Yes. I love RPG Maker titles and I play them all the time, I've loved them since the early 2000s and I *have* bought quite a few, yes, though I'm a cheapass pirate that is almost constantly broke so... um.. I acquire more than I purchase Look at sites like Amaranth, they make their *living* off RM titles. There's definitely a very dedicated fanbase but also a very vocal and nasty opposition, so I'd develop a thick skin or mindblowing RGSS scripting and sprite-creation ability if you want to weather that storm.
Played a lot of early RPG maker games when I found out about them on HOTU (Home of the Underdogs) back when I toyed around with "abandonware" titles.
Stuff like Laxius Force and other "Aldorea" games which while pretty big (Up to a hundred hours or more.) often also relies on the same basic mechanics and heavy grinding.
Plot was said to be pretty good but if you look at those games now it's pretty crap although remakes exist which fixes some of that.
I believe Spiderweb or what their name was also made several hits but that might not be RPG Maker but some custom engine.
EDIT: A lot of them also had a lot of "sex" scenes and other semi adult material (Poorly drawn CG sprites and all that.) but I think that got altered in the re-released editions too.
Oh you can always buy sprite packs, use the RTP (runtime package, basically the "shipped with" data) or hire other artists, many do that. Just know that RTP use is often frowned upon if you decide to go commercial with your products. Sites like RPGMaker.net have thousands of free games and the quality of some of them rival the classic 16bit RPGs of old, so there's a lot of people that understand commercial has to offer something truly unique or truly impressive.
... or basically just another Amaranth love story There's some true drivel on Amaranth yet they sell like hot cakes, haha. Same with Aldorlea, as JB rightly said.
Also come to think of it now with Steam greenlight many of those games have been released on Steam although some of the Winterwolf games were slightly censored due to their somewhat how do you spell it, "risque" looking graphics.
EDIT: While babbling about that some games with other "mature" content have gotten through Steam without having to alter their content in any major way although others do get a few cuts.
Or Sunrider
http://store.steampowered.com/app/313730/
(Valve were apparently OK with the shower scene - which should exist in a few versions in the screenshot gallery. - though the other scene you have to download off the forums to restore that segment in the game.)
While selling the AO version via other means.
(In this case via the English DLSite section, JAST and MangaGamer also have a few games up and SekaiProject I think has done a couple of successful kickstarter projects to localize some games.)
EDIT: Also it seems some of the early NES and SNES role-playing games were slightly altered in the US and EU territories, both for western games (Bards Tale, changing beer and a few other things to child friendly things.) and Japanese games.
Been watching a Tales of Phantasia playthrough and the dialogue sounds a bit different from what I remember from a SNES game although it is fan translated so it could be a bit enhanced.
Spoiler:
(7.27 and onwards, person doing this is making use of a computer generated voice though so it sounds a bit strange.)
(The game in general has a pretty dark theme for something released on the SNES.)
... and then you've got the commercial trash like; Eternal Twilight and many others on Amaranth/Aldorlea that I won't bring myself to post. So yeah, do some research, look at what the community like and what looks terrible.
It's worth looking into, a lot of people make quite a living off it, but yeah.. you need practice, you need skill and you need something to stand out from the free crowd.
This was written by the dev of three of the most popular RM titles (two were free; Master of the Wind and X-Noir, with Labyrinthine Dreams on Steam) The community can be a toxic shitpile
Haha, yeah. At least you're get recognition and help on RMN.net, but if you take your RM title to places like Steam/Greenlight then oh shit.. the trolls
No need for drawing abilities, nowadays there are 3D programs (that you can use for 2D screenshots), some are even dedicated to character creation, like Poser. That will be hundreds of times faster than drawing characters in 2D from a trillion angles.
That's how its usually done. Look at the classics such as Baldur's Gate etc, it's all 3D renders.. can't remember if the characters were done in 3D but probably, it saves the artists a lot of time.
but these are more modern crpg sprites, not classic 8-bit and 16-bit era drawn j-rpg ones.
i can only imagine the infinite butthurt upon trying to introduce such crpg sprites into the rpgmaker community, have fun
but these are more modern crpg sprites, not classic 8-bit and 16-bit era drawn j-rpg ones.
i can only imagine the infinite butthurt upon trying to introduce such crpg sprites into the rpgmaker community, have fun
If it's not somehow limited to 8/16-bit graphics there should be no problems. I haven't tried RPG maker but i have tried other game creating apps such as AVG.. while most people still seem to make hand drawn sprites for it, it's absolutely possible to add 3D rendered backgrounds and sprites.
Edit: ok if it's limited like above then i can see complications Though those apps usually include both a drawing inside the app feature and importing your own images that you have created in your prefered program.
Last edited by vurt on Fri, 26th Dec 2014 20:16; edited 1 time in total
Oh it's not really all that limited, you can use pretty much whatever sprites you want.. but then you'd need tiles and tilesets that match or else everything will look really out of place, and it's pretty much only 2 dimensions so 4 directions per sprite. It's just not the right engine for 3D rendered anything really
Last edited by sabin1981 on Fri, 26th Dec 2014 20:17; edited 1 time in total
Oh it's not limited, you can use pretty much whatever sprites you want.. but then you'd need tiles and tilesets that match or else everything will look really out of place. It's just not the right engine for 3D rendered anything really
Haha ok. I guess the tilesets could be done in 3D too though. But i'm not gonna argue since i havent tried it myself.
Sorry, I added an example above Those are the standard style sprites you'll see in 99% of RM titles - whether RTP (made by Enterbrain, the RPGMaker creator) or hand drawn by pixel artists. Varying levels of design and detail, sure, but always the same sort of template. You rarely even see off-angle sprites, like in later FF titles, they tend to be "direct" like in the recent remakes of FFV and FFVI.
Monster sprites are the hugely detailed ones though, since they're often not animated other than manipulation or hue changing.
~edit~
This is what happens when people use sprites with more than 4 directions;
Yup, it was As was LISA. A lot of people hear "RPG Maker" and immediately dismiss, which is a shame as there are some pretty fucking awesome games out using that engine. It just needs a lot of love and some impressive scripting skills, though most people just buy/license scripts from some of the talented and well known scripters like Yanfly, Soulpour, Folmar, Victor Sant and Galv.
So if you DON'T have scripting knowledge and aren't able/willing to lean, there is almost always something out there that can do what you want, and if not you can commission from one of the script writers.
Scripting probably isn't a problem for me... I just can't draw, and I don't think I like the idea of using other people's work as there won't be anything I specifically want...
I DO have a very very good idea for a hacking MMO, but that requires time and effort... and someone with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome finds time and effort quite difficult to come up with
Oh well, I'm just a money grabbing bastard I suppose, I'll just have to shield the world from my imagination....
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I fucking hate how every RPG maker does a bottom to top battle view every goddamn time.. Such a shitty view. The only games to ever pull it off correctly were Lufia (to some degree) and Phantasy Star.
Horizontal battle view is ALWAYS the way to go, and stupid RPG maker never develops this...
Other than that, I love RPG maker, I've always made small, fun games as inside jokes for my friends.
I fucking hate how every RPG maker does a bottom to top battle view every goddamn time.. Such a shitty view. The only games to ever pull it off correctly were Lufia (to some degree) and Phantasy Star.
Horizontal battle view is ALWAYS the way to go, and stupid RPG maker never develops this...
Other than that, I love RPG maker, I've always made small, fun games as inside jokes for my friends.
It's not the fault of RM, it's the lack of skill of the creator, I'm afraid. RMs default battle system is Dragon Quest-esque "Player Portrait Bottom vs Enemy Battler Image Top".. and yes, I agree, it fucking SUCKS. I hate it. Cannot stand the default stuff. Thankfully most of the *truly* talented RM developers use the standard FF battle system rather than Dragon Quest. Some even use the diagonal Grandia style but that's pretty rare.
Once again, Yanfly to the rescue. He has single-handedly created most of the very best, most advanced, most useful scripts for RM and his side-battle script is great too.
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Look at sites like Amaranth, they make their *living* off RM titles. There's definitely a very dedicated fanbase but also a very vocal and nasty opposition, so I'd develop a thick skin or mindblowing RGSS scripting and sprite-creation ability if you want to weather that storm.
There's some true drivel on Amaranth yet they sell like hot cakes, haha. Same with Aldorlea, as JB rightly said.
Those are the standard style sprites you'll see in 99% of RM titles - whether RTP (made by Enterbrain, the RPGMaker creator) or hand drawn by pixel artists. Varying levels of design and detail, sure, but always the same sort of template. You rarely even see off-angle sprites, like in later FF titles, they tend to be "direct" like in the recent remakes of FFV and FFVI.
