Emanzi

Yes I love games like this, another game which allows the player to tackle missions in multiple ways is Deas Ex:Human Revolution. It still has a very heavy story even with non-linear game-play. You can choose to tackle enemies with stealth, go all out, find an alternative path or lure them into a trap, the game-play is always fresh because your decisions affect how missions turn out. The trick is to have non-linear game-play and then link it back to the main story arch, you don't have to make 100 different story paths just keep it as a switch so that later you differ the plot a little based on their actions and then bring it back into context of the main plot. In my opinion sandbox games are completely based on this style of game play, hence the name sandbox, you're just thrown into a world of game environment with different simultaneous events letting you the player decide on what action you should follow rather than heavily linear and structured level design which forces the player to finish a single task for the level to progress.

I was thinking the same thing. Its not wrong because its part of rpg maker vx ace. I don't think you need to worry about crediting enter-brain as long as you already purchased the program. That's part of the deal. Alternatively there is always FaceMaker: Marked made a topic on this http://www.gdunlimited.net/forums/topic/1364-face-maker-31/

An open box sandbox game is a lot of work and I would like to see one done on rpg maker but firstly I would say to start it out small and then expand the idea. For me when I hear the term sandbox-rpg I automatically think Bethesda: Elder Scrolls, Fallout because they know the deal. Some of the features you're not going to do in a short amount of time. Any good game takes a lot of time and drive to make and good luck with your project. I'll start with the simplest first as to what I personally think fits the term open box sandbox rpg which might typically be the same for most WRPG. Character Class Selection or Full Custom Character System: The player needs to be able to at least select a class like in the first early Final Fantasy or Dungeons and Dragons where you can be a Mage, Theif, Warrior class with some base stats and a different looking sprite to represent your choice and class. Later you could advance this to a more custom creation system where the player can further customize their starting character maybe by choosing more traits ( skills ) or a few different sprite styles for the same class e.t.c. It would be nice to have some visual avatar that is more suitable for the player since they will be attaching their identity or persona to their created character its important to give them choice in the process. even something as small as selecting different color schemes makes what would have been a dull character creation system into something that's more personal for the player. Non Linear Story and Multiple Quest System: The main character needs to be a void, don't give them a deep back story, or a very personal story arch e.t.c because open world games are all about creating your own story. Their back story would need to be mysterious or ambiguous, you want the player to fill in the gap and think of that for themselves. For example in Skyrim you start out with your character almost being executed as a prisoner, no one tells you what you did or how you ended up there, then the player creates their own story "My Kajhit character was caught selling skooma and got locked up!" (^_^) they feel a much deeper bond because of that rather than the game giving you a role you make it. Same with the main, it needs to be separated into quests like in GTA SanAndreas or most Bethesda rpgs these days. the player needs to feel like they have some freedom between the story to make up their own, for example instead of forcing them to go to the volcano and fight the demon lord because they killed your parents and you have to slay him or else!, let the drive be a bit more global, say their happens to be a demon lord in some volcano and the player meets a random NPC who's orphaned because of him, he also has a really cool sword that could complete your Warlock identity nicely. you can wonder around and do other quests and decide when its right for you to take him on even if he was meant to be the last battle, you have to get stronger until you can beat him but you don't have to run through a personal story just to reach that stage. Expansive game world: The game world needs to be either one or both of these things: >Very Large ( more appropriate but requires lots of mapping ) >Filled with Content ( more appropriate but requires lots of eventing ) >or both ( very difficult for starters, I would say start out with one then expand later ) Personally I think its better to have a lot of content in a smaller game world than the other way around mainly because this is rpg maker and we cant really make gorgeous 3d environments, you could make custom maps / parallax map e.t.c but if your not keen on game art it might be a bother for you. Overall the whole idea is to make a world in which the player has choice and can establish an identity for him/herself through multiple roles. Remember to start out small with a few classes, some simple quest system and then later when you have the basics you can start adding in those fancy scripts: leveling systems, character color schemes, karma system ( good or evil ) e.t.c otherwise sandbox games can become very overwhelming to make so don't rush.

welcome back your excellency ;) dont worry rpg makers easy to relearn, it all comes back to you.

On limiting influence on others I think discussions and education is a lot more effective than censorship, like dolarmark mentioned censorship cuts out the discussion or information about such negatively influential matters ( like drugs, sex, violence e.t.c ) but Its true that even without media social groups will always have influence on our behavior even if its just subtle while media is like a "megaphone voicing and empowering" social behavior and what we see others do say, we imitate to some level. If everyone stopped smoking and cigarettes became socially unacceptable for health reasons then I'm sure a vast number of potential smokers would be stopped dead in their tracks and those who do would quit, having something as wide reaching as the media to spread this social message around would result in a large social movement from smoking cigarettes to totally rejecting them out of our society but I would say this would be more of a result due to the underlying reasons as to why its bad for you, the more people are becoming aware that cigarettes are unhealthy the more this is already happening albeit they will always be those who stick to their old habits regardless of social influences. We have age restrictions, their is a certain age roughly that you reach where by your characteristics as a person and influences get set in stone and it becomes very difficult to change, If someone was to start smoking at 12 and continue into adulthood they would probably continue to smoke even if the entire world saw it as taboo ( maybe they would only do it in secret ) because its a set characteristic or an addiction, and only if they where to become aware of the effects and consciously see it as harmful will they have initiative to quit, social groups would have little effect on their behavior regarding smoking and media would maybe only slightly effect their decision BUT the decision would be there's and they would do it out of knowledge not social influence. Right now I'm 20, If my friend killed him or herself I would be devastated and try my best to stop him or her but wont go about and kill myself even if I had psychological problems because I would understand that these are my emotions and I would feel horrible about it all but at the same time detach myself and probably seek therapy or talk to someone close about it and come to let it go albeit maybe slowly. Me again being lets say 14 or a young teenager would probably over-react and these psychological issues would become serious and I might get myself into trouble blaming god and life and getting really angry ( we where all teenagers once and some of us have experienced depression and emotional problems during our early teenage years, its hormones ). Its then the role of my parent to help talk me through this so that I can grow from such a situation instead of hiding it or my parent "censoring" it ( not talking about it ) to protect my "young mind" then get shocked when I kill myself and blame it on videogames.

Hollywood is indeed commercialized so they are probably aware of the influence that the media has on human behavior but that's not their concern, their more targeted at creating media that people would want to consume, movies that are considered cool usually have some slightly more raw or exaggerated aspects of human nature that's already a part of our society like violence and sex. We get more exited watching a full out fight scene with blood and guts than watching a one with heavy censorship which is not at all true to life, sometimes this is even more dangerous like Tom and Jerry has no blood in it but is very violent, the blood was probably cenrored out but kids would think that its safe to whack someone over the head with a frying pan, i'd rather it have a warning for violence and have the full consequences animated within the show, its normal to bleed and kids should be aware that such stuff is very violent and un-acceptable with the warning label not censorship.. I think that if Hollywood where to censor out all the "bad stuff" that's already within our society then we would only be lying to ourselves, sure we can try and strive for a more socially justified and safe society for the sake of betterment of the human race as a whole but the fact remains the same, there some ugly things that have and maybe will always be a part of the world such as crime, prostitution, drug abuse e.t.c but to hide away from them will only result in a build up of hidden evil. Like in the Medieval days where by you where stabbed for not obeying the church, or in the dark ages where by they would bleed you to death if you where ill thinking you had a demon inside you, sometimes we need some eye openers to show us that we cant force perfection and social justice in the world without first accepting our bad side, our devils. I agree that rating systems should be enough to stop the kids from loosing their innocence but the fat remains the same, at some point you will find out about the dark side of things and at some point will be forced to face this reality weather you have censored it from yourself or you are aware of it.the fault is always yours on how you act and react to such things in your life, you cant blame Hollywood, its just business and after all we are the ones who WANT Hollywood to sex-up movies and watch violence e.t.c because its just another part of the human being that has otherwise been suppressed with religion and censorship laws.

I wasn't to sure where this thread would fit but I wanted to ask for the opinions you guys have on sensorship. Would you say its ok to make a game with full out sex, drugs and swearing be it that its rated 18 or would you find it disturbing for a rpg maker game? I think too much use of swear words, sex and drugs just to look cool is slightly disgusting in games, they feel really immature but then again some reference sometimes helps make things feel fresh or more "real". For Indie game developers like us we pretty much have no real authority telling us not to make any games that are a bit over the edge, its all about independent creativity and sometimes that may lead one to make something more raw than the mainstream titles. Not too sure about your opinions, do you think games would be better off without any censorship or do you think its absolutely necessary to limit the content of your game to something more socially acceptable with or without warning ratings (18+ 16+ e.t.c) I've played some 18+ games that are really ridiculous ( namely GTA: SanAndreas )and even as a kid I knew this stuff was just unreal, I would never in my right mind pick up a bat and "beat up someone with a purple shirt to represent the groove" in real life, maybe only for pretense but I wouldn't actually hit them with real intentions and I know most people aren't really that ignorant or are they (<_<)???

Thanks :)

Hi guys, I'm not a newbie at all to the rpg maker series, I probably have been out of it for about 2 years, feels like a lot more but I'm really impressed with the new forum site here and rpg maker vx ace, Its got me all buzzed up again about making a new project or just watching and helping you guys make yours. coolies I'll check you peeps out in the threads.

It looks complete now ^_^

This looks a hell of a lot better than rpg maker xp and game maker combined and saying something like that coming from me is a bold statement. It has the user friendly interface of rpg maker and the power and multi-platform ability ( you can make more than just rpg games) of game maker and it even adds more features found in neither ( or difficult to implement in other makers without some fancy scripts or a high learning curve like the built in menu editor ). I'm eager to its release! Only I wish you could make a free version and maybe all the advanced features could go in the shareware version, I've never really liked trials as I feel like I'm sort of being forced to pay for something although I understand something this ambitious must have been a lot of hard work for your team you it probably deserves to be shareware. Game Maker has a free version and a more advanced version ( GM Lite is free while and GM Pro has more advanced features ) so this caters to even those who want a free game creation kit/engine. Since you say its going to be cheaper than most makers this might not be such an issue.

I think I get it, hows this... It was the walk cycle, your right, it sort of looked backwards plus their was an unusual offset their with the body, another reason maybe was the still frame, I cut it out of the animation for a more smoother look plus I set the frames where the legs are most apart one pixel down to simulate the head moving ( sort of like in rtp sprites ). I think it looks better but their is still some slight rigidness, maybe mostly in the shoulders...any suggestions?

I think so too... I'm fairly good/O.K with animation but I'm still an amateur ( I basically use onion skin layering methods and then the rest a lot of editing and running the animation ) I intend to use 8-9 frames of animation for this sprite style, here is what I am working on as of now, its the side view walking cycle for the female sprite I made ( as the reference for this style ). This took me a while to get fluid since its my first time working with more than 4 frames ( default frame limit for rpg maker ) I'm thinking of making a slight off-set so she looks like she is stepping since rpg makers mapping engine sort of slides everything across, also the shoulders a little rigid but I'm working on that.

I need some help with this, its a 9 frame animation of a side view walking cycle. This is my first time working with more than 4 frames of animation. I thought this would be the best place to get some quick feed back. Is the motion life like and smooth? Is the anatomy fairly realistic or not? What can I do to improve this? I also think theirs a script somewhere for rpg maker xp that breaks the animation limits of sprite sheets. Could I get a little help digging that up also. Thanks.

This would look really cool with some color. I know, I have problems drawing fingers and feet. Female fingers are a lot more slender and longer though, maybe that could help.