Post What's on Your Mind

[ZenVirZan]

In unrelated news, was digging through my stuff earlier. Remember when HBGames had a Minecraft server for, like, a month?

i miss that shit man, that server was fukn t i t e

 

[bacon]

Yessss.
Peri and her friends made the coolest underground dwarf city

 

[bacon]

Hello

 

[Mega Flare]

Sup

 

[Xilef]

One of my project candidates is a short RPG Maker game, so I'm trying to come up with ideas for what I want to do.

I want to build something that takes a little over an hour to clear (hour minimum), release it for free on Steam with developer commentary with an optional paid DLC if you want to show support.

Missing some game-play ideas right now. I want it to be top-down RPG style, but do I have a battle system? Experience points with levelling-up? My thoughts are "no" on levelling-up as it would be an hour-long experience. If I were to have a battle-system, maybe have it highly interactive? Not sure I'd want action-battles. I'd like to do random-encounters to prove they can still be done in 2017.

 

[ZenVirZan]

I'd like to do random-encounters to prove they can still be done in 2017.

Random encounters sound like padding and tedium in a 1-hour game. I also think there is a good reason they have died out in the last few years, but I guess that's just my opinion.

 

[Xilef]

Random encounters sound like padding and tedium in a 1-hour game. I also think there is a good reason they have died out in the last few years, but I guess that's just my opinion.

I also think it sounds like padding for a 1-hour game, but I'd like to explore what can be done to have random encounters make sense, even for a 1-hour title. I think some things were lost when random encounters fell out of fashion.

 

[bacon]

If you were able to change the rate of encounters that would be cool.

Something that TWEWY did was allow you to choose how strong the enemies were and you would be awarded accordingly

Tbh though im not sure how you would pull off an hour Rpg. Imo, rpgs are supposed to be you the player role playing as some fantasy character and having that character be built up. To bring that build up to a game that is only an hour would be hard without having the character change drastically.

I mean you could probably make a character that already has some skill but that might take away from the role playing element. And i feel as if youd need some sort of progression still. I guess you can create progression through story and writing, but it would have to be really really well written. And i think at that point, you are better off making a game focused on the story as opposed to an rpg

/opinion

 

[Xilef]

Tbh though im not sure how you would pull off an hour Rpg. Imo, rpgs are supposed to be you the player role playing as some fantasy character and having that character be built up. To bring that build up to a game that is only an hour would be hard without having the character change drastically.

This is why I will likely remove "levelling up" and have it so progression is handled entirely by loot, perhaps spells would be cast from consumable items.

Would likely need more than an hour to complete, I can't imagine the introductory game-play taking less than 15 minutes. I think it's a challenge to explore, see if a short RPG is possible without falling back to making an interactive novel.

 

[bacon]

Ive actually been exploring the idea of an RPG without traditional leveling up as well. I think its entirely doable. But i feel leveling up loot, or even gaining better loot, is in a very similar vein as leveling up through experience points.

Look at something like Undertale; it was a very unique RPG experience that really cast away alot of RPG traditions.

Just spitballing here though~

 

[Glitchfinder]

Do you mean random encounters as in random battles, like Golden Sun and jRPGs tend towards, or random encounters as in random events, like you occasionally see at a crossroads in a Bethesda game? (Mixed in with random battles, but the point stands)

 

[ZenVirZan]

i really want to make the pokemon mystery dungeon battle system for rmxp

maybe i will

man i wish i could actually write
id biz the fuck out and never stop developing if that was the case but like
i recognise where my faults are and much in the same way i have troubles writing essays, i also cant write stories for shit
always wanted to program the systems for an rpg, but i cant actually do the important part which is the characters and story

 

[aphadeon]

I made a game-name generator for a project of mine.

I have it printing batches of 20 names at a time for testing.

At this, I think it's where it needs to be.

Spoiler

Wallflower of Cowardly Eating Ocarinas
The Lost Jazz Solo of Four Tacos
A Soldier is Heavily Trolling Toasters
The Even Mouse of Doing Diseases
A Mouse and the Game of Spinners
Thirteen Dogs and a Hammer
Maestro of Regrettable Tickling
The Mage's Fluffy Brains
A Hero's Daughter
The Gossip of the Rookie's Bidirectional Kitten
The Fortunate Scrolls of the Elf and the Pie from A Restaurant
Plumber of Hedgehogs
A Elf is Slaying Cities
The Chef and the Spoon
Dreams of Epic Frosting
Timely Elf of Beating Chords
Fearless Zombie of Secretly Hacking Tables
The Gossip of the Necromancer
The Zookeeper Who Isn't Juggling
The Scrapbook of the Prince's Bobsled

edit: moar

Spoiler

I Tempestually Wish I Had a Sword
The Prehistoric Legend of the Rookie: Drums of Rainbowland
The Strangely Amusing Refrain of a Canadian
Vandal and the Cake
Requiem of Adventurer
My, What Dull Umbrellas You Have
Seven and a Half Mice
The Ancient Book of the Hero's Gastric Bypass
The Hero and a Hole from The Present
The Untrue Folklore of the Soldier's Stillettos
An Orcish Adventure of Cautiously Smashing Towers in The Future
All Squirrels Go To Space
A Rookie is Anxiously Forgetting Homework
The Rather Unfortunate Book of the Princess: Sword of Error
Two Bullies, One Hammer
Tales of the Necromancer
The King Who Isn't Jumping
A Rebel's Orange Salad
A Princess is Tensively Juggling Jewels
I Really Wish I Had a Hammer

Edit 2: Just in case anyone else finds these as entertaining as I do. Sometimes they come out a bit more risque. Might fix, might not.

Spoiler

The Inappropriate Scribbles of the Gentlemen
The Slightly Dusty Pickle of Slapping
A Vampire's Fork
The Ballad of Grandma and the Fear of Forgetting
Sooo Many Cats and a Princess
The Explicit Cave Painting of a Salesman
The Nap of Regret
A Gentleman of Breathing
The Heroine's Blue Pillow
The Beetle of Hesitant Hunting
The Made-up Tales of the Chef's Potato
A Rebel is Undoing Sandwiches
The Chorus of the Cucumber
The Dwarven Vampires Who Are Alarmingly Cold
The Kingsman's Immaterial Ocean
Loser of Trolling
Nine Ladies
A Anxiously Small Potato
Mercernary of Schooling Organs in the Bedroom
The Tale of Ten Towers

And an amusing highlight of the batch that followed: "The Science of the Prince's Waterproof Salad"

Edit again: I have a problem. I am addicted to my own creation. Pls send halp.

Spoiler

The Sobering Sketch of the Cashiers
My, What Whispering Diseases You Have
The Untold Gossip of the Guildmate: Nap of Hunting
The Dwarf Who Isn't Breathing
Underappreciated Lady of Eating Pillows
The Canadian and A Couple Umbrellas
A Unknowingly Immaterial Hole
The Flirtatiously Loud Dessert
The Tale of the Prince's Bloody Sister
The Alluring Chamber of Punching
Seven Party Members, One Beetle
Adventurer of Heavily Degrading Dust
The Mouse is Zealously Packing
A Gentleman's Sticky Shovel
Elven Adventurer of Insulting Guns in the Future
Fearless Hero of Crawling
Dust in the Bedroom
The Uncensored Heroine: Guitar of Infinity
The Fable of the Firefly's Pie
A Rather Unfortunate Game of the Mages

 

[Xilef]

Do you mean random encounters as in random battles, like Golden Sun and jRPGs tend towards, or random encounters as in random events, like you occasionally see at a crossroads in a Bethesda game? (Mixed in with random battles, but the point stands)

Random battles like in classic JRPGs - and the Pokemon games; people tend to forget that Pokemon has random battles (something worth thinking about).

I think if I follow what Undertale did and have a rather interactive battle system I can comfortably lose "experience & levels" and focus on the idea of equipment being the stat booster. Perhaps use items to permanently increase stats. My worry about levels is that it hints at a lengthy game with lots of the character stat building, I don't want to give anyone the illusion of a long experience. A new weapon would boost up stats in one-go, it wouldn't have the gradual effort with investing time into your character - the pace is dictated by what you find.

The character stat growth system should really be dictated by the battle system, which I've only started roughing out ideas for. I don't like how some pretentious indie-RPGs go for a weird puzzle-game style battle system with loads of text on the screen and you have to match 4 strawberries to unleash a combo attack or you have to do some button inputs within a time limit then rub the sword icon across the screen as fast as you can - these types of systems always feel disconnected from the game-world to me. It's like I've been thrown into a game of Tetris to defeat the enemy - boss battles tend to always suck with these systems as they just give you a harder/faster puzzle to solve rather than do something related to the theme of the boss.

Maybe a traditional ATB will actually be the way to go; I've already done a heck of a lot of research and development on an ATB based system for a previous project so I can just transfer everything I've learned and figured out over from there and build it in MV, would save me having to solve design problems with a radically new system.

EDIT: I'm hoping a lot of the value in this project will be the commentary about its development, I plan to discuss a fair amount of stuff that we talk about here (related to game development, specifically RPGs - perhaps even RPG Maker and the community itself). I think that's something you can only do with a short-game.

man i wish i could actually write
id biz the fuck out and never stop developing if that was the case but like
i recognise where my faults are and much in the same way i have troubles writing essays, i also cant write stories for shit
always wanted to program the systems for an rpg, but i cant actually do the important part which is the characters and story

Writing is one of the things I'm confident about. Music and sound is my biggest skill gap and the one I'm most worried about.

 

[ZenVirZan]

personally not a fan of atb, i have the opinion that you pick either turn-based or active battle system, but you don't mix the two.

it makes the gameplay more stressful than its worth, where the whole point of turn based is to make good decisions and plan things properly, but the timer contradicts that for no real gain. you could argue 'git gud' but it doesn't feel rewarding rushing decisions like fluid combat in an abs does.

paused-time atb isnt as bad, but if its paused whats the point of the time part where all it does is muddy the turn order?

Writing is one of the things I'm confident about. Music and sound is my biggest skill gap and the one I'm most worried about.

fortunately its much easier to commission music and sound than it is story and characters :crazy:

 

[bacon]

There was a little indie game called Kamiko that came out for the Switch that was about 2 hours long and set up as an ATB battle system. Might be worth checking out

 

[bacon]

personally not a fan of atb, i have the opinion that you pick either turn-based or active battle system, but you don't mix the two.

There are some games that execute a fusion well. Off the top of my head, Valkyrie Chronicles in particular does a great job of blending turn and action based gameplay.

 

[ZenVirZan]

EDIT: I'm hoping a lot of the value in this project will be the commentary about its development, I plan to discuss a fair amount of stuff that we talk about here (related to game development, specifically RPGs - perhaps even RPG Maker and the community itself). I think that's something you can only do with a short-game.

im keen dude, big fan of all your work and i'd love to follow the development of something like that

personally not a fan of atb, i have the opinion that you pick either turn-based or active battle system, but you don't mix the two.

There are some games that execute a fusion well. Off the top of my head, Valkyrie Chronicles in particular does a great job of blending turn and action based gameplay.

i'm aware of its praise and have been meaning to try it out, made all the more interesting now

in other news, im so fuckin excited for smartglasses to become the mainstream
not the google glass bulky thing taped to a pair of glasses, but the tech within the lenses themselves
LAFORGE Optical is doing some really cool shit, and ive been following the development and read some of their pending patents & how it works
shit cannot come out soon enough aaaaaaaaaa
they've been pretty open about how 3rd party developers will power their platform, and i want to develop for it so bad

 

[Xilef]

There was a little indie game called Kamiko that came out for the Switch that was about 2 hours long and set up as an ATB battle system. Might be worth checking out

Thanks for bringing this game to my attention, currently I've only really had Undertale to look at and compare in terms of scope.

EDIT: Eh looks like action ABS rather than ATB.

ZenVirZan; the time aspect of ATB can be done in a turn-based system, the appeal to me is the pressure of making decisions, which is removed when you hit the pause button, but then there's the pressure of navigating the menu efficiently when it is unpaused (which is removed by turning on ATB wait for items/magic)..

Chrono Trigger added space as an extra variable to ATB, where the location of characters change slightly over time and that dictates some of the decision making, I think that is a good way to pull ATB away from turn-based.

 

[bacon]

Yeah i didnt understand the jargon correctly, sorry~