Discussion: Why is RPG Maker so prevalent?

[VVVx]

Something I've observed in the vore game sector, and with lewd games in general, is the prevalence of RPG Maker as the engine of choice. 25 out of the 55 games on the playable vore games list are made with RPG Maker. Why is it so widely used? This interests me because of the wide variety of tools that could be used, and how many people aren't using them. For example, why choose RPG Maker over GameMaker Studio or Unity? Is it the low barrier to entry? Is it because of the variety of assets you can find? I'd love to hear some input from developers about their choice.

[Tetrahedra]

- Extremely easy to use
- Has tons of premade scripts to quickly enhance a game's gameplay without much effort on creator's end
- Regularly on sale for like 10 bucks on steam
- Easy to pirate if you don't wanna pay for it
- Lots of premade assets, easy to add your own on top of it

[warbrand4]

something to note, most games here and in other sites are made by people with little to no coding ability. Rpg maker is relatively easy to use. infact as long as you can write and know how to manipulate images you can use rpgmaker to make a game.

It's not because it is better or anything it is because rpg maker is easy to use and requires little to not experience to use. also keep in mind of thoughs games the ones that are more likely to die before being finished are all rpgmaker games.

Not to be rude but 90% of people that pick up rpgmaker tend to flounder and fail after starting their concept. sure easy to use but goddamn it if another one of you guys uses the freaking example maps one more time. seriously I have seen the same towns so many times it isn't funny.

Yeah rpgmaker is easy to use and comes with enough assets to make atleast the base of a game. the thing is most games made with it die in this community when the devs hit the I need help faze, as they do not have the skill to continue.


Sorry for the ranting. I seriously think we would have more finished and well made games if some of us where to pull resources and work on one concept at a time rather then each making their own, burning out on it and leaving a good project to die. and even a small team of 2 or 3 can fail. (look at the one me and mephisto worked on, though that was RL and neither of us being the best at story seriously we plot holed the story and couldn't figure out how to finish it.)

I can rant and ramble all day and sorry about this. it will not make sense unless some one wants to analyze autistic ramblings (I am autistic as a note).



Oh to people looking to use RPGmaker to make future games. I have some suggestions before you start.



BEFORE USING RPGMAKER.

one: plan out a story, be it a simple dating sim, or a true blue RPG in a vore world. make your story and lore. not having this can lead to plot hole kill which is what took out viewtopic.php?f=79&t=33898 seriously plan your story not just the base idea. the hole thing from start to end.

two: know how you are going to use vore in the mechanics or story. do not just tack it on as something that happens and is disjointed. though as a community we are getting better at this. I still think it is funny that the best vore game where it doesn't feel tact on is one of the older ones on the site and I don't think it works anymore.

three: know how you are going to portray scenes. this is a big one, I have seen projects here die just cause some one went the full text wall route in rpg maker, use sounds, images and animations if you can. if you want text wall I would recomend you learn to use quest, it is just as easy to use and fits a lot better for text wall stories. RPGMAKER IS NOT A GOOD PLATFORM FOR TEXTWALLS!

four: do NOT go it alone. I know most games here are pation projects but keep in mind going alone results in burn out and lack of motivation. not only that but it increases the work load and makes the game more of a chore the longer you work on it. seriously, get people that you can count on to help you. example a good thing we really need to do is find out who can do what and who can help with what. (some one make an RPGMAKER's top.... I will do this in a few moments)

and these are just some "basic things" this maybe a rant but damn rpgmaker games needs a boost they tend to be low quality and the good ones either die early or die in a fire so to speak. their are few that actually get finished though that said there is not a single one of the finished ones that are a bad game, hell of the games here I think the finished RPG maker games while rare are some of the better ones out there with the true blue indy level games being the only ones above them.

[ryanshowseason3]

I mostly echo warbrand.

Visual novel engines are literally writing text and inserting a few images but we just don't see as much activity on them for some odd reason. That might be because they rely on coding. Which is daunting for newcomers.

My one advice for newcomers in making games is to do something very small in scope. Don't assume you will make a long epic of a game, a branching storyline or grand adventure.

Do something short and do it well.

The main reason for RPG maker is zero coding experience and next to zero desire/confidence that one can learn.

I wish there wasn't such a phobia. Perhaps it is time for a tutorial video of some sort. I mean FFS renpy and most engines are free.

*shrug*

[VVVx]

Visual novel engines are literally writing text and inserting a few images but we just don't see as much activity on them for some odd reason. That might be because they rely on coding. Which is daunting for newcomers.

My one advice for newcomers in making games is to do something very small in scope. Don't assume you will make a long epic of a game, a branching storyline or grand adventure.

Do something short and do it well.

I recently watched a video about what causes new indies to fail, and it's main point was that people try to make something too large for their ability, and burn out. The advice was to slowly build up from small games, to that big game you've always wanted to make.

The main reason for RPG maker is zero coding experience and next to zero desire/confidence that one can learn.

I wish there wasn't such a phobia. Perhaps it is time for a tutorial video of some sort. I mean FFS renpy and most engines are free.

I wish that more people would just dive in. I was afraid of programming myself, but lately I've been learning a decent amount through a course that forced me to dive right in. I found out that scripting is less scary than I thought. Even built a text-based game in Unity(non-vore). It was fun, and I feel more confident already. I think if more people tried, we could see more variation in content.

[sweetladyamy]

Unity...

I'd try it...

My issue is the simple fact that I have a small HDD (150 GB) that is damn close to full because of all of my interests and the Unity installer is NINE DAMN GIGABYTES.

Game Maker...

It took up a lot of HDD space, and honestly, I had no clue how to use it, no clue where to start.

RPG Maker has been the best option, but Ruby is quite a formidable mistress if you mess around with her. She'll throw a fit at the slightest thing wrong. Honestly, I like Ruby simply because I understand the operands the most there, even if I'm a novice at RGSS.

I can, to a degree, manipulate graphics too, and GIMP is my go to tool for this. Yay!

Audacity, FL Studio...I'm all set, honestly. lol

[empatheticapathy]

- Extremely easy to use
- Has tons of premade scripts to quickly enhance a game's gameplay without much effort on creator's end
- Regularly on sale for like 10 bucks on steam
- Easy to pirate if you don't wanna pay for it
- Lots of premade assets, easy to add your own on top of it

It might be more accurate to say people think scripts improve a game's gameplay. They're very tempting, but they rarely make a game truly better.
The rest is of course accurate.

[Rendezvore]

Visual novel engines are literally writing text and inserting a few images but we just don't see as much activity on them for some odd reason. That might be because they rely on coding. Which is daunting for newcomers.

Exactly why I decided to check out a visual novel creator a few weeks ago. Currently having a lot of fun with TyranoBuilder (Only ~$15 on Steam). It uses a drag-and-drop WYSIWYG interface without any need for code to make a simple interactive VN. Taking it further requires some coding, but there's the built-in-easy-to-use TyranoScript which even my butt can understand for the most part. A more advanced user can use Python language.

But remember, to make a good visual novel you're going to need to invest in or draw art (backgrounds and characters). If you're better at creating music, sounds, and voice acting, there is an option to make a sound focused novel, too.

My one advice for newcomers in making games is to do something very small in scope. Don't assume you will make a long epic of a game, a branching storyline or grand adventure.

Agreed, agreed, agreed! I made a small adventure in RPGM VX Ace just for myself to test mechanics and after that tiny thing of five maps I got way ahead of myself with a grand idea to expand on and then realized I didn't want an RPG. I simply wanted to tell a story with some minor game elements. I have no interest in making sprites or designing a battle system for what was essentially an interactive fiction with some cut-scenes.

So if that's all you're looking for in a game creator, don't default to RPGMaker. It's much more convoluted than it seems. It doesn't even have WORD WRAP. And the indicator to stop typing and go to the next line is in the WRONG SPOT (due to English translation) which drove me absolutely bonkers when trying to write a text heavy game!

[0Anesthetic4u]

Oh not this conversation again. I swear if that mouth breather comes in here and starts taking a dump on people using RPGmaker to make games again... I cant come up with anything that I'd do... But oh by God would I do that.

Honestly who asks this question? I would think the answer is obvious, if something is ubiquitous on the internet it's because it is cheap and easy.

[jasamprn]

Only one often missed point. It's quite suited to the task of making a bunch of interactive scenes. (See any RPGMaker game that has no combat)
RPGmaker and Visual novel engines are pritty much ideal for mass fetish stuff.

[MirceaKitsune]

Probably because it's an easy tool and literally the most widespread. As far RPG games go, I use OHRRPGCE... you can be sure there will be some vore games from me there too.

[RediQ]

One thing that seems a bit overlooked in this discussion is that using other 2d and 3d engines that are more made-from-scratch than RPGMaker will also require having art assets, and most of the people making games here aren't 2d artists or 3d modelers at all.

While people using RPGMaker or VN engines can overcome that problem by finding and/or editing existing static images, or editing the small RPGmaker sprites, finding publicly-available animated and interactive vore-related assets is gonna be... almost impossible. The options would basically come down to stealing content from a game like Milia Wars (don't do that) or from one of the non-rpg/vn games already here like RAADD Runner (don't do that either, or at least ask the animator if you can use their stuff).

Coding can be daunting to a lot of people, but modern game-making engines are intuitive enough now that it's actually possible to make something that's basically functional without needing code that's much more complex than, say, scripting events and triggers in RPGMaker (which is "easy" only in the sense that it doesn't require outside knowledge - it's still ass-backwards in a few ways when it comes to being intuitive or streamlined). I really think the easier access to visual assets, especially the premade characters and environment tiles, is the bigger factor in making people go for RPGMaker first. Unity does have basic assets too, but making them vore-related is a far bigger task than adding a few pixels worth of round belly to an RPG spritesheet (which isn't even done all the time since the sprites are so small anyway).

As for why more people don't go for VN makers over RPGMaker? Probably a mix of factors, but if I had to guess, it'd be that fewer people are familiar with VNs as a format than the classic-jRPG format, plus maybe being scared of having to drive a game entirely on the strength of their writing, rather than having other basic game systems to fall back on too.

[VVVx]

Oh not this conversation again. I swear if that mouth breather comes in here and starts taking a dump on people using RPGmaker to make games again... I cant come up with anything that I'd do... But oh by God would I do that.

Honestly who asks this question? I would think the answer is obvious, if something is ubiquitous on the internet it's because it is cheap and easy.

The purpose of this question was to start a discussion. There's nothing wrong with using RPG Maker, but I feel like it limits the variety of content that the community puts out. With there being other cheap and easy tools, I like to know why people make the choices they do.

[polyedit2000]

Making games is like making pizza, and the cheese and toppings are your personal touches. RPG Maker is a ready crust that doesn't need much prep time. Game Maker is a dough you make yourself, so you can make a stromboli or calzone, though dough would take extra time to make.

So yeah, if I need to run, talk, and hit something, RPG Maker seems to fulfill all those things already. If I want more specific elements like an endless runner, then I might touch upon Game Maker for that, though some people can make a pizza burrito with a ready crust. Not perfect, but creative enough to work.

The other reason for all these RPG Maker games now is because of all the RPG Maker games then; you saw a pepperoni pizza and figured you could make one better with bacon. In my case, I wanted to have a game with more cocooning than Esthe Hunter, with more bad scene flexibility than the other vore games.

But yeah, that's the general scene. RPG Maker's supposedly a way to give to the vore community, but it's more of a measuring contest everyone can get into.

[ThatLurkerGuy]

I can only speak personally, but I know that for my game that I made, I gave serious consideration to whether or not I should make it an rpgmaker game or instead go for a visual novel style.

In the end, I went for rpgmaker for one simple reason; art assets. I can't draw worth garbage, but any fool can search up good sprites with the magic that is google.

[Thagrahn]

As someone who has tried several programs, it's a matter of the creator's artistic and story writing skills.

RPG Maker provides many art assets, and you only need to plan key events of the story progression. Most of the filler action and story are created by the player.

Game Maker requires artistic skill to create assets, but allows for different styles of play. Again, most of the story comes from actually playing the game.

Visual Novel programs requires fewer art assets, but requires planning out the details of the story including branching options for a CYOA story. The players involvement is limited as a result.

Balance wise, little programming skill is required, but the more skill in programming the creator has, the more complex or customized the game elements can be.

[mZmm]

as far as vore games go the two overwhelmingly popular choices on this forum are rpgmaker and text adv engines like quest/twine. these got their start because they appealed to the exact opposite ends of the spectrum; rpgmaker is super easy to use/develop with and 95% of what you need is given to you or you can find within five seconds on a mod forum or whatever, whereas quest/twine are for the batshit insane people who actually know what they're doing with code and aren't afraid by a daunting engine and a UI that looks at home in the early 90s and enjoy the ability to set up their game however they want

since these two things appealed to the most people (and raw programmers often didn't have much ability to create art assets and such anyway, therefore being more attracted to text adventures unless they wanted to collab with a full time artist) they proliferated madly and now that their communities are so large (compared to the other engines) it's far less daunting to start with one of these as opposed to something like GameMaker because only like 5 people on the planet have tried making a vore game with gamemaker and therefore nobody is there to hold your hand through the creation process (which is very important for young devs)

i personally chose quest because like mentioned i can actually deal with raw code (for like 10 mins before i have a mental breakdown) and because i can't draw a stick person so visual assets were out of the question for me. also with quest i had jeschke to hold my hand and answer every asinine question i hand (thx jit ily) so it was a lot easier. also cuz im the best writer on the planet and it doesnt matter how good the game actually is when ppl are constantly orgasming (this is a joke)