Continue reading »]]> The next, highly anticipated Rpg Maker, Rpg Maker VX Ace, has had its release date finally announced!

Rpg Maker VX Ace will be released on:

March 15^th, 2012

At the cost of $90 USD.

There is some additional exciting news. Enterbrain has announced that preorders will be made available on March 1^st. Preordering will provide two benefits. One: you will receive a discount to the cost, hopefully bringing it down to a more reasonable $60 USD. And two: bonus content will be given to those who preorder. The bonus content has not been announced yet, but we can assume it is additional resources.

Go check out www.rpgmakerweb.com to preorder (on March 1st or later) to purchase Rpg Maker VX Ace directly from Enterbrain!

Continue reading »]]> Considering making your own game engine but want to save some time? One thing you want to make sure you do is not to waste time programming or creating something that is already out there that you could use instead. This is known as “don’t reinvent the wheel”. Working on my own game engine for the RpgLegend project, I am tempted to program everything myself. But this is not the way to go. What you want to do is try to reuse existing code and features already created and out there.

When you have decided to program your own game engine you may approach the task with the mindset that you have to design and program every aspect of the project. While you could certainly do this, you would really be wasting a huge amount of time. Let’s face it, being indie game developers we are doing this without a huge budget, without a lot of programmers, and probably without a lot of time. Every shortcut you can find helps make your project even more of a reality to getting complete.

Find it

To start using existing code, you will need to start learning what’s out there. This is probably the most challenging part. How do you know what is out there? Searching the internet sometimes gets you what you want, but sometimes little nuggets of perfection are hidden deep in the depths of the interwebs. To this end, I hope to share with you all the nuggets that I have found over the course of my journey making my own game engine. I will create future blog posts sharing these discoveries with you so do check back! But for now let’s keep discussing this concept of “not reinventing the wheel”.

Examine it

Once you do find a nugget that could potentially save you time, you need to examine it to see if it will work with your project. The obvious is to make sure it is the correct programming language or format. Sometimes if the find is so useful you may want to consider changing your project to work with it. For example, there is a Tile Map Editor known as Tiled that is rich with features that allow you to quickly map your own 2D tile maps similar to that of RPG Maker’s map editor. This program uses its own format to save the map data to text files. I found the program so useful and time saving that I decided to reprogram my game engine to support the map data format of Tiled. These kinds of decisions you will have to make when you are deciding to use existing code or programs.

You may be thinking, if I make it myself from the ground up, at least I will know how to edit it and fully be aware of every aspect of my code. This may be true. But you really have to look at all the factors (mentioned below). A feature could start off being simple and that is probably fine for you to make yourself. But once it starts getting complex, you may have an upper hand using existing code. You could save lots of time by reviewing how someone else does it, than trying to figure out how to do it yourself. And if they do it in a professionally, complete fashion (and they allow you to use theirs) why not use theirs.

When making the decision you will want to look at a few factors.

Time

For example: How much time would it have taken you to program your own Map Editor– maybe a week, but it wouldn’t have all the great features included in Tiled. On the other hand, how much time would it take to update your game engine to use the new map format– maybe a few days. Hopefully you don’t have any maps made yet for your engine, so you don’t have to redo all of those in the new format. Not only do you get Tiled as it is, but as Tiled is updated with new features you will have access to them with little work on your part.

Features

You want to make sure that the code or program you are considering using has all the features you need to fit your project. It will most likely be difficult to edit other people’s work to add features that you need that it currently doesn’t have. It is totally possible to do this, but there are a couple of problems. For one, if the program is updated, your changes won’t be included in the new version, and you may be tempted to not update. And two, there could be difficulties figuring out how to edit their code without only breaking it, but also keeping it running smoothly.

Other considerations

The best code or programs to use in your engine are those that are open source, or allow you to freely view and edit the source code. This allows you, if you are bold enough, to get your hands wet and edit the code to fit your own project better. Without being able to view and edit the source code you most likely won’t be able to integrate it into your project. Sometimes you don’t need to integrate into your project; it can be a standalone feature that works with your project as its own entity. But most of the time this won’t cut it.

Finding a program or code base that is actively being developed is also a plus. As mentioned above, you will get new features added to your system with little work on your part. But you will also have to take time to update your code base with the new version of the program. In addition to new features being developed, bug fixes and security holes may also be addressed by the original creators.

In the end, only you can decide if using existing programs or code is best for your project. But most of the time, you should not reinvent something that is already out there. Save yourself time, and don’t reinvent the wheel.

Continue reading »]]>

Rumor has been going around lately of the latest RPG Maker being released by Enterbrain. This latest Maker is titled “RPG Maker VX Ace”. Like the previous RPG Maker 2003 was a huge feature upgrade over the previous RPG Maker 2000, but still was the same basic maker, RPG Maker VX Ace adds a lot of great new features to the previous RPG Maker VX.

Some of the great new additions to Ace include:

• 64 bit operating system support – this will allow RmVX Ace to run with better performance on native 64 bit operating systems
• RGSS3 – an updated version of the Ruby Game Scripting System, allowing for even more custom systems to be scripted for your games
• Support for multiple tile sets – finally returning to a staple in previous RPG Makers, now RPG Maker VX will allow you to have more than 9 tile sets per game!
• Battle formulas can now be easily modified in the database – now you will be able to customize how attacks, skills, and spells will perform in battle by modify the formula easily without editing code
• Included Character generators – allowing you to quickly and easily custom your characters walk and face graphics and recolor each part within the maker
• Party size increased past 5 but only up to 4 party members will be seen walking on the map and may enter battle
• Custom battle backdrops with two customizable layers – allowing you to create unique battle backdrops for any situation by changing both the sky and ground portions

There are many more great features that will be covering once Ace is released. But so far the announced features make RPG Maker VX Ace finally a maker worth upgrading from RPG Maker XP.

It appears that you will not be able to convert your previously made games from other Makers into Ace. It appears a fan made conversion tool is being made that will allow you to do a basic conversion, but it will not allow scripts to be transferred. More details here: http://www.rpgmakervxace.net/index.php?/topic/562-vx-to-vxace-project-converter/

The current release date for the English copy of RPG Maker VX Ace seems to be slated for some time in February 2012. We will keep you updated when it does become available. In the mean time you can get the Trial version and use a fan made English patch to check it out now!

RPG Maker VX Ace Trial Version:

Trial Version in Japanese:
http://www.vector.co.jp/soft/dl/winnt/game/se494067.html (Click the big Green button that says “Download now”)

Fan made English patch:
http://rpgmakervxace.com/downloads/viewcategory/3-translation-patches

 RPG Maker VX Ace official website:

And check out the official Japanese RPG Maker VX Ace website here!
http://tkool.jp/products/rpgvxace/index.html

Translated with Google:
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Ftkool.jp%2Fproducts%2Frpgvxace%2Findex.html

Continue reading »]]> Game Title: Legend of the Seven Crystals, Swords mens Destiny
Platform: RPG Maker 2003
Genre: RPG
Creator: Khallid

[The game in the following review can be downloaded here http://gmaker.org/games/view.asp?id=151.]

Swords mens Destiny is the first of a current three part game series named ‘Legend of the Seven Crystals’. The second and third games look professional and something I can’t wait to play after this review. The first game however is definitely not… To end on a high note I’ll begin with all the negatives of this game, starting with the grammar. As a series each game seems to suffer from this and I cannot think of why, I’ve heard the excuse that English is only their second language, but surely if they aim to release professional games then asking someone fluent in English to go over their dialogue and scripts is the obvious thing to do? The grammar really does become a big thorn in this games side as it takes away from moments that were supposed to be dramatic or tragic by forcing the player to put together the poorly worded and badly spelt script. While it rarely makes playing the game unbearable it does make it difficult to connect to characters, which is a big part of what makes RPGs as a genre successful.

The other big part of a game of course is the plot, how it unfolds and how it wraps up the player in the game and makes the player want to seek out more about it. Unfortunately, while this games story has potential, it seems to have been very poorly and hastily put together as if the player made up the plot as they made the game. An example of the poor story telling is when the player goes to investigate a tower that has mysteriously filled with ghosts. At the top of the tower you meet a demon who claims to be a part of the demon pirates and after a quick battle he vanishes. What purpose did he have in the tower? Was it him that made the ghosts appear? If so, then why would he do this? None of these questions are answered. There are many random events such as these throughout the game that really make you feel like you are being strung along rather than uncovering the mysteries of the game. The enemies of the game are also very difficult to understand and I’ve come to the conclusion the demon king must have brain washed them all, although this is never confirmed. I think this because almost every main villain I beat had a sudden change of heart and started egging the heroes on. Once again, no explanations were given for this change of character. The game in itself, is remarkably easy allowing you to progress to the end without very little trouble. But that is when it gets ridiculous as you’ve previously been given no need to power level or really try but then all of a sudden the difficulty spikes significantly at the final boss that is able to get up to four moves in to your single characters one.

Now for the main thing that really annoyed me about this game, the dungeons. The dungeons in the game are not only really long, which in itself I have no problem with, but were extremely dull, very repetitive, increasingly linear and lacked any puzzles or any areas where you had to use your head. Basically the dungeons were so dull and so long I found myself almost praying that the next teleport event would take me to a cut scene.

I think I’ve bashed the game enough now so I’ll move onto the features of the game I actually liked. First off the choice of music was very good, I don’t just mean he found good music and used it, but he used it at the right moments and scenes. I think his placement of music did enhance otherwise terrible scenes that suffered from the vices I mentioned above. The battle system, while 90% default, did also make the game bearable for me as I’ve always found the side view battle system to be very suitable and enjoyable for a game type based on story telling. Not only that but the playable characters had crystal forms that were activated during boss battles that increased the characters strength significantly. While I thought this was a pretty slammin’ feature and my favourite element of the game, it definitely made this one of the easiest games I’ve ever played, upto the final boss of course. You go into the forms automatically when you have less than 20% health and when you do the boss stands no chance. So while they were cool at first it became annoying how the game didn’t seem to want to challenge you. Graphics wise the game was appealing, not using the default makers RTP the game was full of custom resources and edits of the original rtp which helped to make the game that bit more bearable.

To conclude, while the negatives do heavily outweigh the positives the game did have a charm that made me want to carry on and reach its climax despite them. Here are my ratings for this game, broken down into four in accordance with the gMaker.org review system.

Graphics: The graphics weren’t bad and were appealing to me as they were not the games default RTP. I give the graphics a 7.

Plot: The plot had potential however most events seemed forced and the flow of the story wasn’t that good to me. The plot also suffered for bad grammar and some parts of the game seemed very random and unexplained. I will give the plot a 3.

Sound: The games music was very good and used well for the right maps and moments in the game. So I’ll give sound an 8.

Gameplay: I enjoy the default battle system for RPG Maker 2003 and the little additions made the battles that bit more fun. I’ll give the gameplay a 7.

Continue reading »]]> Our parent community, gMaker.org, now allows you to share your games with the world with its brand new Game Projects section!   The new Game Projects section is feature-packed and uses easy-to-use control panels to allow you to be in full control.

Present your games in a professional, online profile, allowing players to easily find and play your games.  You write its description, you provide the captions to your screen shots, you delete the comments you don’t like, you pick which categories your game falls under, you add your own tags- you are in the complete control!

Features include:

• Screen Shot gallery (with support for Youtube videos)
• News Blog
• Comments
• Download manager
• Game Reviews and Ratings (abuse free)

All of this is provided free. Best of all, games added to the gMaker.org catalog can be featured here on RpgMaker.org.  If we find your game to be exceptional we will review it and tell everyone about it!

Share your games on gMaker.org today!

Check out the following RPG Maker XP games that are under development but use the Game Projects section as intended!

Your game could go here!  Add your game to gMaker.org!