Frequently Asked Questions (F.A.Q. [pronounced "Eff-Ay-Que"])

What is RPG Maker Magazine?

RPG Maker Magazine (The Mag) was an official site dedicated to any and all legal RPG Maker products made by Enterbrain and Agetec. Since then, it has expanded to encompass much more in the world of gaming and gaming-related content. The Mag hosts user-created games as well as reviews for said games alongside an always-expanding Let's Play archive. But most importantly there's The Magazine, itself. It features not only the reviews previously mentioned, but a multitude of articles that span the entire spectrum of gaming culture, which is all populated by the community. There is a lot more than just this, so please feel free to join the community and explore The Mag.

Who runs RPG Maker Magazine?

RPGM Magazine is created and owned by Ixzion. It has gone over several revisions over the last decade to get to what it is now. With him is Lantis who acts as a Site Administrator and on the forum side is Stythe as the Head of Forums.

How do I contact the staff?

To get into contact with Ixzion, Lantis, or Stythe, use the forum's private message system.

For forum related question, PM Stythe.
For site related questions, PM Lantis.
For more serious problems that may need immediate attention, please PM Ixzion.

What is a Development Studio?

A Development Studio is a forum given to developers who desire one. Anyone is allowed to have one. PM Head of Forums, Stythe, to request one. You will need to specify a name for your studio as well as a short description.

A Development Studio is your own forum within the site that you have administrative control over. You can use it to create topics about your game. Updates, videos, images, anything you want. Use it to the best of your ability to get information and hype for your game up.

Every update you make in your studio goes into the Developer News feed on the main site.

How do I submit content to The Mag?

Upon agreeing to the Terms of Service and creating an account, you will have the ability to upload content to The Mag. Look to the top right once you've logged in and you will see a series of buttons. These buttons take you to the content creation page of each type:

Articles
Clicking on "Articles" will take you to the page where you can start creating content for The Magazine. Initially, you will only be able to create articles. But eventually you can use this page to also write official RPGM Magazine reviews (See: RPG Maker Reviews).

In the edit body text, you can pick what the content type is, it's sub-type, or if it's a normal article or a game preview. You can then create a title for your article as well as some tags that are related to it. The Above the Fold section is what the users will see when browsing The Magazine. The Below the Fold section should house the rest of your article. Making an interesting Above the Fold teaser may be a good way to get views. You can also add images to your article using iMAGine (See: below), the Mag's file hosting service.

Once your article is complete, it has a week to get 75% positive rating and it will be pushed to the front page of RPGM Magazine for all to see. Having enough front paged material could eventually lead to you gaining Trusted Editor status, which automatically sends all articles you write to the front page as well as give you access to write official reviews for RPGM Magazine.

RPG Maker Reviews
Much like Articles, Reviews work in a very similar way. You will specify its content type, create a title, tags, have areas to talk about the game in general. Where this differs is that you will be using RPGM Magazine's 100 point scale to review the game. Go to the RPG Maker Vault (where you downloaded the game to play in the first place) and find the game's page ID from the URL. This will tie your review to the game. Then you will be able to write detailed information about the four core areas we rate games on: Presentation, Features, Debugging and Fun. Up to 25 points total, equaling a possible 100. There will be one final section below all this for any final thoughts as well as your overall personal score of the game. Click 'Save' and your official RPG Maker review is now published and live for all to read.

iMAGine
iMAGine is RPGM Magazine's image hosting service. You can use it to upload images you wish to post in the forums or your studio. If you want to add images to your articles and reviews, you will have to use Imagine. From the Control Panel at the top right, click "IMAGINE" to access the service. From here, it is fairly straight-forward. You can freely upload images, create and manage albums to store said images.

Let's Plays
Selecting "Add Let's Play Content" from the Control Panel or the "Lets Play" button at the top-right will get you started on using RPGM Magazine's Let's Play feature. The only prerequisite is having a YouTube channel.

One of the features that RPGM Magazine offers that you can't find on YouTube is the ability to categorize your playlists. If you have a number of LPs you wish you could classify under one category, then this will really help you out.

Start by adding a category. You just name it what you want and hit Save. For example, let's say you want to make a SNES category for all SNES games you LP. With this out of the way, make a playlist. This would be the name of your LP. An example for this would be to make a playlist called Act Raiser in the SNES category.

But now you need to put the Act Raiser playlist in the SNES category. So click Manage Playlists. Pick your playlists in the "which playlist" field and then the correct category from the "move to category" field. Then click "Perform Action." Now your Act Raiser LP is now saved in the SNES category.

But now we need to add videos to the playlist. So let's hit "Add LP Episode." The first option called "LP Playlist" needs to be the playlist you want this video to be a part of. In this case, you'd pick Act Raiser from the dropdown. From here, you can use the RPGM Magazine's features the same way you can for articles and reviews. Specify a title, teaser, and a full description of the LP episode. Next, you will need to grab the unique video ID from the YouTube video and copy it into the "YouTube ID" field. All that is left then is to is specify which place in the playlist you want the video. So part one of our Act Raiser example would be 1. Second episode would be 2 and so on. And with that, you are done.

RPG Maker Content
RPGM Magazine originally started out JUST hosting RPG Maker content, so there's a lot you can do here. Clicking the "RPGM" icon brings up the page to create the following content:

(Note: Images within articles has a maximum width of 500px before it is auto-sized down.)

Add RPG Maker Game
First, click "Add RM Game." Put the name of your game in the "Title" field. Next, specify what software you used to make your game from the dropdown list. From here, specify your genre and your ESRB-style rating. Then use tags to tag your game with everything that would be relevant to it. Give a brief description in the Above the Fold, and then the full detailed description Below the Fold. If you want to add screenshots to your entry, use the "Image Gallery" section. Copy and paste links to images from iMAGine into this field and be sure to hit enter between each one. You can use Youtube videos the same was with "Video Gallery." Just be sure to put one per line like you did with images. Click "Save," and you are done. Your game page has now been created.

But you haven't uploaded the actual game yet. At the top of the page, click "Click here to see your page" and from there click "Manage Page." Scroll down to "add new file" and name the file you wish to upload, select the proper extension and select if it is a full game or just a demo. If it is a RPG Maker 1 game, you can specify how many memory cards the game uses and what save slot the game will be on. From here, you can now browse to the actual game and upload it by clicking "Choose file." From here, set publish to "Yes" and click "Save." (Note: The process of uploading a game, especially if it is large, will take time. Please give the time to receive your file. The transfer is based on your upload speed.) Your game is now live and able to be downloaded by others.

Add RM Guide
Guides are for tips and tricks you may have learned and wish to share with the community on how to use any of the RPG Makers. It may be custom menus or custom battle systems in RPG Maker 1. Or how to change genres in RPG Maker 2. Maybe even how to do proper Ruby scripting for the PC makers. Properly title your guide and then specify what kind of guide it is. Also specify what maker it is for and what version of this guide it is (this is for if you decide to update the guide at a later date). Just like all other RPGM Maker content, remember to properly tag your guide. Write up an intro do your guide and then the detailed information below.

But just like creating a game, once you hit save, you still haven't actually uploaded the guide. You will need to click "Click here to see your page" and from there click "Manage Page." From here, you will be able to upload a zipped version of your guide (assuming it will most likely be a .txt or Word document). Set the publish to "Yes" and click "Save" and your guide is now live.

Add RM Tool
A tool is classified as a third party application. There are not very many of these. An example is RPGC, which is a program that lets you create sprites in a PC image editor and convert them to a .gme file to be used on RPG Maker 1. If you've made something that directly helps in aiding a maker, this is where you will want to upload it.

To add one, click "Add RM Tool" and then fill out the information. Give it a name and then specify what RPG Maker it is for. Add the appropriate tags, then add the description for your tool in the Folds. If you want to add screenshots to your entry, use the "Image Gallery" section. Copy and paste links to images from iMAGine into this field and be sure to hit enter between each one. You can use Youtube videos the same was with "Video Gallery." Just be sure to put one per line like you did with images. Click "Save," and you are done. Your Tool page has now been created.

But you haven't uploaded the actual tool yet, of course. At the top of the page, click "Click here to see your page" and from there click "Manage Page." Scroll down to "Add New File" and name the file you wish to upload. From here, you can now browse to the actual tool and upload it by clicking "Choose file." From here, set publish to "Yes" and click "Save." Your Tool is now live and able to be downloaded by others.

Add RM Resources
RM Resources specifically refer to the multitude of content you can add to any of the PC RPG Makers. This includes XP, VX and VX Ace. Character sprites, portraits, battlers, scripts, backgrounds, and more.

Like everything else, create a title, select the maker it is for and what it actually is. Add tags and a description above and below the fold. If you want to add screenshots to your entry, use the "Image Gallery" section. Copy and paste links to images from iMAGine into this field and be sure to hit enter between each one. You can use Youtube videos the same was with "Video Gallery." Just be sure to put one per line like you did with images. Click "Save," and you are done. Your Resource page has now been created.

But you haven't uploaded the actual resource yet. At the top of the page, click "Click here to see your page" and from there click "Manage Page." Scroll down to "Add New File" and name the file you wish to upload. From here, you can now browse to the actual resource and upload it by clicking "Choose file." After, set publish to "Yes" and click "Save." Your Resource is now live and able to be downloaded by others.

Add RM Sprite
This is for RPG Maker 1 only. RPG Maker 1 allows you to import sprites, title screens, and monsters of various sizes. So title what it is you want to upload, and then specify exactly what it is with the dropdown menu. Then add your tags and then the above and below the fold description. If you want to add screenshots to your entry, use the "Image Gallery" section. Copy and paste links to images from iMAGine into this field and be sure to hit enter between each one. You can use Youtube videos the same was with "Video Gallery." Just be sure to put one per line like you did with images. Click "Save," and you are done. Your page has now been created.

But you haven't uploaded the actual sprite yet. At the top of the page, click "Click here to see your page" and from there click "Manage Page." Scroll down to "Add New File" and name the file you wish to upload. From here, you can now browse to the actual sprite and upload it by clicking "Choose file." From here, set publish to "Yes" and click "Save." Your sprite is now live and able to be downloaded by others.

Add RM Extra
If you have content that doesn't match ANYTHING that we have listed above, it's considered extra RM content. This section was made so that all of your bases would be covered. So if you have content for RPG Maker that doesn't fit in any of the above section, you can add it here.

To do so, just title your content and specify which maker it is for. Add your tags as well as your description with the Above and Below the Fold fields. If you want to add screenshots to your content, use the "Image Gallery" section. Copy and paste links to images from iMAGine into this field and be sure to hit enter between each one. You can use YouTube videos the same was with "Video Gallery." Just be sure to put one per line like you did with images. Click "Save," and you are done. Your page has now been created.

But you haven't uploaded the actual files yet. At the top of the page, click "Click here to see your page" and from there click "Manage Page." Scroll down to "Add New File" and name the file you wish to upload. From here, you can now browse to the actual file and upload it by clicking "Choose file." From here, set publish to "Yes" and click "Save." Your content is now live and able to be downloaded by others.