RPGM Newbie RPGMaker Dev - Questions and Advice?

[MultiMythos]

Hi all, so in respect to my old projects falling out because of the people involved live's just getting incredibly busy, I decided to just, try my own hand at making own games. For context, I know nothing of code nor art. I've had RPG Maker MV and MZ for a while due to a sale, along with Koikatsu Sunshines better repack, but never really tried anything with them because almost all the RPG Maker games I had tried just, were basically glorified galleries.

That is, till I tried SAO Invisible Trap by Fujino (yes I'm making NTR games, it's my favorite to do and I want to make more of them) and that showed me just how good they could be. So I've been learning a bit about RPG Maker MV and adjusting things in Koikatsu Sunshine.

So I was wondering what kind of assets and plugins would be recommended by you all for RPG Maker MV? Where would I be able to get them? I'm wanting to make both modern and fantasy ones based on a variety of settings I enjoy (RWBY, Nisekoi, Highschool DXD, etc) and am gonna start out with just small, short ones as I build up my knowledge of both RPG Maker and Koikatsu Sunshine.

Alongside that, are there any recommended tutorials for learning RPG Maker MV? I looked it up and there's just a ton of 'em!

Finally just, any advice in general would be nice! I have so many things I want to make but I'm trying to take it one step at a time, so any advice would be appreciated!

 

[SPkiller31]

From the sound of it, you will be dealing with school/modern times setting which fortunetaly means you should be able to find a decent amount of cheap/free tileset/tilemaps for that on Itch/RPG Maker forum.

I don't know a lot about RPG Maker and tutorial but I believe it's always a good practice to try doing something on your own and then searching for a specific thing like: "I can't make flags/switches that change the game world after a certain event" Then you search that specific phrase.

RPG Maker was always a great engine but it focuses on doing one thing, the best. Unlike engines like Unity/Godot that are made for basically any genre.

 

[MultiMythos]

From the sound of it, you will be dealing with school/modern times setting which fortunetaly means you should be able to find a decent amount of cheap/free tileset/tilemaps for that on Itch/RPG Maker forum.

I don't know a lot about RPG Maker and tutorial but I believe it's always a good practice to try doing something on your own and then searching for a specific thing like: "I can't make flags/switches that change the game world after a certain event" Then you search that specific phrase.

RPG Maker was always a great engine but it focuses on doing one thing, the best. Unlike engines like Unity/Godot that are made for basically any genre.

Okay gotcha, yea I was just thinking about going to search for modern tilesets and the like. I've been doing a bit of testing to get familiar with the program itself but I was just going to work on a game and then just like up guides and tutorials for what I want to do rather then fully follow a tutorial of one-to-one. Feel like I'd make a bit more progress there (though I'm expecting these first games to be not great lmao).

 

[SPkiller31]

Okay gotcha, yea I was just thinking about going to search for modern tilesets and the like. I've been doing a bit of testing to get familiar with the program itself but I was just going to work on a game and then just like up guides and tutorials for what I want to do rather then fully follow a tutorial of one-to-one. Feel like I'd make a bit more progress there (though I'm expecting these first games to be not great lmao).

If you are making a game that will be atleast partially made out of pixels (like most RPG maker games) I can recommend Aseprite program. It's probably one of most popular pixel artstyle-oriented apps out there. Make your own tilemaps/assets or edit existing ones.

Regarding Koikatsu, it's always worth a try downloading best looking scene, load it and then see how it was done, lightning, shadows etc. There's a ton of that on Pixiv.

And yeah, no matter what, you will always think that the game could be done better, that thing haunts probably almost all devs.

 

[MultiMythos]

If you are making a game that will be atleast partially made out of pixels (like most RPG maker games) I can recommend Aseprite program. It's probably one of most popular pixel artstyle-oriented apps out there. Make your own tilemaps/assets or edit existing ones.

Regarding Koikatsu, it's always worth a try downloading best looking scene, load it and then see how it was done, lightning, shadows etc. There's a ton of that on Pixiv.

And yeah, no matter what, you will always think that the game could be done better, that thing haunts probably almost all devs.

Oh that's good to know about Asesprite I'll have to look that up.

Yea from what I can see, the RPG Maker games I've played normally find scenes that have animations that they like (seems quite a few use Hongcha's scenes), get rid of the surrounding room they're in, save the animation itself, import it to the room and scene they want the animation to be in, and then change the characters in the animation. So I think I'll be doing that as well.

Also yea it's quite interesting that, as I look at the older games from some of the devs that have really good/popular ones today, like Fujino's (maker of the SAO NTR game), they're pretty, not great lol, but they learned as they went and continued making more games and boom, now they've made really good ones, so I'm looking forward to getting better as time goes on lol

 

[osanaiko]

It's interesting to hear about your ambition, but I'm afraid that you are not fully up to date with the changes to the law. It is now illegal to make any Netorare content game unless you use a poorly coded cell phone user interface and AI generated artwork. yes this is a joke

 

[Insomnimaniac Games]

Behold!

You must be registered to see the links

!

but they learned as they went and continued making more games and boom, now they've made really good ones, so I'm looking forward to getting better as time goes on lol

It is its own reward. Just downloading scenes and using the animations from those is poopoo. Going from premade KK anims to making your own is top tier.

 

[SPkiller31]

Just downloading scenes and using the animations from those is poopoo.

True that, but it's a decent way of learning about basics like naming of things: shadows, colliders and whatnot or setting up post processing. (Unless he finds the ones that have light-bulb characters)

Also: Making custom animations in Koikatsu is slowly chipping away my sanity (But it's worth it hopefully)

 

[Insomnimaniac Games]

True that, but it's a decent way of learning about basics like naming of things: shadows, colliders and whatnot or setting up post processing. (Unless he finds the ones that have light-bulb characters)

I am slowly chipping away at a KK guide... very slowly. Hard to find the time.

Also: Making custom animations in Koikatsu is slowly chipping away my sanity (But it's worth it hopefully)

I am nearing my fourth update (monthly updates), and have over 60 completely custom animations... send help.

 

[SPkiller31]

I am nearing my fourth update (monthly updates), and have over 60 completely custom animations... send help.

Damn, respect. While doing rework of ugly as fuck oldest events, I started remaking animation cause stock ones... look like you're having a stroke And just learned how difficult it is to make it look realistic and simply nice. If there's no gorrilion dots on timeline, you're not animating.

 

[MultiMythos]

It's interesting to hear about your ambition, but I'm afraid that you are not fully up to date with the changes to the law. It is now illegal to make any Netorare content game unless you use a poorly coded cell phone user interface and AI generated artwork. yes this is a joke

NOOOO!! So that's why there's always cell phone and AI generated crap everywhere!!! I'm gonna repeal this law!!

Behold!

You must be registered to see the links

!

It is its own reward. Just downloading scenes and using the animations from those is poopoo. Going from premade KK anims to making your own is top tier.

This is awesome, thank you! And yea for now I'm just getting scenes made by others and adjusting them for what I'm doing, I'm wanting to make small things with KK and RPG Maker MZ and as I go on trying new things for each game, at some point that being making custom animations in KK is also a goal.

 

[namename555]

The approach that works for me is:

1. I want this functionality
2. Can I create this functionality with events only?
3. if no, look for a plugin that creates that functionality
4. if a plugin doesn't exist, try to make a custom one or edit an existing one.


if you have any specific questions, feel free to DM me!

 

[MultiMythos]

The approach that works for me is:

1. I want this functionality
2. Can I create this functionality with events only?
3. if no, look for a plugin that creates that functionality
4. if a plugin doesn't exist, try to make a custom one or edit an existing one.


if you have any specific questions, feel free to DM me!

Will absolutely keep that in mind! I'm trying to do it in a way where I basically just learn as I go and with each game try to do a new thing. So this first one is basically just gonna be pretty short, honestly like a short point and click adventure, so that I can get used to and learn stuff like how to make events, transition maps, etc. Just to get some of the basics down, and then whatever I make next I try to do something new, maybe combat, maybe a time system, maybe a sub-menu, etc.

I like having animated menus for both main menu and the menu when you play, I enjoy them and they just have a variety of aspects I like (for example Fujino's style of doing them, or Scars of Summer's setup), so I've also figured out how to have an animated, albeit simple Main Menu (I've honestly been working on the main menu itself longer then I probably should but I just kept running into problems lmao).

But yea, I will absolutely DM you when I have questions, thanks!

 

[namename555]

Will absolutely keep that in mind! I'm trying to do it in a way where I basically just learn as I go and with each game try to do a new thing. So this first one is basically just gonna be pretty short, honestly like a short point and click adventure, so that I can get used to and learn stuff like how to make events, transition maps, etc. Just to get some of the basics down, and then whatever I make next I try to do something new, maybe combat, maybe a time system, maybe a sub-menu, etc.

I like having animated menus for both main menu and the menu when you play, I enjoy them and they just have a variety of aspects I like (for example Fujino's style of doing them, or Scars of Summer's setup), so I've also figured out how to have an animated, albeit simple Main Menu (I've honestly been working on the main menu itself longer then I probably should but I just kept running into problems lmao).

But yea, I will absolutely DM you when I have questions, thanks!

For animated menus I highly recommend PKD_vplayer or Picture UI Creator by Sand Hendrix.

Everything else you mentioned can be done with Event: ShowPicture and free plugin that's bundled with RPG maker MZ ButtonPicture

 

[MultiMythos]

For animated menus I highly recommend PKD_vplayer or Picture UI Creator by Sand Hendrix.

Everything else you mentioned can be done with Event: ShowPicture and free plugin that's bundled with RPG maker MZ ButtonPicture

Ooh, will definitely check those out! I used Mogs for the main menu and it's worked out well so far, I think the only wonky thing I want to try to do for this is that instead of showing the normal sprite picture, it shows a Visual Novel style still of a character I made. But I found a plugin called Visual Novel Picture Busts by VisuStella that might be doing exactly what I'd like to do.