I’ve owned RPGMaker for a bit, but have never really knuckled down and worked with it.
I did the tutorials, which were very helpful, but actually making a game is a daunting task. Especially since my ideas are grandiose more than attainable. Anyone got good advice for those new to design and writing?
Hello, nice to meet you. I enjoy looking at and playing various works so that I can have fun creating.
I haven’t used Tsukuru much either, but MZ has sample maps, and I’m studying by looking at them.
I like drawing, and I try to enjoy drawing on maps as well. I hope this is helpful.
Pick your smallest grandiose idea and build on it from there. It takes a long time, so do it in small stages, bit by bit, and you should eventually reach your goal. For me, it always takes longer than I expect, but it’s a good feeling when something’s finished. Forums are helpful for support and motivation. Play games and talk about them with your friends and family (who are interested in games). Building games is great fun. It’s the commercial and marketing part where it gets to be a real headache (for me, anyway).
Only take advice from people who are knowledgeable and who’ve actually achieved what you want to achieve for yourself, in the form of finished & released videogames. That you can check to measure their mastery on the topic.
Else you’ll get nice sounding advice, that fails you as it has failed them. You’ll spend a lot of time only to produce nothing, just as they’ve produced nothing.
This is the most important advice.
Especially since my ideas are grandiose more than attainable.
You want to get it out of your mind that you’ll be making the type of games that you’ve played. Those games were likely made by an experienced team with a decent budget.
You’re inexperienced and solo, so…
You want to start out by making simple, 5-10 minute games that are polished, memorable experiences. And increase playtime and complexity as you release more and more games and get the hang of the process from start to finish.
If writing is important to you, you want to learn screenwriting for drama, plays, movies, TV shows, via online courses like through Udemy. I did some writing courses by Hollywood writers on masterclass.com. There’s even one teaching game design by the creator of The Sims. (You can find free lesson series from experienced game designers on YouTube as well. Like Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games.)
You want to sit down, take your time and learn these sort of things decently, taking notes, so when you get into actually developing your game. You have a clear idea and you avoid common mistakes. And actually reach the end with producing something you’re proud of.
You can start with the simplest concept.
Set a small goal, such as creating the most basic “Hero vs. Demon King” game. During this phase, just do it your way. Your current goal is to familiarize yourself with how to use RPG Maker and ensure the game you create roughly matches your vision.
Only after that can you start thinking about how to make the game more appealing and enjoyable for a wider audience.
Of course, it’s beneficial to learn more about game development before you start, but that information can often be dry and might dampen your enthusiasm.
The best thing that I can say is to try to have fun with it. The more it seems like work, the more daunting it may become. It is hard work, but if you can look at it like a game that makes a game, it may become less onerous.
I was gonna help but I ended up learning from the comments so here what I learned from my mistakes:
-Just try to keep it simple since it’s your first game ( I know how it’s like dreaming big for your first project but you have to make it exist first so you can make it better later)
Thank you everyone for the advice! I appreciate you taking the time to do that.