Sorry your browser is not supported!

Hey guys, I just got the DB trial. I am all about RPGs, so I plan to make one someday. Of course, I don't plan to make such a great game as Equilibrium right away. I was wondering if you guys had any advice for building up my RPG making skills. Like any examples to offer or some helpful code. Keep in mind that I am new, heh, that's what this part of the forum is for! Any help will be appreciated! Thanks!

Yet another RPG-Something

Since your a newcomer, DONT START WITH AN RPG!! I warn you it will be too hard and you will give up. My team is working on an RPG (its all around the forums,,called Eternal Destiny, you dont have to look very hard) and unless you properly plan the RPG out (50+ Page Dev Doc) it will fail.

Learn the language first. Start small or else you will get overwhelmed Unfortunatly, there arent any RPG Tuts around here (I wanted the same thing when I started out) but Kentaree is working on a demo with source code. Check out the beta section.

But anyhow, start small, or else you will get scared by big and complicated code.

Cheers

RPGamer

RPGamer is the man to listen to. If you still want to go back to your RPG ideas, try a simple top-down adventure game, Zelda of Secret of Mana style. It won't take long to write out a development document, if you even want to bother with one, and you'll get a good grasp DB's 2d features, which in my opinion is the underlying graphical techniques behind any great programming language.

good luck,
juvy

did you know that when i first joing the forums i was RPGuy?
You would not believe how badly everyone flamed me
Anyway I'm with RPGamer don't start with an rpg start by making small but simply programs/games that use certain skills, like make a 3D pong game to help practice with 3D control.
Make a 3D pacman/space invaders so that you can practice with AI. Get it?
Good Luck.
RPG_freak.

you know, in my QBasic class last year, for our "project" we had to make an RPG, it wasnt to hard. it was actually really easy, but it wasnt 3D

Ive been talkin to RPGGuy on AIM about RPGs and such

Thanks for all the feedback. I appreciate it.

yeah i've learned that one time. RPG's is the hardest type of game you can make. I've guess RPGamer knew these stuff already too.

Jeez,
all this talk about starting with games like Pong or PacMan or what not. DarkBASIC wasn't my first programming language so maybe it is a good idea. But I say, if you don't want to make a pong game first, go through the tutorials, and then make the game you want to make, and learn in the process, because that will be what is most fun and that will be what you stick with. Don't expect it to come out like you dream it the first time of course. But why limit yourself in the beggining?
The first game I ever made was a small text only RPG, and I learned so much from that and stuck with it because it was so fun. I remember it was so fun to read the C++ book just so I could try and put something new in my game.
You can start with a small RPG that's at your level. Personally I think that would be more fun that making Pong again.

Brandon

I'm a newbie here too but I learn pretty fast and if you can get the hang of backgrounds and textures and objects and stuff you COULD make a simple 2D RPG-type thingie a-la The Elder Scrolls: Arena style (Go to www.the-underdogs.org and search for it to get a basic idea. Just the game though no source or nothin.) but top-down instead of first person. In my opinion, top-downs and third-person games are a LOT easier to make than a first-person or POV game. If you want to make a simple RPG though, you should really read the help documents and look up some things in the helpfile indexes first because if you want to make anything that needs skills and such, you should learn about arrays and functions so you once you agree on your calculations for skill gains/drops/learning, level gains, and other stuff like that you can set them in a function and use an array for all the skills instead of using individual variables for each one. I think that if I really set my mind to it currently I could actually make a basic non-linear RPG where you could wander around, buy equipment, bonk some monsters, and that would just about be it. Think 2D Microsoft Dungeon Seige with the plot stripped. Yeah.

From a slightly-less-of-a-newcomer to a slightly-more-of-a-newcomer, my advice would be to practice moving boxes and stuff around the screen, work on your colouring for the boxes and stuff, and get that basic stuff down, maybe working on some object collisions and resolution stuff, THEN you go into stuff like models, making your charachter, setting up the backdrop as the ground and stuff, making towns and all that, and set the whole basic scene up peice by peice, making the game world... After you have the whole game world set up then you start worrying about how to save and encrypt data so your players can save their progress, how to load and decrypt that data, how to set up a charachter generation screen with stuff like random variable and stuff so each charachter is different, set up class systems if your game has them, set up skills and proficiencies, and ALWAYS make sure, and I mean ALWAYS MAKE SURE to flesh out a menu system before you start making the skills screens and stuff so that way while you are planning and tweaking the calculations for various things you can change the menu about as you think of some better systems...

And as a final VERY IMPORTANT rule, and I mean a rule so important you should sodder it onto your brain, skull, the back of your hands, the inside of you eyelids, and even your crotch area!!! ALWAYS PLAN BEFORE YOU START CODING!!! What I mean is that if you are currently working on the game world and you finish it and it is bug-free (the ones you get anyways) then save the source, all related files, and anything else, including a compiled version of it so you can quickly return and refrence to the world if you need to... and then code the skill sets and everything else separately, and as you un-bug your code and get the functions all set up add the menus and the code to your main code peice by peice, testing it all to make sure it works. That should be the basic bone-structure of any coding/developer plan. You could do it this way to ensure it all works smoothly on your computer, or just initially code all the parts and slap them together and then have to deal with all of the crazy bugs that pop up (on your machine alone!) and end up spending sleepless nights repairing all the bugs as you wonder WHY you didnt just do it the easy way first.

If you think i'm wrong lemme know but make sure to tell me why. Remember, I am also a newcomer so all of this is just a piecemeal theory of mine from the bits and pieces of advice, and a few years of building on various MUDs. Trust me... If any of you have ever built on a mud you know what I am talking about. If you don't plan ahead or at least have a general idea of what the hell you are going to do, your life will be hell. I am currently building on a Matrix-based MUD and I actually have to re-build and/or re-design the ENTIRE area structure meaning that I have to basically re-build a mansion into a bunch of apartments and/or condos without being able to knock down the building and just re-build it from the ground up. Take it from me: You can code things 2 ways; The easy way, or the hard way. If you choose NOT to plan ahead or at least come up with a general idea/structure of what you want to do then your life will be a living hell. I mean the kind where you just want to go back in time and think up a plan or just scrap all the hard work you've done (but can't really bear to hit that delete key) and start all over from scratch.

Ok, I'm starting to get all philosophical about programming and building here and this post is getting quite long so I think I'll take a few breaths and soothe my pre-mature carpal tunnel syndrome while I wait to see what you people think of my brain-think-o-rama-stuff-of-intelligence. Heh.

*Goes to rest*

[EDIT] One quick thing too that I forgot. I wholeheartedly agree with RPGamer in the context that the original question was asked. That basically means I agree that an RPG that the average newcomer wants to make is really for far more advanced levels of programming, but I also think a newcomer could make a basic 2D top-down RPG with basic skills and swords and monsters and stuff with no real storyline, but still has enough to do to keep you interested in getting that 'lil level 5 warrior named Ch33zzp00f to 100% proficiency in melee combat by going down to the local dungeon today, bonking some monsters, coming back to sell some loot, then trekking to the nearest city with it's nearby mega-dungeon to bonk some bigger monsters, hopefully getting your skill just that much closer to upping to 100% proficiency. To be quite frank with you all though, I am still having fun making a simple design of boxes on the screen and then moving one box up/down, left/right, and near/far via my up/down arrows, left/right arrows, and W/S keys respectively. Practice with arrays and that crazy DIM thingie too until you could write a bunch of arrays, DIM them all, and then use them to do something. Then move on to making spheres and boxes on the screen that move when you use your arrow keys (or WSAD keys if you want) and try to get the basic pattern of the scandcode thing in your mind, at least to the point where you could write out a diagram of a keyboard and label/number all of the keys to help you out a bit. Don't actually burn it into your brain so you can just think of a key and recall its number instantly unless you are going to go RRRRREEEEEEAAAAALLLLYYYYY heavy on the keybinds and functions and stuff. Seriously. Scandcode = good, being able to draw out a diagram of the scandcode = very good, but memorizing the WHOLE thing = insane. Yeah. I'm starting to ramble again though so this edit must end. [/EDIT]

I remember way back when with Qbasic. Our first real game was PONG, but we liked it. Well... our first game was a series of input commands and if statements where the computer always ended up telling you this guy named Mogo killed you with a bazooka. Fun times.....but the key is really to have fun. Like Xzander says, moving boxes around and making them different colors can make an entire afternoon fun. You can't argue about what abilities make a good hobbyist coder, you can't' argue about what elements make a good game, it all boils down to fun. Philosophy is kicking in again, we should put this in the game design board and really start hittin' it off.

adios,
juvy

Bah! To Mongo and his infernal bazooka with the evil board-changing!

When you make a game you either plan or you get screwed. Thats how it is. I bet you didn't know that the person that can totally screw you up the most is yourself! Ahahahaha! Odd, yes! You plan, that good, then make game, I play, yell at you to make it better, that how it work. Sleepy me be.

Goodnight for now I say...

But that limits you, its like RPG Maker. DB is a real Programming language, not some drag and drop tool

It's so much more fun to figure out all the math yourself, or somebody else on your development team if you feel like throwing the computer out the window at that particular moment.

Sounds like the draganddrop is moving away from drag and drop, hooray! That sounds like a cool proram, Atari. I'm searching for it now just for the heck of it.
Even 3d Gamemaker can be fun if you're just sick and tired of all the typing and thinking.

[EDIT]RPGToolkit is fun to play with, but I see the only real way it could be used with darkbasic is as a graphic editor, and MS paint can do that.

RPG Toolkit and RPG Maker and all of them are just like T3DGM. DB is a nice language to program in because it is short and sweet. DB gets to the point whereas C makes you go 'round the block a few times before it'll even think of letting you get to the point. DB is easy to use in comparison to C just like T3DGM is easy to use in comparison to DB. Me? I'd much rather go with DB. Why? It's simple, with those drag-and-drop-RPG-in-a-minute things you are highly restricted. That's reason number one to use DB, you arn't restricted really! If you know how to program and make your programs flow smoothly then the sky is the limit! With an RPG making thingie like RPG Toolkit you need to know C if you want to make a truly custom game, like if you wanted a FFT type of class/skill systems. The second reason is creativity. In DB you have more of a chance to be more creative! Why? It takes longer. RPG Toolkit junkies need only click and drag and release to place something where they want it... What do DB monkies need to do? This:

load bitmap <#>,"<filename>"
position bitmap 1,<X>,<Y>,<Z>

Now unless you type faster than an RPG Toolkit junkie can click-drag-release then you've had more time to think! An RPG Toolkit junkie is going "Alright... put this here." while a DB junkie is going "Alright, load that and put that there... ... Or maybe a better place is there? ... Wait a second... I know a much better image to use..."

DB is tedious to make what you could make in RPG Toolkit in a few minutes but in DB you could make a much better final product and actually have fun doing it! I dont think RPG Toolkit people have much fun... I got the demo of it a while back and was fooling around with it and I was suddenly amazed at how BORING it was! Why? It wasnt making me think! It was simply too easy! Then I started realizing that I couldnt do the things I wanted to in it. RPG Toolkit and my delete key had a nice chat.

Overall, if someone made an RPG Toolkit-y type of plugin for DBP that allowed it to do tilesets or something, that was drag-and-drop, to simplify world creation and all that stuff but let you use DB to customize it and make what you want with it... I'd be totally supportive of something like that! It would broaden the range of DBP users and such because it would appeal even more to the drag-and-droppers and then they would slowly start to do more things in the DB sector as they wanted to branch out their games. A plugin or something like that may sound stupid but hey! Imagine DBP (all of it) melded with the 3D easiness of T3DGM and then topped off with the easy making of a game world (cities, towns, dungeons, etc.) and the charachter/enemy/item/skill settingness of RPG Toolkit. That would be one powerful and sweet ride my friends. On one menu you'd simply enter in a DIM or something that would house the skills and stuff, code the DIM... be able to just set enemies to randomly generate and stuff... easy charachter movement and animation co-ordinating... being able to have that paperdolling system you wanted your game to have but couldnt figure out how to code... Ohhh yeah!

I have to go now... starting to drool on the keyboard...

*runs to get a towel*

Basically, unless you're doing a 2d game (which are still a lot of fun to do every once in a while) then RPGToolkit would not be my choice for game development. It is still fun, and I'm going to download version 3 after I figure out how to get version 2 off my disk, also I don't feel like paying RPGtoolkit.com so I can commercially sell game made with it. I plan on doing commercial game development. So darkbasic is my commercial development language, and then 3d Gamemaker, Gamemaker 4, and RPGToolkit are there either to get the skeleton of a game laid out, to make a game for the heck of it I can let my little brother & my friends play, or to use RPGToolkit's sprite editor(s).
It is definitely a gorgeous professional program, and so much fun to use but I'm mainly going to stick with DarkBASIC and Paint Shop Pro for my big game development. Thanks for letting me know about the toolkit, though! That is cool stuff.

Ok, if the lingo that RPG Toolkit uses is C it is C, if it is different than C but gets translated into C or something then it is RPG Toolkit C, ok? C is C, modified version of C is not C, its modified C. RGP Toolkit makes 2D. Plain and simple. Bugger isometric view and all of that that makes it "look 3D" because it ISN'T 3D! Personally, I think I could make a game faster in DB than I could in RPG Toolkit because unless things have changed since I used it, you can't do certain things like make the camera follow your char and all that stuff...

But you see... a splice between DB and something like T3DGM with the functionality and sheer easiness of doing certain things in RPG Toolkit would be good but I'm insane.

But I do kinda agree with you Atari. RPG Toolkit is easy to use and kinda fun when you see an hour's work come to life. RPG Toolkit is restrictive though because unless you memorize their version of C then you couldn't easily make things like minigames and such if you wanted too. RPG Toolkit also doesn't support FP-POV and unless I'm mistaken you can't position the camera. But that may be the RPGMaker.

Oh well. I'm just wondering why we are talking about RPG Toolkit and this stuff on a DB forum... Well I'm dropping out of this convo for the simple reason that it's starting to make my head hurt.

Is that what the tingly feeling in my hair is? Pain? heehee
I like it.

its not that hard if you have a text based rpg, but it is quite hard coz you need all these functions and variables and gosubs and gotos and stuff! yup! try a simple run around game. but even like that, just start making mini demos and then move on to making games!
........
then rpg's

Best way to prepare for making a CRPG is to make a pen and paper one first. That way you have all the rules and tables in place and a general feel on how you'll want to code it.

Just my 2 cents...
--
TAZ

Hey! Zircher gave me a good idea. If you ever played Dungeons and Dragons, you could "borrow" their system and see how you fare at just coding a battle system, then after looking at theirs, create your own. If you don't have any handbooks or whatever don't bother with this idea, they're all hardcover and kind of a rip-off almost anywhere.

Heres a hint:

I have been working on an RPG recently (actually for about a year, i just don't have much time to work on it, school gets in the way and that sh*t).

But, i learned that programming each side part (menu, battle, World map, ect...) first, will amazingly speed up the process. And even before that you have to have lined up, who the hell is doing what (if you have a team). And even before that you gotta have a ****** design doc, and before that you have to have a general story idea.

In other (more understandable) words, ya gotta foreshadow your ****** project like a mother******.

Don't even start thinking about the model/sprites/whatever the hell your gonna use till you have a story, and a design doc, and capability to do the sh*t.

Now i'll quit my drunken bable before i get into a rant.

Mojomagic quit that project about a year ago and made it open source...

Equilibriumhttp://www.mojomagic.co.uk/ Click on the equilibrium link in the frame..

been a long time since i seen mojo, not even sure if she even works on anything anymore...

Read the site -_-

And Traci still is around, not sure about Mojo (who did graphics) Traci has switched to Blitz and is working on Chaos Moon. Ive seen her post on their message boards a few times. Shes very nice