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Last issue, we put up the question Do you rate games on RPGMM's Data Center?
The results of that poll are as follows:
80% of readers (8 votes) said that they never vote.
10% of readers (1 vote) said that they do vote occasionally.
And finally, 10% of readers (1 vote) said they vote and vote often!
Ad -- Pagerron
Game: Daniel's Quest III
Platform: RPG Maker 3
In the middle of the night, Daniel is awoken from dreams of
glories past by a messenger from the King. He is whisked
away from his wife and baby to the palace where King Donald
tells him the horrible news that the Stone of Destiny has
been stolen. After accepting to help in the recovery of this
stone of protection, Daniel comes to find that his wife,
Christy, would much rather have him stay home and honor
his marriage vows to her than go questing around Nevernear
to find the Stone. She reluctantly agrees to let him go,
with the understanding that Daniel will not forget her and
their one-year-old baby Victoria.
Will Daniel have to
choose between his family and his world of Nevernear? What
has happened to the pages of the Book of Eternity in the
Nevernear church? Those Oldenpots, what might be hidden
inside? and Who is Samuel the Sage? You will find out in
November when you play as Daniel Haney in "Daniel's Quest
III" (for RPG Maker 3).
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Make your games alive?
Yes, make your games come to life. An RPG is much more than
just lines of text and monster battles! Engulf the player
into your world (like this nice area from Hippy Hunt 2 by bigfoot721).
Don't know where to begin?
RPGMM can help! Take heed of the game design tips below and
make your mark!
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Graphic Design Tips
Instead of making all of your houses symmetrical,
give them shapes and designs. In the real world, houses look
different, so try to apply that to your games. It not only
makes your game look better and more realistic, but it also
serves as a natural landmark for your players to remember
areas in the game that they may have to come back to. A good
example would be this picture from Cursed Desires by Vonwert.
If designing an outdoor area, don't skimp on the foliage!
Who goes outside and sees acres of flat grass with no hills
or dirt and a few sparse trees here and there? Use trees, rocks,
create lakes, set up fields of multicolored flowers, make
uneven fields, and really whatever you can to really make the
area seem active (or set up your graphics to make it look desolate,
like Ixzion did for Survival X).
Dialogue Tips
Usually, in RPG Maker games, the characters
a player talk to never move during the conversation. This is
quite odd, especially in longer conversations. Instead of
standing for long stretches of time listening to a person
speak, try sometimes to make the non-player character (NPC)
move around a little. If the NPC is talking about how much
they like the water, then why not make them turn toward the
lake or, if they're inside, let them gaze out of the window?
Embellish your dialogue! Instead of constantly using
the same words over and over (heh), why not mix it up a little?
Perhaps, if someone is hungry, instead of making them say "I'm
hungry", why not say "My stomach is growling" instead? As RPGs
are almost literally books that you can play through, it helps
to keep the pages of text as fresh as possible.
Character Balance Tips
Many developers, when starting out creating their various
masterpieces, want their character dealing out gigantic portions
of damage. While this is certainly one way to go about it,
it does make the balancing of weapons, defense, and hit points
harder to balance. Why not try this method? Set all
of the stat caps for your characters and enemies to 10. Go
through the entire game and balance the attacks based on a 10
scale. Then, once you're finished, just add zeroes to the end
to get bigger, balanced attacks. Save the headache.
Almost every developer is familiar with the (in?)famous
35-point rule (dividing 35 stat points between the categories).
I propose the 18-point rule instead. Imagine having level
gains spread evenly over, say, 7 categories and then there
would be 4 points left to boost certain attributes.
Closing Statements
Hopefully, these tips will help make your games better, or
at least give you a few ideas and inspirations. Whatever
you do, breathe into your world as much imagination and
realism as you can. Get to it!
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Pavilion News Corner
The RPG Maker Pavilion is in the
middle of deciding its summer contest! As of press time,
the contest vote seems to be in favor of: all RPG Makers
allowed, all types of genres allowed.
Valkysas, head honcho of the Pavilion, does give
a warning to the ones using RPG Maker XP:
"All XP games submitted for the contest will be checked.
If you submit something made with anything that isn't
Enterbrain's legal english release, not only will your
contest entry be rejected, but you'll be banned as well.
RPGMM Guide Update
Need a helping hand? Staffy has one for you! He has an update
to the RPG Maker 1 for Newbies guide! Check it out here:
Part Three
RPGMM Rumor Mill
If you heard it here, it could probably be true. Maybe.
To start off, we have reports from informant Mrs. Pigwhistle
that RPG Maker Magazine creator Ixzion is currently in
talks with Lobston Press and Distribution Co., (the same printers that
real-deal magazines like GamePro uses) to take RPG Maker
Magazine not only to printing presses, but GLOBAL! According to Pigwhistle,
the whole operation would be fully backed and funded by Agetec
with sales from RPG Maker 3. RPG Maker Magazine would be circulated in
15 countries worldwide.
After Sony's announcement that the Playstation 3 would cost $499 (or
$599, if you want the better package), many in the RM community were
concerned about which system the next RPG Maker would be on. However,
it seems that one Enterbrain employee let it slip to an Agetec
employee that: "RPGTsukuru 5 will be on PS2"! This
is a momentous occassion for the RM community! RPGMM is glad that
our Agetec connection allowed us to
bring you this exclusive information.
Last, but not least, it appears that there will be finally be
an end to some classic RPG Maker demoes, the right way. Rumored games for completion
include "Police State (RM1)", "Acre-age (RM1)", "[Radiant Darkness] (RM1)",
"Tuataria (RM2)", "Remote Control 2 (RM1)", "Anormia: Pandable's Rising (RM3)"
and many more. Is this the resurrection of RPG Maker?
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