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What is Looking Back? A series of articles talking about those classic Rpg Maker games from the past.

The power of evil wanes across the world. The demonic forces that once kept humanity under the claws of tyranny have been violently banished from the realm and it seems as if, finally, their influence is vanishing from the scarred planet. Prosperity and happiness reestablish themselves as intregal pieces of the human experience.

Let's begin by stating the obvious: there is a reason why RPG Maker games receive such a bad rap. The majority of them, while sometimes fun to play and occasionally inspring, are in many ways fundamentally indistinguishable from each other in terms of mechanics, graphics and conceptual design. But there are some RPG Maker games that are legitimately excellent, by any metric. Some games, such as Hero's Realm, excel through the brilliant synthesis and understanding of traditional JRPG mechanics. Others, such as Sunset over Imdahl, remain memorable through beautiful graphics and unconventional plots.

While playing Fey, I loved it. It looks beautiful. The custom gameplay is smooth and rewarding. It has a fox.

It's only afterwards, thinking about how the whole game came together, that I realize it doesn't really come together at all. Instead of being a player-directed adventure like most RPGs, Fey is more like a series of connected challenge rooms.

Better late than never, right? The monthly stats for October are up. Nothing too remarkable here, but you can check out the users with the most statuses now.

A video tutorial on how to parallax map with Gimp. Tutorial uses Gimp 2.8 and Ultimate Parallax Control V1.0 by GDS. Shows how to make a map in Gimp and export it to RPG Maker VX Ace. Shows how to use script to make map work. Enclosed videos are better viewed on YouTube in full screen.

Or should I say: What counts as a dungeon?

I've been playing around with an idea for game a little while. The game would not feature a world map, since I'd like to make the world feel larger and more connected. Because of not having a world map, there will instead be more maps like these:

Gam Mak is fun, yes? It's fun making the maps, writing the stories, designing the battle system, etc. As time goes on and the game gets closer to completion, you realize just how much you believe in your game, and you want it to be great. So you put more thought, effort, and focus into fine-tuning the different parts. Maybe this forest map could use some more flowers? Maybe there can be a hidden item in one of these barrels over here? Maybe this cutscene should be rewritten so that it better conveys the tone it was trying to present?

Rpg maker 2003 for absolute newbies aka the tutorial I wish I had had

So over on my art blog I got a request for a basic tutorial for RPG Maker 2003 so I thought I'd re-post it here as well.

Okay so welcome to part 1 of this tutorial! I’m going to explain the basics of using rpg maker as a system (translation: imma tell you what all the buttons do). Part 2 will be focused on the art aspects and part 3 on actual programming.

All you need to know about last month's statistics is that there were 666 unique posters on RMN.

As amateur, hobbyist game devs, we don't have many of the advantages that AAA, AA, or even "indie" developers can leverage. Perhaps the most important thing none of us have at our disposal? A full time marketing team.