This is my recent idea for RPGMaker 1. I posted this all originally at the Pavilion, and am cutting and pasting here. Let's see what you guys think.

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This is an idea I've been throwing around for a bit. It will be made on RPGM1.

Lately I've rediscovered how incredibly fun going to the arcades is. Now that I'm old enough to get my own quarters (and have a bit more skill to play better), I've been going to the arcades and have been having a blast. (Fortunately, there are still some arcade places inside my two local malls).

So I'd like to try and bring the arcade experince home (new idea, huh?). You can play on a variety of machines to play different mini games. You don't need to give any money or currency to play, and by completing certain tasks in the game, you'll win tokens, which you can redeem for new membership passes allowing you to access new games.

The problem I'm running into is trying to think up a variety of different games for people to play. I only have about three different games so far.

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I've made some good progress over the last couple of days. I've been focusing on one game, while I brainstorm ideas for others. Lately I've been working on a game called 'Find the Needle in the Haystack'. It's pretty obvious what you do here. There are several haystacks and you must find the one with the needle. I've finished 6 levels of this and there will be 10 levels in all. If you complete all 10, you'll get a bonus prize.

Another idea I'm incorporating into the game are expansion packs. At a certain spot in the arcade, you can switch scenarios and open up locked doors that lead to new games. I'm also considering special holiday expansions, special editions and maybe collectors editions. And while we're on the topic of expansion, I'd like to possibly open the game for player modding and creation. Simply make your own scenario data, stick it as an expansion and run! This depends how popular the game is and how much the community puts into it, but it's a great idea I'd like to implement.

While trying to find inspiration, I've come across some really good ideas. One of them is an idea from Obright's games: reputation. You can go outside the arcade and speak to locals, who give you information about the various arcade games. It would be far simpler than Obright's game, but if you hold certain items you've obtained from the arcade, you'll get an extra message congratulating you....or possibly more information!

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(Anything subject to change, of course)

Confirmed games:

-Find the Needle in the Haystack
Do I really need to explain this one?

-Aqua Escape
Avoid the water, grab those life vests and escape a sinking ship!

-Fatal Furlong
This is my favorite. This game is making it's second appearence in video games (the first being an alternate ending for A Work In Progress). Choose a horse and have a wild, climatic race to the finish line! You can access new games by upgrading your membership card. (What happens when you get the highest membership is a real treat when playing this game!)

-Old Man River
Not so much a game as a fun diversion. Listen to Grandpa ramble about rockets, give advice and talk about the good ol' days. Planned to have 100 different phrases! What? Did Grandpa just give away some tokens?


Planned games:

-Master Chef (can't think of anything more creative)
Use ingrediant cards you find from different games, and become the head chef and cook a meal! Depending what you choose, you may win wonderful prizes!

-Love Love Go Go Sim!
You sweat, build up your courage, and go on a date with that really cute girl (or guy). Depending on the choices you make, you could either score big or lose it all! Go Go big, or Go Go home!



The rel interesting part about making a game like this is incorporating several ideas from past titles I planned to make but never got around to. Aqua Escape was a planned mini game for Usuru: Ultimate Story DX, Master Chef is a play on Master Chief from Halo, and a game was planned to parody it. Love Love Go Go Sim is a branching idea I had planned for an epic RPG, and who knows? I might pull more unfinished ideas for this game.

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(Ryner asks about the needle in a haystack game)
It's simple, really. There's a big inclosure with a lot of haystacks (object 54, I haven't counted how many haystacks there are). If you touch a haystack, it will tell you it's either there or not there. Most of the time it won't be there.

If you touch the correct haystack, you'll get a message telling you that you found it, followed by a little cheer that changes from time to time (for example, when you find needle 1 you get the message 'Booya!', when the 2nd needle says 'Yessssss....')

Then a needle is added to your inventory, followed by a number (1 through 10), and the game warps you back to that level, where a new haystack has the needle. The page condition for the 2nd needle has a page condition making sure you have that first needle to get the second. So the needles must be found in a particular order.

The other fun element is the guy who warps you out of the level. He'll respond to how many needles you've found and give a congratulation message (good job, great, keep it up!).

You get a prize for finding the fifth and tenth needles. If you decide to quit before getting the fifth needle, the game will remind you that you won't win anything if you quit, and asks if you really want to quit. Once you've found the fifth needle, it will simply ask again if you want to quit.

To keep the game simple and memory cost effective, this all occurs in one level. To further save time and money(so to speak), the haystacks without needles are all duplicates.

Quite a bit sophsicated for what is otherwise a garbage-contest game.

I've just finished with Needle in the Haystack. I just need to add some more code and it will be finished.


When you complete the game, you will get 50 Tokens along with the Golden Needle, a trophy of sorts that you completed it. Bystanders will be amazed you have such an item and will be in awe. Some may offer extra tokens! What other extras does the Golden Needle have?

You win 25 Tokens on your first run and 50 Tokens at the end. On the second playthrough onward, you'll get 10 tokens at five and 30 at ten. This is a great way to earn some extra tokens without much work, especially if you map out where each needle is.

And if you haven't already obtained it, you'll get the bronze membership on your first playthrough, then the Golden Needle the second time.
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Sounds Greeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeat!

A lack of real feedback has been keeping me off the project. When Ixzion mentioned Arcadia Mania in the Digest 2, I felt I had to get back on track. It was that little sparkle of someone taking interest in my project to start me up again.

Problem is, the idea kinda de-railed. So here's what I'm planning.

I'm now focusing on some of the harder, more interesting ideas I've brewed up. In particular is a dating sim and a cooking mini-game I want to get off the ground really bad. These two have the potenial to be super awesome, so I'm working on them next.

And...not much else to say. I'm going to get to work now.

I've both expanded and demolished while making this game since yesterday.

First off, I expanded the scope of the town outside the arcade. Before the arcade was simply at the edge of a cliff, with open space behind it. Now there's more land back there and some new buildings. I also thought up some interesting places to make, such as a pizza place that will have some arcade games as well. After all, arcade places aren't the only spots with arcades, so the scope of this project has expanded quite a bit. There are also many places you can't reach; these are areas that will either be unlocked or available in an expansion.

Inside the arcade was a section for new scenario cards to be uploaded, titled expansion packs. Due to the widing scope, I've nixed this idea and will instead create a seperate room for this feature. I haven't decided how many expansion packs will be offered, but I'd like to try and get at least 3 unique expansions out when everything is said and done.

And getting my chef up and running is quite bothersome. It may be a little too big in scope to actually work in the idea I had for it, so for now I'll work on something else.

If you guys are at all interested, I'd love to hear your feedback!

I've made more progress. This is a very good thing.

Currently I'm working on a minigame you all know: Donkey Kong. This old game is getting a rpgmaker facelift. Granted it's not a perfect conversion; then again anything converted to rpgmaker can't be. So far 25m and 50m have been made, with programming almost done for both. Then onwards to 75m and 100m. With any luck I wish to include harder modes when you beat the game that include more hazards and more rewards for beating it.

If you're a big fan of this old game like I am, I'm sure you'll get a kick out of it.

I've completed 25 m, almost finished with 50m, and have been creating 75 m.

If you can remember, 75m is one of the most complicated levels in the game, with lots of jumps and springboards to make things difficult. It's really quite fun taking a game and converting it to rpgmaker with good results. The 75m level is the most pixel accurate level insofar, being almost a perfect conversion. Making the level both work on rpgmaker and making it challanging was a tall order, but with some clever thinking, I got it to all work. And after some playtesting to work out the bugs, it's almost good to go! 100m awaits!

Wow, that sounds like it's gonna be awesome! By the way, for expansion packs, you could always group them by game genre or do like "1980s classics" like that.

I think a good game to add would be Pacman, as well. I believe that it would be a fairly accurate game with RM's enemy "Move to character" option.

Sounds awesome indeed! I'm curious to see how Donkey Kong end up in RM

Good to see there is some interest in the game! Woohoo!

That's a great idea, Ixzion, and I might just do both of your suggestions. While I was making Donkey Kong I couldn't help but think Pac-Man would be perfect for RM.

And I'm up to 2 blocks of scenario and system data. Yes!

True. Could always be just a clone with gimmicks altered or added to fit RPGM's rules and constraints. Actually, this sorta gives me an idea.

Exactly. Take 75m for example. While graphically it's a perfect conversion, I had to alter the code to make the game both work, and be tough.

The hopping springs, for example in the same level, simply can't be done in their original form. Instead, I used a graphic that looks like a spring, give it a quick up/down movement command, and a game over screen if you touch it. Granted it can move up and down only, but it still provides a decent obstacle in the players way.

Not much to report. Just created the level and did most of the coding for Donkey Kong's 100m level. Soon I'll get down to tougher coding stuff.

I also should talk more about Donkey Kong, while I'm here. Scattered in levels 50m and onward, you can pick up items Pauline dropped. Picking these up will provide more tokens/points. They can be difficult to reach, but should be worth it.

I'd also like to get in tougher difficulty modes, Normal, Hard, and Difficult. This is still in planning.

Just some more on Arcadia Mania.

With DK, I've included a hub world before playing. This is important for a number of reasons. First, it'll allow me to add many different aspects that I have been wanting to add, such as a reward center, a tutorial, and more difficulty modes. Secondly, coding all of this will be much easier, since I can manage everything from this hub world, so controlling every aspect will be far easier for me to do.

I still have some more work to do with Pauline's items, but it's going all well so far, and within a couple of more hours, I'll be finished with Donkey Kong.

That's good to hear!

More work has progressed on Donkey Kong. I'm actually in the process of wrapping everything up. I've been working on some of the more difficulty coding and things are coming together. I've also started playtesting for the first time making this game, and while I made a lot of mistakes and screwups, I go back to the coding and fix it, so everything is beginning to run smoothly. It's also scary how something that's been so disconnected over the last few weeks fits together so well when it's all said and done.

There are a couple of nifty tricks and tips I use to make the experience something special. There are 6 worlds; 4 playing levels, 1 hub world, and 1 connecting level. This connecting level is one of the most important aspects to making this game work. See, when you die, lose a life, and start the level over, you transport to this connecting level, and connect right back to the level you were playing.

Now you might be asking, "Why don't you simply warp the player back to the beginning of the level?". A good question, and here's the answer. If I just warped the player back to the beginning of the level, the events would still be in the same position when you restart the level, and for me, that's not acceptable for a game like this. Warping out and in of the level 'reboots' the stage, allowing the events to be at their starting positions. Now how do I make sure the player warps to the correct level? Before starting a level you are given an item named after the level you are on. When you lose, you are warped to the warping room, where a page conditioned intro event recognizes that item and take overs to the correct event to warp back. In order to keep the warp from giving the player lots of level items, the level item is given before a stage.

I've also been fleshing out the coding as well. Most code was simple stuff when I put it in, and now that I've got the warping room up and running, I can begin to flesh out all the correct warp points and do-dads. I've finished 25m and 50m, and working on the latter two levels.

It's all going great, and this warping room makes it much easier to complete this game. Before I was wondering "Geez, how am I going to make this work?", and now I know exactly how to work out some of the more complex code.

Changes have been made. Some good, some bad.

First off, I've switched out Pauline items. They are switches instead of items. This was done to simlify the coding, and actually got me to write down some stuff, which I've never done before. I wrote down which item was with which switch. Not a big deal on the surface, but any time I've written down ideas or stats, that project never really materialized, so it's a big step for me.

While o the topic of Pauline items, I almost made the decision to cut an item from 5 to 4, to make coding easier. But then I had a new idea that'll work just as well. See, here's the thing. Before, one NPC handled all the work. You'd go to this person and exchange items for rewards. But since we're dealing with 5 items and you don't HAVE to collect them all, there's a lot of coding to make all of that work. At least 25 different pages, I'm guessing. But now I've switched it up, so two people handle the rewards for seperate levels, which divides the work I have to do and makes coding that much easier.

I should be getting everything wrapped up soon.

That would be truth if you used "Move party to X point" but if you used "Move location" to the same map, wouldn't that reset it?

I'm not entirely sure.

Next time I boot up rpgmaker, I'll try that.

You know what? That works too.

More progress.

While the levels haven't changed much at all since I made them, the internal coding has changed a lot since I started. Since there have been so many changes to how things work, I've had to go back and fix previous code to get it up to spec. Things like switching items to switches, and adding lots of Move locations to fix the older (though still usable) code.

But it's all paid off; I'm finished coding the game for the normal difficulty. Now I plan on thoroughly playtesting it to check for bugs. After that I'll start working on coding in harder difficulties.