A follow-up on Dawson's originality thread.

[Krazy_Meerkat]

Everyone seems to curb their games in the general direction of the original storylines, or slight alterations of existing storylines, this would normally mean nothing granted that the game had it's own unique content and provided the player with an entertaining experience, but this is untrue for many games.. Most of the games I'm talking about contain no gameplay, gameplay is something that you can do while the storyline is in limbo, not the ability to catch extra pokemon or anything like that, those can be considered features..
One strong point I'd like to make is that pokemon essentials, and indeed all pokemon starter kits, were created to aid people who really do know how to script but are unable to create the massive systems pokemon uses by themselves. Don't even touch it if you are clueless in that department because you don't know what you are getting yourself into.. Besides, you can teach yourself to script for free in less than a week with the amazing power of the internet
Ok, so everyone who was getting their grubby little hands all over the starter kit needs to learn how to script first, then starter kit second. Once you do know how to script, you can make many many alterations to the kit itself, but beware that if you screw it up, you won't always get help with your problem.. Trying to solve the problem yourself is usually the best option (you get a feel for what's what once you've scripted for a while)

I suggest maybe a stickied thread called: Game Development Guidelines or something where you just give a good, long, bulletted explanation of the aspects of game making and the do's and dont's.
That might help seperate the aspiring game developers from the actual ones.. Well it will at least "guide" them to not using generic tiles and storylines, features, whatever you want to call it, there is something wrong with nearly every game in the showcase section.
P.S. Use good grammar wherever possible because people can't stand to see too many errors, it sometimes destroys the whole game (well for me anyway)

One more thing, Attention To Detail, this is not purely a cosmetic saying, you should give the player stuff to actually do (ya know, a different experience for each player). Make a letterbox somewhere, perhaps it could lead to a side-quest, maybe there's an item hiding behind a tree? Make a really in-depth game and that might win over your fans alone.. I have played lots of games just because I appreciated the ATD.. I felt like I was having a very personalised experience

 

[4th Gen Matt]

Everyone seems to curb their games in the general direction of the original storylines, or slight alterations of existing storylines, this would normally mean nothing granted that the game had it's own unique content and provided the player with an entertaining experience, but this is untrue for many games.. Most of the games I'm talking about contain no gameplay, gameplay is something that you can do while the storyline is in limbo, not the ability to catch extra pokemon or anything like that, those can be considered features..
One strong point I'd like to make is that pokemon essentials, and indeed all pokemon starter kits, were created to aid people who really do know how to script but are unable to create the massive systems pokemon uses by themselves. Don't even touch it if you are clueless in that department because you don't know what you are getting yourself into.. Besides, you can teach yourself to script for free in less than a week with the amazing power of the internet
Ok, so everyone who was getting their grubby little hands all over the starter kit needs to learn how to script first, then starter kit second. Once you do know how to script, you can make many many alterations to the kit itself, but beware that if you screw it up, you won't always get help with your problem.. Trying to solve the problem yourself is usually the best option (you get a feel for what's what once you've scripted for a while)

I suggest maybe a stickied thread called: Game Development Guidelines or something where you just give a good, long, bulletted explanation of the aspects of game making and the do's and dont's.
That might help seperate the aspiring game developers from the actual ones.. Well it will at least "guide" them to not using generic tiles and storylines, features, whatever you want to call it, there is something wrong with nearly every game in the showcase section.
P.S. Use good grammar wherever possible because people can't stand to see too many errors, it sometimes destroys the whole game (well for me anyway)

One more thing, Attention To Detail, this is not purely a cosmetic saying, you should give the player stuff to actually do (ya know, a different experience for each player). Make a letterbox somewhere, perhaps it could lead to a side-quest, maybe there's an item hiding behind a tree? Make a really in-depth game and that might win over your fans alone.. I have played lots of games just because I appreciated the ATD.. I felt like I was having a very personalised experience

I don't even understand scripting in the least. Like it is not that I just do not know how to do it, but I do not understand how scripting works. Where do you type the numbers from scripting? How can a bunch of numbers make a pokemon battle screen? I would love to start scripting but I just cannot even wrap my brain around the idea. So many things about it confuse me that I cannot even put into words.

Anyway, speaking of side-quests, I am going to have those in my game. I am already brainstorming some ideas. That idea for a sticky sounds good, btw.

 

[4th Gen Matt]

Matt, programming is not easy. Few people in the showcase or even on this website can actually program things from scratch.

Pokemon Essentials makes me happy that some people can program. Nobody seems to delve into its internals. No original, decent game was ever made by a drag and drop interface. You need to be looking at code to be making a good game. It's where the innovations come from.

People need to understand Ruby first, then RPG maker architecture before they can start writing good scripts. Note that RPG maker is called a "game engine" in the real world.

(I've never even looked at Pokemon Essentials)

I know for a fact it is not easy. I can't even grasp the concept of it at all. I know scripting is kind of like telling the computer what we want it to do in it's own native language, but what does a certain number mean? Is typing this or that number kind of like a command to the computer? Do you use certain numbers to signify what picture you want to use from a folder?

Anyway, in other news, I am getting kind of depressed about my game. I love game making and all but other games in the showcase are like 10x better than mine. I don't even know if it is worth it to make a game. My biggest fear is that I spend all my time making this game and then nobody will even play it. All of this has really made me lose inspiration with my game. That and my game's slow progress because Red Gyrados is always busy. What does everybody else think?

 

[Krazy_Meerkat]

Well it is a fact that scripting would make your game much more original, but it is hard to learn..
I really rushed into it when I started and I skipped quite a few tutorials along the way (I don't advise doing this because if I don't constantly use the things I know, I will have to re-learn them) but there is always a hierarchy to the scripting world.. You start off learning how to display text on the screen and as you learn about variables (the many kinds), you will see the relevant ones and the ones which take time to learn (but will allow you to make much more complex systems)..
You can associate scripts with pieces of music, each line of text means something to the program and tells it what to do.. You have to learn the lines of text you will want to use because they are case sensative (I often browse the scripting menu for the correct command to use (I don't have a super-human memory))
If you have the right rmxp help file, one of them had a very good introduction to scripting with most commonly used commands listed and explained.
A program is comprised of a very important web of processes which use common english words to describe the function of the program to the operating system, so that it runs. The words are referred to as syntax, they include words like "begin, end, for, to, from, repeat, and, until" and it's how you are permitted to use these words to construct lines of script which are slightly different for each programming language (the words and symbols usually change a little too).
It really seems very simple once you learn the rules of your relevant language, but you need to understand the basic concepts before you build onto that. Scripting is by far the most consecutively frustrating hobby I have ever had but there is great reward to a patient mind. Calm yourself if you feel angry and don't let the script win. Be determined to beat it and you will accomplish your goal.
I also never really learned much about the graphical side of scripting, I was purely mathmatical in creating unusual systems and often needed to find help when going anywhere near the graphical side of programming.
Matt, you may not understand scripting because you have never tried. Google "rmxp scripting tutorials" and look for the "basic" and "beginner" ones, if you have not previously scripted they will not seem so basic but even learning that much makes you that much more knowledgable about scripting than any of your friends. My friends know nothing about scripting so I can't really relate to them in that way but they sometimes want to know how I'm able to do some of the stuff I do by just typing on a keyboard and clicking the mouse.. It makes me think that scripting really is like a sort of elitist sport or something, there are some people who are so amazingly talented and others who are adequate, but they are boring as hell.. But then there are people who just could never wrap their head around it, and everyone in between.. But you can always climb the ladder a little more ;)
Remember, you should know scripting like you know how to speak, that's why it's called a language.