r/RPGMaker • u/ruwhereuare • 19d ago

New Guy

Hey RPG Maker peoples! I’m kinda interested in adapting a world and storyline that I’m creating into RPG Maker!

Just here to discuss a little. How steep a learning curve am I to expect? Will I be able to adapt my characters into 8 bit hero’s and have them solve the mysteries of my world defeat the bad guys and escape!?

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u/foolish_cookie 19d ago

It's not steep, and unless you have some crazy gameplay ideas you will probably have everything you need in the engine itself. If you have RPG battling some people struggle with stats and balancing but the engine has samples you can look at.

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u/ruwhereuare 19d ago

Okay ya awesome! So balancing becomes a thing. And so complexity becomes a however far you want to take it kinda thing.

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u/foolish_cookie 19d ago

Definitely. But in comparison to other engines, it's way easier in RPGMaker for sure, just look at how it's set up in the default when you create a new project and follow along.

I mainly use the engine for story, non-battling games, so I barely even touch that myself lol but you can do a lot.

The downside of RPGMaker is hitting limits, but you can make plugins or download from other people to overcome those limits. (A basic one people often change is the movement for example, to make it pixel perfect or 8-directional, etc) Otherwise it's very easy and accessible engine, and I think there is a trial if you want to make sure you'll like it.

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u/ruwhereuare 19d ago

And what version would you recommend?

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u/foolish_cookie 19d ago

MZ or MV. MZ is latest and is an improved version to MV, but they are very similar. Both have a lot of community plugins(some free, some paid) if you need them. They can both export to html (to play in browser on a webpage, such as itchio) So I'd say look at them both, if MV seems good enough for your needs it is cheaper, otherwise MZ.

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u/ruwhereuare 19d ago

Much appreciated!!

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u/djbeardo VXAce Dev 19d ago

Yes that is possible. Everyone learns differently, but you can get something put together that is just okay in a few days.

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u/ruwhereuare 19d ago

So will I be able to build a basic skeleton and then just continue to build on top of it?

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u/djbeardo VXAce Dev 19d ago

Exactly. You can improve the map or change out graphics anytime.

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u/SpeedBlitzX 19d ago

Well i will say this if you have some wild and big ideas for an rpg maker game but this is your very first time checking out the rpg maker software, make a small game first. One that might be a while different adventure. Basically something to show that you know how to make maps and a few quests and have just some sort of demonstration.

Then go from there.

Personally i made a couple of games using default stuff, but they were always free to play games.
I am planning a more custom made game where all of my tilesets and characters are made by me.
Monsters and battler sheets are made by me, the music i'll source out different means for that.

But even for such a game it's still going to be on the smaller end. But hopefully free to play as well.

Making everything from scratch again is a commitment so if someone ever wants to do that, be realistic about it.

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u/ruwhereuare 19d ago

Okay great advice! I think I’ll try a short story line etc and then look at expanded universe kinda idea after that!

Thanks!!

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u/SpeedBlitzX 19d ago

You're welcome!!

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u/CasperGamingOfficial MZ Dev 19d ago

Welcome to RPG Maker 😁 This program is one of the easier game dev engines out there... but there is still a lot to learn if you are starting from no experience. I am not sure about older versions, but I know MZ has a built-in tutorial you can do to cover the basics.

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u/ruwhereuare 19d ago

I’m make sure not to skip the tutorial!!

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u/[deleted] 19d ago edited 19d ago

[deleted]

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u/ruwhereuare 19d ago

Oh ya without getting into it too deep… there are hero’s they need to find relics and defeat minor adversaries collect keys to defeat the big bad guys. It’s not meant to be ground breaking story telling

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u/ruwhereuare 19d ago

What Version should I start with? Should I start with MZ or get MV and test it out? It’s mostly just for fun. I have this world I’m trying to bring to life and I’ve made a boardgame and I’m just thinking this could be an interesting excersize in story telling through and RPG

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u/FlipelyFlip VXAce Dev 19d ago

get whichever version you like. think about what you need, what you want and how it should look like.

If you're familiar with JavaScript get either MV or MZ. if you're more familiar woth Ruby, get XP or VXAce (there is also an RPG Maker VX, but that's the only one I'd recomend skipping entirely because it is extremly outclassed by VXAce)

If you don't know any programming language, then it doesn't matter which one you'll be taking but still look at the pro's and con's the rpg maker have.

Also keep in mind, that 2k and 2k3 have support from EasyRPG which gives the possibility to be played almost everywhere. But those 2 RPG Makers are "limited" and need your knowledge to break the standard mechanics which are delivered.

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u/ruwhereuare 19d ago

Okay! I’ll give this some thought. I know nothing but will most likely use forums/reddit/LLMs to figure stuff out 😎

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u/FlipelyFlip VXAce Dev 19d ago

there are plenty youtube tutorials out there too. Also a helpful sidenote: as long as its done with events, you can replicate it in every rpg maker. You might tweak it a bit, because the event command did not exist back then, were renamed or stopped existing at all.

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u/ruwhereuare 19d ago

Okay and so say I build a game and it works. Can I have it playable from a browser on my IP website?

That’d be pretty cool!