UNITY'S PROFILE

author=thatbennyguy
Do members of the RPG maker community spend too much time discussing development of games, and not enough time developing them?

I at least spend as much time working on games than I do talking about them, personally.

author=thatbennyguy
Do you think that discussing game mechanics with others dilutes the artistic integrity of your game, or do you like the open method of suggestion? If we created graphics and maps just to be like others, wouldn't we all end up with roughly the same game? Where does innovation come in?

I suppose the subject of the echo chamber comes in: if people are constantly making maps and games to fit with what they believe the online community wants, they may in fact end up with similar content. But I still see plenty of innovation and cool ideas made real here, so I'm not sure that's a huge problem right now.

author=thatbennyguy
I am of the understanding that collaboration is good, but if a developer becomes frustrated with their lack of progress in their game, or lack of innovation or general dissatisfaction of the game, what is at fault? Is it simply lack of ability? Will a person who has struggled to achieve an artistic goal, whether it be game making or not, ever achieve their goal? What is the optimal combination of components to spur on growth in this area? Or is it simply beyond one's reach?

I don't think I can answer this. My personal goal is a simple (and probably common) one: Make games that I'd like to play. Aside from that, everything else is trivial. I may never make something that's truly a wondrous piece of art, but I'm content to keep trying.

author=thatbennyguy
An even more frightening question: if we realize that creating the thing that we want to create is beyond our reach - should we even try in the first place? Is the process fun enough to continue? Will "settling for less" be good enough? And is this notion particular to personal preference, or is there an objective statement to be made about the fruits of creativity not appeasing the ambitions of your own mind?

Travio had a good response here. I'm of a similar opinion. If what you want is beyond your reach, create what you can. Some day, if your skills improve, perhaps you can achieve a more perfect version of that vision.

I can't be a perfectionist. The games I make will never be 100% what I want them to be. But I can't keep refining every little detail indefinitely. I have to settle because part of the fuel for my creativity is actually seeing progress. Everyone's got their own limits. And I feel like if I can get the game done, if one or more of those imperfect parts still pokes at me afterwards, I can try to fix them then. If they're too ingrained into the game, I can try to do better in a future game. Everything's a learning experience.

Ultimately, I feel that you have to get joy from the Gam Mak itself. If you're making it for any other reason than making it is either fun or fulfilling in some way, then you can't guarantee your own happiness in regard to making games. And the reason I can keep going on a project is that making it continues to make me happy. If that makes sense.

EDIT: I wrote my post before I saw your latest response.

author=thatbennyguy
So my question is - if the person will theoretically never be able to find the full joy that they are searching for in the creation of anything they pursue - is it worth the journey? Or would their efforts best be spent elsewhere? Can a person ever know if they will never reach their goal? Is the pursuit of an impossible goal admirable or even sane? I know these are tough questions, and for some of them I am being the Devil's Advocate, but I would like to hear people's answers.

I break it up like this: I could either be creating "stuff" or consuming "stuff" that others have made. Either way, time will pass. I will age. My life is limited. I'd rather spend much of my time creating because I feel driven to do so. So the question isn't if its admirable or sane. It's just what I want to do, in my case.

author=Liberty
Oh, that's the name of the font, the screens were just to show the different fonts off. XD

The game isn't complete yet and it's not at all a feel-good one but you can subscribe to it if you want (Selicia is what it's called).

Hahaha, I feel dumb ^^;; Thanks for the info :D

We've got characters and non-dungeon locations, so it's time to make some dungeons!

Let's shoot for five required dungeons, and four optional dungeons, to start out. (Not including the final one with the Wyrm Wizard) Each of the five required dungeons has a giant mystical diamond that the player must collect to unlock the next region of the world.

Rather than each diamond having a traditional element like the old Final Fantasties, let's give each a unique theme and base the dungeon it's in around that. Any sort of virtue, feeling, emotion, or archetype will work work, but the more creative the better. For a very generic example, if a dungeon has the Diamond of Courage, the dungeon its in could have tests of will and spooky enemies.

Use this template for Required Dungeons (the ones with the Diamonds):

Required Dungeon's Name:
Diamond Element: (see above)
Description: (the more info and ideas, the better!)
Monsters: (the kinds of monsters that would populate this dungeon)
Boss: (what sort of being protects the Diamond from the heroes?)
Other Notes:

And this one for Optional Dungeons (which can have character tie-ins and late game loot):

Optional Dungeon's Name:
Character Tie-Ins: (Are certain characters required to enter the dungeon? Does something in the dungeon relate to them or their past?)
Description: (again, the more info and ideas, the better!)
Monsters: (the kinds of monsters that would populate this dungeon)
Boss: (does the dungeon have a boss? What is it?)
Special Items: (given that these are optional, what's the reward?)
Other Notes:

EDIT: There's a third possibility, a Cursed Dungeon that serves as a passageway between parts of Aremen:

Passage Dungeon's Name:
Any Character ties?:
Description: (the more info and ideas, the better!)
Monsters: (the kinds of monsters that would populate this dungeon)
Boss: (the boss that guards the Cursed Orb)
Other Notes:

I couldn't find "Twentieth Century MT" on the site, but if there's a game starring a pregnant woman, I'd like to play it.

author=thatbennyguy
I'm loving the sprite-work and facesets. They give a really cohesive feel to the project. Also, there seem to be a lot of passive skills right now. The scripts have a lot of awesome coding in there too (that I probably want to use in future projects now ;)).

Is there still any plans to release the project to the public via Dropbox? Not everyone has to have writing priveleges, but just reading priveleges so that we can download it and take a look at what we're dealing with hands-on? Or would that ruin the spirit of the project.

The reason why I say this is because I don't necessarily want one person to be in control of creating the entire game. When Craze was at the helm, it was OK, because I was confident in his abilities to pull it off. But it'd be nice if we could nominate a group of people who we know are well-known for producing good-quality games to helm the project. A project managing team, if you will.

I know Unity can be in control of the organization of the project, but we can get a few other people to have access to the files, no?

Okay, click here for the Dropbox link to the file.

As I said in the locations thread, I'm doing this because I want to make sure the game gets done. But I'm totally fine with others taking bigger roles in development. I don't have any full games released on the site yet and haven't proved myself in any way yet, so I have no problem at all with opening this project up to more experienced developers to take the lead, as long as they're willing to make time for the project ^_^