I’m asking this because it’s always bothered me, I used to think having original art for the tilesets etc was the most important aspect for the game to get anywhere, but I’ve recently began looking toward the menus like I think they make or break the experience if done poorly, am I the only one that thinks this highly of menus of all things XD?
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There isn’t really any single essential feature? Original art does a lot to make your game stand out, but (despite what some people would have you believe) you can totally make a good game with just the default art. I doubt it would become the new bestseller if it uses purely default art, but it can still be good.
What makes an RPGMaker game good is no different from what makes any game good. There are a lot of points to discuss, but it all boils down to one thing: it’s fun to play.
Poor menus are certainly one thing that can break the experience. If you have to wade through 6 menus just to select a spell to cast, people are going to get annoyed.
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Not specifically the menu, but rather, the whole UI.
To explain, UI is whatever & however player is suppose to interact with the game’s world/dimension from their reality.
It includes movement controls and how that translates to the game. To how you display various information on the screen then allow the player to manipulate it. (Hence it includes the menu.)
UI is among the most important thing in giving a player a smooth experience, and if not done properly, it breaks the experience.
And while most credit this to the graphics- but rather, it’s the UI that makes players realize & feel if it’s an RPG Maker game or not. Which is why it’s so important to give it time and overhaul it, if you want your game to stand out & not feel like the rest of other RPG Maker experiences out there.
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The standard of “good” is too vague. A game developer who creates a game solely for their own satisfaction and one who aims to maximize their audience may have completely different ideas of what constitutes “good,” even though most developers fall somewhere in between.
If the goal is to expand the audience, it is at least a correct direction to study the visual quality standards and gameplay mechanics of popular games on the market.
Furthermore, the definition of “good” varies significantly across different game genres. For example, casual mobile games often rely on the theory of the “game loop,” which posits that a game consists of multiple layers of “player input – feedback” cycles. According to this theory, the most fundamental cycle is the one that deserves the most attention (i.e., the most frequently occurring loop). However, this may not necessarily apply to RPG Maker games, where walking is the most frequent activity, followed by investigating events. Additionally, narrative and story elements are so significant that they require analysis through the lens of literary theory.
Nevertheless, I believe it is still valuable to invest resources in the parts of an RPG Maker game that players see most often and interact with most frequently.
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What you said is true to some extent, but games consist of many parts, such as graphics, sound, UI, gameplay, storytelling, and player support systems. You need to adapt them appropriately to your game, considering which aspect your game focuses on.
You should try learning from older, popular RM games like Omori, To the Moon, Oneshot, IB, Cat in the Box, and *Fear and Hunger. They might help inspire you.
[*The game’s system is good, but I wouldn’t recommend playing it if you don’t like brutal visuals. ]
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Like @Solar_Flare said, I don’t think there is a single essential feature but there are probably a few features that make or break your game and I personally would classify these as the user’s experience but I need a better name. I think a general good rpg maker game should consider:
- UX (User Experience) and how it feels to dig and move through your menus.
- Style, not just the art of the game but the theme and how consistent it is throughout the project
- Combat feel, if relevant, since if you have combat, players will be there often.
- Storytelling aspects. Your game doesn’t need to be the game adaptation of a Brandon Sanderson novel but should be consistent within the story and theme’s that you’re telling.
There maybe more but overall, all of these aspects make up how a general rpg player will feel playing an rpg game and likely dictates how long they will probably stick with it.
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Liking what you’re doing and finishing it.
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Balance. Players seeking a challenge should be able to find it, but those who prefer a more relaxed experience should also be catered to. Players who want to fully immerse themselves in the story should have that opportunity. Conversely, players who prefer to skip lengthy narratives should be able to do so without losing the thread of the main storyline. There is a wealth of theory regarding what makes a game good. For instance, the book “Level Up” by Scott Rogers.That book is certainly worth reading.
That it’s finished. I’ve seen too many projects become vaporware in the past, or are ‘released’ but in technically early access but they don’t say it is that (though you find out when you get to the end of the playable part that more is coming and the story is unfinished), then it is still never finished.
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Eh, this is going to vary wildly based upon goals and genre and a hundred other variables.
- Original art helps you stand out, but is not an indicator of a “good game”. Personally, if I see amazing art and graphics and such, I tend to think “so that’s where you spent all your time” and do not hold any hope that the rest of the game is going to be “up to snuff”. After all, if AAA game developers can and do blow all their time and budget on looking good, while having atrocious everything else, what’s to stop an amateur indie gamedev who only has experience doing artwork, from doing the same?
- Menus can be pretty important. “Menu Fatigue” is a thing. If you aren’t familiar with what this is, another user provided a good explanation of having to dig through 6 menus to cast 1 spell. This can also apply to having too many skills and having to scroll a lot to get to what you want (or even too many menu options to scroll through). Less is more. Simplify when and where you can.
- I think the most important aspect of any game is that… it’s fun. Is your game fun? No? Then nothing else about the game matters. The point of a game is for the user to have fun. There are weirdos that want to turn games into “interactive movies” because they can’t make a movie anyone wants to see, and there are lazy gamers willing to do almost nothing to “complete” a game (see Idle games and Clicker games. Two genres I do personally enjoy from time to time), so a game like a “walking simulator” or “Mix Tape” will have an audience, but these aren’t games. If game reviews were honest and fair, these would get a 0 out of 5 because “this isn’t a game”. Anyway, the worst thing a game can be is boring. If it’s a bad game, at least there’s still something to talk about or some weird way to have fun with it. But, a boring game is just that. Boring. Forgettable. Pointless.
If I have to add my personal input on what is most important for RPG’s (since this is RPG Maker forums), here’s my list, in order of importance:
- Good characters. To be exact, well written characters. If I am annoyed that a character exists in the game, they probably aren’t well written (unless that’s the intent, at which point I have to wonder why you have a character designed to annoy, if there isn’t a self-evident explanation through the games’ design). Try not to tropify your characters too much, either, because then your story and their arcs become predictable. If you have a woman healer, I’m going to immediately bet she’s the MC’s love interest, and/or savior of the world. But, if you got a beefy musclehead guy who casts healing magic and gets upset that his party members don’t eat healthier… now you have my attention.
- Story. I play an RPG for the story. If I want just the game mechanics, I’ll play a dungeon crawler like Diablo or something. There are genres for games without a story. An RPG is not just the “progression system” that is “gaining levels”. There’s a distinct difference. Call of Duty does not become an RPG because it has a level up system. If you advertise “RPG”, that means you’re here to tell a story. It is what I will expect of your game advertising itself as “RPG”. So, no story or badly written story? Bad RPG. Bad game in the genre.
- Gameplay. If your gameplay isn’t interesting, then your story has to do double or triple the amount of work to keep me playing. That is to say, if I’m bored of your combat after 3 hours into your game, your story better be what is keeping me here. If it’s not, your combat better be as unintrusive as possible. As such, I usually grow annoyed with any combat system that isn’t Make Stuff Dead". If I have to fill stagger bars… no. Time Waster. Time Waster mechanics annoy me. If I can’t instantly and immediately bypass them, then your combat is going to get real boring, real fast, and will be super repetitive. But, if you have systems in place to allow combat synergies and help me make stuff super dead, super quick, because I planned ahead, or used my skills correctly, or what-have-you… That’s some fun and good game mechanics. Or, you could, I dunno… have a job/class system like some Final Fantasy games have. You might even do something where every character plays entirely differently from each other so that they each have to approach the game differently to succeed. Gameplay should be interesting, engaging, and not repetitive. Or, if it is repetitive, you need ways to mitigate that.
- Graphics. Needs to look interesting. I’m rather partial to 16-32 bit sprites, but I’ll also play things of significantly higher quality if the way they look is kind of cool and/or interesting. I will avoid anything that looks muddled or like someone is trying to blind those of us who can see color.
- Sound/Music. I will play an RPG if the music is excellent. I picked up and played to completion “Casette Beasts” because the intro song they hit me with in the first 2 minutes of the game grabbed me and didn’t let go. The rest of the music turned out to be just as awesome. But, I wouldn’t rely on this to get people to play your games. This is like one of 5 games I’ve ever played in my 40 years of life that I’ve done that to. Still, the example should highlight just how important your music/sound choices are to the design of your game.
- Price point. I’m not going to play a $2 game unless it looks like I can get a significant amount of gameplay out of it. I’m not going to drop $50 on a 20 hour RPG. I think games should be priced appropriately. I’ve bought amazing $7 RPG’s and terrible $80 ones. I think any RPG that’s amazing and short, should be about $20. If it’s amazing and long, then $50 is good, too. I get wary when a game is too cheap and when it’s too expensive. “You get what you pay for” often comes to mind.
Hope that helps.
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In my very personal opinion there are three things:
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The game should be unique. Don’t make another game about the hero and his waifu fighting monsters and killing the Demon Lord to save the kingdom. (or do that but add a unique twist to it like Little Kingdom Adventure did)
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Fun gameplay. Nothing is more boring than mashing attack or mashing the same damage spell and heal spell over and over again. Make the player think, strategize, manage rescources and use different abilities for different situations. Ideally don’t let pure RNG kill the player too. If battles feel like a tedious chore or afterthough rather than engaging gameplay, it is not a good game.
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Neat locations, enemies/monsters and equipment to discover and well designed dungeons, not just mechanically but also design wise.
That said, 1) is a lot more important than 2) or 3).
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A good rpg maker game is a game that makes how people feel when they play it, listen to it, look at it, when you make a game always try to stand on player or customer (if you plan to sell your game) point of view, how would you feel if you are the player when you look, hear and play , on the game you are making.
For Art, music and yes even ui assets you don’t need to make everything your ownself, you can always go to itch.io there’s alot of great free assets out there that can instantly make your game looks polish, high quality and beautiful ( i make this mistake when i make my first and second game, you will burn out if you make everything your ownself)
for story you can always brain storm, talk to ppl in this forum i think many ppl are glad to help out , the first step is to ask =D , just like what you are doing now
I’d want to play a rpg maker game regardless of ui or assets if the premise intrigues me.
It should be either unique (e.g. a game where the main focus is tiding up boxes in a warehouse in hell, where boxes contain sins, and if you drop one, the sin is i flicted upon you), or at least have a unique spin on a traditional premise (save the princess from a doomed kingdom, where the kingdom is a too good to be true utopia and the princess didn’t actually want to be saved and will fight you the whole time)
It also should be fun to play. Many times I’m intrigued by people s games at first glance but then, as I start playing, I immediately get bored and either forget about it or go look a playthrough on YouTube if I actually wanna see how it plays out.
I never cared much about graphics, so, the argument about default assets doesn’t apply to me.