Gw Temp

A gamemaking article from Mr. Y on your shot or chances at making your perfect RPG.

Thank you for reading this new article, all about the amateur games that are meant to be epic, but usually just end up becoming overcliched and crap. Why shouldn't you attempt this? What should you do to prepare to make this? What are the more important parts to an epic RPG? And, what do I think your chances of succeeding are? All of this bitter crap is covered by the happiest guy in all of the Gaming World, ME. What? No, I am not conceited. Alright, enough stupid shit, let's get into it.

Why you probably shouldn't try to make an epic RPG

1. They take a LOT of time to invest into making. After all, if these e-RPGs are going to be memorable, they're going to have to show off some of the best of everything in all amateur games.
   
2. If you fit into the general statistics, you probably don't have enough talent to make a truly memorable game.
   
3. If you fall too much into love with your e-RPG in development, you'll become blind to growing problems that may appear.
   
4. Cliches are often the most rampant in amateur e-RPGs that try too hard to make clones of such games as FF3, FF7, Chrono Trigger, etc.
   
5. Because of the demands for making an e-RPG, you will probably lose interest in doing it all.
   
6. Even if you manage to make a complete e-RPG, you may come under fire after all that hard work for cliches that you cannot see or understand in your game.
   

How to prepare to make an e-RPG

There are several things you should do to become prepared for this great task. First, you need to know where to find all the programs to make your graphics. Make sure you download plenty of top-notch programs, such as perhaps PSP7 for graphics, a music editor for writing music, and Idraw3 for drawing sprites- those are all my preferences for gamemaking, anyways. After getting all of those programs, get experience in them all so you can draw top-notch graphics and write beautiful and original music. Once you've got all the resource-making skills in the bag, you actually have to get to know your gamemaking engine. I highly recommend building a 'training game', or a short game with no real storyline or exceptional features, built just for you to learn the program. Finally, make certain that you are using a gamemaker capable of building EVERYTHING you've been dreaming of for your game- don't take any chances on maybe cases, and don't short yourself on any ideas you have. When you have done ALL of this, I think you should be very much ready to begin building your epic RPG.

Of course, there is a MUCH simpler method than this lengthy process. I recommend that you skip right to learning the program by making a training game, using resources available to the public. Once you have done this and you feel you are ready to proceed with an Epic Game, search about various gamemaking communities for experts in various resource-making jobs. Simply put, you should just assemble a team of great gamemakers that are all at the same level as you in rough ability, or just very modest and easy to work with. You'll want a large team of graphics designers, plus one or two guys to write music, some expert coders for your chosen game engine, and perhaps a mapbuilder or assistant designer/producer if you can't take all the work :D. This method can save you months of time that would be necessary for the above, harder method. However, the downside of team productions is that teams often fall apart, either from lack of work or communication. Also, if you are egotistical and crave the mainstay of the attention, you'll have to share with other deserving folks. Finally, you'll need to use leadership skills to keep everyone working and active on their duties.

The active ingredients in an epic RPG

• Memorable cast- I believe that this is THE most important part of an epic RPG. You need to make a powerful main cast with very deep histories and/or feelings, passionate about some idealogies. Also, these characters need to interact heavily with each other, making anything possible and everything memorable. The whole point is to make plenty of interaction, making the player wonder where the story is going.
  
  
• Great storyline and plot- Second to the cast is the storyline itself. How complex does the plot get in the game? However, complexity does not exactly warrant greatness. Make sure that everything makes sense and has a purpose- nothing should be pointless. Also, make sure that you explain it all completely and thoroughly. If you have to hurt the plot to do that, then it is necessary. The player's comprehension is far above the storyline itself in importance in any game, after all.
  
  
• Gameplay- If anyone is going to remember your e-RPG, they're going to have to remember it as being fun. Make sure that the story and plot are top-notch, and that you've also included fun battle and menu systems, as well made the gameplay itself fun, no matter how you decided to do it.
  
  
• Innovation- Most e-RPGs are extremely innovative, especially in their stories. You should try to be as innovative as possible when making your epic RPG. This means to avoid as many cliches as possible, all of them if you think it's possible. But then again, there will also be a critic that will find cliche in any game- you just have to reduce the number of cliche-finders for your game, eh?
  
  
• Graphics- I do not care what ANYONE says, graphics are very important for every great new e-RPG. Simply put, you need to make all or nearly all of your game's graphics beautiful and great for the time it was released.
  
  Will you succeed?
  Ultimately, I think that most folks do not have the sheer time, ability, leadership, or will to make a complete e-RPG, at least not without a team. Your odds are greatly heightened with a team to back you up, provided you can convince them all to keep doing their work and to stay dedicated to the project. If you still feel like making an epic RPG, make sure you are completely ready to begin- and, good luck from me, because you have a lot of work ahead of you :D!