I had RPG Maker 3 months ago because I heard it was the easiest, and because I thought the 3D Graphics were cool.


Now it's not that I thought it was bad, it just felt lacking a lot. The character models were not very changeable (and some of the colors just looked awful), there weren't a lot of female monsters, you couldn't make characters use any weapons, and the whole game just felt like everything was already made and it didn't give enough creative room.


Now I have some questions about this RPG Maker 2, if I decide to buy it next time I go to GS.



1# Exactly how hard is it? From what I've read it's a very hard game that some people said you need computer skill to play with it, but is it so hard that a few weeks of practising won't help?

2# Does it come with simple instructions on how to build a game?

3# Can you edit the characters and monsters to look exactly the way you want? Like change their outfits and appreance? For instance say I want to make an evil Witch Enemy, can I change her dress and appreance to look how I want? Or is it like RPG M3 where everything is pre-built?

4# Can I make any character use any weapon?



Thanks for your help.

Buy 2.

Click the VFX Guide link in my signature for an idea of what can be done!




1# Exactly how hard is it? From what I've read it's a very hard game that some people said you need computer skill to play with it, but is it so hard that a few weeks of practising won't help?

If you have good logic skills, it's not so hard.


2# Does it come with simple instructions on how to build a game?


Try Prima's Strategy guide for that! A full "game in an afternoon" tutorial is in there.


3# Can you edit the characters and monsters to look exactly the way you want? Like change their outfits and appreance? For instance say I want to make an evil Witch Enemy, can I change her dress and appreance to look how I want? Or is it like RPG M3 where everything is pre-built?

Within a few limits, like stretching along axes and color changes. But basic forms are set. Except for VFX Characters!! See "The Keester Bunny thread! In the chat forum. He's an all VFX Character.



4# Can I make any character use any weapon?

Yes, but characters don't show in battle by default, and customizing a battle system is Way Too Much for a first game!

I tend to agree with Rodak, but my take:

1. It you are familiar with the logic (script order/debugging) of computer programming, you should be OK with time once you learn what goes where. If you are not familiar with the logic of computer programming, it is short of impossible.

2. The instruction booklet is good, there is also in-game help by pressing the 'select' button I think, but the Prima guide is also excellent. Honestly, I needed them all including the guide for different things. I don't know what you'll need.

3. The truth is that although the characters and monsters are divided into color sections that you can change, the textures are so simple and the graphics are so blocky that unless you want your game to look like Animal Crossing or Harvest Moon, it actually takes more imagination for the player to see the character as you want it than to just rely on a generic RPGM3 character or monsters for the basic effect.

4. Your question here almost answers why you might find RPGM 2 a disappointment.

It's possible in RPGM3 with a couple minor exceptions. Here's a link on how to do it.
http://www.rpgmmag.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=669

As for RPGM2, as long as you're willing to deal with a fairly steep learninig curve you can make virtually anything with it.

Well I don't know a lot about computer programming, and I was hoping for a more free-creating game maker.


Oh well, I guess I'll stick with 3. Thanka for your help everyone.

Try finding RPGM1, if you can.
It's a mix between 3's simpleness and 2's power.
I really recommend it. =)

My opinions as well, even though I'll probably wind up repeating some stuff.

#1
It's not so much that RPGM2 is hard, although there is a whole lot to learn and you're pretty much guarenteed to be asking for help on some things (you don't really need to know computer-programming, though). But it's time-consuming. If you don't count how RPGM1 lacks keyboard support, it takes the longest to make a game on RPGM2 than it does any of the others.

#2
Of course, though make sure you get the manual. Also, pressing Select on various options in the tool will give you a bit of info of what the option does, though some of this info isn't that great, and a few even wound up getting missed during translation. If you get the RPGM2 guide, it gives you some step-by-step info on creating maps, on creating a basic 15-minute game, and a full index of all the graphics RPGM2 has (except for special effects).

#3
All characters and monsters are very customizable with colors. Each color covers a general area of the mode (such as one skin color affecting all the character's skin), but otherwise you could have a purple people eater if you wanted to. Actually a few characters can be made to look very different if you change the right colors. However, you can't change the characters' models, and the colors for items and scenery are pretty much set.

#4
Any weapon you want. Literally. You could have a character hold a rocket launcher or a frying pan, whatever your imagination decides. This is because RPGM2's default battle system is of the first-person view, so you don't actually see your characters in battle holding their fanciful weapons.

I know you've already decided on working with 3, but if you have the money, you may want to buy RPG Maker 2 just to try the huge variety of games and demos that people have made for it. "Tabloid" and "Tetris" come to mind immediately.

I have a background in Basic programming, and I'm kind of afraid to
crack open RPG Maker 2 and start trying to use it. It's not fear of
programming as much as having to learn the syntax. I had to do a bit of
that with RPG Maker 3. I wanted to do some complicated things with "If...
Then..." statements. I know how it all works. It was more a matter of
translating it and adapting it into RPGM3 syntax.

Come to think of it, that's why I never took up Visual Basic. I know how
things work, but I'd have to learn an entirely new programming language
and figure out how to translate what I know into VB syntax.

If you know absolutely nothing of Basic programming, it'll probably look
pretty daunting. It's not impossible. You have to learn the logical
concepts of how things work. But yeah, I can imagine how frustrating it is
to look at the thing and say "Okay, here's what I want it to do. Umm...
How do I do that?"

I think the larger issue for me is usability. I've read review after review
that say you have to spend a few months just learning your way around
RPGM2's interface. At this point, I'm used to working with RPGM3's
interface, so I'll stick with that for now.

RPG Maker 3 uses graphical templates for everything. For me, this makes
it ridiculously easy to get a quality product up and running. I can focus
my attention on a town layout, or a dungeon layout, or on desinging a
field map with lush scenery and geography without also having to be a
graphic artist. As for the characters and other limitations... well, it's either
work with them and do the best you can, or learn how to program and do
it all completely from scratch.

Well, if it helps, RPGM2 does come with a boatload of preset stuff. 12 world maps, 23 dungeons, and 57 buildings (including 15 interiors and 16 odd-balls), and I'm not sure how many pre-set spells with effects.

All the work is still menu-based (you won't have to be typing anything like cout << "blah, programming isn't easy!" << \n;). It just isn't arranged in an eye-pleasing interface and takes a lot of extra work. If anything, RPGM2 is definately worth getting just to play some of the games that come out on it.

Your point is defintely worth noting, but I don't like the way it is set up. Easy gives you almost no control, advanced is impossible to the non-programmer, so the normal one would be the one to use. I still think it is too daunting for the non-programming oriented.

In other words, if you want to create an event, you need to use the sample scipts or events (so that you don't have to write your own), but the only way to know what the event or script is doing is read the script itself, in which case you need to understand the basics of computer logic anyways.

You really want to start your project on easy or normal, because you get sample stuff like scripts, maps, and items, then switch over to hard, so you can do all the things that make RPGM2 worth using.

In spite of it's graphic limitations, RPGM3 is actually a fairly versatile addition to the RPGM series. Character battles are the best part if you ask me. Just imagine making a game where the bosses level up with the party, and all you have to do is put in code that will up their stats and level periodically.

I said this once on a GameFAQs board. I think every fledgling game
programmer should take a few moments and learn some of the basic
concepts of Basic programming. Not that one should learn the whole thing
and become proficient in designing whole games in Basic, but... Just the
simple logical concepts involved in how things work. Variables,
matrices, "If.. Then... "statements, subroutines. The simple stuff. Well,
subroutines aren't something you can really do in RPG Maker 3 (dunno
about 2), but it can't hurt to know this stuff.

If I had tried to do some of the more intricate coding I did in "Raiders Of
Lekunder" without a background in Basic programming... Yeah, it
probably wouldn't have been all that possible. Or at the least, I would've
spent a lot more time than I did, trying to figure it all out. As it stands, I
already knew how things worked. The only thing I had to figure out was
how to translate my knowledge into RPGM3 syntax.

I grew up during the early 80s (I'm 38 at the moment. Yeah, I know. Old
fogie. Over the gaming hill.). Back then we didn't have any of these
fancy game makers that do all the work for you. If we wanted to program
a video game, we had to make that puppy from scratch! With Atari
Basic or Assembly Code. There were other types of computers around at
the time, but I had an Atari 130XE home computer, complete with external
floppy disk drive, and the floppies held, like, ... okay, I don't remember,
but it was, like, less than half of a meg. We were measuring our game
programs in kilobytes.

I was a big fan of text adventures like the classic Zork. I got a book
about how to make a text adventure and started studying it. Yeah, we
had to actually study and learn things back then if we wanted to make a
game. I spent quite a bit of time just working my way up toward
programming a simple game. Learning how things work. We used to get
these computing magazines, and each magazine would come with a
couple games... in the form of Basic code that you had to type in, one
line at a time. I schooled off of this stuff, started learning from what
others had done. And when I finally had a simple game up and running, I
worked my way up toward more complicated stuff. Then I learned how to
do graphics and started making games with graphics.

Text adventures were great practice for the more complicated stuff. They
have a lot of variables that need to keep track of things, and they have a
boatload of "If... Then..."s (what we would call a "Val Condition Branch" in
RPGM3 speak). Lots of conditions that could go any which way, and you
gotta think logically and prepare for each possible outcome. It also trains
you to create air tight game mechanics. Gotta think in terms of "Well
what if the player does this? What if he does that?" Not just in terms of
what you want him to do.

Anyway... If there's an easy-to-follow book about simple programming
concepts, I'd recommend it. Just knowing how variables work and what
you can do with them is invaluable knowledge. Knowing how "If...
Then..."s work can go a long way. Then all you gotta do is translate that
knowledge into terms that your game maker of choice understands
(which, in and of itself can sometimes be a lot of work). You know, I
really think there isn't an easy way around it. Regardless of what you do,
there's gonna be some work involved. Learning how to get the game to
do what you want it to do. There's no magic "Easy" button here.

@Crythania

Ah! Glad to see a fellow old school programmer. I'm 34 but by no means an old fogie (neither are you, stop calling yourself one). My experience was the Commodore 64 basic programming. I also made text adventures. My inspiration was the Guild of Thieves and the Pawn by Magnetic Scrolls/Rainbird and Jack the Ripper by (I have no idea).

Some time you and I need to talk more about our common experience.

I can only say now (presently no time to write in depth) that Commodore 64 basic programming of text adventure games and moving-text birthday cards was ABSOLUTELY INVALUABLE for learning RPGM2 and RPGM2 was invaluable for learning RPGM3, my current favorite.

It is just that there are those who want a simpler game making game-maker. I think most everyone who uses RPGM 1,2, and 3 all realize that even if you use nothing but samples, your events still require some logical understanding. This will take time

I simply think 2 is too hard for someone with no experience. I cannot imagine even coming close to understanding 2 without my C64 experience.

I think 3 is the best for beginners as you can make a decent looking and playing (allbeit less original) game using sample everything, but there is no getting around that it will take time to learn to script some basic event contents.

Anonymous Bo,

Heh! You know exactly what I'm talking about. Very cool. Nice to meet
someone else who programmed crazy text adventures during his youth.
I also programmed my own "Ms Pac-Man" clone, a labyrinth game based
on the ol' "Gauntlet", several side-view games, some odds and ends, and
a few cretaceous period RPGs (one of which was inspired by "Temple Of
Apshai").

i heard RPG Maker 2's the coolest in the series..

all things fully customizable... That is the true programmer's paradise.

And i also heard that RPG Maker 2 takes time, plus you need to be an expert to understand it.