Future of RPG Maker Speculation

[Spirit]

Re: Future of RPG Maker Speculation

i highly doubt that a i-phone rpgm would sell first of all many people who own i-phones would rarely have time to build a functioning rpg and you would also have to scan the **** out of it in order to keep games like the sexanator 3 from popping up also in order to use the touch screen in the game the creator would have to "program" the touch screen to respond in, this way if you touch here, this way if you touch here and so on

and as a survay

how many people here actually OWN i-phones?

i think that a rpgm would be better on a pc A. everyone owns a pc and B. you could make a game quickly and simpy

[Valkysas]

Re: Future of RPG Maker Speculation

People who play iphone games... largely have no interest in "real" games. much less making them.

Yeah, I said it. I don't consider iphone games "real" games. I have an ipod touch. I've played a lot of the top-rated games' trial versions. THEY ALL SUCK.

[Spirit]

Re: Future of RPG Maker Speculation

and iphones are so tiny that makeing sprites would be next to impossible


im with valksys *-***** games suck
(thats right i wont even say *-*****)

[Wavelength]

Re: Future of RPG Maker Speculation

I have an iPhone, and I rather like it. But it's not a platform for gaming, that's for sure. I've found a couple of cute games that are fun for half an hour at a time, but nothing that holds my interest like a console game. I blame it on the lack of buttons.

[DreamerGuy]

Re: Future of RPG Maker Speculation

I just got to play around with the new Iphone OS... its pretty sweet.
They're also adding achievments to games and a Gamercommunity....
Developers and Publishers are starting to take the iPhone a little more seriously (Final Fantasy Tactics:Lion Wars and Secret of Mana incomming!)
iPhone might become a bigger platform in the near future.
It would be kinda cool to see I think.

[Valkysas]

Re: Future of RPG Maker Speculation

But those are just ports. ports of games that will control infinitely better on other platforms.

[Spirit]

Re: Future of RPG Maker Speculation

on the otheer hand a *-***** rpgm would be ridiculisly small and hard to handle plus *-***** games suck totaly and utterly
pc would be better

[Spirit]

Re: Future of RPG Maker Speculation

a new rpgm would be better spent on a pc or ps2/ps3

plus a dsi can do virtually everthing a *-***** can. *-*****`s suck totaly and utterly

[DreamerGuy]

Re: Future of RPG Maker Speculation

Well, if the ports do well, and more people play, original titles will start being made, and games could get better and better.
The new iphone is pretty... along with the spiffy new OS.... is just... so cool.
I think there's potential.
Also drawing sprites and and creating things... you can zoom in and such... its pretty responsive.
Maybe iphone/pad shoulden't be the main focusm however cross platformality would still be cool.

[Thutmose]

Re: Future of RPG Maker Speculation

Maybe iphone/pad shoulden't be the main focusm however cross platformality would still be cool.

If I do anything involving some kind of new RPGM, the iPad will probably be my focus, but that's not saying that I wouldn't also be trying to make it cross platform compatible.

For my work, I'll likely be programming some educational games in the future (being as I work at an educational materials publishing company), so many of the programming techniques and things involved in that would help me with developing something like an RPGM for the iPad.

Plus, I may even try developing basic RPGM prototype systems and whatnot as an exercise to help me learn coding for the iPad anyway. Since I'm going to be working with it, I may as well investigate the feasibility of an iPad RPGM, it will help me to learn and would be very challenging.

So, even if I never do really start making a new RPGM, it would still be really valuable for me to try stuff like that out as it'd be great learning experience.

Well, once I get my new Mac laptop, I'll have a better idea since I can use the iPad simulator to test out some code and whatnot. I'll surely be posting updates as things move along.

[Wavelength]

Re: Future of RPG Maker Speculation

Thutmose, you'd probably blow away (from a quality perspective, at least) every single game currently on there. Heck, some of the games people make WITH your game would probably blow away every single game currently on there! So you might have a very good idea here, as much as I don't really like Apple's platforms.

I know Apple tends to be very controlling with what you can and can't do on their platforms. Would you have any good way of allowing creators to share their iPad games? Also, do you really feel that a decent control scheme could exist for both the game creator and the game player?

[Sephiron]

Re: Future of RPG Maker Speculation

EDIT: Yes.

[Thutmose]

Re: Future of RPG Maker Speculation

Thutmose, you'd probably blow away (from a quality perspective, at least) every single game currently on there. Heck, some of the games people make WITH your game would probably blow away every single game currently on there! So you might have a very good idea here, as much as I don't really like Apple's platforms.

Thanks for the vote of confidence.

And I really don't like Apple's platforms either.

I know Apple tends to be very controlling with what you can and can't do on their platforms. Would you have any good way of allowing creators to share their iPad games?

That would likely be the biggest obstacle. Not the sharing games aspect, but the getting Apple to approve an app that lets people create things and share them with others.

One of the greatest criticisms of the iPad is that it's more of a content consumption oriented device than content creation. And Apple's restrictions on free speech are annoying at best and Orwellian at worst. But, I doubt that even Apple will succeed in the long term with policies like that. I think they'll have to change their tune soon enough. If they don't, there is going to be plenty of other, better, tablets shortly that are much more free & open that will take down Apple's restricted platform. imo

Presuming that such an app does get approved though, then sharing games can be done in many ways. I need to learn more and experiment more before I can speak to this with certainty (especially where Apple's policy is concerned with users sharing data). So what I say below is not necessarily possible, but it is what I would like to do.

But, if it gets approved, and there aren't prohibitive data sharing restrictions, then I imagine an online game "store" that people can visit on their iPad (either directly in the RPGM app or through the web-browser) or on their computer.

Games would be uploaded to the store in things called "packages". All the things you want to be made available on the store you would put into a package. So you could have one package for a demo of your game and one for the full game.

When your game (or demo) is ready to be uploaded to the store, you can take screen-shots of different areas, with captions, and add them to a package. You can then add descriptions, set up previews, tags/categories, and other metadata to your package which would be parsed by the central sharing system to generate a web-page/game-page for your game (which could be customized with different styles). Of course there would be a review & ratings system, as well as comments.

Further, if you are looking at a game on your computer and would like to try it out on your iPad, you can just click a single button on the game page to have it sent to your iPad.

There are naturally all kinds of different things that could be done. When the time comes, I'll probably start a new thread soliciting ideas specifically for an iPad RPGM (it may be that I never do it, or finish it, but we'll see).

Also, do you really feel that a decent control scheme could exist for both the game creator and the game player?

I don't know. There are lots of new things to think about.

Without the traditional buttons to use, how would people be controlling characters? Maybe it's time to think about new, potentially innovative, control schemes.

Touch is the clear and obvious choice for control. But ought it be something like having "buttons" appear on the screen corners? Would that be terribly anachronistic, if not utterly painful? Maybe a combination of on-screen buttons for some things and touch controls for others. Maybe even take advantage of the accelerometer & compass for a more "interactive" gaming experience.

Perhaps I could program multiple interface schemes and let game makers mix and match the kind of interface they want for different parts of their game (like a traditional control scheme for just walking through a regular map, but having an accelerometer-based scheme for a mini-game where you have to tilt the iPad to prevent a ship that's caught in a storm from sinking, or somesuch).

Maybe taking advantage of gestures would work. Like, if you just want to go forward, you merely swipe your finger/thumb up and your character will walk forward, when you want them to stop, just lift your finger/thumb from the screen, or move your digit back down to the central point of the "d-pad". So it would work like a d-pad, but without the buttons, and without having to really put pressure on the screen. You'd just move/swipe your digit in the direction you want your character to go, and they'll do it.

For things like battles, you could imagine choosing a spell from a spell-wheel (or something like that) using your finger, then tapping the enemy you want to hit.

Or even think of magic & spells in a new way. Like casting a spell involves "connecting" various elemental/magic glyphs by drawing on the screen, allowing you to combine different spell aspect together dynamically:

e.g. You have an enemy that, due to your having cast Libra previously which reveled the enemy's stats, you know is weak against both fire and poison. Instead of having to waste two turns casting first poison, then fire, you hit the "cast spell" button which brings up a "wheel" of spell glyphs. You could then place your finger on "Fire" and drag across the screen to "Poison", which would combine the elements and cast a spell with the attributes of both.

Leveling up spells, then, could mean acquiring new glyphs with different effects (e.g. fire, ice, double elemental damage, paralysis, Demi, etc.), and being able to level up your "wheel" so that you can cast spells that have more glyphs in sequence (so you'd start out with only being able to cast a spell with one or two glyph components but could level up to cast a spell with maybe ten at the highest possible level).

I think that there all sorts on wonderful and innovative things that can be added to "traditional" RPG gameplay by taking advantage of the iPad's unique features.

So, I'm not terribly concerned about that. If I can figure out a way of making the basics (i.e. walking) work well, then everything else is just a matter of experimentation and testing.

[Spirit]

Re: Future of RPG Maker Speculation

of course apple is money mad too

mabey they would charge us to down load others games

and besides people dont want to buy games to play let alone to make games
also again how many people here actually OWN i-phones

i dont think that people should make games for things that nobody owns

[Wavelength]

Re: Future of RPG Maker Speculation

of course apple is money mad too

mabey they would charge us to down load others games

and besides people dont want to buy games to play let alone to make games
also again how many people here actually OWN i-phones

i dont think that people should make games for things that nobody owns

Spirit, you are completely wrong here. If you're bitter at Apple for some reason, take it elsewhere. Apple's products are expensive, but they're no "hungrier" for money than any other company, and probably less so--they're just control-hungry.

Free apps are exactly that, and downloads through something like Thutmose's platform would be completely different anyhow.

Also, "again", I own an iPhone, and I rather like it (and that's coming from someone who can't stand Apple). Probably 20% of the people I know have iPhones and mostly love them.

Oh, and believe it or not, iPad is different from iPhone anyhow. Not sure whether you've noticed.