RPG advice

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BDZ
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RPG advice

Post by BDZ »

Hey everybody,
I'm setting out to build an RPG in QuickBasic 4.0. I probably don't need programming advice, but did you learn anything while building an RPG that you would like to share? Thanks.
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Halifax
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Post by Halifax »

mostly i learned that a finished RPG is not something you should set out to make. instead, you should try to have fun making the RPG. enjoy the process, dont expect to have a finshed (or even playable) product for a LONG time. (8 years in my case, but im a very patient and obsessive person)

but here are some practical tips.

1- YOU MUST BE AN ARTIST!! i dont care if you rip every pixel in your game from somewhere else, you still have to be an artist. or you have to commission one...

2- the structure and flow of the program should be the LAST thing you figure out. RPG elements such as what type of game, what viewpoint your gonna use, live enemies vs seperate battles... all that should come first.

3- start from scratch on EVERYTHING (except asm routines). this will make sure you understand your game inside-out and sideways too.

4- simple. use freebasic, not qbasic. i love QB but fb is much more fun and a lot easier.

5- tutorials are your friend. (not programming ones). check out the tutorials on pixel art on this site.
And you will come to find that we are all one mind, capable of all that's imagined and all conceivable - Maynard
DaveUnit
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Post by DaveUnit »

Tell us your plan on how you intend to do things in your RPG. You say you don't need programming help, but are you sure? have you made a complete game before? What are you using for your graphics? if you're using DATA 0,0,1,0,0,1 type stuff stop right now, and get a real graphics editor.

I'm a newbie, I have never made a complete game myself, but here's something you really have to do, plan EVERYTHING out, think of how you'll be able to do everything you want to do. It's boring, but doing this can avoid programming yourself into a hole.

The game I'm working on now I've been slowly working on less and less not because of not enough planning, but rather because of some real crappy limitations of QBasic. Here are some things you really need:
1) A new PUT written in assembly
2) A Page-flipping sub
3) If you have scrolling, make it Pixel by Pixel!

These things require some research, but if you really don't need programming help you should be A-OK and you should know all of this already.

But, even if you are a great programmer, if you've never made a game before don't try to make an epic adventure your first try (I still try to make big games for some reason, just hoping I don't run into a brick wall along the way), make something small, but entertaining.

All of this advice you can get in greater detail by reading the Game-Programming tutorials on this site.

Good luck, Dude.
~Dave (the guy that's going to start listening to his own advice :P )~
Z!re
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Post by Z!re »

Good luck, as for advice, I cant really give any.. It all depend on the type of RPG you're making, what kind of battlesystem you want, etc etc etc into infinity..

While the advice given so far are.. uhm.. "good".. they're advice that worked for the guy that gave them, but they worked on their project..

As an example, I know for a fact that you dont need a new put routine, nor page flipping, nor does it have to be pixel*pixel scrolling..


As for the advice of using FreeBASIC, thats really something you should look into, as FB offer superior speed and graphics capabilities..
I have left this dump.
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Brandon
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Post by Brandon »

I Agree with what they've said and:
1.Don't give up half way through
2.Eye Candy!!!
Nodtveidt
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Post by Nodtveidt »

My advice: IGNORE HALIFAX'S FIRST STATEMENT. Use all the ripped graphics you want. Why? Because the chances are good that you'll never finish it, you'll use it as a learning experience, so unless your intention is to pixel, screw trying to draw them yourself or trying to convince some pixel guru who already has way too many projects of his own to help you out. Just use whatever you want. If the intention is to learn CODING AN RPG, what the hell would pixelling have to do with it? That's right...nada. So do whatever you want in terms of your audio/video content.

Another piece of "my advice": Don't try to come up with some crazyass "original" concept just to be original. If you have a unique idea, it should be able to stand on its own without standing for the concept of originality in and of itself. At the same time, please...no more evil-wizard-kidnaps-princess stories, or anything involving giant killer dragons. BOOOOOORING.
Guest

Post by Guest »

Nek right ripped gfx are fine and you can go back later and replace your tile sets with original art if you want once you have a working engine.

a place to get lots of good tilesets is at the rpgmaker site although the stly might not be what your looking for.




on the game engine side of things try to be as modulate as possible encapsulate all your data into type's if you use freebasic you can go a step further and have function pointers in your UDT to do presdo OO. the idea really is to make your code independent and flexible that way it easier to add things or remove them as needed and you don't paint you self into a corner with no way out.
Guest

Post by Guest »

Suggestions:

Don't write out or tell anyone the plot for the game, let them play it to find out. This doubles as a motiviation for you to finish the game, if your eager to tell your story.

RPG's tend to be divided into the map engine and the fight engine. Make sure you keep your development of these parallel. A rushed fight engine ruins a game.

Write a script engine WITH THE MINIMAL NUMBER OF COMMANDS POSSIBLE. Hardcode nothing for the first 3/4's (will actually b 2/3rds) of developement, then allow yourself to hardcode in features for the last 1/4 (which will extend to being 1/3rd).

Structure missions/quests/unfolding plot around an engine your comfortable writing, not the other way around. If your struggling to write the engine, the game has no hope of being completed.

Rushed graphics can be touched up. Rushed dialog can be touched up. Uninteresting maps can be touched up. Boring fights can be touched up. It's better to have a full shell of your game ready and playable and work backwards through it then to burst your gut getting everything perfect each step along the way, incase you don't finish it.

Give yourself a timeframe. 3 months: 1 week graphics, 1 week map engine, 1 week fight engine, 2 weeks scripts+maps+enemy design, 7 weeks lesurly beta testing and improvements.

You should start with a grand concept and keep whittling it down until it's doable. Never introduce new complications to your game as you go through if you intend to have it finished.

Each project you work on should be to do one new feature that you haven't used before, so as not to overwhelm you.

Eg: 1st RPG: Random Fights, Save Game, simple Magic, simple items, simple maps

2nd RPG: same as above + 3 player characters

3rd RPG: same as above + cutscenes

4th RPG: same as above + nonlinear quests

5th RPG: same as above + More Complex Items and Magic

etc.

matt
BDZ
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Post by BDZ »

Thankyou everybody for the advice! Just to let you know how I'm going about this:

1. I have already written a tile editor for making 16*16 tiles and another for 16*24, it stores these in random access files. I'm using Screen 13 256-color graphics.

2. This game is going to have a Christian theme, I've planned out a lot of the items, prayers and miracles, and enemy types already. The fighting engine will be interesting because it will require you to use physical attacks against humans, robots, and monsters and spiritual attacks against the demons that posses them.

3. As for artwork, I have been studying Tsugumo's Pixel tutorials and screenshots of RPG's. I don't plan on ripping any graphics.

4. My plan is to write the game in QuickBasic 4.0. If I just can't get the scrolling engine won't run fast enough, I will move to FreeBasic. Thanks again!
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Halifax
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Post by Halifax »

if you're gonna use qb4.0 you'll want to use RelLib or some other library. for sure. i had absolutely no problems with speed with rellib. the only problems i had were memory. (but then i found FB and all my memory problems went away) phew
And you will come to find that we are all one mind, capable of all that's imagined and all conceivable - Maynard
shadowolf

Post by shadowolf »

and you broke rule 1 of any RPG development. Never ever tell anyone any of your ideas or game concepts before you at least have a beta demo version.
m2j

Post by m2j »

And don't release demos; they make you feel like you've acomplished something, and you start to calm down and wallow in praise, and you never get started up again.

matt
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