RPGDX > Forums > General Discussion > Indie RPG Maker Support Group Official Thread Thereof

PsySal · I wanna be a ballerina! Joined: 27 Jan 2010 Posts: 21

In this thread we encourage each other to keep on making these crazy huge games that we can't help ourselves from making. Sometimes RPGs aren't as sexy as other types of games, like cat petting simulators or metromegamanicavanias, but darn it, we love them!

We are the few, the brave, the completely impractical. We make RPGs. So everybody, keep on keeping on! =)

This thread was inspired by Craig who said on TIGS in the melolune thread that I should come here and start this, or something.

Mattias Gustavsson · Posted: Wed Oct 20, 2010 6:57 am Post subject:

Well said!

I'm currently working on a rather huge game. It is taking me a long time, because there's so much to do, and so many things for me to learn. It will be an isometric real-time strategy-RPG in a fantasy setting, with a strong influence from comics/graphical novels.

I have no idea how to pull it off...
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www.mattiasgustavsson.com - My blog
www.rivtind.com - My Fantasy world and isometric RPG engine
www.pixieuniversity.com - Software 2D Game Engine

RampantCoyote · Posted: Wed Oct 20, 2010 5:38 pm Post subject:

Heh - yeah. Definitely one of the hardest genres to develop for. RPGs tend to blend about three to five different systems that would all make decent games on their own... and they have to all somehow work together nicely with interactions that make then the sum of their parts. Why do we do it?

I can at least say that my first full-fledged, major, stupidly-big RPG is now finally in alpha, so I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
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Tales of the Rampant Coyote - Old-School Game Developer talks Indie Games, RPGs, and the Games Biz

Amirai · Lowly Slime Joined: 20 Oct 2010 Posts: 2

I've been a lurker here for a while. I thought about responding to the support group post on TIGsource, but thought I shouldn't derail the thread. This gives me as good an excuse as any to register here! Because MAN do I need a support group. T_T

When I started this game, it was supposed to be quick and simple a 'warm up' rpg entirely for fun to learn the ropes before making anything major. Little did I realize making even a 'simple' rpg is a huge task... I read somewhere that programming an rpg was easy - it was the content that was hard. Now I disagree - they're BOTH hard!

It's been almost two years, and it's mostly done now, but is currently very difficult to work with because I had no idea what I was doing when I started and even was learning how to code while making it, which as you might expect lead to some (oh, lets be honest, lots) of major design mistakes, leaving the code a bear to work with. I had no clue this would be so hard.

So, uh... hi! :)

Mattias Gustavsson · Posted: Wed Oct 20, 2010 6:47 pm Post subject:

RampantCoyote · Posted: Wed Oct 20, 2010 7:28 pm Post subject:

PsySal · I wanna be a ballerina! Joined: 27 Jan 2010 Posts: 21

@RampantCoyote sounds like my projects... =) I am also pretty close to being done (I even submitted to this year's IGF) and originally thought it would be a real quick and dirty project, that ballooned into something really huge (but it's cool)

Anyhow, welcome everybody!

RampantCoyote · Posted: Thu Oct 21, 2010 4:23 pm Post subject:

(In best AA meeting voice): Hi PsySal!
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Tales of the Rampant Coyote - Old-School Game Developer talks Indie Games, RPGs, and the Games Biz

Malignus · Scholar Joined: 12 May 2009 Posts: 198

Hi. My name's Craig, and I've committed to making an impractically large, open world, nonlinear, dialog tree-filled tactical RPG.

*sigh*

RampantCoyote · Posted: Fri Oct 22, 2010 3:06 am Post subject:

Okay, fellow addicts... in the name of mutual encouragement and support... who here is on twitter?

I'm RampantCoyote (surprise) -

http://twitter.com/#!/RampantCoyote

(You'll need to copy the whole link, 'cuz the BB software doesn't like the #!, I guess....)

I'm also on Facebook, but I'm really not active over there.
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Tales of the Rampant Coyote - Old-School Game Developer talks Indie Games, RPGs, and the Games Biz

Malignus · Scholar Joined: 12 May 2009 Posts: 198

I am--I use Twitter to keep a running log of the things I'm working on in the game for curious fans who want up-to-the-minute news: https://twitter.com/#!/sinisterdesign

Mattias Gustavsson · Posted: Fri Oct 22, 2010 7:42 am Post subject:

I am too: http://twitter.com/Mattias_G
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www.mattiasgustavsson.com - My blog
www.rivtind.com - My Fantasy world and isometric RPG engine
www.pixieuniversity.com - Software 2D Game Engine

js71 · Wandering DJ Joined: 22 Nov 2002 Posts: 815

Oh man, this thread. RPGDX, you truly are my home. :)

I released the action-RPG "Lynn's Legacy" back in 2006 with my good friend cha0s (all programming wizardry), and yes, this is a damn unwieldy genre we all picked to fall hopelessly in love with, isn't it?

Even if that first game wasn't a "true" jRPG (being closer to the 2D Zelda formula), it was still an absurdly draining and difficult endeavor, chock full of heated arguments, stretches of lethargy, and horrible, horrible design decisions on my part (great lessons, though!).

Wouldn't trade it for anything, really, and part of the appeal of working in this genre (I theorize, anyway) is that there's so much to be learned if you're serious about it. I mean really, making a fun RPG of any sort is hard! You can lay the groundwork, but damn is there ever a lot of tweaking, balancing, and clever "systems" to design (or cop).

Not that any other genre is drastically easier in general terms or anything, but RPG development has always seemed to be a bit of an uphill battle, to me. Totally worth it for us loonies, though. :)

So yeah, hi everyone, I'm Josiah and I'm working on a mid-size story-driven jRPG that's likely still, after all this time, perpetually a little more than I can chew. (familiar, I'm sure) Loving every second despite that, though.

Should we go around the circle and share our anecdotes and hardships? ;)

~Josiah

RampantCoyote · Posted: Sun Oct 24, 2010 9:13 pm Post subject:

Not exactly a hardship, but an amusing hazard of working on a long-term project:

My big project for the day was to rewrite some experimental code that did something cool, but very badly, didn't handle save-games or re-entering an area very well, etc. Massive changes.

Then I got into the old code, and discovered I'd already dealt with these problems. What I thought was just experimental code had actually been refined and tested over a year ago, but I just hadn't used it. And then assumed that I hadn't used it because it was buggy and broken.

Good news for me, I guess. That job is now done.
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Tales of the Rampant Coyote - Old-School Game Developer talks Indie Games, RPGs, and the Games Biz

AdmiralTofu · Lowly Slime Joined: 19 Jul 2010 Posts: 2