Poll: What would you like to see more of?

There's a new poll, located on the right of the page. I'm curious what you'd like to see more of ^_^

The poll will run all year so plenty of time to make your voice heard.

Cheers,
S

World Building Wednesday 10: music

As mentioned previously, there are different cultures in this world, each inspired by an animal group. It makes sense that different cultures have different musical instruments, as we see in real life.

So this got me thinking...

What sort of instrument would a dog-inspired people have? When I think of dogs, I think of whistles, so perhaps the wind instrument variety (flutes / pipes / etc).

What about the bird race? Initially I would have said wind just because birds -> air -> wind, but perhaps stringed would suit them better?

I imagine the race inspired by the Tasmanian devils would be tone-deaf, so definitely percussion for them ^_^

And the cats? Maybe less instrumental and more voice-based?

And then the bigger question - what resources are out there that I could use for these purposes? RPG Maker has quite a few.

What is your favourite source of music for your games?

Technical Tuesday 5: KISS

Another article from the RPG Maker Blog!

http://blog.rpgmakerweb.com/tutorials/kiss/

This quote from the very beginning summarises it perfectly.

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

– Antoine de Saint-Exupery French writer (1900 – 1944)

;___; alas, so easy to write - much harder to apply. Something I find that helps is to brain dump and then go back and cull. Cutting away parts is painful, but the end result will be worth it!

Just recently I cut out an entire town from my story as it added too much time without contributing the gameplay. The important story element from that town I was able to tie up in a different scene.

Must-Do Monday 5: Keep on writing

This week I really need to focus on writing again. I am very much looking forward to when the script is all done - it's taking much longer than I thought as my writing habits aren't the best.

NaNoWriMo is coming up though, so I'm thinking of joining that for the first time.

Have you ever done NaNoWriMo? Any tips or fun stories to share? ^_^

Technical Tuesday 3: Gameplay Choices

This article on the RPG Maker Blog about 'False Choices' really got me thinking.

http://blog.rpgmakerweb.com/tutorials/false-choice/

When you add something think to yourself: Why would a character use this ability instead of all the other abilities he has access to? Why would a person use magic when attacks do just as much damage AND don’t consume any resources?

Even if they don’t use resources in the way you generally think of (HP/MP/TP), they still take a resource that is generally overlooked in most game design: Actions. Remember, no one is going to use a skill, job, or ability if another one works better.

I've mentioned before that my first dive into game making was a terribly flawed mish mash of ideas. I had to learn the hard way that things shouldn't be added just because it looks/sounds/acts cool.

What things have you added to a project on a whim to later find it just subtracts from the whole?

Must-Do Monday 3: WRITE WRITE WRITE, right?

Thank God I actually got to do map-making last week in response to my 'must-do Monday'.

This week, God willing, I want to get back into the habit of writing. I've got the basic plot and quests mapped out, but I need to sit down and write it all out. Until this is done, I won't be entirely sure what 'feel' each of the maps need to have.

It's going to take awhile, but if I can get back into the habit then it will be over more quickly than waiting weeks between writing spells.

Do you have any tips to get into the writing habit?

Thoughtful Thursday 2: foreshadowing

Since I've been trying to focus on the story lately, today's Thoughtful Thursday is about the struggle to write a coherent story with an underlying theme.

If you haven't already, I highly recommend Invisible Ink by Brian McDonald
https://www.amazon.com/Invisible-Ink-Practical-Building-Resonate/dp/0984178627

His main profession is in script writing for TV/movies. I've found it directly applicable to script-writing for games, with the caption that you (as a writer) need to allow freedom for how the player lives out the story.

The fundamental point I gleaned from Brian's book is about defining a theme (e.g. 'pride goes before destruction') and foreshadowing this throughout the story. Ways you can do this is to have a side character put a question or raise a discussion with the main character in the first act.

I've been listening to Jane Eyre lately and noticed how Charlotte Bronte uses a secondary character, little Helen Burns, to discuss with Jane how we should not blame others for our actions, but rather serve with love regardless of how people treat use. Although Helen doesn't remain in the story, the rest of Jane Eyre is an exploration of how Jane reacts to different trials caused by other people's actions.

(Jane) "... you are good to those who are good to you. It is all I ever desire to be. If people were always kind and obedient to those who are cruel and unjust, the wicked people would have it all their own way: they would never feel afraid, and so they would never alter, but would grow worse and worse. When we are struck at without a reason, we should strike back again very hard; I am sure we should — so hard as to teach the person who struck us never to do it again."

(Helen) "You will change your mind, I hope, when you grow older: as yet you are but a little untaught girl."

"But I feel this, Helen; I must dislike those who, whatever I do to please them, persist in disliking me; I must resist those who punish me unjustly. It is as natural as that I should love those who show me affection, or submit to punishment when I feel it is deserved."

"Heathens and savage tribes hold that doctrine, but Christians and civilised nations disown it."

"How? I don't understand."

"It is not violence that best overcomes hate — nor vengeance that most certainly heals injury."

"What then?"

"Read the New Testament, and observe what Christ says, and how He acts; make His word your rule, and His conduct your example."

"What does He say?"

"Love your enemies; bless them that curse you; do good to them that hate you and despitefully use you."

Technical Tuesdays

The first Technical Tuesday article is from the RPG Maker Blog about adapting the basic RTP to tell more of your story

http://blog.rpgmakerweb.com/tips-and-tricks/doing-a-lot-with-a-little-enhancing-the-rtp/

Do you have any RTP edits you'd love to see?

Personally, I love nature tiles. Little variations can make a standard forest map into a living environment.

Thoughtful Thursdays 1

In a similar vein to yesterday's post, here is an article from the RPG Maker Official Blog about learning from and respecting real-world cultures:
http://blog.rpgmakerweb.com/opinion/creating-fictional-cultures/

I particularly like this quote:

The best way to do this is to understand the culture you are borrowing. Why did they become the way they did? Take the Japanese obsession with fish dishes. Of course, they are obsessed with fish dishes, they are an island nation! A culture that grew somewhere away from the coast, with similar beliefs, would develop different food.

Or take the creation of the folded steel of the Japanese Katana. The reason for this is the quality of iron found in Japan was not as good as the ore found in Europe. Because of this, they had to develop a method that would turn that iron into a higher quality steel blade. A culture that has rich iron mines would probably never develop such a technique.

Regular updates

I'm hoping to establish a regular type of update. God willing, this will be the pattern:

• Sleepy Sundays: no updates
• Must-do Mondays: Me outlining my goals for the week
• Technical Tuesdays (sharing useful game-making articles)
• World-building Wednesdays (info on my game-world)
• Thoughtful Thursdays (sharing articles / interactive voting)
• Freebie Fridays! (Free-to-use RPG Maker materials)
• Screenshot Saturday (screenshot of progress)

Game making: playing a story...?

The reason I'm making a game is to tell a story.

Mechanics are nice, and graphics can be great, but the thing that really gets me and keeps me interested in a game are the characters and the story that they are a part of. For this reason I'm not a fan of MMORPGs, simulators, RTS, etc.

It's small wonder then that I'm focussing on writing out the story before doing too much in the engine itself. It's going to be a linear story (i.e. choices affect game play but not the ending). The challenge is to:

• leave flexibility open for the player to live out the story, not just have things cut-scened. This includes character customisation.
• keep game mechanics in mind when writing the story. E.g can a chase scene be a timed escape event? What event or character would be behind the puzzles that the main character would have to solve? Does crafting/classes make sense in this world?
• remember that this is a game and not a novel. Each scene needs something to keep the player interested in... well... playing.

So what keeps you interested in keeping on playing a linear game? Or, conversely... what makes you lose interest in a linear game?

I'm interested in your thoughts ^_^

Some of mine:

• clumsy mechanics (a certain level of mechanics-issues is overlookable, but just not too much)
• too many cutscenes that you can't skip
• too much text in one go
• characters that you don't connect with in the first 10 minutes.

Game Making: How to start

As mentioned in my first post, I'm making a game in RPG Maker MV.

When I first started out (with VX Ace), the novelty of the idea that I could make a game made me delve head first into things willy-nilly. Map making, eventing, weapons, battle mechanics, etc. And the first results was...
...
...
horrendous.

Anyone who has been around the RPG Maker community would have seen that one coming ;)

A good lesson though. Don't just think of designs, stories or dialogue as you go along.  It will be disjointed, broken, buggy and an absolute pain to play.

So how should I go about game making now?

From the engine-game-making point of view, I'm trying to apply Yanfly's advice as outlined in the beautiful comics. http://yanfly.moe/comics/

If you haven't seen them before, make sure you read them before starting work on a game (or doing any more work, if you've already started!)

Next post I'll share some thoughts on trying to tell a story through a game.

Welcome!

Welcome to this humble blog of my game-making efforts. I'm tentatively calling this Sparrow's Nest Gaming.

I'm a hobbyist RPG maker. I mainly use RPG Maker MV, but with VX Ace tilesets. For more information on the RPG Maker series, go to http://www.rpgmakerweb.com/

God willing, I'm hoping to use this blog to provide updates on my project and post free edits of RPG Maker default graphics.

^_^

Sarah