Worldslayer608
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Game Development Monthly
Issue #2 - February 2012NEWS
Section Changes
The Game Development section has been restructured, to provide a tidier layout and a more logical arrangement of the various aspects of the section. The dust is still settling, but it seems to be working.
"Help & Resources" has been renamed to "Tutorials & Resources". This section is the home of guides, graphics, music and scripts that can help you build a better game. The rename better highlights what the section is for.
The "Beginner's Lounge" has been merged into the "Beginner's Showcase", as the two served much the same purpose. All new games, and even ideas for games, go in here. Creativity abounds!
"Pokémon Essentials" now has its very own section, which some would say was long overdue. With dedicated threads for the latest releases, discussions and projects, and a variety of thread prefixes to describe what your new threads are about, this section is for everything Essentials.
The new section layout is bound to be a welcome change, making it even easier to tell where to put your posts and find the things you need.
Pokémon Essentials Updates
A few days ago, Pokémon Essentials v5 was released, only a month after v4 came out at Christmas. As usual, there's plenty of improvements, not least of which is the MySQL support which could revolutionise online play (by allowing it at all). For more information about the latest release, check out this thread.
Is this the future of Essentials?
While we're talking about Essentials releases, the next one (v6) has been revealed to be all about a screen resize and the resulting GUI interface redesigns (i.e. what the various menus and screens look like). There is a discussion thread for the GUI redesigns, and already there some very interesting ideas. To see what's going on, or if you have any thoughts or ideas about what Essentials should look like, check out this thread.
Pokémon Starterkit VX Ace, by Crazyninjaguy
GDM would like to welcome back Crazyninjaguy to the PokéCommunity, who has brought with him a new project: a Pokémon game-making kit for RPG Maker VX Ace! It will be in the style of the Pokémon Black and White games, and looks promising. It doesn't yet have a battle system, but other features are already in place such as being able to define Pokémon and trainers. This kit will provide a welcome boost to those of us who want to make a Pokémon game with RPG Maker VX Ace. More information can be found in this thread.
TIPS & TRICKS
Building Your World
by ЩѻƦḽᶑʂḽдƴƹƦ™ and Maruno
There are many ways to build a world for your story to take place in, and not everyone does it the same way. Building a complete world is challenging and highly rewarding, and can be very time-consuming. There could be many great and unique ideas hidden deep inside you, just waiting to burst out in a rush of creativity. The world is the very backbone of your game, and it needs to be made properly and with great care. On a very basic level, there are two approaches to building a world all of your own.
Work Inside-Out: An inside-out approach to world building will have you starting small. Come up with a single location, and build around it. The main idea is that you build the surrounding world as you go, not worrying about what the whole world will look like as you can create more of it when you need to. Your world will take form as you progress, hopefully in the same order that the player will experience it, so you'll have a better feel for the player's experiences. Building inside-out allows you to dive straight into map-making and dialogue and so forth, without being bogged down by the often daunting prospect of planning absolutely everything out beforehand.
The inside-out method suits people who want immediate results, or who are confident in their ideas or just like winging it. It can result in greater variations in geography and philosophy, as you will spend months inventing everything as you go rather than getting it all done (relatively) quickly at the start. However, with this method it is easier to lose focus on the overall game, resulting in an uneven flow. Retconning earlier maps to include ideas you only think up later on will also be a common occurrence.
Work Outside-In: Zoom out and start with a bird's-eye view. With this method, you will begin with an overarching narrative or world design, and then systematically fill in the locations. This will give you a constant theme from the start to work with, allowing for a more consistent world and a better flow as you will have already planned out what happens where. It also keeps retcons to a minimum, as you are less likely to want to radically change everything halfway through.
The outside-in method suits people who enjoy planning everything out, and those who are prefer high levels of consistency. You won't get anything substantial out of your game for a while, and when you start mapping and so forth it can be less exciting as you already know exactly what's going on. If you plan out everything quickly, your game may not be very diverse as you won't have spent long thinking about it, and this is boring to the player. However, actual development will be easier as you will know what needs to be done, and the game will be more consistent. You're also less likely to get stuck halfway through.
Both methods have pros and cons, but fortunately they're both extremes. The style that best suits you is most likely somewhere between the two, but exactly where will depend on the person. The only way you can find out what works for you is to try!
Work Inside-Out: An inside-out approach to world building will have you starting small. Come up with a single location, and build around it. The main idea is that you build the surrounding world as you go, not worrying about what the whole world will look like as you can create more of it when you need to. Your world will take form as you progress, hopefully in the same order that the player will experience it, so you'll have a better feel for the player's experiences. Building inside-out allows you to dive straight into map-making and dialogue and so forth, without being bogged down by the often daunting prospect of planning absolutely everything out beforehand.
The inside-out method suits people who want immediate results, or who are confident in their ideas or just like winging it. It can result in greater variations in geography and philosophy, as you will spend months inventing everything as you go rather than getting it all done (relatively) quickly at the start. However, with this method it is easier to lose focus on the overall game, resulting in an uneven flow. Retconning earlier maps to include ideas you only think up later on will also be a common occurrence.
Work Outside-In: Zoom out and start with a bird's-eye view. With this method, you will begin with an overarching narrative or world design, and then systematically fill in the locations. This will give you a constant theme from the start to work with, allowing for a more consistent world and a better flow as you will have already planned out what happens where. It also keeps retcons to a minimum, as you are less likely to want to radically change everything halfway through.
The outside-in method suits people who enjoy planning everything out, and those who are prefer high levels of consistency. You won't get anything substantial out of your game for a while, and when you start mapping and so forth it can be less exciting as you already know exactly what's going on. If you plan out everything quickly, your game may not be very diverse as you won't have spent long thinking about it, and this is boring to the player. However, actual development will be easier as you will know what needs to be done, and the game will be more consistent. You're also less likely to get stuck halfway through.
Both methods have pros and cons, but fortunately they're both extremes. The style that best suits you is most likely somewhere between the two, but exactly where will depend on the person. The only way you can find out what works for you is to try!
GAME SPOTLIGHTS
"Pokémon Obsidian Version" demo 2 released
LINK: Pokémon Obsidian Version
Atomic Reactor has released his second demo for "Pokémon Obsidian Version", which features over 100 battle animations, optional missions, and game play up to the third town. Atomic Reactor has also posted a video walkthrough for the first 10 minutes of the game.
"Pokémon: Pristine Version" announced
LINK: Pokémon: Pristine Version
A new project presented by The Dewitty and Abnegation has recently surfaced, and has already found its way into The Showcase. "Pokémon Pristine Version" features custom tiles in the 4th Gen style, and a rich story to pull the player in.
"Pokémon: Lost Legends" relaunched
LINK: Pokémon: Lost Legends
"Lost Legends" has once again been posted in The Showcase by ЩѻƦḽᶑʂḽдƴƹƦ™. The thread has a polished layout, with screenshots and music, and a blog-like section for official updates and development notes.
YOUR TURN
Each month, GDM will come up with something you can have a go at. It could be a small project, a competition, a question or discussion, or something else. This month, we want to know your answer to the following question:
What is the most important philosophy to you when it comes to game design?
There are plenty of thoughts to be had when designing a game. For example, do you think it is better to be different or better to stick to the tried and tested? Is keeping true to the game's theme more important than giving people what they want? Are deadlines a factor, i.e. is having something at all preferable to having a game you consider complete? Is another philosophy more important to you?
Please let us know what you think!
CREDITS
ЩѻƦḽᶑʂḽдƴƹƦ™ - Writer, Editor
Maruno - Writer, Editor
Cilerba - CSS Layout
Do you want your name here? GDM is always looking for contributors and articles of any kind. If you are interested in helping out, send a PM to ЩѻƦḽᶑʂḽдƴƹƦ™.
*All opinions expressed in GDM are those of the writers who expressed them, and do not represent the views of GDM as a whole nor those of the other contributors.
