If you were to change anything about your game, what would it be?

[Hedrum]

Not too long ago, I pondered about my unfinished game Monkey Brothers, and what I could have done to make the game more enjoyable. If I were to change anything about that game, I would definitely rework the customized battle system (CBS). The game's file size proved to be a big concern for me. If I completed the project, each dungeon in the game would have taken up one memory card's worth of data. The majority of the data, however, was consumed mostly by the CBS. I cannot remember how much scenario data each individual enemy took, but I do remember that the amount of space was high. If I did work on my project again, I wouldn't use a CBS. In fact, I would just settle with the default battle system since it's easy to use and doesn't eat so much data. Besides, my battle system mostly focused on luck. Basically, if the player touches a wandering enemy, there were chances that either the enemy attacked, the player attacked, the player dodged, or the enemy dodged. With the risk of chance involved, the player would naturally want to avoid enemies as much as possible. Sometimes though, the player might find his/her self completely surrounded by enemies and would inevitably have to fight through the enemies in order to progress. This battle system proves to be unfair, because it relies heavily on luck. With the default battle system, the player wouldn't always have to rely on the luck of the draw in order to defeat enemies. Anyway, that's something that I would change one of my games. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll ever go back to finish Monkey Brothers, not only because I have no desire, but because RPG Maker is like ten years old and there seems to be no reason to go back.

Now it's your turn! If any of you could go back in time to change anything in any of your games, what would it be and why?

[Rodak]

Re: If you were to change anything about your game, what would it be?

I'd keep stuff more organized!

I've been going back over The Clean Underwear Quest, and nothing is even remotely organized.

I never named flags or variables until too late in development, and some wound up used in multiple places - causing difficult to track bugs

I have unnamed maps, scripts, events, and even etc!!

And worst of all - the memory is almost all used up and I have no idea what is safe to delete

[Dillinger]

Re: If you were to change anything about your game, what would it be?

I would have kept going with my game instead of blatantly giving up.
I started a game a good 9 years ago and put about 50 hours into it, I out of frustration of not having the understanding of finishing or even making a game in general just deleted it and gave up.
I'm now regretting that I did that for the sake of I'd have a good amount of experience if it wasn't for that. The good news however is that I do have a drive to learn the game now, all of them actually!
Working. 40-64+ hours a week leaves not much time for play however.
In due time i'll make a game, however crappy it is! After all that's the only way to learn.

[Biggie]

Re: If you were to change anything about your game, what would it be?

All of the spelling mistakes and unbalanced xp system in Hippy Hunt 2.

I've once attempted to fix the spelling errors, but all the scripts were so unorganized it wasn't even worth it, but I got around to balancing the xp and battle system, but I never finished it. I had a whole update planned for the game, but it'll probably never get finished.

[Karr Lord of Chaos]

Re: If you were to change anything about your game, what would it be?

i wish i had of planed far ahead and kept with my plans. its so much work to go back and remake something or try to figure out what does what. ive built so much on top of stuff thats dead that i dont even know what some of the events do and im too scared to delete them.

no mater how much i plan i always change my mind and go a new direction. im polishing my game so hard that im wearing away the finish!

[Ωbright]

Re: If you were to change anything about your game, what would it be?

In Shadow of the Towers, I could have simply had a battle roster event that adds/removes characters, WITHOUT actually having 9 extra characters whose sole purpose was to add them. I liked the feel of having the people actually IN the HQ, and I actually put in the option to rename them also, but I could have done that in an event and saved myself SO much room for other things (like NPC's). Oh well, I would have only had enough room after that to add 9 NPC's unless they had next to no text and coding...and that's IF RM3 would even LET me add them (when the data is almost maxed, you have to delete WAY more things to make room for something new than the size of the actual thing you want to add).

im polishing my game so hard that im wearing away the finish!

I know what you mean, and that's a good way of putting it.

[Leish]

Re: If you were to change anything about your game, what would it be?

For Sexy Blues, probably:

1) Better maps in the beginning. Cause I mean, the very first map is...awful. EDIT: No no, I take that back. I like the first map, it's just I don't like how the inside and outside of the castle can be seen at once. That's it, though, so really it's nothing. NOTHING.

2) Fixed glitch movie scenes. Yeah, there are some moments where you're like, "He either didn't catch that or he was too frustrated to care." It's the latter. Nothing game breaking by any means, and I felt that it was "good enough" at the time. Also, sometimes the characters don't face each other when they talk. Again, at the time I thought I would be forgiven for this because I'm an amateur and because the important parts were the text, not the character displays. But now I can't forgive myself

3) Shorter first dungeon map. I made it into a "maze," and if you went one way, you advanced, if you went the other, you got new magic. However, I did something wrong with the magic part (which in the test play I never bothered with), so you can't actually get the magic. You can get items, but I don't think it's worth the battles. So if you play Sexy Blues, when you're in the forest, just go south and you'll see the lake. Then just follow that path. The pier is a little too big for a place with battles...just keep south.

4) Used switches instead of item switch event. I didn't understand switches at the time, so I'd just put random items in your inventory that were necessary for some scenes. Again, I thought I could be forgiven for that, but now I can't forgive myself

I still enjoy playing my game despite the amateur problems, though. The sequel sorta redeems these problems, but I had to stop due to writer's block

[Pagerron]

Re: If you were to change anything about your game, what would it be?

There is a small glitch in Daniel's Quest, that, depending on the order that you do a certain series of events, limits your chances of getting the best possible ending. I would go back and fix that glitch and resubmit the game.
I'd like to do that sometime soon. Life has been a bit busy lately.
Thanks to Obright for letting me know about it.

Also, If I had had more memory capacity, I would have made more treasure events that served as a way of giving tips to the player. Apparently, the game was a bit hard to follow at times for some people who played it.

Yeah. I also would try not to "waste time" just tinkering. I could have finished Daniel's Quest III much sooner had I really set out and planned each game-making session, but I really enjoyed the process anyway.

[ErikaFuzzbottom]

Re: If you were to change anything about your game, what would it be?

How would I improve Jester's Hunt? Easy. Better-looking maps. They're all rather bland-looking, using only the most basic pieces and almost nothing really creative. The cloud level is the worst, as that's almost all the level consists of, with almost zero scenery being used.

I might've also done something different with the final battle. As long as you go in with a certain amount of health, you absolutely cannot lose. I think the main issue is that I included no way of making any mistakes. Instead, there's just an unavoidable counter-attack. Which means that if you don't go in with enough health, you absolutely cannot win.