RPG Maker for Teens

353 Pages·2011·8.93 MB·English

by  Michael Duggan

RPG Maker
for Teens
Michael Duggan
Course Technology PTR
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 13 12 11
This is for Jephael, a bright and curious girl with a temperament more
like an animal than a human, a natural artistic gift, and a love of all
things Pokemon . . . Now you can make your own fantasy RPG worlds!
Acknowledgments
Forthecreationofthisbooktherehavebeenmanysupporters,especiallyfromthe
RPG Maker community. Several people helped really tailor this tome into a
fi
suitable tforourreaders,includingEmiSmith,JennyDavidson,JTHiquet,and
fi
the rest of the ne folks at Cengage Learning. I also want to thank Krystal, Levi,
and Hayley for putting up with my late hours working at game play.
About the Author
MichaelDugganisaSouthern-basedauthorandillustratorofeighttextbookson
the subjects of video game design and digital media. He is also an applications
developer and computer art instructor at North Arkansas College. He currently
residesintheOzarkMountainswithhiswifeandstep-children.Hisloveforvideo
game design comes from playing role-playing games as a kid.
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x
Chapter 1 What Is a Fantasy RPG?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
The Role-Playing Game (RPG). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Tabletop RPGs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Pick-Your-Path Game Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Computer RPGs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Massively Multiplayer Online RPGs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Why RPGs? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Elements of Fantasy RPGs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Characters: So-And-So Has Joined Your Party! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Game World: A Trip to Never-land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Narrative: Twists and Turns in RPGs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Quests: Go Fetch! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Inventory: Now Where Did I Put That? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Combat: Turn-by-Turn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Some RPG Clichés to Watch Out For. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
East Meets West When It Comes to RPGs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
RPGs and Anime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
What’s Next? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Chapter 2 Making a Fantasy RPG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
How an RPG Is Made . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Game Development and Game Publishing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
vi
Contents vii
Indie Game Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
What a Game Developer Does . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Game Developer Team Roles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Game Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Getting a Job as a Developer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Game Design Documents and Project Schedules. . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
The Development Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Getting the Game Out There . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
How to Make an RPG Yourself. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Generating Game Ideas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Writing Game Design Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Planning the Development Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Finding the Right Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
What’s Next? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Chapter 3 Building Game Worlds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Purpose of a Game World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
A Game World Sets the Stage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
A Game World Creates Proper Flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
A Game World Sets the Mood. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
A Game World Fences the Player In. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Creating a Paper Prototype Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Getting Inspiration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Maps and Landforms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Weather and Climate Conditions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Cultures and Customs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Technology and Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Transportation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Medicine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Weapons and Combat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Political Climate and Conflicts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Monsters and Animals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
World-Building in RPG Maker. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Different Types of Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
What Are Tile-Based Maps?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Creating a New Game Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
viii Contents
Building Maps for Your Game Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Connecting the Two Maps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
What’s Next? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Chapter 4 Creating Characters and Writing Dialogue . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Inventing RPG Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Getting Inspiration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Creating Memorable Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
NPC Dialogue: “I’m Sorry. . . You Said What?” . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Putting Characters in Thug Wallow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Customizing Your Party. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Adding NPCs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
What’s Next? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
Chapter 5 Staging Battle Encounters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Creating a Monster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Subtypes of RPG Monsters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
The RPG Maker Monsters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Editing RPG Maker Monsters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Editing RPG Maker Troops. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
Mapping Battle Encounters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
What’s Next? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
Chapter 6 Quest Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
RPGs and Interactive Storytelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
Immerse Your Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Player Empowerment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
Keep Your Player Entertained . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
Provide Reactive Environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
Challenge Your Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
Types of Game Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
Interactive Storytelling with RPG Maker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260
In the Beginning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260
The Middle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
The End . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
What’s Next? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
Chapter 7 Final Touches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
Last-Minute Modifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
Lighting and Weather Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
Contents ix
Some Nasty Surprises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
Title and Game Over Screens. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
Terms Used in the Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
Background Music and Sound FX. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
Battle Faces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
Add More as You Like . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
What’s Next? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
Chapter 8 Where to Go from Here . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
Editing Your Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
Publishing Your Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
Creating a ReadMe File. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
Burning Your Game to Disc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
Putting Your Game on the Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
Can I Make Money Selling My RPGs?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
Gathering a Game Portfolio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
What’s Next? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333