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Hey, new place. Wasn't sure if I should introduce myself first somewhere but since this is my first post i'll go ahead and make my introductory speech:
Hi.
And now we're off!
Okay, I think this is the sort of place I was looking for all evening. I'm coming from designing FRUA/DC (Forgotten Realm Unlimited Adventures/Dungeon Craft) Gold Box style RPGs. While I really do enjoy that type of game designing I'd also like to do some traditional 2D RPG games. What I'm really interested in, though, is creating games that are character and story driven.
Long ago I played around with RPG Maker 2000 and while it was fun i was looking to shop around for some new engines to play with.
Does anyone have any recommendations for what RPG engine lends itself well to storytelling and epic adventures with the option of action, combat, puzzle-making and various interactive elements?
I'd prefer something that's light on scripting. I had thought about checking out Sphere but I believe I read that it requires a lot of scripting knowledge. Not that I couldn't learn a script but I'm really looking for something a bit more accessible that can still yield high-quality results.
Hope I've made it to the right corner of the net and that I can hang out around here for little while.
What am I looking for now?
Sat Apr 16, 2011 6:42 am 
Sat Apr 16, 2011 7:21 am
Yo NinjaOverdrive, welcome to SlimeSalad and the OHR community.
Right first off, I'd get to grips with the basic engine first (but by the looks of things you've already had some experience with engines in the past), then look at some of the more advanced features.
There is a lot you can do with Plotscripting, but for the most part games can be made solely without any scripting at all.
I'd suggest you try some of the (outdated but still worth a little read (well the Battle Tutorial isn't _as_ out of date due to a certain Spade[/gloat])) How To Chapters on the OHRRPGCE Wiki before trying a simple game then a plotscripted one.
You'll find the community all very happy to tell you how to do things when you become stuck, and try the IRC Chatroom #SlimeSalad for live help and game discussion.
As an aside, and to end this text wall try HamsterSpeak Magazine for additional tutorials, news and related stuff to get you on your way with fancy stuff and writing (if you dig around, or people can give suggested articles, I'm pretty sure that almost everything PepsiRanger has wrote for HamsterSpeak is decent).
Again welcome to the OHR community, and enjoy your stay!
Right first off, I'd get to grips with the basic engine first (but by the looks of things you've already had some experience with engines in the past), then look at some of the more advanced features.
There is a lot you can do with Plotscripting, but for the most part games can be made solely without any scripting at all.
I'd suggest you try some of the (outdated but still worth a little read (well the Battle Tutorial isn't _as_ out of date due to a certain Spade[/gloat])) How To Chapters on the OHRRPGCE Wiki before trying a simple game then a plotscripted one.
You'll find the community all very happy to tell you how to do things when you become stuck, and try the IRC Chatroom #SlimeSalad for live help and game discussion.
As an aside, and to end this text wall try HamsterSpeak Magazine for additional tutorials, news and related stuff to get you on your way with fancy stuff and writing (if you dig around, or people can give suggested articles, I'm pretty sure that almost everything PepsiRanger has wrote for HamsterSpeak is decent).
Again welcome to the OHR community, and enjoy your stay!
Sat Apr 16, 2011 8:13 am
Spade, thanks for the informative reply. A little too informative at the moment as not much of this is making sense but I'm also still in that stage of "Why in the world am I putting myself through tackling a new game engine?!" That should pass after I get a little more hands-on experience.
Now, in my original post I was really inquiring on what game engine would be best for making story-driven RPGs. Are you saying that OHG could satisfy my needs? if so then I feel I need to ask what can this engine do that would be more effective than {insert name of other engine}? I read the Wikipedia page that compares it to RPG Maker, Sphere and Game Maker but the differences were a bit vague.
Perhaps someone could point me to where I could find some games made with this engine especially ones that have in-depth storylines so I can get a better sense of what the program can accomplish. (I'm about to Google this very thing so I may find my answer before the next response.)
Personally, I'm not looking for anything with high-end graphics and high resolutions as I'm quite a fan of the classi 8 and 16-bit games and I enjoy playing DOS games so the graphic capabilities need not be high.
Unless someone has another recommendation for me, thoough, I'm going to give the Hampster a shot. I can refer to the engine as "the Hampster", right?
Oh! One more question that's crawling aroound in the corner of my head: Is it possible to make non-linear Metroid/Castlevania type games? I've really been wanting to make a story-heavy game based on the Castlevania series.
Again, thanks and hopefully my post will start making a lot more sense after I get oriented with all these new fangled terms and concepts.
Now, in my original post I was really inquiring on what game engine would be best for making story-driven RPGs. Are you saying that OHG could satisfy my needs? if so then I feel I need to ask what can this engine do that would be more effective than {insert name of other engine}? I read the Wikipedia page that compares it to RPG Maker, Sphere and Game Maker but the differences were a bit vague.
Perhaps someone could point me to where I could find some games made with this engine especially ones that have in-depth storylines so I can get a better sense of what the program can accomplish. (I'm about to Google this very thing so I may find my answer before the next response.)
Personally, I'm not looking for anything with high-end graphics and high resolutions as I'm quite a fan of the classi 8 and 16-bit games and I enjoy playing DOS games so the graphic capabilities need not be high.
Unless someone has another recommendation for me, thoough, I'm going to give the Hampster a shot. I can refer to the engine as "the Hampster", right?
Oh! One more question that's crawling aroound in the corner of my head: Is it possible to make non-linear Metroid/Castlevania type games? I've really been wanting to make a story-heavy game based on the Castlevania series.
Again, thanks and hopefully my post will start making a lot more sense after I get oriented with all these new fangled terms and concepts.
Sat Apr 16, 2011 9:04 am
Story-driven games aren't based off engine features, but rather the author, you can write tens of thousands of textboxes in the game. What I'm getting at here is that writing a story-driven/character driven game isn't down to the program, but the person writing the script.
If you're asking if a story-driven RPG is easily achieved in the OHR, then I'd say yes. The OHR has a built in Textbox engine and can import textboxes from rich text format and can export them as well (I'd suggest exporting 1 textbox so you can see the format it uses).
I'd recommend the tutorials and HowTo chapters because the engine appears quite daunting at first glance, but is in fact very easy to use once you know what everything does.
Making a Metroidvania game might be tricky (but not impossible) in the OHR.
The OHR also supports 16bit graphics, OGG, WAV, MP3, MIDI sound formats (to name a few), and can import and export graphics/sounds.
I hope this makes things a bit clearer, and like I said; the community and developers will usually/always help members with problems in design or implementation.
Also, try out some OHR games; Motrya and Vikings of Midgard are two that I'd recommend you try, and Tim-Tim The Mighty Gnome and Bell of Chaos are examples of a side-scrolling games in the OHR.
EDIT: tl;dr - The OHR has a built in Textbox editor, meaning that it is very easy to make a story-driven game if you've already got a story in mind.
If you're asking if a story-driven RPG is easily achieved in the OHR, then I'd say yes. The OHR has a built in Textbox engine and can import textboxes from rich text format and can export them as well (I'd suggest exporting 1 textbox so you can see the format it uses).
I'd recommend the tutorials and HowTo chapters because the engine appears quite daunting at first glance, but is in fact very easy to use once you know what everything does.
Making a Metroidvania game might be tricky (but not impossible) in the OHR.
The OHR also supports 16bit graphics, OGG, WAV, MP3, MIDI sound formats (to name a few), and can import and export graphics/sounds.
I hope this makes things a bit clearer, and like I said; the community and developers will usually/always help members with problems in design or implementation.
Also, try out some OHR games; Motrya and Vikings of Midgard are two that I'd recommend you try, and Tim-Tim The Mighty Gnome and Bell of Chaos are examples of a side-scrolling games in the OHR.
EDIT: tl;dr - The OHR has a built in Textbox editor, meaning that it is very easy to make a story-driven game if you've already got a story in mind.
Sat Apr 16, 2011 9:29 am
NinjaOverdrive wrote:
Is it possible to make non-linear Metroid/Castlevania type games? I've really been wanting to make a story-heavy game based on the Castlevania series.
Seriously? I've been thinking of doing something like that on and off for months, but we're probably not in the same boat. You're talking about the "Metroidvania" type of game, I prefer the NES Castlevanias I and III. But I digress, is would be possible - if very difficult - to make a game like that on the OHRRPGCE.
So anyway, hello there! For a good idea of what most people do with this engine, I'd recommend checking out Wandering Hamster, the engine's original RPG, and Vikings of Midgard, which was made to show off what the engine can do.
For a quick look at other types of games you might be able to pull off with some very complicated scripting, see Tim-Tim the Mighty Gnome, a neat li'l platformer, and DON'T EAT SOAP!, a Bubble Bobble-type of game. There's also a short movie that was made with the OHR.
Sat Apr 16, 2011 10:02 am
Quote:
f you're asking if a story-driven RPG is easily achieved in the OHR, then I'd say yes.
Basically, yes, this is what I'm asking. It appears from what I've read and seen that the OHR is flexible enough to accomplish a wide variety of games (A Bubble Bobble game....) So I was just wondering how the engine handles text and character movements and such. I checked out Final Dragon Legends and it seemed to utilized the textboxes and dialogues quite well almost identical to classic FF games.
At the moment I'm just comparing engines to see which one I think would be best to present the game storyline I have in mind.
Quote:
Seriously? I've been thinking of doing something like that on and off for months, but we're probably not in the same boat. You're talking about the "Metroidvania" type of game, I prefer the NES Castlevanias I and III. But I digress, is would be possible - if very difficult - to make a game like that on the OHRRPGCE.
Yes, I'm talking about the Metroidvania format--I didn't use that exact term earlier to avoid confusing anyone lol. I'm not necessarilly interested in creating that sort of game but was curious if it could be done. Since it doesn't appear to be something I could pull off at this point I'll just let that one go. However, I do want to create an RPG of some form based on Castlevania and the storyline would take place shortly after Castlevania II: Simon's Quest.
Anyways, I probably should just grab the program and toy around with it to see what I can come up with. I'll be sure to check out all the documentations and tutorials but I imagine I'll return with a billion and five questions that will require answers before I swing a sledgehammer at my computer screen.
I'll check out those games ya'll recommended too, I especially got to see the Bubble Bobble one! [/quote]
Sat Apr 16, 2011 10:29 am
Quick thing I forgot:
The engine's specialty is, very explicitly, RPGs that look like they were made in the early Nineties - compared to commercial games, the basis feels like a clone of the SNES's Final Fantasy IV.
The engine's specialty is, very explicitly, RPGs that look like they were made in the early Nineties - compared to commercial games, the basis feels like a clone of the SNES's Final Fantasy IV.
Sat Apr 16, 2011 12:05 pm
hello and welcome!
i've always wanted to make a "metroidvania" type of game too, but i don't have the know-how to do it (plus, i don't think i'm smart enough to figure it out, even with tutorials). anyway, the OHR isn't too difficult to use. you can do a lot without plotscripting, if you play around with it long enough, but a little bit here and there helps the game look and feel better. it's definitely NOT like Sphere, which i've used before. the OHR
has plenty of defaults to get started with (ie character movement, strings, game menus, etc.) while Sphere has NONE. the only thing you can do with Sphere without any scripting is draw graphics and build maps. at least, that's how it was when i used it a few years ago.
hamsterspeak isn't too hard to learn, either. it's a variation of BASIC, which is just as the name implies. there are tutorials all over to help you out. also, like i tell every OHR newbie, check out Vikings of Midgard or my game, Final Dragon Legacy. you'll see the scripts are included with the games and they also aren't password protected, so you can open them up with CUSTOM.exe and see what makes them tick. studying a game in progress is another good way to learn what the heck you're doing. these are the only two games i know of that include the script files, though.
oh, and:
i was going more for Dragon Warrior-ish style story and Final Fantasy-ish gameplay, but oh well.
Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy... So here's some lunchmeat... Sandwich, maybe?
i've always wanted to make a "metroidvania" type of game too, but i don't have the know-how to do it (plus, i don't think i'm smart enough to figure it out, even with tutorials). anyway, the OHR isn't too difficult to use. you can do a lot without plotscripting, if you play around with it long enough, but a little bit here and there helps the game look and feel better. it's definitely NOT like Sphere, which i've used before. the OHR
has plenty of defaults to get started with (ie character movement, strings, game menus, etc.) while Sphere has NONE. the only thing you can do with Sphere without any scripting is draw graphics and build maps. at least, that's how it was when i used it a few years ago.
hamsterspeak isn't too hard to learn, either. it's a variation of BASIC, which is just as the name implies. there are tutorials all over to help you out. also, like i tell every OHR newbie, check out Vikings of Midgard or my game, Final Dragon Legacy. you'll see the scripts are included with the games and they also aren't password protected, so you can open them up with CUSTOM.exe and see what makes them tick. studying a game in progress is another good way to learn what the heck you're doing. these are the only two games i know of that include the script files, though.
oh, and:
NinjaOverdrive wrote:
I checked out Final Dragon Legends and it seemed to utilized the textboxes and dialogues quite well almost identical to classic FF games.
i was going more for Dragon Warrior-ish style story and Final Fantasy-ish gameplay, but oh well.
Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy... So here's some lunchmeat... Sandwich, maybe?
Sat Apr 16, 2011 1:11 pm
Yeah, I downloaded OHRRPGCE (that's a mouthful!) and was getting excited. I didn't know what to expect so it was like being eager to open up a wrapped present to see what was inside.
I'd already played a few minutes of Vikings and saw that the actual game product can look pretty awesome. So I opened up Custom...
Wow. I think someone said it could be daunting at first and that was no lie. I'm looking at a dozen menu options and submenus without a clue in hell what I'm suppose to do next heh heh.
So I'm hitting the how-to guides and tutorials now to make some sense out of all this madness.
Oh, I was just referring to the screen layout and textbox 'cause that was the first OHR game I played and hadn't not what it was going to look like. Though I only played it for about 10m it looked like an enjoyable game and I'm going to play it some more later.
I'd already played a few minutes of Vikings and saw that the actual game product can look pretty awesome. So I opened up Custom...
Wow. I think someone said it could be daunting at first and that was no lie. I'm looking at a dozen menu options and submenus without a clue in hell what I'm suppose to do next heh heh.
So I'm hitting the how-to guides and tutorials now to make some sense out of all this madness.
Quote:
i was going more for Dragon Warrior-ish style story and Final Fantasy-ish gameplay, but oh well.
i was going more for Dragon Warrior-ish style story and Final Fantasy-ish gameplay, but oh well.
Oh, I was just referring to the screen layout and textbox 'cause that was the first OHR game I played and hadn't not what it was going to look like. Though I only played it for about 10m it looked like an enjoyable game and I'm going to play it some more later.
Sat Apr 16, 2011 3:19 pm
NinjaOverdrive wrote:
Wow. I think someone said it could be daunting at first and that was no lie. I'm looking at a dozen menu options and submenus without a clue in hell what I'm suppose to do next heh heh.
Oh, I was just referring to the screen layout and textbox 'cause that was the first OHR game I played and hadn't not what it was going to look like. Though I only played it for about 10m it looked like an enjoyable game and I'm going to play it some more later.
Oh, I was just referring to the screen layout and textbox 'cause that was the first OHR game I played and hadn't not what it was going to look like. Though I only played it for about 10m it looked like an enjoyable game and I'm going to play it some more later.
don't worry about it being daunting. fenrir has been working on Vikings for awhile, that's why there's a lot there. i think the best way to get anything done is to focus on one thing at a time. also, start small. you can always add things after the fact. in FDL, for example, the prologue where you play as friedrich and loki didn't even exist until a few months ago (when i actually started to write the story). when you're ready, you could always make a test game to make graphics, build maps, test scripts, etc. that's how FDL started out, actually. practice makes perfect, and game making is no different. basically, don't expect to be able to churn out gems if you have very little experience. it'll come with time and a LOT of playing around. you can also create a thread here on the forum if you're having trouble with something that you can't find an answer for, even if it's really simple. don't be afraid of feeling stupid, not everything is as obvious as it seems. sometimes it helps to have another set of eyes, because they'll probably see something you didn't.
oh, and thanks for playing my game.
i hope it is enjoyable, even though you've only played for about 10 minutes. btw, there's about 4 and a half hours of gameplay right now, so that'll keep you busy for awhile. i'm currently in a rut right now, but i plan on making lots of changes by the next time i update it.
Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy... So here's some lunchmeat... Sandwich, maybe?
Sat Apr 16, 2011 4:24 pm
Scary Game 3 (Demo) is a demo of what would be a Metroidvania. It's the closest anyone's come, to the best of my knowledge.
(edit) oh, and hi and welcome, too
Mega Tact v1.1
Super Penguin Chef
Wizard Blocks
(edit) oh, and hi and welcome, too
Mega Tact v1.1
Super Penguin Chef
Wizard Blocks
Sat Apr 16, 2011 9:34 pm
Quote:
don't worry about it being daunting. fenrir has been working on Vikings for awhile, that's why there's a lot there. i think the best way to get anything done is to focus on one thing at a time. also, start small. you can always add things after the fact...
Yeah, I've been through the process of learning new engines a couple times before so I'm pretty much a veteran on feeling hopelessly lost at the start of these endeavors. Just got off work so haven't had much time to experiment with the software yet but when I reach a problem I'll know where to turn. It's nice to see that the people here seem friendly enough not to mind helping out a newbie.
Just downloaded Scary Game 3 and ran it. I thought it was awesome that the background music was a Castlevania theme but I can't seem to figure out the controls like how to jump or use a weapon.
Sat Apr 16, 2011 11:22 pm
Heelo there, good sir, and welcome. I hope you enjoy the OHR and make some great games
You may want to look at the online magizene Hamster Speak or check out Castle Paradox.com (even though it's a lot less active).
There's a contest going on right now, soo if you get used the engine soon, you may want to consider making and entering a demo for it.
Oh, and how are you on graphics? There are a couple tutorials on this site as well as free graphics in the magizene (somethimes). These may help you if you need them.
Have a nice stay.
You may want to look at the online magizene Hamster Speak or check out Castle Paradox.com (even though it's a lot less active).
There's a contest going on right now, soo if you get used the engine soon, you may want to consider making and entering a demo for it.
Oh, and how are you on graphics? There are a couple tutorials on this site as well as free graphics in the magizene (somethimes). These may help you if you need them.
Have a nice stay.
Sun Apr 17, 2011 12:11 am
NinjaOverdrive wrote:
Just downloaded Scary Game 3 and ran it. I thought it was awesome that the background music was a Castlevania theme but I can't seem to figure out the controls like how to jump or use a weapon.
It's probably Ctrl and Alt, but it might be Z and X. Been awhile.
Mega Tact v1.1
Super Penguin Chef
Wizard Blocks
Sun Apr 17, 2011 12:14 am
Mogri wrote:
It's probably Ctrl and Alt, but it might be Z and X. Been awhile.
NinjaOverdrive wrote:
Just downloaded Scary Game 3 and ran it. I thought it was awesome that the background music was a Castlevania theme but I can't seem to figure out the controls like how to jump or use a weapon.
It's probably Ctrl and Alt, but it might be Z and X. Been awhile.
i think it comes with a readme explaining the controls. i played it a little bit myself. can't figure out how to get the slingshot, though...
Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy... So here's some lunchmeat... Sandwich, maybe?