>>3920498
Shame, seems like these threads don't work on this board. Making a re clone and am thinking about the injury system. Want an armor and health system with semi permanent injuries. Armor works rather as damage negate, think of a plate and a knife. You won't do shit against a breast plate with a knife, except for well placed or ciritcal hits. Injuries reduce max health and have further debuff. Tedious or fun?

>>3921113
Oh, and if someone has any idea on how to use skelletons(?) for animations, is there a structured approach or do I just need to have an eye for it. Like using the same animations for humans, ghosts, demi humans aso. A werewolf in a hunched position could also be the skeleton of an ox.

>>3920498
Yay, you're back!

I'd post my game here, but /vrpg/ won't let me because I used AI voice acting in it.

>>3921115
it is really dependent on the engine you use

>>3921204
Godot, so far. I haven't made any animations, yet, besides experimenting. I've read that blender is better as godot and easy to integrate into the game engine.

>>3921200
I don't see an issue with it.

>>3921200
Post it, I don't really care.

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>>3920498
really rough so far

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Mongol update. Fully switched to Unity. 2D turn based. Localizing it in romanian ( română).

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For someone wanting to heavily mod Quake 1, how do I approach QuakeC but starting with easier 2d projects? I was thinking of Raylib, are there others?

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Today I had my biggest scare in a while
>Decide to configure steam cloud saves because why not
>test in my dev account before publishing
>test goes okay, it saves and then brings them back if they are moved
>publish
>go into my player account to verify
>saves gone
>FUCK
>disable cloud saves
>go back to dev account
>saves are there again
>huh
>turn on cloud saves again. Go back and forth, it seems the OG saves were bound to dev account and steam detects it and cleans the saves from the save path when the other account is logged.
>boot up my spare laptop with a third 3 account and yeah it's working fine.
Never attempting this on a live game again.

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Recently converted my text-based RPG "Aura Clash" from ChoiceScript to a new engine I had to build off Tweego, calling it the Aurillian Framework.

https://www.auraclash.com#gamedev

The game's going well so far, the 1m word translation went smoothly and I'm 150k words into writing chapter 9. Hoping for a March/April release. Still didn't finish Tian Fang's quest (pic related) so my fans will continue to call a fatwa upon me.

>>3923626
Forgot the link to the game:

https://www.auraclash.com/adventure

And yes the pics are AI sloppa; I wasn't going to have many/any in the final product but two fans made a set for me. The focus of the game is text and not pics, I have an option to disable them entirely but I've grown fond of a few as placeholders, hoping to find a good illustrationist for the final product since it's made enough patreonbux to fund it.

Does anyone know good anime-like artists that are accepting commissions and producing work that would be worth putting in a full Steam game?

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I have the urge to make a TES-like or Fallout-like from scratch in a custom engine

>>3924831
Are you focusing on narrative or gameplay? If narrative you should seriously consider text-based. If gameplay, try a CRPG to capture the adventure essence.

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What's the best engine to use if I want to make a battle system like in MMBN?

>>3925055
Game maker or some of these obscure newer engines that came after 2020? The gameplay there comes from the vast amount of builds. There's one castlevania where you have 50 power ups that you mix and match as you see fit. Imho such a game really easy to make and has a strong fan base, too. AFAIK there are no clones, too.

Considering makinga fallout fangame

>>3924831
>>3925496
Kiss

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>>3925499
Anon...

>Want to make a Bethesda-style RPG
>Look online
>Apparently everyone hates Bethesda RPGs now
>My game will probably either suck or no one will play it, or both
Damn

>>3925506
>Bethesda-style RPG
Crpg?
>people online might
Irrelevant. You lack the funding to care for such things. Make what you like and gather a niche following.

>my wagie full corpo job pays way more than my attempts at making a game ever could
>arrive home late, tired, depressed and barely have any willpower left to work on game
anons, I feel like I'm not gonna make it

>>3925633
Pay people to help you?

If I'm making something in Pico8 and desire to make it bigger with less constraints, any particular framework you recommend? Something with Lua?

>>3925714
tic-80 is pico8 with less constraints

>>3925667
My pay is still well below what is needed to hire skilled people.

>>3925811
Yet you were saying you're making way more than a game ever could, LMAO

>>3925812
>more than my* game ever could
I don't have my hopes up.

>>3925813
Idk, you could hire a paki rookie for little money. He'll learn eventually. If you can't spend 500 usd for a hobby, then
>jobs pays way more
Seems like a lie ngl

>>3921719
Please don't post anything like this ever again.

>>3925824
We don't talk about paki devs here, they bring bad luck

>>3920498
How lovely is to see the comeback. Sadly, my project is at a standstill because life is being rough at me.

>>3925920
I worked with pakis in rl and online. Best people, really. There are countless scammers though, so beware.

>>3925998
You're probably right but it was a reference to this board's history. The less you know the better.

>>3926017
You don't think it's... Him? He could be everyw9, damn.

An rpg where you go full luigi on epstein, corrupt politicians and corpos would surely sell a lot on steam.

>>3925055
rpgm mz with sang hendrix plugins

Are there any sites where devs actually discuss game(s design)? Seems like there's almost nothing done form a scientific standpoint.

>>3926941
Nigger will steal your idea

>>3927508
Certainly, this one of a 20000 games per year idea! I doubt ideas are much worth in vidya this scene fails to monetize a booming market, so it's safe to say most devs are clowns.

>>3926941
My idea is to clone a game from 20 years ago only it'll be 10x worse in every aspect

>>3927634
Huh? That's not what I wrote. Did you hurt your head?
>>3926941
>game design
Have you read papers or textbooks about game design? One could argue that bad games are a direct result of bad teaching materials. Fun (in vidya) is a topic that's basically non-existent in the serious science scene. Arguably the latter is a dying breed, but that's a whole different story altogether.

Is a KOTOR-style CRPG even doable solo?
A FONV-style CRPG, either?
Classic Fallout CRPG even?

>>3927741
One man made Ken’s Labyrinth

>>3927741
>Is a KOTOR-style CRPG even doable solo?
I pray so, that shit was cash. Does anyone know the best way to implement a similar engine? That would be the hard part.

>>3927741
>Is a KOTOR-style CRPG even doable solo?
If you only need the control style and the RPG system, as well as battle processing and other minor systems, then yes. It will not even be that time consuming. Click to move and camera processing are standard (or easy to find plugins) for all modern engines, and implementing minor systems is a matter or basic coding.
>A FONV-style CRPG, either?
If you only look for simular controls and RPG system implementation, then yes, they're easy to implement as well.
>Classic Fallout CRPG even?
Yes as well.

Here comes the bad part. The above is true for core mechanics only. Making a good RPG requires a BRUTAL amount of content - text, 3D/2D designs, animation rigs, interface graphics, databases, SFXs, OST... Getting the engine running is not the hard part, it's letting go filling the world.

is designing story before gameplay a valid approach

>>3928432
If you can write like a game designer rather than a book writer, then sure. Otherwise, make a story roadmap and write it along the creation of the game.

>>3928432 #
it can potentially clash with your themes and worldbuilding

a lot of "great"/immersive rpg stories were ones that had their story integrated with the game. gothic for instance had a barrier that prevented you from leaving the open world and it served as the main motivation for the protagonist

>>3928432
Sure. You can slap almost any story/gameplay onto any gameplay/story. It's cool if some mechanics are mirrored in the story.

I have an idea for a game and I want opinions on it, because maybe it's trash, but if it's good and somebody steals it I will kms.

>>3928658
Ask chatgpt

>>3928658
Don't beat yourself up over it. If you couldn't make something of out of it, it wasn't a good idea for you.

There was a time I used to believe "If I can do it, so can you."

>>3928658
No one will steal it, lol. Imagine thinking someone wants to invest money to execute an untested concept. Kek.

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I just had a wacky idea for a CRPG or TTRPG system
>Every session, your character will chase their Goal (what they want). They’ll also be tempted to act on their Personality (defining aspects of who they are). When they act on their personality, they risk triggering their Flaw (weakness that gets in the way of their goal).
>When a player does anything that pushes them towards their goal, they're resolved using a regular d20 check against a relevant stat. If the roll is successful, they gain XP. Normal.
>BUT, when their Personality urges them to do something, they are presented with whether or not to do that. If they do it and the roll is successful, they gain a short-term buff they can use once. Their stress also decreases by 2 (more on that in a moment).
>BUT, if the roll is a failure, their flaw takes over and they gain a short-term debuff that, when (immediately) activated, causes them to act in accordance to their character flaw. Their stress will decrease by 1, because at least they tried.
>If they suppress it, nothing happens... but their stress increases by 1. Every time their stress reaches 10, it resets to 0, but their character hits a breaking point, where they AUTO-FAIL the next in-character action and their flaw activates.

>>3928658
>>3929381
I actually have a genre defining idea that will change not just one but multiple genres forever and I'm not sharing it because it's just that good.

When I make it I'll come back to this post.

>>3929642
Certainly you do. In any case, a good game is always welcomed.

>>3929636
>when (immediately) activated
You need to roll to avoid activation every x hours

>>3920498
do we accept action-adventure games in here or nah? there's sword and monsters

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cozy

>>3930486
This is not a real general. There are no rules. Just do whatever.

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>>3931081
nice! Well I've added zombies to my game. They have a ton of health so the best approach is to use a finisher move on them, or alternatively, using either fire or holy element attacks

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How do RPG's track the player's progress through the story?
is it a series of boolean like hasBeatenXDungeon, hasXItem and then these booleans just turn on and off different events and dialogue across the map?
Or is there a better way to go about this?

>>3931401
I structure my game in milestones you can do that or chapters. If you have a "main quest" line you can use that. Save an array of booleans with each index being one of this milestones or main quest points.

>>3931401
You can do a bool array and just keep track of what index applies to what event.
Or something like a struct can be relatively easier to manage, if your language uses it.

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Man
I want to make a game that's like JRPG and CRPG had hot babymaking sex
something like FF5 with mechanics from BG or FONV
Or something like DQ9 with shit from TES
But such a combo would probably either be a content nightmare or total tonal dissonance

>>3931419
>>3931437
So my idea is okay but I want to know if there is a better way.
I don't trust myself with my own ideas

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>>3931446
Me too.

AGDG wouldn't respond so maybe you folks have some thoughts on this:

They updated paperZD so it wouldn't be absolutely terrible to actually use for a full game anymore so I've been thinking of revisiting this project idea. That said, what graphical style do you think would actually be appropriate for a world in the vein of Dark Sun? Should it be more JRPG looking or should I try to find some shitty western style akin to the original DS games? Or something much more simplistic (eg ultima 4, kingsvein for a contemporary example)

>>3931401
That will depend a lot on how you structure your game. In the end you have pile of booleans or integers, but you need to structure them somehow for your own sanity. For items you could just have one big array of booleans for example, or each map tracks all flags that are relevant while you are on that map. For story, games often break things down into quests or acts. You can look at Skyrim modding for some very detailed examples.

Personally I'm using a SQLite database with a bunch of tagged keys. So when you talk to Dave it loads all the flags with the "people/dave" path. It's not finished, but so far it does the main thing of keeping track of which character knows what.

>>3931446
>>3932506
That's what I've been working on and it's basically just a CRPG that doesn't use a D&D derived combat system or Infinity Engine graphics. I think the space really is underexplored, where CRPGs have all this room for expressing player choice, but but are weighed down by bloated systems that were not made for video game. Meanwhile JRPGs put everything in up-front appeal but restrict choices so much they basically disappear entirely like in Final Fantasy 16: an action game that only carries vestigial RPG features because of a historical obligation.

>art style
That's something I'm also not sure about, I'm afraid the only way to gage audience reaction for random hobbyists like us is to look at other games that tried it. So I'm just going with a style that I can make, which is gonna be somewhere between Paper Mario and Bugfables.

new here. I was looking for the rpg maker thread. Is this the right board? I remember that I visited the thread once years ago and got inspired by the amount of rpg maker games.

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>>3932804
>You can look at Skyrim modding for some very detailed examples.
Dunno where to start with that bu does seem like it'll be useful
>SQLite database with a bunch of tagged keys. So when you talk to Dave it loads all the flags with the "people/dave" path
Oh, I studied coding at one of those bootcamps that teach you web development stuff, I've used postgreSQL but never did anything with it, I can see a database being the best way to track a story, I'd have to read more about this tho, like how do get my engine to interact with the database but thanks, this is what Ii wanted to hear.

>>3932819

>>3932963

"Quirky Earthbound-inspired indie RPG secretly about depression" is overdone at this point. What about an inverse?
"Final Fantasy-inspired rpg secretly about... [idk]"?
One idea is to do what Live A Live went for with its final chapters.

>>3933675
A jrpg that is secretly a wrpg

>>3933819
Dragons Dogma

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>>3933820
hey my game's a Zelda-like Dogma-esque, check it out:
>https://files.catbox.moe/4tp2ua.webm
plase don't mind the shitty level, it's just my test room

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It's really hell being a solodev, you have a ton of blindspots and no one to help you see them, a demo can help get feedback but even then it's still lackluster help. I do have recurrent thoughts pop up in my head on how to polish or make a certain feature more cool for the player. I.e. there's a npc that fast travels you from X to Y using an airship, well currently its fade out/fade in, but a small cutscene of the airship riding the clouds would make it somewhat cooler.
So everyone would tell you polish comes at the end right? So i usually write these ideas on a document and keep going, but at the same time these little things are pretty cool to sell the game so it comes down to how to optimize the development to keep people interested.
What is your experience with this anons?

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>>3934748
I try to make things as polished as possible so I don't have to ever go back to them and can focus on creating new stuff

>>3934868
Your dev cave looks comfy

>>3934748
This is why I've grown schizophrenia so my shadow friends can help.

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>>3934868
cute :)

>>3934877
Maybe our shadowfriends were the devs we made along the way

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Should I make my RPG systems-focused (CRPG-ish), or should I make it world/narrative-focused (JRPG-ish)?

>>3935692
What am I looking at?

>>3935696
Terminal brainrot.

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>>3935723
Fallout 1's final boss

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Hironobu Sakaguchi's first game was a text adventure (with graphical supplements).
This was his GDD for it
https://x.com/auuo/status/1995504635000635845

>>3924831
I vote for fallout like. Or fallout2 like. A Morrowind like just sounds too painful to create.

>>3925811
Think smaller. Let the smaller project fund the larger more ambitious ones.

>>3930506
Comfy

>>3920498
Are there trpg where both teams move simultaneously? Trying to design a system, but no matter what you do, action economy trumps everything. Another idea I have is to improve counters and reactions, but especially the latter leads to rounds being constantly interrupted by said abilities. What do? Is the genre doomed?

>>3927617
>I can't recognize good shit. Hurduurr
Someone just needs to see the ones ranked fun, play them, and then take yo money.

>>3936186
Make turns a time slot where both teams need to act, and when both decided it unfolds with special interactions if for example, if both sent characters to the same tiles

Or Make it small time slots of like 5 seconds with a limited amount of actions like a regular turn based

Got another idea but forgot

>>3936355
>Got another idea but forgot
Story of my life

Should my game be NES-styled 2D pixel art, SNES/GBA-styled 2D pixel art, PS1/NDS-styled 3D low poly, or just 2.5D (i.e DOOM)?

>>3937001
Whichever you like the best

>>3931446
>>3932506
I feel like that's more or less what the SaGa series is. Have you played any of those?

Maybe we should create a pastebin with resources or links to share. I dunno if it has ever been created.

>>3937894
Not that I know of

I'm trying to make a first person RPG in a similar style of Daggerfall.
What size would you say the average sprite for an NPC is, pixel wise?
For the moment, I'm using a standard 64x64 for everything, but I don't want it to seem like I'm trying too hard to be low res.

>>3938598
>, but I don't want it to seem like I'm trying too hard to be low res.
Non issue. Idk if you researched your competition, but there are like a dozen announced and afaik many are 2dhd and few 2.5d, too. Meaning a 2d pixel in 3d, looks cool.

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I just spent an entire hour arguing with and seething at a chatbot

>>3938708
>I just spent an entire hour arguing with and seething at a chatbot
Based anon just spent an entire hour on /vrpg/

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Reworking a buncha anims before I commit to the pace of each turn in combat.
It was too slow before.

>>3938710
thisguydoubters went awfully quiet since this post dropped

>>3938710
I think its too fast, too much distance covered in too little time. try lowering one or the other

>>3938790
It might be too fast by, unironically, a singular frame. I'll have to plug it in to find out. Two frames between keys is fine. Dunno about just one.
I know, for sure, that the distance covered is fine.

>>3924831
>>3920498
making an engine for multiplayer rpg with this stack

Languages: Typescript
Runtime: Bun
Graphics: 2D with PixiJS
ECS: BitECS
Physics / Collisions: SAT.js
Networking: Bun Websockets
Binary Protocol: Protobuf
Desktop: Electrobun
Storage (Server): Postgres

Started yesterday and its going well. Wish me luck bros

>>3938708
Just learn to prompt bro

>>3938657
I'm not talking about 2dhd. I mean something similar to the early 3d of games like daggerfall or doom. 3d simple polygonal worlds (I know how Doom actually works, don't say it), but with enemies represented by billboard sprites pre-rendered from a 3d model (or real life sculptures, like I think Doom did.)

My goal is to make it look reasonably authentic to the style of the late 90s while subtly forgetting about certain limitations. For example, it's going to have a large open world with a long render distance, and NPCs are going to be able to reflect the different gear they wear (I'm implementing a strategy to make that work)
Anyway, I'm locking the resolution of the game to 640x480, and just letting it scale to the player's chosen display. So I don't know how many pixels I'd need to give to NPCs and enemies to keep that old-school style.

>>3939127
I was merely stating what your competition does

>>3939127
>My goal is to make it look reasonably authentic
Doable
IMHO qol > strict authenticity
>how many pixel
God, make 3 examples and show us.

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Using Twine to make a text RPG and have the prologue just about finished with Harlowe but considering switching to Sugar Cube, is the code pretty much all the same or do I have to change some things around regarding the Variables and Events? If there's any other engines that are better suited for this I'm all ears, I'd love it if there was something like Legendary Tales from the early 00's to manage aspects within the game like races, classes, stats ect but I can't even get that to run properly anymore on Win10.

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Top screenshot is a fucking atrocity I made 3 years ago; it's a macro to apply Status Effects to a target.

The bottom is a macro I made this evening that does the same thing.

>>3940301
Also with the top one, if I ever thought up new Status Effects, I'd have to add another part to it.

>>3940301
unrealchads rise up

>>3931401
I use a <string, bool> Dictionary stored in a global script. In that same script I have functions for setting and checking each entry.

>>3937001
2D art is quicker to make, depends on the systems. There is a lot of 2D games on the market though so make your art stand out

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Back working on this project again, I had a whole turn-based battle system made, but I couldn't come up with any original ideas to make it fun. Anyone else here struggle with those thoughts?

>>3940490
Most games look like shit.

>>3940498
Make the turnlike, roguelike.
There. now finish your game.

>>3940498
comfy 'sthetic

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hope this looks cool, I want to start the game with a nice prologue section, half tutorial and half kinoludo
>>3935094
>he saved the 'blins
based!

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>>3941696
save all bins

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Remodeled a Player Character again 'cus I'm figuring out the body proportions I want.
Longer legs, smaller head. Also, for some reason, he was an inch and a half taller than he was supposed to be.

Gotta finalize the second party member, too.

Everything in my power to do everything BUT make the first fucking dungeon.

>>3942056
This is a cool model! Who's this handsome guy?
>>3941841
https://cyberpunk.fandom.com/wiki/Rebecca

>>3941841
based Becca poster goblin saver

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>>3942206
He's one of the Party Members you can play as in my game, Ben Wong.
I'm planning on having him start as something Monk-like for his Primary Class and having Players unlock an alternate Primary that'll play like a Blue Mage later.

Currently finishing up a second Party Member. She's gonna be a Thief, but was originally a Warrior before I planned out more characters.

>>3942265
I like your style, these look really professional!

>>3942265
I agree with the other anon, very cool models dude

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AI won

>>3943950
Now you just need some cool graphics anon, way to go

>>3944090
It's ridiculous how bad some indies do their ganes

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I've added some more areas to the first town, and also a material system for the ground tile map. I want to add dynamic footstep sounds, Silent Hill 2 is really rubbing off on me. Hopefully people like ambient tracks, they seem easier to make than actual music, haha.

>>3944342
Is this a Sh clone?

>>3938913
goodluck fren

>>3944933
It's (meant to be) an action RPG, I want to have a mix of fast-paced battle sequences and calmer, more ambient exploration sections. SH is just a big inspiration of mine.

>>3934748
>What is your experience with this anons?
Perfectionism is a curse and its usually better to not bother with developer communities. They are rarely about development and just about tearing down and permabanning anyone they can target. It just demoralizes you and makes things even harder for no fucking reason.
What starts off as a fun hobby just turns into a reminder of every bullshit permaban you'd experienced trying to piece together a workflow that some 'cord or twitch cliques just outright share with their friends within a few minutes. Deciding to make things take 10000x longer for you for no fucking reason. 'cord grifters are a plague.
>"join our discord with any questions!"
When its always just baiting newdevs in to attack and demoralize them.

Here's a little concept that's been mulling around in my mind for a while, and I'm curious what others think.
How would you separate and categorize fictional human races?
I want to create sub-races for every playable race in my game, like Elves can be Shadow, Sun, Mountain, or Forest variant.
Naturally, since humans in our real world are separated out into convenient color-coded categories, how would you go about designing an all new set of these distinctions?

The idea I'm semi-attached to was to not try to mimic any real life races by just mixing random traits from all races for each of them. So for example, you might have a black-skinned human with long straight red hair and blue eyes, and more asian-like rounder facial structure. I'll be honest, that idea only sounds good in concept. Most normies playing a game with a character creator will probably just try to make someone who looks like themselves, or at least an idealized version, and that kind of thing sounds like it'll just make everyone upset.

I'm not too concerned about being called racist for giving the different human tribes different racial skill bonuses, but I'd also like to try and not stoke that flame war too much. (so, not making the blacks a bunch of bone-through-the-nose spear chucking savages) I'm probably asking for enough of that just by calling the sexes "male" and "female" and giving slight stat differences based on your sex.

So, what would you do for this sort of thing? At the moment, I'm thinking of just doing some mild research of the environmental pressures that it's theorized that racial traits emerged because of, and just get creative in writing the cultures in those biomes without just ripping from real civilizations too heavily. I'm thinking of naming them based off of the four elements plus magic.

>>3945832
>The idea I'm semi-attached to was to not try to mimic any real life races by just mixing random traits from all races for each of them
I don't think this is a good idea. Most players would not see weird new ethnicities, they'd just see that all the characters look off and that they can't make a normal looking human.

What other such games do for their humans is to just use cultures/nations instead of sub-races. Gets you all the same benefits, lowers the racism risk and you can make up new groups whenever you need them. Personally I'd prefer it for the non-human races too because I'm sick of a dozen Noun Elves and leftovers nouns for the other races.
You can decouple the visuals from the gameplay element and players will largely self-select by how much they care about stuff like this. You can still go research all this stuff and use it in content you make, just give the player the choice to move away from it. The power of the default is strong.

>>3945832
>Most normies playing a game with a character creator will probably just try to make someone who looks like themselves
This is what will make the most people happy, so this should be the main focus. Maybe have different races be a different hue, with each having a "white" and "black" equivalent? I think it could be annoying for a certain skin color to be set to a specific race, and that would probably be the first thing modded out.

>>3946115
>>3946155
Decent points. I'm of a similar mind overall. Elder Scrolls is actually pretty unique in how it handled the different human races. Three white ones, one black, and even in Skyrim the lightest Redguard skin tone is around the same as the darkest Nord, Imperial, or Breton. Some have even used this as a point in theorizing lore-wise.

I kind of like the idea of just making the visual difference amount to the set of defaults you could choose from. It would mean that I can properly differentiate between the sub-races for NPCs without stopping a player from playing a Fire-Human with white skin. and now I'm also thinking I want to obscure the names of these sub-races a bit so they aren't just literally called Fire, Air, Water, Earth, Magic humans. Making fake words for things that don't exist in languages that also don't exist: It's what fantasy writers do best.

>>3920498
I'm not a dev, but a musician. And I'd like to gain some experience working in this field. I have had no luck figuring out how to enter into the pool, so to speak, so this is just a dog out the window in the dark; if you need a musician I'll be happy to help, if you think my style fit with your project.
Willing to do it 4 3, unless...

How annoying would it be to make an RPG with no journal? Because the protagonist is an illiterate barbarian, you see. I imagine it'd be quite annoying in today's "everyone has to be held by the hand" environment, but I'm really enamored with the idea.

>>3946416
Even the illiterate can scribble pictographs and make dots and arrows on a map, assuming he has one or can draw a somewhat reliable one
You could probably reach an interesting and fun middleground there.

>>3946416
>Because the protagonist is an illiterate barbarian
Make spirit visions you get when sleeping/using a specific item.

>>3946416
Excess handholding is what put us in this situation in the first place, more handholding will not solve it. We need to filter at least one generation of players.

>>3946416
In an RPG the player should be given the same information that the character could plausibly know. If your character knows what to do but the player doesn't you're just being disingenuous. Just don't call it a journal. If the character really doesn't know wtf to do then you're not playing a barbarian you're playing a drooling mongoloid retard. Which may be a hit on steam

>>3946464
I agree that the PC should be given information, but he can't store it in a notepad because he can't write. It should be up to the player to remember stuff.

>>3946465
it's your game so do whatever you want but if your character knows something the player doesn't then you're not roleplaying as him so it's not a roleplaying game
are you really saying the only way to convey information is through a journal?
why not have the character have conversations with himself to remember stuff? that's something a barbarian would do

>>3946416
If you can make it fun to remember things, that'd be great. But I'd probably just write down things myself.

>>3946416
You've really got to be wary when not giving the players any way to re-view their objective. I'd say more often than not, it just adds tedium and annoyance. Especially so if you can't go back and see old dialogue again.
So, some NPC tells you to go and slay the Wyvern in X cave. Well you're too low level to handle that right now, so you just leave it for later. Well now that later becomes never because you can't go back and re-assess your goals. It means that small pieces of information that should be important are just up to you to remember, or understand that they're important to write down.
Also remember that you're more than likely going to want to appeal to adults with adult responsibilities, so the many hour-long play sessions from youth are now a few hours every week interspersed with many more important things to take up your limited mind-space.
I'm not saying it wasn't fun to have games that "don't hold your hand" but sometimes a bit of a hand up is all you need.

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Working on a new tileset for a church-type area. I'm still a novice when it comes to pixel art, but I think its crappiness makes it unique. Any artists ITT have any advice?

>>3920498
Having an flash of inspiration. You all know tree dialogue, clunky and boring imho.
My idea is hopefully an improvement. Cut the cycles, meaning you can't go back or ask the same thing twice and add plenty of nuances as answers. Thee serve as fluff and reactivity trigger. On top of that they have a score that adds to attributes like ruthless, compassion aso and the world or the group treats you based on your character (class, race) and the attributes you earned. Better or worse than classic dialogue tree?

>>3946416
It depends heavily on the structure of the world and volume of quests. I personally think quests are somewhat overrated. If your world is full of non-quest-based incentives to explore and learn the lay of the land, and the world itself is memorable, you'll find the question of a journal or no journal isn't such a big deal.

>>3948025
I think most games have trees that don't allow you to go back on "progression" dialogue. Anything that advances a quest, trigger events, etc. Only exposition type dialogue lets you loop so that the player can access information.

But what you are describing sounds pretty close to the system I've planned.

>Dialogue Stats
Player and companions have three stats. Roughly "Lawful Good", "Chaotic Good" and "Neutral Evil". Depending on player choices the balance of alignment shifts, with important choices making for bigger shifts. You can also use rare drops in alchemy to shift the balance around.

>Companions
Companions react to what they see. Imagine you do a quest with a corrupt noble while you have the idealistic knight with you. If you "fail" the quest and the evil noble wins, the knight has their faith shaken and moves towards the center. But if you punish the noble the night is reaffirmed and pushed further towards lawful good.
If you want to avoid that, leave the companion at camp while doing that quest.

>Skill Tree
Each character has a skill tree and whenever you advance you get to chose one of a handful of abilities and the Alignment unlocks extra choices.
That was the original idea behind the system: You start out with a young, idealistic squire. Reaffirm their chivalric beliefs and they develop into a paladin holy magic and support abilities, break them and they turn into a barbarian all about offense. You can also unlock outfits since I'm too lazy to code a visual armor system. The skills are limited by skill slots and you can carry over learned skills and outfits to New Game+.

>Itemization
There's a variety of items and skills that tie into the system. Simple things like a holy smite scaling with your lawfulness, a heal that gives one of three buffs depending on alignment, the church zealot enemy targeting Evil characters, etc.

What's important is that I always unlock extra choices, I don't funnel the player into their alignment.

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Been retargeting my animations after tweaking the scales. It's been a tedious nightmare.

Will players care if the Item Cast anim is shared with the Spell Cast anim?

>>3948251
no dude, nobody will care
wow does that and nobody cares
nice anim tho

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>>3948251
he cute

>>3948246
>If you want to avoid that, leave the companion at camp while doing that quest.
Maybe - 50% alignment shift? People talk. 0 allignment shift is lax

>>3948246
>funnel the player into their alignment
Should be forbidden. Devs still think it's pong, reward and punish. You either choose advance quest or abort in many rpg. That's barely a choice. It's like the choice stay alive or die. What kind of choice is this? One door closes, another should open.

>>3948251
I wouldn't, but you could always play the animation at twice the speed for items.

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>>3947644
I hated it, this is better. Still getting the hang of the style for the game, I want it to be sort of sketchy and comic-like.

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i've been working on my next game
here's a minigun

>>3949305
minigundoubters have been awfully quiet since this post dropped

>>3949305
This is awesome!!

>>3949305
Kalemonvo 2: now it's personal

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I always wanted to make RPGs or RPG-adjacent games like immersive syms. But after releasing my game on Steam, I realized that gamers don't deserve RPGs. So I don't know if I should continue making RPGs. On the one hand, I would want to, on the other, it's near impossible to find motivation to work on something like an RPG for no gain, financial or any other kind.

>>3949599
>gamers don't deserve RPGs
Means what

>>3949599
>But after releasing my game on Steam
Link the steam page

>>3949599
You should make games that you want to play. Doing it for money is a horrible gamble that more than likely won't pay off.

I want to make a crpg but it seems too hard for a solodev to do

>>3949599
>But after releasing my game on Steam, I

and you don't tell us which one it was... why?

>>3949599
>the world doesn't deserve my work
In an era where media is more widely available than ever before, why do people insist on such useless masturbation?

>>3949814
Artistically inclined people have bigger than average egos. Been that way forever, since long before times depicted in Plutarch's memos.

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I've crunched 60 characters in 2 weeks. That's 120 spritesheets and several other graphics. I think next game I'll try 3D low poly modelling.

>>3949892
prove it

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>>3949307
>>3949308
cheers

>>3949324
:^)
its surprising how quickly this is moving compared to 'monvo. it helps that i just copy pasted a bunch of systems that worked fine.
i also have the benefit of knowing what worked and what didn't, and i'll get to apply all the lessons learned from it.

>>3949999
I'm fairly new to this gen, have you made games in the past? You seem to really know what you're doing. It's killer

>>3950004
thanks anon
i made a diablo 1 clone which released almost a year ago. i posted progress about it around here since basically 2020. it has basically the same camera position and visual style like the webms i posted
i wouldn't say i know what i'm doing though, i just make stuff and iterate based on feedback a lot.

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I should enginedev my rpg to be a cool guy, but dealing with 3d models in my own engine was a complete nightmare. So I'm going to explore Godot to see if it's a more realistic way to make a 3d game.

I was thinking doing 2d or billboards, but I want to make a RTWP type game and I think 3d is needed for visual clarity on what's happening on the battlefield.

so pic rel is literally me

>>3949999
damn her hair looks so silky and smooth, I want to lovingly wash the blood out of it. Is that the same tech you used for capes?

>>3950053
it is the same cape physics yeah!
what was your engine anon, have you posted about it? i'm interested.
i heard godot is still a bit wonky with 3D for one reason or another, though

>>3950086
Yo, it's battydev!

Making batty vamps in my engine has been fun but I've never found a good enginedev workflow for 3d models and I'm tired of trying to figure it out.

>>3950053
I don't think making a whole engine is worth it unless your game has to do something crazy and unlike any other game. Otherwise you're programming all the basic features that other engines do natively instead of actually building the game proper.

>>3950125
oh shit, whats up battychad
well, why not just get the whole thing done in unity? it sucks in many ways but handling 3D models is not one of them

At some point I plan to begin learning C#, Unity, and Git. I haven't done that yet, but it's in the cards.

Ideally I would make all of the music and art for a project as well. More soul that way, but more importantly more frugal. I have artistic talent but it's super newbie level - i.e., never put skill points or effort into it enough to make something decent.

Can guitar, can piano, can drum, but right now it would all sound like a bull in a china shop mixed with screeching owls and howling dogs.

I can draw in pencil decently, probably pen/marker if I were confident. I'm not sure how my digital art would be. As a kid I would first trace strategy guides, then I would freehand them. I can mimic art, but I never made an earnest attempt to produce something from my own mind and soul. I would like to just for the sake of experience, even though I am not confident it would be anything good.

>>3950194
I did it originally to just sharpen my skills. It was great for that, I don't regret it. I'm absolutely a better programmer now.

But if all you want to do is make a game, there's no reason to make your own engine. Well, I'd say it's close for 2d games. But 3d games, fuck me, there's so much shit.

>>3950207
I'm just kinda into the open source thing. Nice to know I can pick through the code at will and maybe contribute down the line.

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>>3950224
Quality and Soul are two seperate axis, my friend. The art in your game doesn't necessarily have to be high fidelity to be appealing, I've played many games that look "amateur" and still stuck in my mind because they look so iconic. I would much rather play a game that looked unique than just having "good-looking" art.
Music isn't something I know a lot about but as long as it fits the tone of the scene you should be fine.
Unless you're doing something incredibly resource-heavy I wouldn't worry too much about the code. Computers are incredibly powerful, as long as your code runs, aim for that. Optimize later if need be.

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Simple combat systems are fun to make!

>>3950053
I've also switched from a custom engine to godot + bilboarding(well, planes with subviewport textures so I can animate in engine). It's been working quite well as long as you ignore my utter lack of skill and constant procrastination. I think RTWP could still work with sprites as long as you are careful with the visuals: very clear and simple animations, prevent units clustering, run it slower than your usual Infinity Engine game.
If you want the custom engine feel, making your own gdextension is pretty easy. I've got both C++(gdcef with custom bugfixes) and Rust(game logic) and the integration is very smooth. You really just make your own custom nodes that expose functions to gdscript, but you can also break out into conventional code to use whatever library you need.

>>3950560
The dog is cute! I really like the houses in the distance too

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How do you guys plan out what aspects of your game you make first?
I keep getting wrapped up in smaller details when I should be focusing more on the big important stuff first.
I got terrain generation working, but lighting is so non-existent that you can't tell how smooth the sine waves look. Also, the movement keys are hard coded in main, I can't show UI yet, and the texturing is just garish.
Not to mention that this is supposed to be a first person real time RPG, and terrain generation is what I chose to work on next.

>>3950880
Thank you, I really appreciate it! Art isn't a strong skill of mine, so I'm still trying to figure things out.

>>3950884
Make something playable asap. Simplest game loop first.

Does terrain provide a game loop? Lighting?

>>3950884
First processes, then unknowns, then difficult things.

Start with your work processes because introducing these later is a pain in the ass. Source control, backups, pipelines, automated testing, and so on.

Then you figure out the things you know you will need, but don't know how to do yet. Draw your first artwork, make your first 3D model, write your first shader, etc. You want to know as early as possible when your assumptions are wrong so you can adjust your plans or pivot.

Then you just go down your list by difficulty because you probably underestimated many things and you don't want to learn that when you're strapped for time. It's ok to "to take a break" once in a while buy working on fun stuff.

You will learn a lot and realize that you've been completely wrong on many things, so you want to get that out of the way before sinking too much time into those stupid early decisions.

How do model anime hair?

>>3951198
one of the biggest mysteries of the universe

>>3946416
Can't he have a journal full of doodles related to the quests he took?

If I want to make a fairly simplistic first person dungeon crawler (think old SMT, but maybe low-poly 3D instead of 2D walls), and I want to make it a bit moddable for reasons, is Godot my default option or is there something that could work better? Not sure whether it's easier to do this without relying on a full engine or not.
I know RPG Maker MV/MZ can do this with plugins, but I'm a Java monkey so I prefer something with actual code and not menu coding with poorly documented JS scripting.

>>3951198
There are many methods. The one I used once for a VR avatar was bezier curves that expand into strands using some Blender function I can't recall. Some Japanese modelers use flat stripes and cylinders with semi-transparent textures. Honestly just watch some tutorials on YouTube and check out models on Booth, you'll probably find an example/method that you like.

updated my journal

>>3951132
NTA, need a refresher on rigging and animating 3D models. Im mostly making mechanical enemies so don’t need weight painting.

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in about a week, it'll have been a year since Mirrored Soul released. me and some of the other members of the devteam are gonna be doing a retrospective. can't guarantee it'll be ready to the date (april 4th) but regardless, it should be soon™
we will be answering questions regarding the game and its development; if anyone has any, feel free to ask itt. try to keep them polite, please.

I don't have any new screenshots since development is over, so here's a cool tribute someone made in minecraft.

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Thoughts on making a KOTOR/FF12-like?

>>3952592
I don't know too much about any of this, but my game is also a first person dungeon crawler, (not tile based or turn based though) and I'm planning to add mod support through json files and lua script bindings for everything.
If it's a thing, have it load in from a json file containing all relevant data, and linked to asset files like textures, sprites, models, or music. If it's a process, have it load in from a lua script tied to functions within your game. If it's really a low fidelity game, it's not likely to struggle with performance issues from using interpreted code, or doing so many file operations.
I'm not using an engine though, so you'll have to find something compatible with whatever you're using.

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I've applied to every festival that aligns with my game for a year and I've been rejected every single time. The rejection letter always reads like "we have received thousands of applications" when previously we used to receive in the hundreds. Chris Z has been telling everyone to apply to everything so then we have slop stuck in the pipeline of games that could use a festival, the consequences of gamedev tools going mainstream have been absolutely catastrophic.

>>3952999
What game is it?

>>3952705
>got a tribute in minecraft
You've already made it anon.

I gotta be honest, I've only played the demo so I have very few questions
What are the team's favorite mons?
Are you planning a sequel or making another game?
What was the most difficult feature to implement?

>>3950414
Good points. What game is that from in the picture you posted?

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>>3952778
FFXII is my biggest inspiration

>>3953075
Space Funeral, it's incredibly short and easy, don't go in expecting a traditional RPG. It's incredibly personal and soulful though, it's pretty popular in RPGMaker cliques.

A lot of games try to prevent or punish grinding, but I'm wondering if there's a way to reward aggressive players, liking encouraging them to not grind or rewarding them for clearing a dungeon in one go.

>>3952999
>Chris Z
youre part of the problem

>>3953592
The best way to stop grinding is to have your scaling/currency be perfect so the player has no reason to grind in the first place. Rewarding a lack of grinding is a cool idea, how would you monitor that though? The way I see it, if grinding is boring, it's already a punishment.

>>3953592
It might be a good idea to increase XP rewards for players doing content against far stronger enemies. So beating the level 10 Goblin Chief at level 10 could award 200 XP, but beating it at level 5 could give 1000 XP.
You could also let loot and rewards scale just a bit below the player's expected level. At level 5, most of the gear you find could be bronze, with Steel being a rare drop from a boss monster, or you could go to a level 10 dungeon and find steel gear all over the place, letting you power up even quicker if only you can use your tools well enough to survive the initial challenge of fighting overleveled enemies.

Discouraging grinding is as straight forward as making the intended gameplay loop be also the most efficient. If the best way to level up is by finding quests and clearing dungeons rather than crafting a million iron daggers, or killing boars for two weeks, then that's what players will do.

On the topic of clearing a dungeon in one go, I'm considering an idea I got from Dark Souls for my Elder Scrolls inspired RPG. What if in a Daggerfall Dungeon, you could only rest outside of the dungeon. The moment you step out, everything respawns, meaning you have to press on through, or go back to restock your health and spell points in hopes you can try again.
I probably won't do it exactly like that (especially with Daggerfall's dungeon sizes) but I'm still considering a way to stop players from just smacking the rest button every time they stub their toe.

Why punish grinding
If grinding is not desired remove the incentive (exp, whatever)

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Is there a better feeling than fixing that stupid lag spike that you have been troubleshooting for weeks?

>>3953972
you're cute

I just had an idea for how I can make my game concept work. Let me know what you think.

So, it's mostly inspired by the Elder Scrolls series in that it's a first person dungeon crawler with more of an emphasis on character building rather than story and narrative choices. (Morrowind fans, quit typing that reply)
I want it to have a similarly sized world to the canonical Tamriel from Arena. Roughly 6 million square kilometers. All procedurally generated with a seeded value so every playthrough is unique.
The issue (among many I'll need to figure out) is how do I encourage players to move through the world from province to province instead of just picking up quests in their first town. I realized this would be an issue when I first started playing Daggerfall, and I realized that the world was so huge that it took forever to get somewhere on foot, and there's really no reason.

I had the idea for your goal to be to collect the 10 shards of the Philosopher's Stone so you can save your world from an other-worldly threat. The details aren't important and neither is the story as a whole. Each province is going to have a shard, and the order you start questing in each province dictates the scaled level of everything. So your starting zone could be 1-10, then the next zone you go to and pick up a quest in will be 11-20. Even if you're still too low level to handle it at the time.
To find the shards, you have to explore numerous dungeons. On occasion, one of them will have a Primordial Diamond, which you can use to charge up a magical locator to point you in the direction of the closest shard (within the same zone, so it isn't going to be too high level for you)
When you use the Primordial Diamond, you'll be given a vague direction which will persist on your map. This means that you have to explore with direction instead of just trying to see a different area. Follow the trail for long enough, and you'll find the mega-dungeon housing the shard, and a few extra tough enemies.

>>3954313
Procedural generation at that scale is sketchy. It's easy to go No Man's Sky and say "18 quintillion planets," while having a lot of area feel basically the same. For another example, Oblivion caught flak for having dungeons that looked the same - one question to ask is how many dungeon templates you're going to have, compared to the number of dungeons you're expecting players to explore? Not just story dungeons, I mean in total.
As you say, "The details aren't important and neither is the story as a whole," so there's a question of what, exactly, you'll use to retain players. "To get stronger" only really holds as long as there's something interesting to test that strength against, and even that's no guarantee.

Most games like this are shorter, but the scale suggests you'd like it to be pretty long. I don't know if many people would stick around for the full ride.

>>3954347
Yeah, those are all things I need to take into account.
When I say the story isn't important, I'm mostly meaning in this context when talking about gameplay. It's still not ideally the main draw, but I think that's alright as long as the gameplay is good enough to keep people around. I'll be definitely making more than just a main quest with stuff like guilds, orders, covenants, and other groups to rank up with and get quests from.
The plan is to come up with a handful of different dungeon generation algorithms made up of as many rooms as I can think of in various styles to be mixed, matched, and combined as the numbers dictate. I'm expecting to spend months just testing and adjusting these algorithms for cohesion and fun. This goes for dungeons, towns, quests, and even names. So it might start out as a decrepit mausoleum, and then lead way into a narrow dank cave, and finally at the bottom is a large cavern with glowing green crystals and a cultist lair. They'll all have different probability weights based on the country it resides in, and the surrounding terrain of the outside.

Maybe I'm weird about this, but I actually really enjoy the massive labyrinthine dungeons of Daggerfall. When I first started playing that game (pretty recently, oddly enough), I spent about three hours doing my first one outside the tutorial dungeon, and have tried to do as many as I can since then. It was a ton of fun, and I'm hoping to capture a similar audience. Most of them aren't going to be as big as Daggerfall's though. I'll save those for a special treat that you'll only find on occasion.

Really, it's one of those "scale-creep" moments where I'm promising the stars and the sky so that I can meet my limits before setting them. I know the Elder Scrolls backed away from having these huge worlds that need to be measured in what landmass they best relate to the size of, but I'm personally trying to see how I can make an idea work first, then figuring out whether to cut it.

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Also, I realized how that last post sounded out of context, so I want to explain: I'm not just making this project because I'm currently playing Daggerfall or anything. It's really more like that I wanted to distill down the best parts of Skyrim and Morrowind, and put it in a package that can be played more-or-less forever. I also had a huge list of ideas on how the RPG mechanics could be implemented, and why I think it would make for good gameplay, all that.

I don't know if I'm the only one, but I'll often get concepts for games I want to make that are basically just slightly remixed versions of whatever game I'm currently playing. This project has been a long time coming, and I've been working on it way too slowly for a while now. I'm only recently picking back up speed.
Just this past weekend, I implemented UI sprites, billboard sprites, texture blending, and an actual input handling system. (I'm not using an engine, I just think it's more fun like this)

Why is leveling even a thing
>hey your numbers went up
>go fight the enemies with bigger numbers now

>>3954409
Doing bigger numbers feels "fun", even if relatively you're doing the same amount of damage. Learning new moves is cool too, although that doesn't have to be tied to levels.
Imagine if you were still doing single-digit numbers on the final boss, would be pretty lame.

>>3954409
Leveling does multiple things that you want your game to have with fairly low effort to implement it, so it's just incredibly convenient.
>incredibly granular reward system
>gates choices and complexity to prevent choice paralysis
>gives players a goal to reach and road to follow
>signposts areas of a game the player isn't meant to go
>player adjusted difficulty through grinding/challenge runs
>simple storytelling device, e.g. mentor character guest party member has higher level

Alternative progression systems are more difficult or come with limitations. Equipment or consumable based progression doesn't work with multiple playable characters due to funneling all power into one unit, milestone/story based takes away flexibility, exploration runs the risk of players missing crucial upgrades and adds bloat to second playthroughs.
You probably can find solutions to any of those issues, but it's just a lot easier to go with what is proven to work.

>>3952608
Had studied some models but none of them used the strand method. It was always some kind of simple solid for the parts of the hair that had no detail like the top of the head.

Just sucks how most game engines just seem to fight you every step of the way and get even more sabotaged with every update to stifle competition.

>>3954409
Before RPGs there were wargames. Wargames had different unit tiers, for example "conscript" or "veteran". Think of how in Chess you have different pieces Wargames were not officially published games with a set of pieces and rules; they were rules invented by fans of miniatures who wanted to play with their miniatures. This meant the rules were pretty loose, fans would modify the rules or invent new ones just for fun. So some players played with the rule that if your units won enough battles, they would upgrade to a higher tier. Conscripts would become veterans or something. Keep in mind in an individual match you might use 20 units and lose half of them. This upgrade system was not an inherent part of the game design - it was added purely because players thought it was fun.

Before DnD, players were already started to house rule games that were like DnD, with each players controlling an individual hero instead of an army. And players asked their DM "why doesn't our units upgrades?" like in wargames. So Dave Arneson created the leveling and experience system for his campaign due to the demand of his players, which was later officialized in DnD.

Now, whether you were playing a wargame or DnD - those were long campaigns, played over months or years, with players often in opposition. So nobody would say "let me go fight weak mobs over and over to gain a lot upgrade my units/level up". This only became a thing when the EXP and leveling system was brought over to video games, where you can play without other players and enemies can respawn infinitely.

tl;dr it's not an inherent part of RPG design, it was added because players liked it and wargames already had a similar upgrade system.

>>3953740
The ideal grinding is something between ff2 and romancing saga 2. Just not as arcane and obtuse.

>>3954913
number doesn't have to go up

>>3954944
Some progress has to be there

>>3950053
In Godot you can cast a 3d character or object -from a camera in a 3d scene that is running off screen, such that it generates 2d sprites live for a 2d scene. It's incredibly lightweight if done properly and the product you get would require thousands of preloaded 2d sprites if done the traditional way.

I'd consider making the game actually 3d before doing this though. Pervasive filters are far easier to solo dev, converting them to 2d means an extra step basically... I'm personally not a big fan because the payoff doesn't generally effect the actual gameplay, vibe or narrative too drastically when comparted with the amount of extra work and headache generated.

How do you guys do your playtesting? Giving copies to friends, or something more in-depth?

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minigun showoff wip

>>3955912
on my last game i just submitted to DD a bunch and tried to get anyone willing to play through it. getting people who hate your genre or have no experience with it is just as valuable as getting it in front of people familiar with it.
friends will usually not give you harsh feedback. anons will gladly rip your game to shreds, it's just a matter of sifting through the criticisms to get earnest feedback.

>>3956643
transvibes

>>3956643
> minigun showoff wip
i presume the showoff feature will work for all weapons?

>>3957018
crabnigging faggot get out

>>3956643
I love the sly smile she does after showing it off

>>3956643
>getting people who hate your genre or have no experience with it is just as valuable as getting it in front of people familiar with it
I don't agree to be honest, feedback from people who play the genre is more valuable as they will know what things click and what don't with the genre. Also people who play other genres might throw you into a wrong direction with their suggestions. But I guess it is still valuable to get feedback from different devs.

>>3957018
which part
>>3957226
probably. right now i'm doing big animations for cool weapons, but every weapon type has its own animation. might not be flashy, just an idle holding loop.
>>3957399
cheers
>>3957426
it depends i guess
i got pretty good feedback from people who disliked the genre i was making precisely because they didn't approach it as those experienced in the genre did. i'm not saying it's the only avenue to approach, but it did offer me a perspective others didn't.
of course, a lot of that feedback is just what the genre is, and that part you can safely ignore.
in general, just get a game in front of as many eyes as you can.

this will sound autistic but i'm autistic so i might as well not mask it. i'm a relatively experience programmer with some art skills. i want to make a simple solo crpg but don't know how to design one to be appealing or good, or how to write for rpgs. i've basically only been a consumer of games so far. how do i approach this problem? are there any good resources youd give a sperg on how to write for vidya and design a game?

>>3958259
>how do i approach this problem
What problem? The scourge if vidya developing is that devs hate games and gamers hate devs.
If you lack skills, can you pay up? If not, I suggest on originality.
>resources for writing and designing
Honestly, there aren't any good resources on designing. Flipped some papers and can say they are basically useless for general advice. Regarding writing get some novel writing courses. If you had acceptable education, you don't need additional courses.
>experienced programmer
What do you code and how do you approach new projects?

>>3958273
> What problem?
designing and developing a game is much different from playing it
> If you lack skills, can you pay up? If not, I suggest on originality.
feels weird to pay for an idea guy to design the game for me, but i guess thats what game designers do anyway
> Regarding writing get some novel writing courses
sounds reasonable, i'll scout around
> What do you code
tractor and combine harvester firmware lol
> how do you approach new projects?
my team gets the spec from the project management, we divide up the job, the regular code shop setup. i'm not really good with setting up the specs myself

>>3958279
That's the most stupid thing you can do, paying someone creating a game. If you don't see it, and don't have a team, don't do it
Go work somewhere as a wagie or founder. You will never get your money's worth ever. Literally impossible.
>machine coding
1010100110110
>my team gets the spec from the project management
>we divide up the job
You really think you can solo a game? Like the worst kind of coding/creating in SD? Getting in a team is imho your best bet. You can start coding some mechanics or some parts of your favourite games to get the hang of it. Idk if offline meetings are a thing where you are, try to meet teams and dive into the scene. If offline isn't an option, reach out online.
Don't get me wrong, I love good games and if you can make one, I'll buy. Rn you neither have an idea, nor an overview of the market, nor qualifying experience. You dont see a game you want to do. Don't forget that even professionals frequently fuck up. For 40 years 80% of all started games at around 80% completetion get cancelled.
Another way I just came up with. Want to learn how to write? No problem, good thing to learn, even if you never publish something.
While you learn to write, try to publish a free vn. Rather short, but could be an prequel to your crpg. Maybe try that? Can be done in 3 months and then you know if you want to make a game or not. Last tip, check out solo devs. Trpg, crpg, metroidbrainia aso, solos are everywhere. Check their socials and reach out.

>>3958313
> That's the most stupid thing you can do, paying someone creating a game. If you don't see it, and don't have a team, don't do it
yeah I don't see myself actually paying someone to design the game, which is why i asked
> You really think you can solo a game?
right now no, or i'd be doing it instead of asking about tips
> Rn you neither have an idea, nor an overview of the market, nor qualifying experience. You dont see a game you want to do.
i do have an idea (vague), but ideas aren't really worth anything. i'm trying to see how to facet it. no relevant experience or market overview is correct, though.
> Idk if offline meetings are a thing where you are, try to meet teams and dive into the scene. If offline isn't an option, reach out online.
i'm a bit rural but it's doable, i can take the train into the city on weekends and go to some geek spaces. that's a good idea i totally overlooked, thanks anon
> While you learn to write, try to publish a free vn. Rather short, but could be an prequel to your crpg. Maybe try that? Can be done in 3 months and then you know if you want to make a game or not.
i've thought about it before but got put off by how many weebs are in the space. nothing against them, i just can't connect with them at all so i bounced off. won't hurt to give it another shot though. that's another good idea, i can draw it and code it at the same time, and there's no real game design involved, and if i hate the process of writing for a game like i can just trash the crpg idea too because it won't get better. solid advice yeah
> solos are everywhere. Check their socials and reach out.
yeah thats probably a good thing to do, i'll look around on twitter and discord and connect with people maybe

yeah this wasnt quite what i asked but the answers gave me enough direction which is probably better. thanks again

>>3958259
What you're asking for is learning game design. You can approach this in two ways, really:

>Fundamentals
You start from the bottom up and treat it like going to school again. There's actual game design schools as a sub field of psychology. Enrolling in school is a lot, but many universities provide free material. Or you just go on youtube. Extra Credits, Design Delve, Game Maker's Toolkit, Distraction Makers, Tim Cain, there's tons of channels in this field.
Either way, you'll learn abstract concepts and how humans behave that you will be able to any aspect of any game. Or if you want quicker results:

>Deconstruction
You look at finished games - CRPGs in your case - and figure out how they work and why. Take a loot at the subtle little differences between two games, why the crafting system is cool in one but not the other. There's quite a few post-mortems for games you know on the internet.
Important: Look at things outside your comfort zone to avoid becoming a "copy of a copy". Take the non-RPG games you enjoyed and ask why, look at popular games and figure out what sets them apart from the competition.
This will get you pretty quickly to a list of things you want to do with your various systems.

>Synthesis
Finally, once you get to actually making your game, you will encounter tons of problems. Broken strategies, systems that don't fit together, parts that take you a lot of time to make only for the player to forget it in seconds. You'll need to trial and error a lot and throw a lot of work away, but this is where your game becomes something original.

>>3958259
There's plenty of game design guides out there. My tips are make learning mechanics interesting and ensure the game is fun at all times.

>>3920498
Whats the difference between this general and adgd?

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>>3958370
One reinvents Pong.
One reinvents Final Fantasy?

>>3958370
This is a thread about making games.
/agdg/ is parasocial drama about people you've never heard of.
The /v/ flips between the two depending on which shitposters show up.

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>>3958372
make final fantasy again

>>3952778
I keep resisting the urge simply because the volume of STUFF is just to fucking high. Rigging, Models, Zones, all integral to not make the games feel sloggy and that's before you get to the actual bread and butter of the combat

>>3958339
>Extra Credits, Design Delve, Game Maker's Toolkit, Distraction Makers, Tim Cain
All shit btw

>>3958543
tim cain, although a gayfaggot, is an actually accomplished game maker and doesn't deserve to be lumped in with the rest FACT

>>3958547
He is, no doubt. His content is lame. Little to be learned by an expert gamer, like people with 20+ years.
>>3958339
I deconstruct games since the age of 4, so I think others are doing this, too.

>>3958416
I've got enemy database files for final fantasy. Recreating The Legend of Zelda is more satisfying.

>>3946416
I’ve mulled over this a bit about giving the player a journal they can write in themselves if you expect them to write down and memorise info on their own but not be too hand-holdy. If you expect the player to grab a slip of paper and write things down you may as well give them a way to do that diagetically instead of making them feel like “I’m overdoing it because I’m going out of my way to utilise external materials” which isn’t necessarily bad but turns away normies . As others have pointed out, you can even remove the ability to type in notes and just give the player a stylus and an infinite number of pages to scribble and draw on, and the jank can play into your barbarians tardism

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>>3958553
>his content is lame
You're lame. He's a genius.

>>3959205
A modern day Pythagorus

>>3959205
Kek, very funny. I for one tried a system that he described and I can say to you it's idiotic and certified anti fun. I'm sure you knew without creating it. Pretty obvious for anyone interested in game mechanics. Picrel just shows that he's bad with numbers and that he's not the savant he thinks he is.

>>3959330
nah he lowkey right though this is why Skyrim was so successful

>>3959344
Try write the system down he advocates there. It's idiotic.
>skyrim
Has shit to do with Mr Pythagoras. You want to actively avoid what he advocates. If anything many modern systems are too basic. You need complexity, at least to a certain degree.

>>3959374
yeah but character creation isn't it

>>3959409
Can't find the vid, what is he saying about the cc that you are referring to?

>>3959454
His presentation was actually a bit retarded but he's not wrong that there's many RPGs that are too front-loaded in regards to your character. Most people just want to play the strong guy or the fast guy and then maybe have some fiddly bits extra to "perfect" your build

>>3959559
>front loaded
Pretty obvious
>build
Choosing from 2 options isn't build

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Stylized characters over a realistic set might not be it. It doesn't help that the first dungeon is an investigation into some catacombs.

I'm gonna lean into it for now and just hope something clicks.
There's only so much I can do superfast when I'm messing with PS2 Gouraud shading.

How easy is GB Studio to use? can you make cooler mechanics with just the events?

>>3960018
Specify

I'm making a business game. You basically start multiple businesses to compete with other AI businesses. The businesses have multiple attributes you set. Like cost, quality, etc, and you're limited by money, so you can't just make everything perfect all the time. Is this game I'm describing an RPG? You'd defeat enemy businesses by putting them out of business.

>>3961272
Could be. As who(m) do you roleplay? There's a lawyer rpg, check this out.

>>3961959
You'd play the role of someone leaving their job to be a business owner. You yourself don't have stats, just your businesses, in some sense like pokemon or something. On the surface it doesn't feel like an RPG, but when I think of it, it's almost a table top rpg. I only ask because I was wondering if posting progress here would make sense. I might as well just post when I have something. People can scold me if they disagree with it.

>>3961972
I play myself in pokemon and use frag grenades and gatling gun to decimate the enemy pokemon.
>posting
Sure, why not? You'll get fun and feedback.
... The occasional hate post, but that's that.

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So, the balance sheet is too large to show in a single screen shot. But the pic is an example of it. Financial docs aren't really needed but I thought it could be cool to include them. Just something basic to give people an introduction to basic accounting. I've been working on generating these, and having them populate correctly at the end of the turn and from loading a saved game.

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I'm currently working on the first multi-room puzzle of the game, is it clear what to investigate here?

>>3962184
the workbench?

>>3962275
Yes that's great thanks

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some pew pewing

>>3963735
I like how her hair looks dyed with all that blood :)

Has anyone seen the pines? It's solo and imho the best looking and feeling solo trailer I ever saw. Horror rpg, too.

>>3963989
Link?

>>3963991
By studio abboitoir. Everywhere on yt now. I love it already, curious about canon's opinion.

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>>3963735
cute

I had dream last night about some fighting game characters (I think it was DOA) but they made a game that was more like either a brawler or dark souls or what have you and it was a lot more successful. There was a bit of a dating game subgame too.

>friend tells me there's a new claude setup that simulates a whole game studio with 70 agents that do everything for you
>"bro you gotta try this, you'll finish your game in no time. It even makes sprites, SFX and everything".
>it's all slop as one could imagine.
>tell him I doubt that's gonna beat actual work and thought put into a game
>"well brah, AI devs will steal all the good ideas and make stuff in a fraction of the time it takes you to make your game"
>he has completed literally 0 projects with AI and it's all some kind of tutorial or prototype every time which he proceeds to drop afterwards
In all seriousness, he has a point, slop is gonna flood steam like the deluge unless gabe does anything substantial against it.

>And that's a good thing.

>>3965568
Those are the saddest particle effects I've ever seen

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>>3966285
maybe you'd prefer something with more oomph

Hello guys. I have been slowly making my crpg in java, no engine. I got very basic prototype going with turns, shooting enemy (enemy ai writen by claude ofc does not works), skills, perks, special affecting accuracy and action points, tarkov style grid inventory (also made by claude somewhat works after week of fixes), map objects like cover/walls stoping bullets. Right now I completly broken my protype trying to refactor my combat system and implement event bus per claude instructions. Anyways do you have any good ways to learn code architecture for turn based rpgs? I tried to read source code of fallout 2 and open xcom (since i want similar cover based combat ) but havent gotten far.

>>3966420
I think the best thing to do would be to learn Java architecture. Just grab a well-recommended book on that subject and apply it to your game.

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>>3966410
beautiful

>>3965935
I'm not particularly worried. If you think about the greatest RPGs of all time, they're interesting and unique concepts above all else. AI can do a lot of the heavy lifting in development, but it can only make based on what already exists. Hence why a lot of AI RPGs are generic fantasy slop that nobody is really interested in.

>>3966998
It's not that they could compete with actual studios. It's the fact it will flood the store and wishlist boting is becoming rampant at the same time. And it's not even subtle you can see in steamdb some slop studios have 100 games and all their games have the same amount of followers from day to night. That worries me, that actual games will be buried below the slop. Also its possible that if steam doesn't do anything against slop it will be dethroned by a platform that does.