being that kid or do you want to be professional? (by professional I don't necessarily mean commercial) To those who answer the former, you can probably ignore everything I'm saying. My post wasn't directed at you.

There is also an argument to be made about how the attitude, "I steal materials from others because there aren't enough materials", can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. If more people were to make new materials, there would be more materials. There's a categorical imperative in that, I think.

I also think you'll respect yourself more and what you've made knowing you didn't rip from someone else to do so.

1. Not entirely a demerit given that most RM games aim to emulate the feeling of oldschool SNES and PSX games. The low resolution usually plays to our favor.

That might be, and I'm curious now...how much does low resolution actually affect a game's popularity? Would be interesting to see some data on the subject.

2. While it depends on the game, mice have never been a clearly essential means of human input and is a moot point.

Couldn't the same be said of any means of input? Given that different players have different preferences, the more means of input supported the better (whenever applicable).

When I am playing games developed in other gaming communities, the lack of joystick support will sometimes be the reason I stop playing a game, because joystick is my preferred means of input. (it boggles my mind why anyone would make a platformer without built-in joystick support...and yet, people do!) It's about not limiting your audience any more than you have to.

Same thing with supporting multiple platforms.

Maybe I'm sensitive to these things because for over 5 years I insulated myself in the RM communities, whose attitudes are not shared by the greater gaming world, and some of them came as a surprise to me. I don't like to see new developers get into habits that will limit their potential in the long run when they have the talent to go beyond. At the least, it's good to be aware that others aren't always accustomed to our habits, and how that can limit our audiences.

KingArthur and Clareain Christopher's opinions are no doubt common around here; that's why the RM communities are the way they are.

Outside of RM communities, not using ripped resources is a no-brainer. People aren't going to respect you if you do. (But they're not likely to mind the use of RTP; people outside the RM communities don't know what RTP is)

I think the RM communities can be rather insular in their thinking. There seems to be an emphasis on making something that *looks* like a commercial game, right up to the point of using the actual sprites and sounds from an existing commercial game. I have the impression that players in other indie communities will forgive sub-par presentation so long as the game plays well or is original in some other way.

Some things that I think players in other communities are mindful of that we in RM communities aren't, because we're used to it:
- the tiny 640 x 480 resolution
- the lack of mouse support
- the lack of support for platforms besides Windows
Those can limit a game's appeal, too.