Bunch of help needed (RPG style VN)

[Fatelogic2nd]

Howdy!? Greetings to all of u, fellow VN lovers ^^

Since my childhood I´ve been in love with the underworld of Visual Novels (I had my first experience with "True Love ~Jun'ai Monogatari~" back at 1995 and since then I played any VN until this very day ) so I could proudly say that I´m, at least, a hardcore fan xD

Due to this addiction, I obviously ended wishing for being able to create my own VN, but I lacked every aspect of what was needed for that (artwork, music skills, scripting, storytelling, etc.etc.etc.), so I began a journey on the path of becoming a multiple-purpose artist so I could cover all those departments xD

After more than 3 years of practice, I managed to cover the character drawing & design pretty fairly, gained some decent skills on photoshop and all that (I´m still a rookie compared to other artists, but at least I could say that my current skills are "pretty decent"). The music department was solved recently thanks to having found many websites with free copyright use melodies and such. BG department... well... I suck at BG, there´s no way around it... And story writing... I´ve always found it pretty easy to write, so there´s no problem there...

But my greatest despair was and will always be... PROGRAMING!!! My god, I just can´t get the hang of it... I just have headaches when trying to do something more that plain dialogue or simple scene transtitions... BUT I HAVE TO LEARN, no matter what!

So I was wondering: Are there any already developed codes for some kind of "RPG" style Visual Novels that are aviable for use? (I don´t mean to actually use them AS IS, but since I learn from trial and error, I hoped to find some tutorials (detailed, long tutorials) regarding that matter, or pieces of already working codes and play with them to understand WHAT does WHAT -.-)

I´m sorry if my point is hard to understand, but even if I cover all the other requisites for doing an individual project, I´m just less than a newb at programing, and thus I may sound as such T_T I hope that you, whose experience FAR overcomes mine, are able to give me at least the basic directions ^^

Thanks for the helping hand!

[xelacroix]

if u good at photoshop, u must be good on background. anyway the closest rpg was planet stronghold, but i kinda hate the gameplay coz need to click too much on enemies like shooting game rather normal rpg game

[Fatelogic2nd]

Perhaps it would help to explain the rough basics of what I had in mind:

Leaving aside the other details of the game (like selecting places to go on a map with buttons like explained on the tutorial that comes with the Ren Py engine), the basic concept I had for the "combat scenes" of the RPG part of the game would be:

*Fights would be, at least for now, 1 vs 1.
*Two sprites, one at each side of the screen. At the left side, the main character´s sprite, and at the right, the enemy´s sprite.
*Two boxes, again, one at each side of the screen, each one under it´s respective chara sprite, containing a few stats, like "HP", "Stamina", "MP". Those stats would obviously be altered as the combat goes on (HP goes down, MP recovery for using an item, etc.)
*Centered at the bottom of the screen, between both sprites, a pannel with some commands (Attack, Special Skill, Item, Retreat, etc.) When a command is selected, transform that box into a "sub menu" to select the kind of special skill or item and, once all the orders are issued, transform it into a textbox where the events of that turn get said ("Enemy boss dodged the attack; Hero uses potion LOL, 100 HP recovered... etc.)

I´ll attach an image to explain better how the "grid" would be placed (it´s a simple black and white image with the borders of each box to give a more accurate image... sry for the crappyness xD I did it in 30 seconds more or less xD)

Any ideas on how to, at least, start to understand how to achive this?

[Fatelogic2nd]

if u good at photoshop, u must be good on background.

Not necesarily :s Previous to photoshoping, there´s the scketching step, and I suck at concepts like horizon line, P.O.F. (point of fugue), and other basic concepts needed for good BG feel :s

[Rewritten Ennui]

@xelacroix: No offense, but your response does not help anyone at all.

Back on topic; you might be interested in looking at the RPG frame, although it's probably lacking in most of the features that you'd want. What I'd really suggest for you is to recruit an experienced programmer to develop the RPG system while you focus on other assets.

[Anima]

Well that's pretty much my speciality.
If you're interested I can upload the code for a really basic RPG system from an earlier project for you.
It's a bit outdated though, but it should give you an idea how it can be done.

[Fatelogic2nd]

Yeah, I´ve already looked at the RPG frame, and I played with it a little (there´s not much to play with anyway, it´s pretty short), but yeah, it lacks most of the features needed (it doesn´t even helps me to understand how to make it interactive (putting an attack button at least), nor how to make the computer controled enemy take it´s own decisions, for example). It´s almost an animation showing an HP bar going down :s

Regarding the recruitment issue... well... yeah, I´ve thought about that at first glance, but there are many problems with that... First of all, I´m totally broke, so that limits my options from point zero :s Besides, since it´s a project on it conceptual stage (ergo, almost no programming done... most of the work done is artwork and storywriting), not many people would take their chances with a project with no deadline projected (even I don´t know if the RPG engine will be used... I wish that it will, but you know how creation works... you may end with a product far away from what you had in mind at first.)

That´s why I was asking for some kind of tutorial or pre-made script blocks to obtain a little experience on the issue. But I knew before posting that it would be pretty difficult xD so I´m not dissapointed at all ^^ On the contrary, I thank you for the helpful feedback !

[Fatelogic2nd]

Well that's pretty much my speciality.
If you're interested I can upload the code for a really basic RPG system from an earlier project for you.
It's a bit outdated though, but it should give you an idea how it can be done.

Wow! That would be an awful lot of help! Everything that would allow me to experience and play with the RPG scripting systems (saying it bluntly, f**k up with it until I know what parametter does what xD) would be indeed a very helpful contribution! ^^ Practice makes perfection

[Celianna]

Just pointing out if you want to make a RPG, perhaps using one of the RPG Maker engines (current one is RPG Maker VX, with RPG Maker VX Ace soon to be released) would suit you much more, since the RPG elements are already build into it and it's extremely easy to set up a game like that. It's also very easy to learn (you never have to type anything, it's got a clean GUI), and you can create VNs with it.

[Fawn]

I second the RPG maker VN idea, though there are drawbacks- it's not as customizable as ren'py (unless you can hack the game maker with rubyscript) and some versions have graphical restrictions.

If you decide to use RPG maker XP is your best shot. It's pretty simple to learn and much more easily customized than VX.

However if this is your first game, maybe you should try for something smaller? Get a story down in a simple vn to practice. It'll help a lot

[Fatelogic2nd]

About the RPG maker issue, I´ve already used it for many years and I know what´r´u talking about, but the results seriously turn me down. I´m aiming to do a VN with some RPG/Action elements (much like Daibanchou -Big Bang Age-, but a hell lot simpler) since it has many points involving heavy action/combat scenes, and the posibility to actually "fight" those scenes would be an enormous plus, but RPG maker would take that "added flavor" and transform it into the main factor... and that´s not what I´m looking for (since the VN involves a heck of storytelling, multiple endings, some other interactive aspects like "Hentai training" like shown on titles such as "H-24/7", to give an example... fights are important, but are more for added value than anything...) and even if RPG would be able to make all this work, I just feel that the Ren Py engine is better suited for this due to it´s highly customization value.

And about that concept on "don´t bite more than u can swallow" (God, how wrong that sounded...), I absolutelly get your point, and I do belive that it would be the wisest thing to do. But actually I´m working on two "personal projects" at the same time. The first would be "DreamscapE", a simple NVL styled game where the only interaction needed would be some choices (do this or do that, basic), and the rest would be just the story developement. That project is intended to be more "story focused", with basic imagery and no "added thingy" like combats or such. "L.U.S.T." on the other hand is my second project, just in it´s conceptual stages, but since I want to cover others aspects of VNs with more interactive features and customization, I´m at least trying to introduce myself to the more complex concepts of programming ^^ Let´s say it´s a long term project, aiming to deepen my knowledge about programming

Anyway, I´m deeply thankful for your constructive critique

P.S: Excuse my screwed up english T_T I do what I can

[Aileo]

I too, am making an RPG/VN hybrid. I find this to be VERY helpful. I don't think most people knows this little gem by Jake even exists but I hope you get some use out of it. Cheers!~

[Fatelogic2nd]

Wow, that seems to be indeed quite helpful! Thanks a bunch!

[Fatelogic2nd]

Just checked that gem you were talking about and all I can say is...

OMG!!!

It´s... all that I had dreamed for xD ENORMOUS THANKS!!!

[MoPark]

I'm in the process of creating a VNRPG, and one of the things I do believe I have down is the battle system and how to deal with that. There's a couple of questions good to ask before you even think about coding it though.

What type of battle system are you implementing? Standard turn-based? Conditional turn-based? Active time? Which one would be best for the story you are trying to tell and the game you are trying to make?

What actions can you perform in battle? Attacking, using an item, calling a summon, fleeing, etc are all different actions. What about enemy actions?

What stats will you be storing? Attack, defense, special attack, etc. are good examples. Don't forget about concepts like accuracy, evasiveness, luck, and whatnot during your consideration of this.

There's plenty more to think about before you start your coding process (I didn't even mention graphics just now), but if you have that established, it'd be easier to recommend different means of implementing it in Python.