MV Predictions: Can RMXP be beaten?

[Marked 197]

Every so often I like to look at google trends so see how well the RPG Makers are doing. The latest, showing all engines since XP up to MV:

 

 

 

The graph shows that RMXP has diminished into a niche market, and that RMVX and RMVX Ace haven't come close to matching RMXP's massive popularity in the first half of its life so far. 

 

Note: The results for VX v VXAce seem distorted, and I don't think has been able to distinguish between the two. 

 

What are your predictions to MV? RPG Maker MV has opened the door to a huge market. I'm not sure how many people were attracted to the RPG Makers based on the Ruby language. But there are a lot of people who use javascript, and the portability to smartphones could start seeing a truckload of commercial RPG Maker-build games on the market. 

 

Can it reach the dizzying heights of RMXP? 

 

I personally think it's capable of exceeding the VX series - but in this decade, I can't see a 2D engine with chibi-sprites ever having enough appeal to topple RPG Maker XP's initial and sustained popularity. But if I was a betting man, I would bet it averages around the VX series - but I hope it's more successful than that! Keep in mind that there was no official RPG Maker community until very recently - no promotions, competitions or anything. RMXP, before it was even in English, was huge. It is never to be beaten - I think the timing of that engine couldn't have been better in terms of where the amateur/indie game dev scene was at.  

[dolarmak 23]

I think they made a few good choices like you mention with Javascript and the portability. The bad move was the 80$ sales price when better programs are free. I think it'll be stolen just as much as XP was lol

[Polraudio 122]

I think it will be slightly worse than XP(during XP's prime time) but above the rest. Its a solid good rpg maker. The only 2 things i hate so far is the horrid as hell mapping system.....like seriously have they learned by now after 3 rpg makers that XP is far more superior in mapping in every single way. Hopefully someone finds a way to make tiled maps work with MV then half my problems will be solved. Another problem i have is the scripting... It seems like enterbrain/kadawadasioieoi(whatever the hell its called now) really likes to make every script require every script and likes to make functions of functions of functions and functions. I really miss the way everything was made in XP. XP was far far easier to learn scripting for than this shitty new way of throwing everything all over the place. I consider myself good with JS but man this is hard as fuck to learn because i got to learn other peoples code that is all over the place like a drunk person puking on a wall :P. Where in unity i can just script and throw it in the game and bam it works.

[Ardaceus 21]

I'm just looking at those statistics and am I the only one wondering as to how the bloody hell VX is more popular than Ace?

 

Well, seeing as how the marketing of games is very popular on mobile devices, MV's new port to that platform may/will interest developers setting their sights to that platform, making this a great option for those who wish to cater this way.

 

But for me, I'm sticking with VX Ace, I like it a lot better than XP and MV to be honest, though I like MV's mapping system a lot better.

[Marked 197]

But for me, I'm sticking with VX Ace, I like it a lot better than XP and MV to be honest, though I like MV's mapping system a lot better.

I'm still trying to get my head around the mapping system O.o I haven't been inside an RPG Maker developing an actual game since 2008... Back then I was good, but now I'm like... wow, I've really gotten rusty. 

 

What are the differences between Ace and MV? I thought it was just like Ace but basically with improvements. 

[dolarmak 23]

I'm still trying to get my head around the mapping system O.o I haven't been inside an RPG Maker developing an actual game since 2008... Back then I was good, but now I'm like... wow, I've really gotten rusty. 

 

What are the differences between Ace and MV? I thought it was just like Ace but basically with improvements. 

I think the difference is that Ace has more resources, tho it's the same style the tiles are bigger so none of the previous resources for tiles work.

[Ardaceus 21]

@Marked

 

The mapping system is actually very easy to use, you have your floor/water & walls/ceiling Level which will be referred to as the A1-4 level, then you have the stairs/bridges & carpet/tile that does not auto complete which will be referred to as the A5 Layer, then you have the B-E Layers which are decorations to place around your room that each have a lot more flexibility for placement compared to the A layers, since you can control how your player does or does not pass through an object which will be referred to as the Dec Layer, and finally, you can use eventing as another layer, but this event layer is more tricky to understand compared to the other 3 layers.

 

The uniquest thing compared from the event layer to the other 3 layers is that event layers have the ability to move and change through playing with event scripts, which no other layer can do. The event layer can act in 3 different ways. The first is to have the layer hover above everything else which can be useful for things like birds and hovering contraptions over the player. The second is to have the event on the same level as the player, which acts the same like a player, going under and over any objects specified in the other 3 layers, exactly the same way that the player can be seen while passing through the tiles, this is useful for having creature/human and decorations for the player to interact with. The last way is to have the event go under all tiles in the Dec Layer, but it will still go over tiles in the A1-4 Layer and the A5 Layer, this is useful for having fancy carpets under a drawer or if you want to have bugs/rats scattering over the floor. The only catch with this layer is that it can only take the form of anything from the B-E tilesets on the current tileset you are using, and any sprite that you have in the 'Character' folder of your game. If you want to get a tile from the A tilesets, you'll have to use a program to convert the A tileset into a spritesheet, which you can use with an event... and that's all to using the 4 layers... but there was a huge breakthrough in MV I found!

 

Instead of having only these 4 layers, I found that you can actually use multiple things from the B-E tilesets on the same Dec Layer!! They will order themselves as to how you ordered them, but it's just so awesome that you can combine multiple tiles on one! I haven't gone into the full extent of this, and I can't give you much detail, but if you don't know this by now, now you know, which makes MV quite far superior to VX by this regard. Another reason why MV is superior to VX is in graphics detail, with the larger Px x Px size, combined with the higher FPS rate is amazing from the small project I made to test it out. There are also a lot of other things that differ VX from MV, like the scripting used, the amount of options for customization in the Data Manager, the ability to pan music/effects, the RTP, and the big thing, which is the choice for side battle view.

 

But as to why I like about VX Ace is the smaller pixel sizes, the chibier sprites, the mp3 music option, the aesthetic look to the creator, and definitely the amount of scripts available for VX Ace. There are many other reasons I could give as to why I like VX Ace to MV and XP, but that's not for here.

 

So when I compare these sprites, it is obvious to me which I like better.

I like the middle one the most, because it doesn't use too many details unlike the other two which pretty much summarize what you can create in the XP and MV character generator. If you want me to go on a rant about why chibi is the best sprite, make a post about that.

 

Well it looks like I have nothing else to talk about, except the new toolbar which looks mighty better... just look at that magnificent thing I love!

Ardi out.

[dolarmak 23]

 

 

But as to why I like about VX Ace is the smaller pixel sizes, the chibier sprites, the mp3 music option, the aesthetic look to the creator, and definitely the amount of scripts available for VX Ace. There are many other reasons I could give as to why I like VX Ace to MV and XP, but that's not for here.

 

So when I compare these sprites, it is obvious to me which I like better.

I like the middle one the most, because it doesn't use too many details unlike the other two which pretty much summarize what you can create in the XP and MV character generator. If you want me to go on a rant about why chibi is the best sprite, make a post about that.

I get most people don't like the larger size of the tiles. 32x32 is what we're used to but now the bigger size can be used to our advantage.

 

as for the music, there are a bunch of free converters from mp3 to m4a and ogg, you can use any music you want and it only takes a few seconds to convert the files.

 

As for the sprites i think the MV sprites are a good compromise considering the tile size. too much detail will ruin it but they got a good combo. That and they match the side view battle sprites really well. having different styles of art for the walking sprites and battle sprites usually annoys me, they did well with their choice imo. 

[Bob423 52]

What I don't like is the lack of out-of-battle animations, but that's not a big deal. Was just disappointed when I saw the animations were only for battle sprites. And speaking of battle sprites, enemies don't have them, which is extra annoying, but at least someone made a plugin for that :D http://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?/topic/47991-animated-enemies/

 

There's still tons of stuff I wish it had, but the fact that the default battle system isn't absolutely terrible makes me actually want to use it. Plugins make adding scripts easier for non-scripters, but for people who actually want to write their own, it seems like a pain to me. Still, it's to not have like 200 different scripts by default at least.

[Marked 197]

There's still tons of stuff I wish it had, but the fact that the default battle system isn't absolutely terrible makes me actually want to use it. Plugins make adding scripts easier for non-scripters, but for people who actually want to write their own, it seems like a pain to me. Still, it's to not have like 200 different scripts by default at least.

From a developers perspective, I think it's easier if the scripts are broken up. Right now we have files with 6,000+ lines of code; if we're needing to read that, and chances are that you are if you're trying to extend MV, then it's difficult. However programs like visual studio make it a bit easier and lets you see all the classes/functions in an indexed way, like a table of contents.