SLASH'S PROFILE

I'm in the middle of a project now, but I plan on wrapping that up fairly soon (within-the-month-ish) and I already have a lot of ideas for a new game. Stripped down to the basics, it's similar to a classic, top-down Legend of Zelda game. From what I've read (and seen) of Game Maker, it seems to be the engine of choice for this sort of game.

Does anyone have any thoughts, opinions, etc. about Game Maker or its possibilities? Also - how does the multiplayer feature of Game Maker Pro work, if you know?

Slash's Super-Deluxe Solo RPG with a Twist of Lemon

Story
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Slash is a loose cannon cop on the edge who doesn't play by the rules.
He's out to solve the mystery of his murdered partner, who was murdered most mysteriously and murderously. He was the only person in the world Slash trusted, and now that he's dead, Slash must learn to co-operate with those around him, and re-learn what it means to trust someone.

BAM

Also his nemesis is an Axe Murderer with a British accent, who is really quite polite. He has taken to midnight walks around the city of Himbleshire, where he enjoys the peace and quiet. He doesn't like it when people scream at his grisly attire and his giant axe, and to still their tongue he has no respite but to murder them most mysteriously and murderously.

Gameplay
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Slash, being a loose cannon cop on the edge who doesn't play by the rules, has no teammates. He relies solely on his amazing gunsmanship, science-surpassing medical knowledge, and highly developed Cop Reflexes.

Slash starts every battle with full AP, and 100 EN. He also starts with 100 HP, but this doesn't regen after battle.

Armor Points - Every battle, Slash starts with full AP. Depending on what body armor you have equipped, AP may be between 50-200. When Slash takes damage, the brunt is absorbed by AP, but some passes through to HP, depending on the body armor equipped. AP can be recovered easily in battle using skills/items, but skills/items to recover HP in battle are costly. Out-of-battle HP recovery isn't terribly difficult, however, due to food items.

Energy - Every turn, Slash gets 100 EN to do with what he wishes - these power his special attacks.

Each command can be used once a turn, except Typical Gun Attack, which can be used twice, and Defend, which can be used as many times as one can afford.
Typical Gun Attack: 20-30 EN (including normal attacks & attacks with cheap effects like poison, def/atk down, etc. - can be used twice a turn)
Powerful Gun Attack: 30-50 EN (including all-attacks, powerful statuses like sleep, stun, doom)
Support Skill: 30-60 EN (includes self-buffs, repair AP, status removal, etc.)
Defend: 20 EN (reduces AP&HP damage taken by 15% per charge, can be used multiple times)
Item: Costs no EN, but can only used once every 3 turns.

Some skills have cooldowns associated with them as well as EN costs - they can only be used once every few turns. In addition, leftover energy will be stored for use on the next turn, up to 150 total EN. You recover 100 EN a turn, so you do the math.

Finally, as the story progressed, you unlock Big Guns.

Big Gun: 150 EN (equip an awesome gun with special attacks for three turns, such as: Flamethrower, Rocket Launcher, Chaingun, Satellite Laser, and Quad Pistols. However, Big Gun has a long cooldown, disables your other moves, and for the duration, AP will reduce no damage.)

Battles will involve assigning multiple attacks a turn, repairing armor, spending extra EN on defense when needed, saving EN when necessary, busting out items if you need them, and of course, Big Guns when the time is right.
Statuses will be of particular importance, especially disabling ones like sleep or stun. These will allow you to disable a dangerous enemy temporarily while targeting his friends. Poison will rack up damage quickly on your unattended targets. Most battles will be against 3-8 enemies, who will die fairly quickly as long as Slash doesn't dick around. Bosses will involve complex strategies of enemy teams who must be disabled quickly, disabled with statuses, as well as reaction-based strategy (big attack coming in two turns? Better save EN for Defend. Boss weakened temporarily? Time for a Big Gun!)


Music & Soundtrack
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Awesome.


Art
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Noir, fitting both dark humor and stupid humor, also awesome.



The future is in your hands. That is, if those hands have grabbed a strong hold on Slash's Super-Deluxe Solo RPG with a Twist of Lemon today!

In both the professional games industry and our small indie homebrew game communities, great soundtracks are often passed over in favor of more content or better graphics. Admittedly, for RPG Makerers, who tend to work solo or in very small teams, there is usually no time for an original soundtrack. Creating great video game music from scratch requires a lot of skill and talent, is a lot of work, and often goes completely overlooked by your audience.

However, two indie games I have played recently have made consider the role background music plays: Super Meat Boy, and VVVVVV. Both are stupidly difficult platformers, but if you've played either (or both), you'll know what I mean when I say the music is addictive. It's the kind of music that will keep you playing the game when you've run into the same spikes 50 times. My suggestion is that everyone buy these games so that they experience the music in its natural setting (they're between 10-15$ on steam, and SMB is on Xbox Arcade) as well as some amazing gameplay. That's asking a lot, however, so here are some of the best tracks:

SMB - Betus Blues: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Kf7ycHajX4
SMB - End Credits: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnOc7YN6dDc
VVVVVV - Pushing Onwards: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGpKOaj_eh0

You may say only platformers need great soundtracks so you don't ragequit them when you die repeatedly. I tend to disagree. RPGs are a haven for beautiful music, probably moreso than any other genre, because you are crafting a world, a story, a mood, and when it comes to setting a mood, music is just as important as art.

Now, I know many of you will say: "Slashphoenix! You know-nothing fool! We would love great soundtracks, but we have no time to make them for our games! I am going to use the Guardia Forest song from Chrono Trigger just to spite you!"

To which I say, "LET THERE BE CREATIVE COMMONS"

http://incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free/
http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/
http://sampleswap.org/mp3/creative-commons/free-music.php?show=all

There you go - an utter shitton of free music for you all to use. Newgrounds especially has some very, very talented mixers. Some of that music requires credit given, some doesn't. If you're not selling your game, it doesn't matter - it's already a lot more legal than what you're using now.

author=LockeZ
I agree with everything Slashphoenix said except I don't understand what it has to do with tanks.

Sorry, to clarify:

Enemy AI randomly selects targets in probably 90+% of RPGs out there. Tank classes and characters (presumably with abilities that draw enemy attention) reduce RNG because you know where the enemy is going to hit first.

Example: There are four enemies apiece, and they do 50 damage a hit, except to your guy in platemail, who only takes 25. All of your characters have 200 health. Now, most of the time the enemies will take their turn, your characters will take damage, and you'll heal it. There is a chance, however, that you get really unlucky and one character who is NOT the tank takes all four attacks and beefs it instantly. It's completely unavoidable unless you spam the "Defend" action, and "Defend" is useless because you never know who's getting hit.

However, if your platemail-supreme-tank guy has a Provoke attack that forces enemies to attack him, you can know for sure your characters won't randomly die, and you can heal him before he keels over, or cast a +DEF spell or a similar countermeasure.

Thus more tanks & tank spells = less RNG = GLORIOUS GAME DESIGN

P.S. Character "Row" commands are a step in the right direction - it's still RNG dependant, but at least you can take a good guess who's going to get hit first.

Thanks, that's exactly what I needed!

EDIT: Ha, I noticed I had forgotten to delete a common event which reset Switch 2 every battle. Silly. Me.