Rose Skye's Game Making Tips
12-06-2008, 05:06 PM
I know I dont come out and actually "do my job" that often. Yet, the more I work on my game the farther away from competition I get.. especially working with my team.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
STEER CLEAR FROM ORDINARY!
I know you played Final Fantasy and now you want to make a game just like it.. and so does everyone else.
The tip is to make better games, and you cant accomplish making better games by sticking to the ordinary. Your characters must be beyond three dimensional, they must be a black hole that sucks in the players. Believe it or not, but, people do not really want average games.. they just want something thats really cool to play.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
YOUR GAME = HARD WORK * DETERMINATION * EFFORT.
I spent 3 months designing 70 maps (and I'm still not finished) in a castle. Now I'm not saying be a perfectionist. I'm saying that you cant expect gold out of spending 2 minutes on a map. You need to take in detail, and perspective.
I'll explain more in the next category.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- MAPPING MUST TAKE IN ELEMENTS THAT IS TO BE EXPECTED IN REAL LIFE. -
I know, I know.. Rpg maker doesn't really give you that much to work with. Yet its your responsibility as a designer to own RMXP to its limits.
If you have a map that has a row of trees that you would never see in an actual forest. . time to redo your map again. Nature is weird and unpredictable, it is beautiful and at the same time gruesome. You must find that exact look that seems to emulate how things really are in life.
Deserts aren't just straight sand.. There are cacti, mounds, depressions, pits, desert animals..
YOU -must- research to be great, its not just predictions.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Write down your ideas. -
You are alone. . you think you're boiling gold in your frame and you can surpass everyone that makes amateur games. Yet, you're improvising the text instead of writing down a script. You must know the key elements in your game.
I.E
Improvising.
Lets say your main character is some kinda knight. This knight is a champion amongst the people and he goes on missions from the king.
vs
Script.
Your character is a knight, he has been a knight since a child. His biggest influence was an unknown squire that he competed with every day. The squire was killed by a stray arrow, and he found friendship in that which he took for granted. The knight grew up to become a champion among the people and would always swear the sword on the left side to remind him of the unknown squire. He took missions from the king because it reminds him of the competitions he had with said squire.
With scripted storylines its never too late to go back and brainstorm (unless you turned in the product). Improvisational storylines would be hard to keep track of events, characters, plots, and twists. If you dont write down the key points in your story it could hurt your storytelling in the end.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- It never hurts to experiment and come up with Concepts -
You have this perfect storyline in your head, or on paper. Your maps aren't portraying what you visualized for you game. If you wish you could keep working with styles or even take note of maps made in more visually appealing game and mimic it until you come up with something beautiful.
As you know RMXP and RPG MAKER Genres are more compatible with Nintendo/Super Nintendo RPG's. Go through some Chrono trigger screenshots, look through Mystic Quest videos, and you can observe a few Secret of Mana movies to take in what they did to make maps more believable.
You should also take note of how fogs and screentones effect your overall appearance of your rpg. Try not to overly sugar coat maps with fogs and screentones. If you're not to pleased with it, if you're not in awe with your maps.. your players wont be either. Come up with a style all of your own using what you learned.. thats what makes you memorable.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- If you're going to put in a NPC, keep in mind that they are supposed to portray everyday people. -
People react differently, people are snowflakes. Not everyone is going to say "HEY! WELCOME TO MY TOWN!". Everyday people dont give long winded speeches to strangers. They have places to go people to see.. only mentally disabled people stay in one spot and stare at the sun until someone speaks to them. If a king speaks to an ordinary person, they'll show respect. If a nobody speaks to an ordinary person, they'll either ignore them or make conversation. Dont make everyone one dimensional.
Make light of custom movements, switches, variables. These are the foundations of proper eventing. Eventing is basically an extension of mapping. Together its a beautiful thing.
NPC Dialogue
NPC: "This place is Dandiria. Its populous is blah blah blah.. and the black knight originates from blah blah."
vs.
NPC: "Hello stranger, lovely day isn't it?"
You: "Yes, yes it is."
NPC: "If you excuse me, I must pick up my son from daycare."
Even if a NPC doesn't have dialogue its still important. Pose templates such as smoke, waterfalls, rocks, boats, and etc. They all work together to make a beautiful machine.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Replay-ability is essential in a beautiful game.
If you are to become great you must release something that you would love in a game. If you dont think its the best thing since sliced bread, work on it again..
I deleted a total of 200+ maps. 7 months of hard work.. before I found a formula that worked.
Im thinking about deleting it again to upgrade my template.
Add in things that'll make your game something that someone wants to play again. Steer clear of things that have been beaten until it has been turned into a deformed pile of crap. Do you think you have what it takes to actually be a good amatuer game designer? Prove it.. make gold out of bronze.. then turn it platinum.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- RPG's doesn't always need to be about magic. -
I know magic is cool. Yet every 14 year old doesn't need to know wind spells.. every game doesn't need to have super humans. Ordinary techniques would suffice. There are plenty of deadly ordinary attacks in real life to prove that you dont need to shoot fire out of your hand to defeat an enemy.
* Pressure points
* Attack items (Grenades, Traps, Bullets, Poisoned tipped projectiles.)
Are you willing to keep away from the majority to take the side route? *Flips hair* You conformist.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Villians dont always have to be antisocial maniacal old guys, or jessebelle wenches -
There are the villians that plot and pretend to be one of the sheep. (Get it? Wolf in sheeps clothing?) Everyone knows that bad guys ordinarily are powerful idiots that want to blow up the world for a stupid reason... but, why cant you have a more believable bad guy? A calculating one, why does the player have to know that the bad guy is actually a bad guy?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
STEER CLEAR FROM ORDINARY!
I know you played Final Fantasy and now you want to make a game just like it.. and so does everyone else.
The tip is to make better games, and you cant accomplish making better games by sticking to the ordinary. Your characters must be beyond three dimensional, they must be a black hole that sucks in the players. Believe it or not, but, people do not really want average games.. they just want something thats really cool to play.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
YOUR GAME = HARD WORK * DETERMINATION * EFFORT.
I spent 3 months designing 70 maps (and I'm still not finished) in a castle. Now I'm not saying be a perfectionist. I'm saying that you cant expect gold out of spending 2 minutes on a map. You need to take in detail, and perspective.
I'll explain more in the next category.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- MAPPING MUST TAKE IN ELEMENTS THAT IS TO BE EXPECTED IN REAL LIFE. -
I know, I know.. Rpg maker doesn't really give you that much to work with. Yet its your responsibility as a designer to own RMXP to its limits.
If you have a map that has a row of trees that you would never see in an actual forest. . time to redo your map again. Nature is weird and unpredictable, it is beautiful and at the same time gruesome. You must find that exact look that seems to emulate how things really are in life.
Deserts aren't just straight sand.. There are cacti, mounds, depressions, pits, desert animals..
YOU -must- research to be great, its not just predictions.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Write down your ideas. -
You are alone. . you think you're boiling gold in your frame and you can surpass everyone that makes amateur games. Yet, you're improvising the text instead of writing down a script. You must know the key elements in your game.
I.E
Improvising.
Lets say your main character is some kinda knight. This knight is a champion amongst the people and he goes on missions from the king.
vs
Script.
Your character is a knight, he has been a knight since a child. His biggest influence was an unknown squire that he competed with every day. The squire was killed by a stray arrow, and he found friendship in that which he took for granted. The knight grew up to become a champion among the people and would always swear the sword on the left side to remind him of the unknown squire. He took missions from the king because it reminds him of the competitions he had with said squire.
With scripted storylines its never too late to go back and brainstorm (unless you turned in the product). Improvisational storylines would be hard to keep track of events, characters, plots, and twists. If you dont write down the key points in your story it could hurt your storytelling in the end.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- It never hurts to experiment and come up with Concepts -
You have this perfect storyline in your head, or on paper. Your maps aren't portraying what you visualized for you game. If you wish you could keep working with styles or even take note of maps made in more visually appealing game and mimic it until you come up with something beautiful.
As you know RMXP and RPG MAKER Genres are more compatible with Nintendo/Super Nintendo RPG's. Go through some Chrono trigger screenshots, look through Mystic Quest videos, and you can observe a few Secret of Mana movies to take in what they did to make maps more believable.
You should also take note of how fogs and screentones effect your overall appearance of your rpg. Try not to overly sugar coat maps with fogs and screentones. If you're not to pleased with it, if you're not in awe with your maps.. your players wont be either. Come up with a style all of your own using what you learned.. thats what makes you memorable.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- If you're going to put in a NPC, keep in mind that they are supposed to portray everyday people. -
People react differently, people are snowflakes. Not everyone is going to say "HEY! WELCOME TO MY TOWN!". Everyday people dont give long winded speeches to strangers. They have places to go people to see.. only mentally disabled people stay in one spot and stare at the sun until someone speaks to them. If a king speaks to an ordinary person, they'll show respect. If a nobody speaks to an ordinary person, they'll either ignore them or make conversation. Dont make everyone one dimensional.
Make light of custom movements, switches, variables. These are the foundations of proper eventing. Eventing is basically an extension of mapping. Together its a beautiful thing.
NPC Dialogue
NPC: "This place is Dandiria. Its populous is blah blah blah.. and the black knight originates from blah blah."
vs.
NPC: "Hello stranger, lovely day isn't it?"
You: "Yes, yes it is."
NPC: "If you excuse me, I must pick up my son from daycare."
Even if a NPC doesn't have dialogue its still important. Pose templates such as smoke, waterfalls, rocks, boats, and etc. They all work together to make a beautiful machine.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Replay-ability is essential in a beautiful game.
If you are to become great you must release something that you would love in a game. If you dont think its the best thing since sliced bread, work on it again..
I deleted a total of 200+ maps. 7 months of hard work.. before I found a formula that worked.
Im thinking about deleting it again to upgrade my template.
Add in things that'll make your game something that someone wants to play again. Steer clear of things that have been beaten until it has been turned into a deformed pile of crap. Do you think you have what it takes to actually be a good amatuer game designer? Prove it.. make gold out of bronze.. then turn it platinum.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- RPG's doesn't always need to be about magic. -
I know magic is cool. Yet every 14 year old doesn't need to know wind spells.. every game doesn't need to have super humans. Ordinary techniques would suffice. There are plenty of deadly ordinary attacks in real life to prove that you dont need to shoot fire out of your hand to defeat an enemy.
* Pressure points
* Attack items (Grenades, Traps, Bullets, Poisoned tipped projectiles.)
Are you willing to keep away from the majority to take the side route? *Flips hair* You conformist.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Villians dont always have to be antisocial maniacal old guys, or jessebelle wenches -
There are the villians that plot and pretend to be one of the sheep. (Get it? Wolf in sheeps clothing?) Everyone knows that bad guys ordinarily are powerful idiots that want to blow up the world for a stupid reason... but, why cant you have a more believable bad guy? A calculating one, why does the player have to know that the bad guy is actually a bad guy?
