RPG Maker Game Development Thread

[Mack''U]

Heya everyone! Mack’’U here, I hope y’all are doing ok!
(It ended up being quite the long post so I’ve put a TLDR at the end in case you’d want to know what it’s about before starting to read.)

For those of you who don’t know me (probably a lot of you.) I’m the dev of a battle fuck RPG called “Pathetic Demon”.
If I’m making this thread today it’s because of RPG maker’s game and their reputation, I want to see if we can do something to improve it, or at least try to.

When I first came to this website I have to admit that I was surprised to see how little liked RPG maker was since, to me, it felt like a great engine that gives a ton of possibilities to developers.
But after spending some time here I started to understand that it’s because most of us (RPG maker devs) are far from using the engine in the best possible way. (myself included, but hey, that's the point of this thread.)

And that’s why I think that making a thread where we could share our experience and knowledge to progress as a whole and inspire each other to try new things could be a nice thing.
I will use this thread to share the development of my game and share what I learn but I also invite other RPG maker developers to come here and share things they learned or the uncommon mechanics they put in their game (or even the unique way the whole game was built.) and give a little presentation about them (Why did they implant it in their game, how it can be used to appeal to the player, or make for a better gameplay, that kind of things.)
Of course, players are also welcome to show and talk about mechanics they liked in any RPG maker games.
That way, in the future, developers who are interested in making an adult RPG maker game can come here and get a rough idea about things they could do and maybe get new ideas out of that.

Anyway, I’ve been blabbing quite a lot now so I guess I should start by showing some of the mechanics from my game! (I’ll put it under spoiler since it contains some NSFW display.)

Spoiler: Warning: NSFW

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Now I’m obliviously not saying that games should be made like mine (After all I’m still a noob dev.) or that it needs to have some special mechanics.
Everyone is free when building their games but I thought it would be nice to have a place where we can regroup feedbacks and things that were done in RPGM’s adult games.

I still don’t know if I’ll do tutorials (or if people even want some.) since there already are a lot on the internet (although no that many when it comes to making adult games.) but I guess I’ll see based on how this thread goes.

Thank you for taking the time to read! I hope we can turn this thread into something that will be helpful for everyone!
Feel free to ask me questions if you have any, I’ll do my best to answer them.

TLDR; I’m going to use this thread to share what I learn about making an RPG maker game and invite other devs to share the uncommon features in their game here to show things that can be done in RPGM and inspire each other to try new things and try to lower the bad reputation of RPGM games. Players are also more than welcome to show and talk about mechanics they liked in RPG maker games.

 

[SpikeGames]

Hi there!
I think people hate RPGM games cause 90% walking/grinding and 10% events.
... I miss those days when there were games like Ariadne (I think this game has perfect balance of grind / history / freeroam)

 

[Mack''U]

Hi there!
I think people hate RPGM games cause 90% walking/grinding and 10% events.
... I miss those days when there were games like Ariadne (I think this game has perfect balance of grind / history / freeroam)

Yeah, you are right, most of the critiques I’ve seen recently on RPG maker’s topics recently talk about this issue. If I want to start making things for this topic maybe I should start by making a guide with little game design ideas that can prevent the game from feeling like this.

Edit: I'll probably try to do that tomorrow since I'll need to go sleep soon, European time over here.

 

[redknight00]

Looks like an interesting thread, I'm but a humble modder so I don't have many tricks up my sleeve, but I'll still see if I can cook up something to share.

 

[Mack''U]

[Small Game Design ideas] Making the grinding feel less boring. ​

Heya everyone!

I (and probably many other people.) have noticed that recently the biggest complain about RPGM games are about the boring feeling you get from walking around to grind and have to repeat the same action.

So today I’ll share some little ideas that can either prevent grinding from feeling boring.

This guide will be very basic since it’s the first one, I wouldn’t call it the ultimate solution but those are some ideas to give you pointers, anyone is free to add their own ideas in there!


1. Use side content to let the player decide and use sexual goals to your advantage.

This one is for those who want to keep the grinding but don’t want to force it into those who don’t like it. After all, it’s better if grinding feels like an activity more than a forced chore.

The idea is simple; we use the money instead of the XP for the grinding. Now, as you can guess its bit more subtle than just that or else it wouldn’t really solve anything but don’t worry you’ll get it as I explain things.

Nowadays, in most grindy games, the core mechanic is to make the player gain experience to allow progression in the game and money is used to buy potions and equipment. And while it can make sense in a common RPG, adult RPGs have another strong point that can be used and it’s… the adult content! (Yeah, obvious, I know.)

In order to illustrate this Guide, we’ll use this small camp\village and make it grow as the guide progress.



(I’ll keep most of the images small to avoid taking too much space so you’ll have to click on them.)

Let’s say that this is a little camp that you can find between two important cities of the story, so this camp is technically not very important and could be ignored.

Now, to start off, let’s do something adult games can do for this camp… let’s add a sexual goal!



To make it simple for this guide, let’s say that there is a prostitute in this camp and that you need 1400 gold to unlock her scene.

The thing is that at this point in the story you only have 510gold and the new monsters of the area only give you around 70gold.

You know that if you keep going further monsters will give you more money since the previous one gave you around 45golds. If you continue now fights will be a bit harder and slightly longer but nothing that you cannot do.

And so, in this situation, the player is facing a choice. He either grind and gets the scene or continue and come back once the price feels like something affordable based on your earnings. Grinding exist in the game but become a choice.

Now before we go to part 2, I just want to say that you need to avoid putting this kind of element alone in a zone of your game as it would make it feel bland (I mean just reading about it probably felt bland to you since all we did was giving a sexual goal). It's something that is made to exist in a place where there already are a lot of things to do and if instead of taking a quest the player wants to go killing some monster for a little bit he can do it since this element set a goal for that purpose. So, now let’s see how to make an area more appealing to grinding.



2. Using side rewards.

Ok, so now that we have our sexual goal, what we need is a nice zone to grind if we want to do so, for that I’m going to use this Forest.


(Added a zoomed version to show that the events are the monsters)

Ok good, but even if have our zone with monsters here… it kind of feel meaningless doesn’t it? We do have a goal but still, it doesn’t really make the process of grinding much better.

Now the most used and known by everyone solution for this is: adding side-quest. Yeah I know, you probably don’t need a guide to tell you this so let’s see how we can give importance to the side quests and what we can do with them here.



Now let’s add two side quests, each giving 200gold and a little bit of experience,

While it’s true that every side-quest doesn’t need a hugely important reward, in our case, giving gold is good enough to be called important because we know that we can buy a sex-scene with it so it add value to the gold but there are other possible nice rewards: an item that we know can unlock something nice (A sex-scene, a place, a skill…), A new costume or an accessory if you have a female protagonist, anything that feels a little bit special.

As for the quest themselves let’s put two different quests to avoid having the player fall into a repetitive loop.

Let’s make one where you need to kill some monster and one where you need to get a flower from the forest, some pretty basic quests if anything.

Now, something you can do with quests that require to get something is to put the item behind a little puzzle\a little enigma.



Here, for example, you can imagine putting a little riddle or anything that once figured out tells you that you need to follow the path with the blue flower to reach the one needed for the quest, it can be ignored and is just a small detail that can be complexified but you get the basic idea.



Also, this one is pretty personal but if you don’t have random encounters, instead of putting monster all around here too I’d rather keep it peaceful to give a breather to the player and put a little mini-boss that gives some nice exp at the end. You can also make a little place with a chest and a monster to reward the curious (Or console those who failed… or you can punish them by just putting monsters that go fast at the end of the wrong ones.)

Then once you finished the quest you can also make it so the merchant sells something made with the plant you brought to give it more meaning. It always feels better when a quest end up unlocking something that will help you (A bridge that help you shorten the distance between two places that you've already seen, a new building, ...)

Now, while it’s true that the side-quest also help make the place feel livelier… we don’t feel very involved with the camp right now do we? Let’s try to do something about it.



Ok so, instead of going to the camp, do your thing and leave as if nothing ever happens to the camp, what if we actually put some action going on in there.

For example, you arrive, you take your quest or speak to people, and then once you are about to leave… someone appears.



Once again to keep it simple for the guide we are going to say that someone from the camp lost their daughter in the woods. (But it can be anything, there can be a little conflict going on with bandits or monsters, or even something related to your main story.)

Then we can have the people of the camp regroup speak a little and then you offer your help to go and rescue the girl.
(You can even use this kind of situation to have the payable girl tease the player and rise expectation.)

That way it gives you one more goal (more golds if needed) and links you a bit more with the camp’s history while giving you a lot of possibilities to create a little story. (Deepen the relationship between the father and the daughter or allow the player to learn more about the place, or once again, something that resonate with the thematic of your story.) But yeah, once again the point is to add meaning to the player's action.

And also bonus point if you create a sex-scene when rescuing the person, it will make it feel more important.



(Well, I did say we’d go the easy route story-wise for the sake of the guide.)

Now before I conclude this I’ll put a little bonus idea that can make grinding a little more enjoyable.

3. Take advantage of collectible items. (Bonus)

This one is pretty optional and probably won’t be the most popular as it’s the kind of thing that requires quite a bit of work but you can use the drop rate to your advantage. For example when facing a soldier, a bandit or even a monster (If we assume they kill other people.) you can have a % of chance to drop an ero-picture that they had on them and have different picture being spread all around the game, that way it creates some expectation and can rise the enjoyment of the fighting process a little. It’s quite specific but I thought it was an idea worth throwing in there in case it gives you some other ideas.



And that’s about it, we have our camp, it has a little bit of grinding in the forest while having some other activities to do, a potential little story, and two scenes.
And with that, the scene paid with the money feel even more deserved, after all, you just saved a girl and helped the villagers solve their problems.

This guide was pretty basic and only used the main functions of RPG maker (MV for this one) so it probably won’t be helpful to everyone but I hope it will be for a few people! It was used in some specific settings here but if you take the core idea it can pretty much be used for anything.
I might do one that is more advanced and use other functions another time!
Have fun making games!

 

[Mack''U]

Looks like an interesting thread, I'm but a humble modder so I don't have many tricks up my sleeve, but I'll still see if I can cook up something to share.

That’s nice to hear! Honestly it doesn’t have to be anything big, the idea is simply to gather little things that can help in the development of a RPGM game so anything goes.

 

[pasunna]

the thing is rpgm game most of them is port translate from jp
and it's the trend there to use basic rpgm mechanic
people on japan admire art more than game play
they don't mind if art serve their taste
and they can read the story in a plus

but here machine translate fan translate
not just hard to read but leave some more bug from modding
event if the author(jp) had state in their game page that game still develop improve fix bug
people here never know or even never care

and while the rpgm in jp ok with grinding runing load of text
western more like your fight mechanic or choice base game play that serve the point of porn game
western don't like porn game that not a porn game jp does

and as I'm Asian
I kind of understand Jp
I don't like your porn fighting mechanic too
I feel it's too much
every where is sex scene make me boring
the story and hidden event like a sim date game that what I and Jp gamer like
game as Persona Tokimeki Harvest Moon
do not need to be well story but have some gimmick cute plot we feel excite
and that port down to jp erogame
we don't mind running around talk etc because we familiar with what jrpg is

but that not the like of western
you can see anime vs west series
there are difference of taste

the Jp rpgm game is a game they want to do and add porn in
Not like West game/rpgm game
that make the exactly porn game in the first place

but that the old game port or develop
I can see now japan dev more develop game to serve the western like
On dlsite many game that use your mechanic go out
they are look to this market too
the grinding had reduce in newer game
trend are change and that's a good thing

but in the end people in this forum who hate rpgm will still hate it
because they experience what they don't like before

I do one by myself too
but like I said I like the old school rpgm erogame trend
haha... and I can feel that if I release it here I will got many hate
but... it's so far and I don't know If I can ever release it...

 

[somebodynobody]

I haven't dabbled in RPG Maker since XP I think.

However I can point you to some of the better made RPG Maker games and the sites of the makers who sometimes do explain stuff.

First off is Oko, he is a member here but doesn't really post. He has a Retro 80s pixel art type feel/look.

You must be registered to see the links

His first game was Late Shifter, now the original Demo of this game is nothing like the Demo here. He basically fully remade it, both worth playing though. You will have to find the demo on his site to try it out.

https://f95zone.to/threads/lateshifter-v1-0-4-oko.2437/

His new game is StarKnave. Next release will probably be very different from this one, since he basically changed everything according to blog posts on his site.

https://f95zone.to/threads/star-knave-v1-0-3-public-oko.19574/


Sierra Lee - The Last Sovereign

Probably one of the longest RPGM lewd games in existence, normal rpg then slight money/city management and then some. (No lewd images).

You must be registered to see the links

https://f95zone.to/threads/the-last-sovereign-v0-44-5-sierra-lee.616/


MuseX - Farmer's Dreams, think of it as lewd stardew valley or harvest moon, has farming and stuff in it.

https://f95zone.to/threads/farmers-dreams-r13-musex.2368/


Kaliyo - Roundscape Adorevia, game is almost nothing like it used to be, but has normal RPG stuff, lots of sex, pregnancy, the image quality is variable though since it has been in development forever.

https://f95zone.to/threads/roundscape-adorevia-v4-5a-arvus-games.466/


Mirohaver - Fear & Hunger. If you like dark fantasy, horror, and rpg. Then Fear & Hunger might be a game you like. They continually update the game. So if you put it down for a few months you may come back to new characters/quests/etc. The look is kind of if you mixed dark souls with bloodborne and silent hill. Choices matter in this game, your morality may be tested, and the amount of things that can be done is huge. It is impossible to see everything in this game in a single play through.

Mechanically the game is very deep, and to a newbie, very unfair.

You must be registered to see the links

Needle.Sandman - This dude is Japanese, the text is in Japanese, but he is a one man army making 4 or so RPGM non adult-games over the years, in a "shared universe" One of the games is a side scroller beat em up with multiple characters, combos, specials, etc. Another of the games is a shmup with tons of unlocks, characters/secrets, the dude does pretty amazing things with the RPGM engine. Another is a race-car pizza delivery sim (Happy Challenger Yamada [Not RPGM, can't remember if this game is made by him or a fan]).

You must be registered to see the links

You must be registered to see the links

You must be registered to see the links

Edit - Added Fear & Hunger to list.

 

[Catapo]

I can enjoy a VN from time to time but mostly I prefer RPGM games so I like the ideea of this thread and I want to add some of my opinions to it.

I'm not a developer so everything is just from a player's perspective.
I've been playing RPGM games before finding out about the adult ones so I want to mention some of those first.

NON-ADULT RPGM GAMES

Stray Cat Crossing - is a very beautiful game that uses custom visuals for tiles, sprites and UI.

Pocket mirror - also visually appealing with custom UI, sprites and tiles.

To The Moon - probably a lot of people have heard of this game and I urge everyone to go play it if they did not do it already.
The game plays more like a point and click adventure rather than an RPG which makes it a bit more unique. It has an interesting emotional story, relatable characters, believeable dialogue, it is overall an amazing experience.

Mad Father - There is something about this game that makes it great that I can't quite describe.
There are a lot of small details that add to the atmosphere and feel of the game: different footstep sounds depending on the surface, breakable objects, smooth walking controls, etc.
Hopefully someone who played this game can explain better why this game feels different.

The Boogie Man - the reason I want to mention this game is it's endings.
The game has multiple endings but you trigger them through actions not choices.
At certain points certain characters can die. If you fail to save them the game will continue without those characters. You can also go out of your way to explore and find more clues or you can directly confront the enemy. All these actions affect the outcome of the story.

ADULT GAMES

Now for adult games I want to mention things that I like, things that I have neutral feelings about and things that I hate.

LIKE

Stats - If there is anything that turns players on more than fake characters having sex is numbers.
Besides the character stats like ATK DEF AGI you can have Sex Stats or any other stats like: you killed X slimes, You collected Y amount of gold from treasure chests, etc.

Free roaming - I like it when games allow you to progress at your own pace and visit other areas whenever you want. If I want to take an apple pie to the old lady in the starting town then the demon lord and his armies should wait.

Clothing options - It's always nice to have the option to change the outfits of your characters.
A cool clothing mechanic can be found in ScaleGarden's games Rhode's Fortress, Sangeki of Gear and in Curse of Pleasure(whenever the dev would feel like finishing the game).

Alternatives to battle - Any chance to avoid combat and I will take it most of the time. Options like avoiding the enemies, bribing, seducing, etc.
Nobleman's Retort also has a great mechanic to mind control other adventurers to fight in your place and bring you the rewards.

Different battle screen/system - Honestly the default battle systems are kind of boring. Different battle systems or just different visuals for them are almost always welcome.
Examples: Melty's Quest, Rhode's Fortress, Dungeon of Lulu Farea.

Changing Characters - Having multiple characters and allowing you to change the one you control in order to get different events.

Collectibles/Achievements/Titles - Most people hate grinding in rpgs myself included but give me a good reason to grind or go out of my way to explore the maps and it won't feel that bad anymore.

NPC Reactions - It's always nice to have NPCs react different after certain events, the appearance of the character (dirty, naked) or different titles that the player has.

NEUTRAL

Time limits - Not a fan of those but sometimes they can add to the game if done right.

Same dungeons - In most games there is almost always the dungeons: forest, cave, mountain, dessert, ice, lava and some abstract nether. It's getting kind of boring.

Descending dungeons - Always going through maze like dungeons looking for goddamn stairs in the middle of the forest and only after like 10 floors I finally get a teleporter to save my progress.

Default menu BG - Many games use those default RPGMaker menu backgrounds and they put me off most of the time.

Same default items - I know that it is fantasy and the games are bound to have similar items but there are always some items in every game that never get changed: small potion, great potion, stimulant, elixir, ointment, leather cap, etc. At least change the names of the items.

Useless menus - If your game doesn't use items don't have an item option, if there are no battles don't have an equipment or a status option if there aren't other party members don't have the formation button and don't have the gold display if the game doesn't use it.
Always have the menu relevant to the game.

Repeatable dialogue - It's a bit annoying when there is a lengthy dialogue with a character and then I accidentaly interact with the NPC again and it triggers the same dialogue. It would be nice that after a conversation the NPC would just say a shorter version of it.

Not my final form - What it is with final boss battles and always having another form and always being a demonic version or something.

HATE

Game overs after losing a battle - If you push me to a game over menu chances are I'm going to press exit, if you were to respawn me to the town I'm more likely to keep trying.
Extra hate if your retry button requires me to load a previous save file.

Game overs due to stats too high - I'm adding this separately because I hate it more. If your game requires for example a high lewdness stat to unlock different events but there is a game over if the stat goes too high your game can fuck off.
Examples: Succulence, Pirate Queen Maleena.

Random encounters - It's always annoying to walk and get pulled into a battle without knowing especially when it happens right next to an objective or a warp and if it happens every 10 steps.

Backtracking - If I have to walk through a bunch of dungeons to finish a quest then give me a way to return to town quickly: a teleporter, a return item, a menu asking if I want to return fast. Don't make me walk all the way back through the same places. At least have a different road back through a different set of maps.

Not having a skip/fast forward button - Sometimes I replay through a game again or I accidentaly trigger the same dialogue so I want to go through some text faster.

Slow walk/text/animations - Character should have a fast walking speed or a setting to change it. If your game uses a typewriter effect for the text make sure it goes fast. Long victory animations are getting annoying quickly and why the hell does the dying animation of a boss takes so fucking long?

Losing battles - If your game requires the character to lose a battle either do it in a cinematic or make the enemy insanely strong or the character insanely weak. It's really annoying to stay there in a battle and not being able to run away or deal any damage and wait for the enemy to barely do any damage to you or miss or use buffs.

Unmarked quests - If I have to talk to a certain NPC in order to trigger or progress a quest then add a marking on that NPC. Even if you have a quest description like 'Talk to Bob at the bar.' it isn't very helpful if I have no fucking idea who Bob is.

Bugs/Crashes - I know that development is difficult and bugs might slip out but I've played way too many RPGMaker games that crash when changing options or saving, games having audio issues, images stuck on screen, events not triggering and other bugs that IMO are hard to miss for games on sale who are marked as completed.

This was long but I hope in the future we can get better and better RPGM games.

 

[Synx]

These are my issues I got with RPGgames, from most important to least ones:

Visual novel in RPGmaker - The majority of the games here made with RPGmaker aren't RPG games, but visual novels. And that just doesn't work; Visual novels are all about the visuals/story, and mostly doesnt really have any gameplay outside of it. Only thing that RPGmaker adds is just meaningless walking from 1 spot to another. A RPGmaker game needs reasons why you picked this engine over Renply.

Battle system - This is properly a bit more personal, but I just dont like most battle systems in RPGmaker games, for the simple reason they are way to easy, and just become annoying chores you got to do over and over. Actually creating a good system that can be challenging (with different difficulties settings)) is a lot more work then people anticipate. It requiers a lot more work then just using the base system, and changing a couple numbers here and there.

Repeating same puzzle/thing over and over - RPGmaker has a lot more options for mini-games, puzzles, or in general flexability of events, compared to a Visual Novel type of game. This can really up the game play value of a game compared to all the Renply games. But just like the battle system, just throwing in puzzles isnt enough, as they get stale and boring quickly. Make a couple different ones, alternate between them, and increase the difficulty over time, to keep them interesting through the whole game.

Same looking maps over and over - I understand not everyone is an artist, but if you want your game to stand out a bit, you really need to put some more time into creating the maps you use, then just throwing the baseline models in a map and call it a day. There are tons and tons of free models you can pick up ( sometimes just got to credit them at the end of your game), which on its own can already make a map feel more unique, without requiring any form of artistic skill. Furthermore parallax mapping, which at most requires a tiny bit of artistic vision, can really up the visuals of a map.

For example for a game i'm working on, I created this map of a small indoor house using a couple custom made models (or more free blender models slightly altered with a different texture) and using some free textures for the walls and the floor, created for parallax mapping.

Spoiler: Little house

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Yeah it takes a fair amount longer to create something like that, but it will really make your game stand-out compared to all the other RPGmaker games. Vissuals matter, even if they are non-sexual.

Grinding - This isn't just a RPGgames issue, but I would say its often more annoying in RPGgames as you got to walk to the grinding spot as well. Personnaly I completely hate grinding. If you add grinding system (in the form of XP, or gold) make it happen more naturaly with a fair amount of diversity, make it a small grind (doing one thing a couple times is alright) or/and at a cheat option. If your game requires a lot of grinding, I wont really play/support you (and I highly doubt I would be the only one).

Stale pictures during conversations - Whenever the player has a longer conversation with a NPC, I really want to see the characters facial expression change during the conversation. The pictures on the side showing who is talking shouldnt just be used for that. If the NPC is mad, the picture should reflect this; a smiling NPC in this case just breaks the immersion.

 

[pasunna]

These are my issues I got with RPGgames, from most important to least ones:

Visual novel in RPGmaker - The majority of the games here made with RPGmaker aren't RPG games, but visual novels. And that just doesn't work; Visual novels are all about the visuals/story, and mostly doesnt really have any gameplay outside of it. Only thing that RPGmaker adds is just meaningless walking from 1 spot to another. A RPGmaker game needs reasons why you picked this engine over Renply.

Battle system - This is properly a bit more personal, but I just dont like most battle systems in RPGmaker games, for the simple reason they are way to easy, and just become annoying chores you got to do over and over. Actually creating a good system that can be challenging (with different difficulties settings)) is a lot more work then people anticipate. It requiers a lot more work then just using the base system, and changing a couple numbers here and there.

Repeating same puzzle/thing over and over - RPGmaker has a lot more options for mini-games, puzzles, or in general flexability of events, compared to a Visual Novel type of game. This can really up the game play value of a game compared to all the Renply games. But just like the battle system, just throwing in puzzles isnt enough, as they get stale and boring quickly. Make a couple different ones, alternate between them, and increase the difficulty over time, to keep them interesting through the whole game.

Same looking maps over and over - I understand not everyone is an artist, but if you want your game to stand out a bit, you really need to put some more time into creating the maps you use, then just throwing the baseline models in a map and call it a day. There are tons and tons of free models you can pick up ( sometimes just got to credit them at the end of your game), which on its own can already make a map feel more unique, without requiring any form of artistic skill. Furthermore parallax mapping, which at most requires a tiny bit of artistic vision, can really up the visuals of a map.

For example for a game i'm working on, I created this map of a small indoor house using a couple custom made models (or more free blender models slightly altered with a different texture) and using some free textures for the walls and the floor, created for parallax mapping.

Spoiler: Little house

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

Yeah it takes a fair amount longer to create something like that, but it will really make your game stand-out compared to all the other RPGmaker games. Vissuals matter, even if they are non-sexual.

Grinding - This isn't just a RPGgames issue, but I would say its often more annoying in RPGgames as you got to walk to the grinding spot as well. Personnaly I completely hate grinding. If you add grinding system (in the form of XP, or gold) make it happen more naturaly with a fair amount of diversity, make it a small grind (doing one thing a couple times is alright) or/and at a cheat option. If your game requires a lot of grinding, I wont really play/support you (and I highly doubt I would be the only one).

Stale pictures during conversations - Whenever the player has a longer conversation with a NPC, I really want to see the characters facial expression change during the conversation. The pictures on the side showing who is talking shouldnt just be used for that. If the NPC is mad, the picture should reflect this; a smiling NPC in this case just breaks the immersion.

what I can say is create some lovely map and finishing make game is far more to be same level
and that's why you never finishing any game(me too)
Ero game don't need a cool map but if got it's a plus
you made them so you already know what time consuming on map
and that even you never lay a hand to create cg drawing

most of rpgm user are some one that lack one of these skill
art or programming
or both?
Rpgm game is an indy game
and make for release some project for little audience
as long as many of that still play and buy it
so they will not care to add something plus

why good rpgm game on patreon got more good art more good map more good combat
because they got the patreon to back up their time and money to feed their life

but most of the japan dev
they got nothing
they event just some middle or high schooler that make fun project with friend
so they focus on who buy their game
not us that not even care to buy one
even if it's a good decent game

and most of all we ever play is the fan translate version
they even never call themselves a pro
and sale their product world wide

I'm not auguring that their game suck
It's very easy to talk about what not good on rpgm game out there
because every one know
but I think it's not fair that some one not even finishing some game
show some little sample of him and claim that this is better
five or ten years? or never finish?
that is the end of us who just want to make a perfect game out