I'VE SUCCEEDED IN OVERCOMING MY FIRST RMXP HURDLE!!!
Haha, now I know why people had so much fun making games with RPG Maker XP (RMXP).Puzzling over events, tinkering with them until they freaking work, making and editing maps and tilesets over and over until they don't look weird, editing and fixing scripts, making and editing graphics... FUN. They seem tedious, but once I get to it, it's super-fun.
All along most of my time is wasted on worrying over scripts, planning, and more worrying, and in the end nothing actually gets done. All the thoughts over the what-ifs only served to scare me off projects. In worrying about getting everything perfect, I ended up delaying and putting things off with the excuse of "I'll wait until I know better", but I won't ever know better until I actually put the knowledge into practice. I've heard this advice time and time again, and I thought: "I've heard enough and I know it very well, dangit!" It never really occurred to me how true it is until I do it, and then I go and forget it all over again.
Yes, making games with the RPG Maker engines is tedious and daunting. I know I'm someone who doesn't like doing things unless I'm absolutely sure it will be GREAT, so I have to start small. Make sure I'm comfortable with the engine before I move on to bigger, more epic projects.
IFGF Bellevue Sim Game stats/progress
Done:
- Title: Completed, only needs minor adjustments
- Maps: Lobby, part of the stairs, one bathroom
- Characters: Two. Still a long way to go.
- Events: The doors, the food and drink, the Bible, and bathroom.
To do:
- Name input and character select screen
- Tileset: Electronics and music instruments
-Characters
- Faces
Yay? So far not much is going on yet. Not until I finish all the maps and characters anyway. Making the maps from memory IS a bit difficult... I don't quite remember what the rooms look like or what are in them. Not to mention that I have to go make half of the things first (sound system, lighting system, the music instruments, etc). I wanted the lighting to actually move around, but I haven't gotten around to learning how to do that yet. I know the scripts and tutorials for RMVX (the other RPG Maker engine), but it uses a different scripting language and the engine has a different working, so I'll have to go look into that first. Also, I still haven't decided what to use for faces. Photos of the corresponding church member? Cartoons of said church members? Decisions, decisions...
Also, the character and name input screen. That looks like it will involve a lot of scripting/ eventing, so I'm saving that for a little later. The idea is that you can input your own name and you can introduce yourself to the people. I'm trying to see if I can code something so that if your name matches someone's name, they will react to it.
On to what HAS been done.
The title script. I didn't want to have the menu text (new game, load, exit, etc) be part of the title graphics and it took me about an hour to hunt down instructions and tinker with the script so that it would work.
The Bible event, which I had so much fun making and testing, is running perfectly. I wish I could include the entire Bible in it, but I don't think there's a way to do that without having to type the entire freaking Bible into the script. I tried to pick 10 verses that would not sound offensive to people who are not that deep into the religion, but hey... I'm not that good with verses myself. I need to get verse recs.
The food and drink events are even more fun. It was super-tricky, because it involved a lot of conditional branches, but what works works. I want this to be as realistic as RMXP would allow me to, but I did exaggerate things a little. For example, if your hands are dirty and you go eat something you will get stomach ache. Real life don't do spontaneous reaction like that, but it's funny so I guess it wouldn't matter. Also, you need to go to the bathroom if you eat or drink too much.
The only person I've implemented into the map is one of the ushers (3 guesses who, hahaha *sarcasm*), so there's not many dialogues to play with. Heck, I didn't even get all of his dialogue done. I'm not sure what FAQs would people ask about the church. I need to interview people first, LOL. No, really. I want to know what info should I include there. The only bit of dialogue that I have done with Mr Usher is the only non-church-related question in his list: his name. If you don't ask him his name, he will only be listed as "Usher" for the rest of the game XD
