Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Hard Labour
Before RPG Maker 3, I had never before played a game that so deftly straddled the line between enjoyable gaming experience and oppressive torture. Don't get me wrong, in strictly objective terms RPG Maker 3 is fantastic. Just about everything you would imagine an RPG creation game could contain is on display here. And that is both this game's biggest strength and most glaring weakness. As much as I love creating my own characters and levels from scratch, I have never before attempted to create an entire adventure. While I certainly have a small appreciation of just how much work goes into creating even the crappiest of games, I ultimate realize that I would never have the patience to construct a full title on my own.
Hold on, don't leave yet. I'm sure I scared some of you off with all that talk of torture and thankless toil, but RPG Maker really is quite fun. If you can force yourself to forget about all the things that still need to be accomplished and instead focus on the task immediately in front of you, it is as silly as any other creation tool out there. However, don't go in expecting to churn out an RPG in just a few hours. I made the mistake of jumping in without any idea of what I wanted to do and, after realizing my character would never live in the world I created and the back story made no sense, I scrapped my entire project. Unlike Graffiti Kingdom, you need an actual plan before you begin construction. So let me walk you through just what needs to be done.
First, you need to think of a story. Specific characters and locations aren't necessary now, but every extra detail you can think of will help immensely in the future. The way the game is structured dictates that the actual story isn't written until a few hours into the development, but you need to at least have a general theme in mind. From there, you have to create a world. This is actually the only element of the game that lets you draw freehand. There are eight different types of terrain available, from grasslands to desert and even ocean (I only wish it was filled with pudding instead of water). It's kind of lame that lava is cold and hard rather than hot and melty, but the rest of the terrain is what you'd expect. You need to know a story before this so you create your map accordingly. I decided to make only three dungeons so I put my town in the middle with three branching paths going to the rest of the world. If you screw this up now you'll be pissed that you have to redo it later on.
That part is easy - but then it gets kind of hard. You are able to play with the elevation as well and, for some reason, this is completely unintuitive. You can't actually tell what can be walked on and trying to make everything level is way too hard. Furthermore, only the center part of the map can actually be interacted with. That means the entire outer border can have all the terrain and mountains you wish, but you'll never be able to step foot on it. It would have been nice to know that before I wasted time creating a world I wouldn't be able to use.
After making the world (complete with the option to name it, designate the atmosphere and season, and how often you are attacked) you have to make towns and dungeons. Towns are a piece of cake, you merely choose from one of twenty or so pre-made varieties. Dungeons, however, are quite intricate. Basically, you have to plot out everything by hand. You need to draw a basic wall outline, as well as place stairs, traps and crumbling walls wherever you see fit. It's long and sometimes tedious, but it's quite rewarding when all is said and done.
Are you getting tired reading this yet? It's a very complicated game, what do you expect?
Creating characters and monsters comes next. You have to create both your party and the non-playable characters from scratch. It's easy enough; simply assign them a class and whatever skills you want, but creating an entire town of citizens takes quite awhile. Considering that you'll have to type text for all of them, you'll spend five or so hours just on that. Fun or no? You decide.
Monsters are slightly more fun, though being able to import characters from Graffiti Kingdom would have made this infinitely better. Teaming a dragon up with a golem and giving them 20 hit points between them is fantastic but, once again, creating a slew of creatures can be tedious.
Now that standard character creation and town building is complete, it's on to the truly difficult stuff. Every scripted action in the game is considered an "Event" and all of them must be completed beforehand. There are hundreds of different actions you can create - from having someone join your party to finding money on the ground - so aspiring game designers will never grow tired from too little in the options department. This is the longest part of the game, and probably the most important, so make sure you don't rush through it.
It's a good idea to write the story while you're creating characters and events. When you create every character and town you'll have to think up a brief description for them. If you chose to, you can also make any character you come in contact with offer up a short soliloquy. You'll need to think up a good prologue and ending, as well as reasons why this quest is taking place at all. Again, this is long and difficult, but the easy interface means all of the blame is on your shoulders if you fail to entertain.
Honestly, if you want to create a good RPG that lasts more than an hour, expect to put about twenty hours into simply learning what to do and making it all fit together. Unfortunately, the actual gameplay is merely average - taking a cue from Graffiti Kingdom - so most of the enjoyment will come from the actual creation of the game. Another huge strike against the is the bland art style; it's a shame that there isn't a more robust drawing tool - it's just not as much fun going through a dreary-looking world.
Anyway, I give this game my highest recommendation if you've always wanted to make your own RPG (Scott...) and my lowest recommendation if you only like Barbie Horse Adventure games. Also, if you're planning on buying this make sure you have a USB keyboard - it would be nearly impossible without it. I should say that I am not actually done with my quest quite yet. Though I have put in about 8 hours, I still have to flesh out just about everything I've done thus far. Check back later when Nick reviews my finished RPG. Watch out Square, Queynte and Taint are coming to get you!
Hold on, don't leave yet. I'm sure I scared some of you off with all that talk of torture and thankless toil, but RPG Maker really is quite fun. If you can force yourself to forget about all the things that still need to be accomplished and instead focus on the task immediately in front of you, it is as silly as any other creation tool out there. However, don't go in expecting to churn out an RPG in just a few hours. I made the mistake of jumping in without any idea of what I wanted to do and, after realizing my character would never live in the world I created and the back story made no sense, I scrapped my entire project. Unlike Graffiti Kingdom, you need an actual plan before you begin construction. So let me walk you through just what needs to be done.
First, you need to think of a story. Specific characters and locations aren't necessary now, but every extra detail you can think of will help immensely in the future. The way the game is structured dictates that the actual story isn't written until a few hours into the development, but you need to at least have a general theme in mind. From there, you have to create a world. This is actually the only element of the game that lets you draw freehand. There are eight different types of terrain available, from grasslands to desert and even ocean (I only wish it was filled with pudding instead of water). It's kind of lame that lava is cold and hard rather than hot and melty, but the rest of the terrain is what you'd expect. You need to know a story before this so you create your map accordingly. I decided to make only three dungeons so I put my town in the middle with three branching paths going to the rest of the world. If you screw this up now you'll be pissed that you have to redo it later on.
That part is easy - but then it gets kind of hard. You are able to play with the elevation as well and, for some reason, this is completely unintuitive. You can't actually tell what can be walked on and trying to make everything level is way too hard. Furthermore, only the center part of the map can actually be interacted with. That means the entire outer border can have all the terrain and mountains you wish, but you'll never be able to step foot on it. It would have been nice to know that before I wasted time creating a world I wouldn't be able to use.
After making the world (complete with the option to name it, designate the atmosphere and season, and how often you are attacked) you have to make towns and dungeons. Towns are a piece of cake, you merely choose from one of twenty or so pre-made varieties. Dungeons, however, are quite intricate. Basically, you have to plot out everything by hand. You need to draw a basic wall outline, as well as place stairs, traps and crumbling walls wherever you see fit. It's long and sometimes tedious, but it's quite rewarding when all is said and done.
Are you getting tired reading this yet? It's a very complicated game, what do you expect?
Creating characters and monsters comes next. You have to create both your party and the non-playable characters from scratch. It's easy enough; simply assign them a class and whatever skills you want, but creating an entire town of citizens takes quite awhile. Considering that you'll have to type text for all of them, you'll spend five or so hours just on that. Fun or no? You decide.
Monsters are slightly more fun, though being able to import characters from Graffiti Kingdom would have made this infinitely better. Teaming a dragon up with a golem and giving them 20 hit points between them is fantastic but, once again, creating a slew of creatures can be tedious.
Now that standard character creation and town building is complete, it's on to the truly difficult stuff. Every scripted action in the game is considered an "Event" and all of them must be completed beforehand. There are hundreds of different actions you can create - from having someone join your party to finding money on the ground - so aspiring game designers will never grow tired from too little in the options department. This is the longest part of the game, and probably the most important, so make sure you don't rush through it.
It's a good idea to write the story while you're creating characters and events. When you create every character and town you'll have to think up a brief description for them. If you chose to, you can also make any character you come in contact with offer up a short soliloquy. You'll need to think up a good prologue and ending, as well as reasons why this quest is taking place at all. Again, this is long and difficult, but the easy interface means all of the blame is on your shoulders if you fail to entertain.
Honestly, if you want to create a good RPG that lasts more than an hour, expect to put about twenty hours into simply learning what to do and making it all fit together. Unfortunately, the actual gameplay is merely average - taking a cue from Graffiti Kingdom - so most of the enjoyment will come from the actual creation of the game. Another huge strike against the is the bland art style; it's a shame that there isn't a more robust drawing tool - it's just not as much fun going through a dreary-looking world.
Anyway, I give this game my highest recommendation if you've always wanted to make your own RPG (Scott...) and my lowest recommendation if you only like Barbie Horse Adventure games. Also, if you're planning on buying this make sure you have a USB keyboard - it would be nearly impossible without it. I should say that I am not actually done with my quest quite yet. Though I have put in about 8 hours, I still have to flesh out just about everything I've done thus far. Check back later when Nick reviews my finished RPG. Watch out Square, Queynte and Taint are coming to get you!
// posted by Tom @ 6:39 PM 
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