Limited Resources: What could you do?

[Unka Josh 0]

So in working with RMXP, I've come to a realization:

 

I'm totally spoiled.

 

I mean, I can create, or at least ask for, any graphics that I want! I can upload any music that I can get my hands on! I can change the battle system, I can change anything. Any monsters. Any characters. Any animations. Anything.

 

"Well, sure, Unka Josh," you say. "That's how RMXP works!"

 

Yeah, but Unka Josh didn't start writing RPGs on his laptop. Unka Josh started writing RPGs on his PSOne.

 

Yep. It's true. There's an RPGMaker for the Playstation. Also two of them for the PS2.

 

They work in a fairly similar manner to the Enterbrain products, for the most part-- events, tiles, charsets, battlers, animations.

 

But, and this is a big but, you can't import resources. (Well, there was a weird, half-assed graphics program for the PSOne version only, but it wasn't really usable, because of the insane memory use issue of saving data on PSOne memory cards.)

 

You had to work with the characters that they gave you, the battlers that they gave you, the animations that they gave you, the tiles and music and sound that they said you could have.

 

But... y'know, while it really limited what you could do, it didn't make things impossible. At all. And you got to be pretty creative about things, too. I turned fireballs into rocket contrails, rocks into machine-gun fire, small children into scary, scary end bosses, chickens into cursed summoners. (Yes, really. It'd be interesting to recreate Fullmetal Princess for RMXP... but I'd need a chicken battler.)

 

And that's actually what a lot of the classic NES and SNES RPGs did. Look at FFVI or Chrono Trigger carefully, and you'll see it-- a limited set of graphics and animations used in creative ways to produce different effects. And why not? Why shouldn't rocks, chunks of ice, and lava use the same set of graphics, only recolored? Why not use a ladder-climbing animation for a dancing animation?

 

I'm tempted to propose a contest. If anybody expresses interest, I will.

 

The rules would be simple: Create a short game, but you can only use a very limited set of graphics-- about ten or twelve charsets and battlers, about eight animations, a small library of ME and SE and BGM and BGS. Maybe three or four tilesets.

 

The rule would be: You have to use all of them. You can recolor them as you like, though. You can't use anything that you weren't given. And you have to make an interesting, enjoyable game, with as much originality as possible in the use of the items provided.

 

Sort of like Iron Chef or maybe Chopped, but with resources.

 

I think it'd be a fun challenge.

 

Would anybody be interested in trying it?

[AbnormalHairGrowth 0]

I would, totally. It sounds like a fun afternoon project, anyway.

 

Just one quibble: ten or twelve charsets/battlers seems a little too limited (assuming you're talking total; does this include the chicken?) The cast of Chrono Trigger, for instance, would take up half of it. (For an earlier one - say, Dragon Warrior - it'd be more appropriate; I'm not sure what timeframe you'd want to evoke.)

[Dark Den 4]

AbnormalHairGrowth i think you got the date a little wrong(happens). This topic is a year old !

[AbnormalHairGrowth 0]

Whooops. :sweatdrop: I just saw "April 9", so I thought "Oh, yeah, that's recent."

 

Well, okay. Old topic is old, but this sounds like fun anyway. If anyone wants to do it I'll make the supplies, how's that sound?