A personal RPG project

[Lizzie]

GM isnt really limited, as far as 2d goes there are few things you can't do. Its main flaw is poor performance, but from what i can see, for Lizzie that would be of no concern.

You're going to have to elaborate on this because I have no idea what you're talking about.

If you mean the 'of no concern' part, im talking about the fact that the look you're aiming for isnt graphically intensive, so it does not require high performance and GM should be just fine.

BSF is 2D and lags to death on my computer.

However, if you want your game to look anything like the screenshots youve posted, coding is the easy part. You should probably forget about it for now and get to pixelart, as just developing the skill necessary to do that kind of art will take months. In fact, if you get the assets done, ill code the game for you

What exactly do you mean. I'm pretty sure the look achieved in the screenshots was done with just stock tiles alone in RPGM. Considering I can find every single one of them stock.

While I'll eventually have to get to pixel art, I'd think my resources in the meantime would be better spent on working on something I know so I have something to show for it, aka Mapping.

And are you serious about helping with the coding?

[Silverware]

BSF is like how I like to build games when i get to doing them, really really big with lots of crap the pc has to do, and GM innately is poor at doing large scale things at once, GM is rather good at doing RPG's of all sorts even what your looking for, just don't expect results overnight like you can get in RPGM.

I agree that GM can do more and is better for that fact, it also requires basic knowledge of coding to get any real work done, Boolean Logic and if then else Logic.
While RPGM you can just jump into.

He is serious about the coding, I think he's bored of BSF coding
And Im happy to help on the code too, just get the story written up, and someone doing the art.

Heh GM's only limits come in at scale, like my game requires 2698 Arrays in GM to just get bases and star systems fully functional, let alone the fleets. =P So Im porting to another language for now.

Believe me though with about a months worth of playing with the code in GM you could do the whole coding side yourself, GM is nice and easy, well for a code driven game.

[Lizzie]

I may use gamemaker if I can port RPGM maps with little trouble. I'll experiment with that later.

Is GM's lag issues based on how much stuff is on the screen itself at once, or how much stuff is in the game period?

Edit: Also for the record, I never said I wouldn't learn how to do the artistic assets. I just think it should be something I'm doing while also doing mapping. Since I'd be getting something produced while also learning how to act in another sector.

[Kaelis]

For the graphics part, you also have to factor in stuff like the colour quality you want, like wether your gonna use the "256 colours" or the "16 or 32 bit" color settings. Lower colour quality means less computing power in needed, which may be a factor if your using something like GM.

Er, no, not really. PCs have surpassed calculators' computing power quite a while ago =P

BSF is 2D and lags to death on my computer.

Yes, but BSF draws hundreds, sometimes thousands of sprites, particles and fancy effects, plus theres a lot of taxing logic going on in the background (AI, targeting, etc), not to mention that its far from being optimized. A simple (graphically) RPG will never have such problems.

I'm pretty sure the look achieved in the screenshots was done with just stock tiles alone in RPGM. Considering I can find every single one of them stock.

Well, i was under the impression that you want to do your own pixelart and didnt think you would want to use stock resources.

And are you serious about helping with the coding?

Yes, IF you get your own assets done.

While RPGM you can just jump into.

Theoretically yes, but if you want to get enything more than the default mechanics out of it, you do need to learn Ruby anyway, right?

He is serious about the coding, I think he's bored of BSF coding

Nah, its just that coding an RPG is easy and it would be a privilege to be able to code a game with such art.

I may use gamemaker if I can port RPGM maps with little trouble. I'll experiment with that later.

Providing that its possible to read the format output by RPGM, you would only need to write a parser in GM. Its trivial, but you have to somehow code it nonetheless. Actually, i could do that for you as well, but until the core game framework exists theres no point.

And even if RPGMs map format is closed, you don't have to use RPGM for map making, right?

Is GM's lag issues based on how much stuff is on the screen itself at once, or how much stuff is in the game period?

As far as graphics performance goes, then yes, lots of stuff on the screen is the main reason (notice that BSF lags noticeably less if theres no ships in view, even if there are huge behemoths in the game). There are other things that can slow it down, but im certain that your game wouldnt be bothered with them.

[Lizzie]

I'm pretty sure the look achieved in the screenshots was done with just stock tiles alone in RPGM. Considering I can find every single one of them stock.

Well, i was under the impression that you want to do your own pixelart and didnt think you would want to use stock resources.

Depends. A fair amount of the stock resources are good to begin with. If it's good and cuts down on workload I don't see why I can't use it if it's available.

At least for now. I was planning on learning how to do the art resources at some point.

[Silverware]

One big thing, is that the art for RPGM has to be all that base size, for GM you can choose your own base scale and things.

Rpgs can be one of the easier games to code, but depending upon how you want items done you can kick up a notch or 5 of difficulty. Maybe we should work on random items so every item baring the quest ones have random attributes and stuff, based on level.

All simple stuff still just a little more fun to do.

The biggest thing with GM is the number of calculations per step, and draw functions are huge on calculations, even if they only do simple things. Its because the guy who wrote it isn't a Professional Programmer, but rather a Hobby Programmer, and that has made some things rather limited, like arrays... I would break the guys arm for his stupid limits on arrays.

Map porting wouldn't be straight forward it would be more like redoing them in GM, but using the same art and things.
Kae might even be able to build a map making program that doesn't require GM open to fiddle with rooms. So it would be easier on you, and you could reuse the same base for multiple games in the same universe or something.
But that's just ideas still. And it would be easier for the coder(s) to just leave it all done in GM itself.

First steps really are : getting some art together, just basic template art for now. You can always make more later.
And getting down the mechanics, of the combat and movement and such. So that the coder(s) can get to work on it.

[Lizzie]

I have both programs on hand. Honestly what I'm going to do is play around with RPGM for awhile since I have no idea what I'm doing, once I have some clue, I'll start messing with GM and see if I want to use it, and also till I have some skill with pixelart. Unless you really want to go ahead and get cracking on coding the thing, which I doubt you do.

[Silverware]

Well all you need at the start are really basic template images, like a flat wall and floor, no shading or texture, just basic images that let you play around with things. After we get started you can either work on the images, or get someone in to do them.
And unless you know coding playing with GM won't be very helpful to start, try instead looking around on the GMC, gmc.yoyogames.com, and looking around at games people have made and try them out. Anything on there we can do, and more.
Some just takes longer.

try out RPGM though you don't need any skill for that, and try the combat system see how it is. if you want a better combat system your basically going to have to goto GM or another language or program.

[Lizzie]

try out RPGM though you don't need any skill for that, and try the combat system see how it is. if you want a better combat system your basically going to have to goto GM or another language or program.

Actually I've found a impressive array of videos on custom combat systems for RPGM on youtube alone.

I'm still not counting on them but we'll see.

[Kaelis]

Map porting wouldn't be straight forward it would be more like redoing them in GM, but using the same art and things.

Thats not true. All you have to do is read the format output by the map editor.

Kae might even be able to build a map making program that doesn't require GM open to fiddle with rooms.

What for? There are already some decent tile map editors out there, no need to reinvent the wheel.

[Lizzie]

A question for you two code monkeys, could you code some sort of coloring system for character creation/random gear generation so I wouldn't have to color each and every individual armor set/weapon/character creation option and instead made a grey template for it to work off of?

I ask hypothetically of course. I'm not asking you to actually do it right now.

[Silverware]

Already done something like that, it was designed for a RTS's selection box and HUD color, really simple stuff and can have the full 256^3 range of color supported, with the coloration of items it would require multiple sprites, one or more for each section that changes that's for color, and one or more for the base shape, because GM recolors the entire image, if they are white then you can choose any color including white else they will usually have a slight shade towards the base color.

Just like in BSF. =P
Its easy. =P
Just about 3 lines for the color selection and a Variable for each color. =)

[Lizzie]

Already done something like that, it was designed for a RTS's selection box and HUD color, really simple stuff and can have the full 256^3 range of color supported, with the coloration of items it would require multiple sprites, one or more for each section that changes that's for color, and one or more for the base shape, because GM recolors the entire image, if they are white then you can choose any color including white else they will usually have a slight shade towards the base color.

Just like in BSF. =P
Its easy. =P
Just about 3 lines for the color selection and a Variable for each color. =)

So you're telling me I'll have to design stuff that's meant to be recolored with multiple sprites for different colored parts, or am I reading this wrong?

[Kaelis]

For every different color, you will need a separate mask that will indicate which parts of the image are meant to be colored with said color. for example, if you wanted to do team colors like in Homeworld, you would need two masks per each sprite.

Or just chop your sprites into different parts, so that areas with different coloration are essentially different sprites. Then you can recolor them just like BSF sections. This would probably be a better idea than masks.

[Lizzie]

For every different color, you will need a separate mask that will indicate which parts of the image are meant to be colored with said color. for example, if you wanted to do team colors like in Homeworld, you would need two masks per each sprite.

Or just chop your sprites into different parts, so that areas with different coloration are essentially different sprites. Then you can recolor them just like BSF sections. This would probably be a better idea than masks.

Would this stress on the computer any?