#I'm currently trying to make a game in rpg maker

[dragon-razor-writings]

Ruby, staring at a game engine: '...what am I looking at?'

[delucadarlingwriting]

This...technically isn't writing, but I feel like it still fits in on this blog.

I've been tooling around in RPG maker, just trying to figure out how it works. So here's a little...spaghetti-at-the-wall game I've put together.

Currently I'm only using the assets available, but I do really hope to learn how to put in my own assets so I can make everyone look a bit more...like themselves. If I can really figure this thing out, I'd love to recreate some of my favorite scenes from book 1, or maybe my own fic? Not sure yet. In any case, I'm just eager to play with it more.

[quinnkdev]

i wrote a short thing about OFF, and my relationship to it as its translator; thoughts ive wanted to put into words for a while.

you can read it here as well, under the cut.

wait! wait... there is more to be said about OFF than, at the time of my previous review, i had the bandwidth for. i had, temporarily, reached a point of saturation with it - you only regurgitate a game's text again and again so many times until you start getting a bit weary of it, after all - but now that the bomb has burst and the remake is public knowledge (i kept that stuff secret for 2+ years!), i have the peace of mind to really unpack this. OFF was my companion for the late end of my teen years and more or less the whole of my current adulthood. the better - maybe even the best parts of my life - were (at least in part) shaped by adoration for and dedication to this game and its story. OFF survived the beginning and end of several friendships and relationships (romantic or otherwise) throughout my life, and i project it will survive many more - if not me, as a living human being. and i hope you understand that this is a lot to put into writing. can you imagine? something you did at 16 years old, because you were bored and liked a video game; a text someone else made, passed through you like a pamphlet - outgrowing you like that, becoming larger than you may ever be? i wrestle with that feeling frequently. some would grow resentful of the object of this kind of ruminating, especially as a writer and gamedev themselves- but i can't find it in me to ever hate OFF, no matter how often i hear about it; there simply is nothing like it. OFF has created several core memories that i can flash back to. i remember the knot in my stomach at its ending. i remember that it was time to sleep, and i remember staring at the ceiling, closing my eyes, and seeing void behind them, with white bedsheet ghosts floating there. i remember the resolve to translate it. i remember: "i have to show this to decon" (a friend that i've long since stopped speaking to). i remember isaiah (friend i lost touch with, number 2) asking me to keep working on the translation because he loved the game and wanted to know what happens in zone 2. i remember a vacation in france i mostly spent on a shoddy laptop my grandmother owned, on slow (maybe dial-up) internet, tinkering in RPG maker 2003, trying to make more headway in a language i only barely knew better than the one i was translating from. i remember this more than the majority of the relationship that introduced me to the game. that's sad to consider, isn't it? can a story be more significant than a person? i was very unwell for large parts of the time i spent working on this translation. i had dark thoughts; i feared impossible and possible things both. i was depressed, and i made very real attempts to turn the world in the only window i know - my eyes - off. permanently. and maybe- that is why OFF is larger than me. because in the negative space of its conclusion, in the turning of the final switch from ON to OFF, there lies a question: "is all this despair, all this hurt, all this misery and all of this unsolvable injustice of this world worth it?" and OFF, in my opinion, says: yes. or at least, for me it did. i'm not letting go of these memories, or of these stories, or of my adoration for this game. i love it more by the day. i owe a lot to it. this isn't a funeral, it's a celebration. thank you, OFF, and thank you, mortis ghost. i would not be here, i would not be this, and i would not be me without you.

[arcadekitten]

Hey! I want to eventually make games like you (through rpg maker mv) so I’m trying to find a pc/laptop that has enough space for that, among other things. What do you use, or what would you recommend?

My current laptop is an HP Envy! Before that I had a Lenovo Yoga. (And I think before that I had an older Envy? I def prefer the Envy to the Yoga though)

I'm no computer expert but something in that realm should be more than fine! You could probably find something of the same capabilities for cheaper models, too

[grenade-maid]

Man, I think what makes me so sad about Guilty Gear is just knowing that there won't ever be anything quite like it. The cultural soup that spawned it just doesn't exist anymore. The edgy 90s counterculture boom can't really be replicated. Doom is something you run on thermostats and microwaves, Mortal Kombat is something your brother's friends played in college, spiked leather and heavy metal are things anyone might be into, arcades have been dead longer than they were alive, everyone is aware of JoJo. Everything that was shocking, transgressive, and exciting then is now pretty normal (if still beloved--nay, more beloved, even). They even made a new Matrix movie about this feeling. And the thing is, there were a lot of fighting games tapping into the same things as Guilty Gear was. They all died in obscurity, and Guilty Gear is the lone survivor, carrying the DNA of a cultural moment but unable to propagate, being the last of its species. Sol Badguy is a perfect protagonist for it, in that sense.

At the end of the day, there's just no real analogue. The genre of musclebound blood soaked anime it was drawing from like Fist of the North Star, Bastard! and Ninja Scroll don't really exist anymore. Rockstars of the hotel thrashing middle finger waving hard drinking hard partying variety don't really exist in the same way, either. Very few recent album covers would make for good stage backgrounds. There isn't really an "underground" subculture or counterculture--we're all just in different niches that are one online search away from each other. Nobody has to "introduce" you to metal, you don't have to know a guy, just look up a few whole discographies and listen on your commute. Fighting games themselves are a firmly established genre with it's own self selecting population--in the 90s it was pretty common for basically anyone to casually try a few rounds of Tekken or have some version of street fighter at home. That's not really the case anymore, and, as such, fighting games need to be designed differently and more thoughtfully than they used to be.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!None of these are bad things!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But it does mean that any attempt to do something in the same vein as Guilty Gear will necessarily be a pastiche. Hell, even Guilty Gear itself was pastiche by the time of XX. This isn't a bad thing either--I'm loving Little Goody Two Shoes, for example, which is the most lavish and loving throwback to 90s shojo and 00s RPG Maker horror games. But it would still be different. Because even the most loving reference or recreation, even the ones that surpass the quality of the originals, can't replace the spirit of expressing something quintessential to your current moment, whatever that moment is.

The moment that I cherish cause I grew up in its shadow is long gone. I don't know if there's anything in the current moment that could speak to me in the same way. Most of my favorite all time games, manga, anime, etc etc all came out in the last few years, so this isn't about old shit being better. I guess most of what I love that's currently being made just didn't lend itself well to riffing on in the same way. Unfortunately, high passion rock operas screaming your feelings just lend themselves perfectly to kickass games, and those aren't in vogue like they used to be. And, ultimately, on a strictly personal level, I'll never be 15 again, being shown the sickest shit I've ever seen before a D&D game for the first time.

[ponett]

So SLARPG was made in RPG Maker VX Ace, yeah? that's the version that's after what I already have. Do you think RPG Maker XP is still a solid engine for making a game of a similar scope?

I'm trying not to psyche myself out before I can even get started, but I actually don't have experience beyond messing w/ RPGMXP when I was a teenager. I never actually made anything.

In some regards RMXP is probably a better engine to make things in today than VX Ace. It's always going to have its fans and some level of support because it's "the retro one."

However, I would probably jump forward to MZ. It's the current main version of RPG Maker, and therefore it has WAY more of an active community. Trust me, you will need third party scripts at some point or another to account for some seemingly basic feature that the stock engine lacks (SLARPG uses dozens and dozens of them), and finding game breaking bugs in an old script that's no longer updated because the dev has moved on to a newer version of RPG Maker is a nightmare. MZ also has Mac support, which is a big plus. Don't worry about the fact that you don't have experience in the newer engine, RPG Maker is broadly similar from version to version and it's easy to pick up quickly. I knew nothing about any version of RPG Maker before I created the project file that would eventually turn into SLARPG.

[maleyanderecafe]

Suffocation (RPG Maker)

Created by: Kekkonsnow

Genre: Horror

I'm a fan of this artwork and it's made by the same person who made Akahane Academy, which is a funny but fun yandere meme game. It's a short game about the MC having woke up after being hurt and having to decide who is telling the truth. As of current, the game is not available for some unknown reason, but you can watch playthroughs of it on youtube.

The story starts out with the MC playing dead after seemingly being in an incident. They are awoken by their best friend Foster who seems to have been looking out for them. They say that they will always look out for them during these times, and that they will always protect them from the monster in the woods. The MC tries to ask what happened to them, as they do not remember, but Foster seems to dodge the question, asking if the MC would like to go home instead. Soon after, another friend, Hal, comes out of the woods, covered in blood. He seems worried about what has happened, asking if Foster did something to them. After a while, the two start arguing, with Foster being more overprotective over the MC, even blaming Hal for hurting them, stating that the blood on his body is actually the MC's and calling him a monster. Hal tries to counter back, stating that Foster's obsession with the MC is really abnormal. In the end, Foster asks the MC who they believe, him or Hal.

If the MC chooses Foster, then Hal will initially freak out. Foster is about to bring the MC home when Hal suddenly shoots him, stating that perhaps he had cornered the monster after all.

Choosing Hal or not choosing at all will end similarly, with the MC suspecting Foster for his strange behavior. Hal tries to chime in as well stating that it was Foster that knocked the MC out, before Foster cuts them off. The MC knows that even if Foster did do something he would never admit it, and it ends with Foster leaving and Hal taking the player home.

The game itself is very short but it does give a good interesting plot. Neither character ever states what happens to the MC to have them be in this position, so the mystery of what happens is something that you'd have to theorize and really decide who is telling the truth. To be honest, I was fully expecting Foster to be the only yandere considering the initial comments he makes about the MC initially (stating that he will always protect the MC and that he is their only best friend) along with the fact that on the original itchio page, the game states that he seems to want to be more than best friends. So when the more obvious Hal comes around (covered in blood) I didn't even really bat an eye. I think it's also because Hal is more in a defensive situation in this case as Foster is the one who is accusing Hal of hurting the MC as well as being dodgy about the situation. Since we don't actually know the events of the story, we don't really know if Foster is a yandere other than he's rather overprotective of the MC and seems to want to be more than best friends with them. If what Hal says is true, Foster did knock the MC out, but given what we've heard from both sides it does make me wonder if Foster knocked them out as a way to protect them, given that he does accuse Hal of trying to kill the MC. It's also weird that Hal just lets Foster leave when Foster is being accused but kills them in the route where Hal is being accused.

Hal on the other hand is definitely one of those yanderes where I probably should have seen it coming but I was blindsided by the more obvious answer. As I've mentioned before, its partly because Hal is mostly on the defensive during the spats with Foster, so it feels like you're more inclined to listen to him. Of course, as we see in one of the endings, that he does end up shooting Foster, basically stating that it was him that nearly killed the MC (or at least, that's what it seems). It does make me wonder then why Foster kind of inadvertently covered for Hal, seeing that he simply leaves Hal and the MC alone despite knowing that Hal did try to kill him. It also makes me wonder why Hal ends up killing Foster in the first place, was it to just shut him up or was it because he was going to take the MC away from him? I'd like to think it's the second one considering that he doesn't end up killing Foster in the endings that the MC chose Hal instead of Foster.

Although the story is short, I think it's at least a good start to these characters. I quite like the artstyle and my only real gripe is that you have to replay the entire game to get to each of the endings, and there's no skip button. I hope that more of this story will be able to be covered in future games.

[slarpg]

HI I'm currently brainstorming my own very lesbian RPG Maker game, and as kind of a casual gamer, I'm trying to familiarize myself with what lesbian games are already out there!! SLARPG looks amazing, I have a Mac but I'm dying to play it as soon as I can get set up to. But anyway. I was wondering if you know of any other notable games focused on lesbian stories, besides visual novels(I know theres lots of those, but I'm interested in RPGs and life sims.) Was there any other sapphic game that helped to inspire SLARPG perhaps?

Hey thanks for reading my ask anyway and hope to play SLARPG soon 😊

The thing is, I can't say I was particularly inspired by other sapphic games when I started making SLARPG

For one, there just weren't nearly as many sapphic games in the early 2010s as there are today. There was, like, Life is Strange and Gone Home, and some RPGs that had some F/F romance options like Mass Effect and Dragon Age, and a small handful of niche indie games like Mighty Jill Off and Lesbian Spider Queens of Mars by Anna Anthropy, but there wasn't nearly as much out there as there is today. Just to name a few, you've now got indies like Butterfly Soup, Signalis, Get in the Car Loser, certain subplots in Undertale and Deltarune, the continued existence of RPGs with F/F options like Baldur's Gate 3, and many, many more games than I can list off the top of my head. There's a lot, especially in the indie space

There are also more AAA games with sapphic characters in them now, but I wouldn't exactly pitch The Last of Us to someone looking for a queer romance story just because Ellie is gay, nor would I tell you to play Overwatch 2 just because the lore says Tracer is a lesbian. And I know Aloy has a female love interest in Horizon: Forbidden West, but I couldn't tell you how much focus that's actually given

But also, SLARPG was based more on my own experiences and feelings, as opposed to being inspired by other works of queer fiction. There was very little out there that I felt I could relate to 100% at the time, so I felt the need to go and make it myself. And, in fact, I kind of avoided playing some other queer games by my peers in the indie scene while working on SLARPG because I didn't wanna be influenced too heavily by them and accidentally rip them off. I just wanted to tell my own story

[hypersomniagame]

HYPERSOMNIA JANUARY DEV LOG : "LOG 1, WOOHOO!"

Hi! For all of you who follow HYPERSOMNIA, or are just stopping by, let me introduce you to this post to really set the tone.

For 2024, I am going to try to release a dev log about HYPERSOMNIA once a month, may come earlier, may come a little late, but I'm doing this to help give insight on to how the game is going, and to give me motivation to work on the game.

First things first, big news!

HYPERSOMNIA IS NOW AVAILABLE TO WISHLIST ON STEAM! (LINK)

After a while of back and forwarding with Valve, I've finally got a Steam page to call my own, and MAN is it bizarre seeing my weird little RPG in my Steam library. Like, that's my logo, and my key art, and screenshots of MY game, that's so weird. It doesn't feel real. BUT IT IS!

And, I would really really really really really appreciate it if you would consider wishlisting the game on Steam. It helps with the algorithm, and my happiness because I like seeing numbers go up, it feels good.

I even drew this as a announcement/commemoration for the page going live.

(P.S; if you couldn't tell, I really like Half-Life, it's one of my favorite game series.)

Secondly...

A new trailer is in the works! We were accepted for this year's MOTHER Direct (4th time baby, whoo!)

The trailer has been coming along well, I hope to show more battle oriented clips that I've missed the last few years, like special moves.

Can you believe I've never actually gotten to adding those in the game? I mean, they come set-up in default RPG Maker projects but I've never gotten around to revamping them until now, year 4 of engine work. Isn't that strange?

I also hope to improve on editing in the trailers. Whenever I finish a trailer I come back a few months later to notice minor points where I was kinda sloppy.

I'm not much of a video editor, (I only learned so I could edit trailers on my own) but I'd like to keep them at a good presentable quality. You gotta have standards with that kinda stuff, it's important!

OK, TIME FOR THE ACTUAL GAME STUFF. HERE WE GO.

Abilities are now implemented! And work! Wahoo!

In HYPERSOMNIA, players are able to switch abilities between party members. I find this a really interesting mechanic for how simple it seems, you get to choose who plays what role in your party. I think this is HUGE, and opens up a lot of unique scenarios for the game's encounters. I've had this planned for years, as far back as 2021 if I can recall, so it's super cool seeing it in game.

Mapping is being worked on!

I've also been working on mapping out more areas of the game! The forest part you hopefully saw in the last trailer is almost completely mapped. I've been working on the second part to it and am hoping to finish it sometime soon.

Mapping forests really suck. THOUGH, almost all the maps for the first chapter of the game are done! That's just another step closer to the demo. (Which, FYI, will be on Steam and Itch! ^^)

I've also been working on re-spriting older scenes!

This one's been really fun to do, I've been going back and redoing older stuff from the 2022 trailer, like this train! It's weird seeing it side by side, because you can definitely see where it's come from but at the same time, it looks so different.

(Also side note, these sprites are CRUSTY! EWWW!)

Lastly, Script and Music updates!

The script for HYPERSOMNIA's first act has been completed! with just 37 pages of just cutscene dialog alone! We're also currently working on wrapping up NPC dialog! Not much else to say.

And music is being worked on!

Music has been making some progress! I like to lay out demo's for areas I'm mapping out to help make both the music and scene come together. (Also, to help break up the eerie silence when playtesting...)

Speaking of music, FIREBALL, the games main battle theme, was recently delisted on our YouTube channel.

We did this because we decided we wanted to resample FIREBALL, and found that it's best to not have the song uploaded until a complete, final version is made. At least for the demo, it could possibly change before the final game but that's a bit too far in the future for me to think about fully.

Hey! Thanks for reading the whole dev log! Unless you just skipped to the end, you should probably go back up and read it. there's a steam page now. and some cool ross art at the top. you're missing out!

I hope this was like, readable to you all. I'm new to this whole dev log thing, so if you read it all the way through, let me know! It'd be cool!

I'd like to use this portion to pretty much just advertise Unique Indie RPG's.

Have you ever seen that strange purple square at the beginning of the 2nd and 3rd HYPERSOMNIA trailers?

Yeah, that! That's UNIQUE INDIE RPG's, which is a Discord community for you guessed it, Unique Indie RPG videogames developed by people like me! Or you! Or whoever! Who cares!

I help run it with some of my friends, and we all share cool stuff about our videogames! There's a ton of other SUPER cool RPG Maker games there like Astral Guard [LINK], or SOMEWHEN [LINK], or even MOMOinc [LINK]!

And of course, HYPERSOMNIA. It's a really laid back community, we're all super chill. Come swing by! We'd love to have ya, and SHOW US YOUR GAME!

[LINK TO DISCORD SERVER]

TWITTER

YOUTUBE

STEAM

UNIQUE INDIE RPG'S [SHOW US YOUR GAME!]

[PREV] [ABOUT HYPERSOMNIA] [NEXT]

[codename-001]

City of Despair

A colorful game where everyone's covered in paint, everyone like Nem anyways, so not a lot of people. Luckily, the majority doesn't matter, not out here in the outskirts; For the group hidden from the world, supporting each other, souls covered in paint and away from their worldly worries at the Gathering of Hope.

Just don't let the monsters knock you out.

Demo link : https://codename-001.itch.io/city-of-despair

Features :

ARPG combat system

4 main areas with contrasting playstyles

multiple endings

a lot of characters

the pit

a varied batch of monsters

bugs

dev doesn't know what he's doing

**NOTE** This game is very up to interpretation! Every interpretation is right as long as it can be justified.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An introduction to the 4 main areas

The city (of despair)

A depressing place, the colors dull and the residents lifeless. No soul in the Gathering of Hope likes that place, but someone has to maintain connection with the city for supplies. Most fetch quests take place here, because nobody wants to go into the city.

The forest

Mother nature at her wildest form, the forest is connected to a park in the city, it is the restricted zone and fenced off. The Gathering of Hope isn't enough for some souls, they long to live in the woods, away from everything and everyone save for perhaps a few close companions. Also to get away from the monsters of black slime, they avoid the forest.

The pit

The pit of despair is but a rumour to most at the city, a never-ending pit and noone knows what's at the bottom. Some say it's not real, some say god slumbers at the bottom, Noone knows how it came to be, but most rumours say it's where people go when they want to leave.

The slums

Though the slums itself is not of great importance, the black nest next to it is. It is home to the monster known as the Black Stain, the creator of all other monsters, seemingly immortal. Its true motives are unknown, but it doesn't like souls. Surrounding the core of the black nest, is many many dangerous monsters created by the Black Stain. A dangerous area, but the loot might make it worth it.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello, just call me 01, City of Despair is my passion project that I've been working on for more than a year now. I'm the only one working on this currently, and it will most likely stay that way. The game is made in RPG maker because I have no idea how to code, at all. It's going to be narrative focused with the option to focus on combat. Though you're probably going to have to fight at some point. I'm currently planning on overhauling the combat system right now so that's what the next update's gonna be. I'm also going to expand this page at some point, to add something about the important NPCs and some worldbuilding and maybe customize the tumblr colors a bit. I will be actually recording some game footage to upload.

There's still a lot of bugs in the demo, but I genuinely don't want to keep testing it. I've changed

I'm also still trying to figure out how Tumblr works since I just created an account here.

(PS. Yes, this is purposefully posted on april fools because this is a joke of a game.)

[k0nstanta]

mannnn your noir au game looks like something that'd be on the ds it looks so good

thank youuuu very much... i'm currently still working on the plot & historical research for it but i'm unsure what engine to use for it still... i did plan to learn blender next year and maybe try out unity because i think making it a proper point & click would be awesome but i'm also familiar enough with rpg maker 2003 after making that robot au game that i think making it there would be easier... but we'll see. it's still very early in development lol

[a-wonderful-danganronpa]

⚠️ UPDATE: STATE OF THE EMPIRE (Nov 2024)

[NO SPOILERS]

i don't want to post an actual development timeline or to-do list until we're deeper in the weeds, so to speak. thus: every other month, i'll share an update on A WONDERFUL DANGANRONPA'S development!

keep in mind i'm currently a team of one and also a cripple, so Things Will Be Slow. now then...WIP discussion under the cut!

🐝 PRE-DEVELOPMENT

FEATURES LIST:

i know exactly what features i want AWD to have, and will not be adding more to stave off bloat

therefore i have an internal list of Shit To Do

whether or not i can accomplish Shit To Do depends on the engine (see ENGINE under "The Weeds") in which case i'll re-evaluate features

but, generally: i do know what this game will look like in terms of play style

more or less it will be a typical Danganronpa experience to ground its weirdness, and because i'm not trying to be innovative in terms of "gaming." my dev goal is an enticing, heartbreaking, and most of all fun work of fanfiction, as well as a love letter to Kodaka works. not to make a mind-blowing game in general

CHARACTER DESIGN:

this is the bulk of my work right now

3/16 student characters are ready to move onto the next round of design, which includes body type and color tests

the rest of the student characters, Usami, and a few NPCs are in various states of study in my notebook

Monokuma is the only main character who has not been doodled in any capacity yet (but i'll get to him)

body type and color tests will happen once all designs are completed, for balance purposes

there are a few Secret Characters i will not be designing until after the writing phase, as i have to understand their function in the script first

otherwise, i hope to be completely done with non-secret character design by Danganronpa's 15th anniversary (about a year from now)

ENVIRONMENT DESIGN AND UI:

some of environment design/UI depends on the engine (see ENGINE under "The Weeds"), but...

i have a collage-like aesthetic in mind, which i'll talk about ASAP, as soon as i get some examples and mock-ups in place

i'm probably going to make my wife do some of this. ha (don't worry: she said she would)

WRITING:

the plot is (tentatively) outlined, baby!

including backstory, characters, and their fates

that means everything you've been seeing is in fact part of a bigger plan, and not some Abrams-ass mystery box for all of us to figure out later

(i really wanted to highlight the above. i am not shooting spunk into the dark here)

the actual script has not yet begun, however, as i want to focus on design first

THE LITTLE DETAILS:

this includes things like item descriptions for presents etcetera

while unnecessary to implement until late-stage writing or dev, i actually play with writing these when i'm having particularly sickly or brain-dead days, since they take little effort

plus, they're Fun As Hell

i'll talk more about Presents etc too ASAP, as well as other world-building collectibles you can find!

🐝"THE WEEDS" (TANGIBLE GAME DEV)

ENGINE:

still shopping around for a game engine that suits my needs and vision but doesn't overextend my energy

that is to say: i am continuing to compare engines that will allow me to build this game without spending 3 years learning obscure-ass code that i will hate and that will make me ill

extremely tentatively, this will be an RPG Maker game. so far, it looks to be what will encompass AWD the best, and i know a few playable fangans use it. don't consider this an official announcement, however

PAID GIGS:

this includes many things currently not on my radar such as Voice Acting, Music, and Sprites

unless something incredible happens, these will be Paid Gigs because, well, i believe in paying people for their work

(and also, to be blunt, i don't trust volunteers to get things done in a timely manner when it's not their project: no judgement, because i'm the same, but when money's not on the line people tend to get lax. you'd really have to prove to me that you're committed)

i have some internal notes about all this stuff and how i want it all to combine into a cohesive AWD, but otherwise i'm not thinking about it right now while we're still in pre-pre-pre-pre-pre-everything

FUNDING:

to be honest, this will all probably come out of my pocket

(legalities aside, i really don't know how i feel about trying to raise money for what is essentially a souped-up fanfiction. it's gonna be good, but it's still my baby. would people show enough passion to want to fund my baby?)

regardless, i'll have a better idea of a budget in a year or so

🐝POST-DEVELOPMENT

uh

i have a list of things to do after everything else is done with AWD but none of it is relevant right now

just know that it's there

and i'm not thinking about it atm

🐝∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

THE EMPRESS OTONASHI:

is still our ruler, forever and for always.

[felidaeforums]

I don’t really know how to use tumblr or talk here but I guess this is an "intro post" for the RPG maker horror game im making (Felidae Forums)

Currently I'm making it into a series of comics but I am hoping to make it into a game as soon as I can, I am still practicing using RPG maker and trying to get some experience so I can make this as good quality as I can

Warning: this is poorly explained and very very cringe

The game centers around a cultist named Sadey who makes a deal with her god "the observer". She has to kill 9 people in 60 days. If she completes this, she will be able to live the rest of her life normally, if she fails, she will have to fulfill the role of "observers eye". What exactly this means is unknown for now.

Her murders are investigated by Emily, a student at a nearby high school. The Felidae Society, the group Sadey comes from, is known by the citizens of Wetherhill but not really spoken about by anyone except Emily.

Sadey catches onto her, and decides to start targeting her and her friends before they get to her. It's almost like a game. Sadey's fear of losing is her only motivation. Even if she has to hurt others, even if she has to destroy everything, even if the end of the world itself is what she has to acheive, she has to win.

It focuses a lot on how peoples perceptions of reality can be altered by the events they witness and how one event can completely change who someone is forever.

If it sounds interesting then you're in luck because I post about it here (as much as I can at least)

[midnighttrain-project]

Hello everyone!

First off, I would like to thank all of you for your continued support! I usually publish short updates on my personal Twitter (or should I say X now?), but I thought it would also be fun to make long posts sharing my experiences and thoughts about the development of the game.

So, I decided to start a new series of articles talking about random things about the development of the game, like some kind of journal! I don’t use Tumblr lately, since I reach more people with Twitter, but Tumblr is perfect for long posts like this! 

I hope you will enjoy this content!

🌙🚂 Let’s start with a recap! 🚂🌙

I’m currently working on a remake of my second game, Midnight Train. The remake is titled Midnight Train: New Moon, and is being developed using RPG Maker MV.

Originally, I only intended to add new content to the original game, like new endings and an epilogue, but I ended up changing the engine and remaking everything from scratch. Thanks to all the feedback I received from the original release, I'm currently working hard to make the game more enjoyable for everyone!

Since it's a remake, it has a lot of new features that weren't present in the original: new graphics, alternate endings, improved gameplay, partial voice acting, many new cutscenes and events… and much more! But let’s talk about the new features in more detail in another post~

🌙🚂 Progress 🚂🌙

Since this is the first blog in this series, I think I should talk about one of the things most people are curious about! “How’s the progress of the remake”?

Before answering that question, I'll explain how I divide the work. Basically, I focus on each chapter in linear order. These would be the main steps:

◆First step: Working on the artwork ◆Second step: Mapping in Photoshop ◆Third step: Eventing all the maps in RPG Maker and testing ◆Final step: English translation

After I finish all these steps, I start working on the next chapter, using the same steps! 

Creating the maps is the most time consuming step because I also design and plan new mechanics, puzzles and new cutscenes, so it takes me a lot of time to finish them. Thankfully, once the maps are finished, I'm quite fast with the eventing, since everything is already planned!

Well…! Let’s answer the question now! “How’s the progress of the remake”?

I’m currently working on the maps of Chapter 2, which means Chapter 1 is fully completed, including the english translation! I’m almost finished with the maps of Chapter 2, so I hope I can start eventing soon ~ 

🌙🚂 Expected release 🚂🌙

This is one of the questions I usually receive, so I also wanted to talk about it: “When will the game be released?”

The answer is… I don’t know!

I’m working really hard, but it’s impossible to predict when I will finish all the work. For now, I can only offer updates about the development!

Which leads to another question: “Why is it taking so long to develop the remake? Shouldn’t it be faster than developing the original game?”

Honestly, that's what I also thought! But the reality is that the remake is taking twice the amount of effort that required the original. Or even more. Why does it require more effort? I think it will be easier to understand with this picture:

This is the comparison between two maps. Even though they look quite different, it’s actually meant to be the same map in-game. This map is basically a hallway that connects two maps, the purpose has not changed, but the map itself is different.

In the remake, I’m trying to create maps that are more interesting to explore, while trying to retain the charm and purpose of the original. This means I also added new events for the new environments, including new puzzles! There are a lot of new things to discover, and you can also learn new things about the characters.

However, the main inconvenience is that I can’t reuse anything from the old version. I must create everything from scratch, including:

◆Creating new dialogues when you interact with the new elements. ◆Adding new visual effects. ◆Creating new events that match the aesthetic of each map. ◆Adding new sound effects (voice acting and terrain sounds) ◆Adjusting old cutscenes to the new environment. ◆Creating new puzzles, depending on the map. ◆And more! The list is long!

So, in the end, working on this remake is like working on a new game. A more detailed, polished and professional new game.

🌙🚂 About the developer 🚂🌙

I usually don’t post much about myself, since I’m quite shy! But I also wanted to talk about myself a bit more~ 

As you may already know, I’m Lydia, the creator of Aria’s Story and Midnight Train! I’m often told by my friends that it’s weird to use your real name on the internet, but I like using my name haha

I also use the name LydiaBluebell on social media. Why Bluebell? Because it’s a flower that means humility, constancy, gratitude and everlasting love, which I think summarizes perfectly my journey with game development 💙 Thanks to everyone that supports me, you have my gratitude and everlasting love!

🌙🚂 Final thoughts 🚂🌙

Oh…! I think I already wrote too much in this post! If you’re still reading this, thank you! I hope it wasn’t too boring…! Next time, I’d like to talk about more specific things!

If you’re curious about anything in particular about my creative process, don’t hesitate to ask a question and I’ll try to cover it in the next post! 

See you all next time!

[tarotcard0]

So, I have now officially beaten every NES Dragon Quest (Dragon Warrior) game. I'm currently playing Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, and I'm almost at the end, but I have to wait for the switch to recharge before tackling Chapter 8.

In the meantime, I want to write down some of my thoughts on Dragon Quest here.

Dragon Warrior 1 (NES) - Dear lord, just play one of the Remakes, the original is so tedious. There's a remake for Gameboy, there's a remake for Mobile, there's a remake for SNES, there's even a fan made RPG Maker Remake. Any one of those is a better choice than the original. Only play the original if your curious, or for studying purposes. Oh, on that note, the SNES version is Japan Exclusive, so you'll have to get a patch to translate it to English.

Dragon Warrior 2 (NES) - Not only is this the best game of the NES Quadrilogy, it's just the best Dragon Quest game I've played. How did they do so well on their second try!? It's so hard to describe the feeling I got playing this and realizing "Oh! This is the game all those other RPGs are referencing!" Now, I'm biased. I liked drawing my own maps and taking my time with that, so if you don't I also recommend going to the remakes. Again, they're available for Gameboy, SNES, and Mobile. Again, the SNES version is JP exclusive and has an English translation patch.

Dragon Warrior 3 (NES) - It's hard to describe why I felt a little disappointment with this one... Dragon Warrior 2 was just... So good! Like, how do you follow that? For some reason, everything in 3 felt... slower. Despite several quality of life changes, things like re-organizing my inventories felt more tedious than it did before, and when the story reached the Second Act (I'm not sure I used that phrase right) I fell into that same emotion that I had while playing persona 5 where the game just felt like it was dragging on. And because I can probably beat Dragon Warrior 3 4 times over in the time it took me to beat Persona 5 once, I have reason to believe this has to do more with the context of the plot, than the runtime of the game itself. I guess I'll go ahead and recommend playing he GBC or SNES remakes again, they certainly sped things up.

Dragon Warrior 4 - This game SUCKS! It's easily the worst of the NES quadrilogy. It's not the worst Dragon Quest game (Dear god it's not the worst), 9 takes that dishonor (At least, of the ones I've played so far), but the baffling decision to have all party members except for the Hero controlled by AI once you gain control of said Hero, makes it a very close second. I can't even recommend the remake, because I can't get very far in it. Once we enter the Remake dimension for this game, we exit Dragon Warrior and enter Dragon Quest, where the development team thought it would be a great Idea to transcribe everyone's accent to a ludicrous (and sometimes racist) degree. And, surprising no one, RPGs are just slightly impossible when you can't read.

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I can't do another "Keep Reading" break, so those 3 dashes will have to do.

Well, now that I've beaten all 4 of the OG Dragon Warrior games, I'm wondering what I should do next (After beating TTYD of course)

Should I keep on with the series and go to Dragon Quest 5, or should I start on the NES Final Fantasy games (Of which, I've only beaten FF2)?

I'll end this post with a Poll.

Of course, I'm biased in favor of Dragon Warrior 2, but I'd like to hear what reasons others have for liking the ones they do.

Oh, and just to make sure this gets a decent sample size; the remakes count. If you've played Dragon Warrior GB, but not Dragon Warrior NES, then you've played Dragon Warrior.

[yours-the-author]

Hey, so...

Does anyone remember this post I made recently?

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I made some art for it...

If you wanna see it...

Here it is:

I'M SO MAD AT MYSELF IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE SURVIVING THE MANSION BUT I DIDN'T REALIZE UNTIL AFTER I FINISHED IT AAAGGH

...Aside from that little oopsie, though, I'm actually really proud of how the logo came out? I based the font off a style called "Micro 5 Charted". Thank goodness I was using graph paper!

I'm not sure if that Kanji is correct; Google Translate doesn't seem to like the word "oni" or "stick", especially together, so I spelled out the Romanji in the English box and then tried to copy the characters Google offered me as closely as possible. I think I'd be more surprised if I got the Kanji correct, honestly.

Henry Stickmin title screens usually have two different fonts for the verb and the noun, and I thought about trying to make "Mansion" look like an actual house, but that made my brain hurt to much to conceptualize, so I stuck with different colored fonts. Hmm, that clock sure is there. I wonder what it means gets hit by a bus

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Anyway, here's some theoretical scenarios of what the main gameplay would look like! This one stars General Hubert Galeforce and some other guy:

Option 1: Shoot

Result: The monster hears you move as soon as you pull your gun from its holster. No time to defend yourself.

FAILURE (DiE!)

Option 2: Backup

Result: Your radio refuses to work, even though it was just fine before you entered the mansion. The monster waits until you've realized this, then goes for your throat.

FAILURE (No one will hear your screams...)

Option 3: Time Out

Result: The monster does not hear you and goes into a separate room, out of sight and out of mind. Galeforce survives... for now. But what was that thing...?

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I don't know how feasible it would be, but I imagine this would be a cross between typical RPG Maker-styled games (pixels, speech boxes with pictures of the characters, moving around a set floor plan, puzzle solving, etc) and typical Henry Stickmin-styled game play (cutscenes, choices, possible interactivity [grabbing items/bios], the occasional quick time event, etc) (voice acting would be a stretch). Most of the gameplay, like exploring the mansion, puzzle solving, and running/fighting the monster, would be RPG style, and then occasionally switch into a cutscene that requires you to make a choice; usually with just one correct answer but possibly others that could result in diverging dialogue/interaction/paths/endings? Something to think about.

Anyway, Galeforce! Poor man has no idea what he almost walked into, haha. I experimented with perspective and limb placement here, which was exhausting but also a lot of fun! Dynamics are hard with stick figures, but considering that they're they only character medium I've ever been decent at, I made it work.

And the Oni... I tried to give it some sort of anatomy, but quickly realized that I do not have the skills to pay those bills. I opted for a more of a shadowy figure looking thing with a big smile instead (you can see some of the lines where I tried to make it have arms, I think). I opted for Ao Oni's purple-y blue color scheme verses HetaOni's gray alien look. Back in the day of fan made Ao Oni games, people would usually try to put their own unique spin on the Oni sprite, with HetaOni's being the most unique I ever saw (keep in mind, it was one of the few designs I ever saw, so there might be cooler ones out there, who knows). In theory, a game called Sutikku Oni would use a stick figure shaped monster, but with my current art skills, that would just look like a normal stick person with a big head (look! Geoffrey Plumb's cousin!). I think the less we see, the better; all good horror games know when to leave things to the imagination!

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I also made a second one, featuring my boy Dave Panpa!

...Dave, I'm so sorry... *MAKES HIM PEEP THE HORROR*

Option 1: Call for Help

Result: You call for help...

FAILURE (...but nobody came.)

Option 2: Run

Result: You tense your muscles in preparation to run. The monster is faster.

FAILURE (YoU... wOn'T... eScApE...!)

Option 3: Pretend to be a Piano

Result: Frozen with fear in front of the piano, it's all you can do to hope the monster thinks you're also a piano (a sopping wet piano, but still). It's deadly quiet. You can hardly breathe, and you're afraid to. The monster stares at you for an uncomfortably long time, before walking away, out of sight and out of mind. You stay still a little longer before collapsing to the ground. Dave Panpa survives... for now. How on Earth did that work? Or... did that thing let you live out of pity...?

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UGH the piano! Pianos are so hard to draw! Luckily, I had an almost head on reference that I was able to use for the first picture. For the above view shot, I had to do some wild guessing. The red stuff near Dave's head in the second picture is the red stuff he was referring to. Is it blood? Paint? Something else? Who knows! But as we all know, any self respecting Ao Oni fan game needs a piano puzzle!

I imagine Dave was dragged along for the ride when the Toppats decided to find the treasure of the mansion (or something to that degree), fully intending to leave him there to die if there was, in fact, a monster inside. Poor Dave... Maybe there could be an ending where amends are made? Or maybe not...

I mostly put the smile on the monster's shadow as a means of showing that, indeed, it is the monster, but now I'm wondering if the monster's mouth glows or something? Hot fires of Hell, delivered right to you! Can you beat the heat?

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Thank you all for coming to my fixation ramble that absolutely no one else except me finds interesting! Any thoughts before you go?

(A cricket chirps, then leaves because it's in the wrong conference room)

...Yeah, I figured.