ALTEREGO'S PROFILE

"It's hard to find the balance when you are in love.
You're lost in the middle cause you have to decide between mind & heart."

― Enigma

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Design & Beauty: A Look At Art Direction

author=Ghost
However, I feel it is crucial to yet again reiterate that a keen eye for art is necessary regardless. If you’re not going to be creating anything yourself then you should at least learn to identify qualities that make up good art, the ability to study and NOTICE each intricate level of design is truly magical. It’s amazing to have a sense of understanding how things were created... Even if we can’t pinpoint all the finer details. It allows you to truly understand and appreciate the work. Even more so, this skill allows you to analyze your OWN work and apply your own magical touch, giving it a unique appeal.

Nice article! It certainly is a fresh breath of air against the typical outlook of things being 'over-analyzed' or 'torn apart' whenever somebody tries to point these kind of things out... The quote above is, I believe, the most important, because if people actually made an effort to see the game-making process in this light instead of clinging so much to the idea of all art being subjective and unquestionable, not only they'd stop being so biased against all things visual ("I'm no graphics whore" etc.) but we'd also see a faster evolution in the scene.

RPG Maker VXAce Nugget Crash Course Results (4/4)

Oh, my! I'm speechless... >_<; Seriously, I have a bunch of mixed feelings on me right now. I mean, I usually speak against this kind of contests, because while there's always lots of potential shown in them, I think RMN shouldn't encourage games made in a hurry. I can't really speak for others, but my entry is something that I'm not entirely happy with, and would have never released at this stage if not for the Snoopy badge incentive... And well, it's certainly not something that I expect to win with. xP

But you know, paying close attention to this event, I came to realize that the feedback received through it, made it totally worth it to join even with just a two weeks effort. I mean, duh! right? Feedback is always important. I always encourage it, but I rarely ever give it (or receive it, for that matter) so it's easy to underestimate how powerful it can be; But I digress... What I really want to say is that this was a wonderful experience. All thanks to the awesome team of judges that ran this event, and went the extra mile posting LPs, this podcast, and everything else that is yet to come. Thanks a lot guys! You're full of awesome! o/

On more personal note, thanks a lot for choosing me as the winner. I don't know yet how to feel, having such awesome (and better) entries such as 'Boutalles', or 'Adventure Ace' behind me. Or even others that I enjoyed and had plenty of effort put in them too, such as 'In search of dragons' 'Legend of Ace, 'Lucidity' and 'The only one left' ...But, thanks, (specially to Nessiah) for putting so much faith on me. I'm deeply humbled. ;_; ...I'm gonna hide under a rock now. I'll be back in a year.

RPG Maker VXAce Nugget Crash Course Results (3/4)

Bwahaha! This is my favorite part of the podcast, just for this one bit here:

Liberty: ...she was a hooker, of course. Is part of her trade to be sexy as all hell.
Deckiller: Most hookers aren't sexy, to be honest.
*Awkward silence*
Liberty: I wouldn't know, I don't go looking for hookers.
*laughter*
Deckiller: I don't go looking for them either, it's just... they put specials on TV about hookers.
* Awkward silence*
Liberty: Yes, yes, we believe you...

Haha! You guys should make a comedy skit or something. =P

RPGMaker VXAce Nugget Crash Course Results (1/4)

Heh; Thanks for all the feedback, guys! You're too kind. Too kind! ...I'll keep everything you have said in mind and improve upon it as soon as I resume working on this project. Hopefully, I won't disappoint any of you! ^^;

Misanthropic Mechanics -or- Finding your game's Core

author=LockeZ
...When Final Fantasy 13 didn't have any towns, for example, at first I and a lot of people were like "...what!? How do you even do that? It's not an RPG without towns!" But then, actually, it worked really well. The combination of no towns, healing after each battle, and most of the mental "down time" being done through flashbacks succeeded in creating a constant sense of extreme urgency that almost no other RPGs have, which was exactly what they were going for. Towns didn't help their goals, so they dropped them.

I haven't played FF13 so I don't know exactly how it did things, but if it is as bad as people says ("Like being pushed trough a tube") then I really don't see the fun in that... I know where are you coming from, though. I guess the reason I like SRPGs so much, despite being so time consuming, is that the battles are the fun part. You can go from one to another, from beginning to end; That's the entire game. Towns, sidequests and other stuff still have their place on them but they're not part of the 'core' per se.

However, I still like to do things at my own pace. I really disliked how Fire Emblem 7 did it, for example. Rushing you from one major plot point to another, only letting you manage your units before each battle, and seldom letting you access shops or the arena. I was never really hampered by it, but it felt like bad design... Fire Emblem 8 fixed all of this. And while it's true that dicking around the entire continent when you're supposed to get somewhere fast, doesn't help that "sense of urgency" I say: screw that!

RMNverse Beastiary

Isn't this more of an Encyclopedia rather than a Bestiary? Anyway, it's looking really good so far... But you'll never finish! You come up with more characters faster than the speed of light! xD ...Here, let me contribute a little.

Ranamedes: Formerly a Space Detective, but he retired early due to an injury in the line of duty. He then fell back into his second calling: Teaching history. He also frequently works as an advisor for multiple kinds of projects, from movies to scientific research.

Davicles: A Marine Biologist and lead researcher of the Atargatian Seas. His studies were fundamental in the understanding of Atargatians selection-breeding techniques and the many creatures they spawned. He was killed in the 'North Pole Base Incident'

Atargatians never stray from their strong religious beliefs... But these beliefs tend to vary according to the region. As a general rule, Atargatians from the ocean worship the vengeful Great Red Spirit portrayed in the first book of Bi'bul; While the Atargatians from the land favor the more compassionate Great Red Spirit from the second book of Bi'bul.

mahashanaH: A competitor from last year Battledome. Nobody knows exaclty where he comes from, but his attire resembles that of an ancient Atargatian Monk. He has the unique skill of consuming the souls of his adversaries in order to steal their powers and abilities. However, last year's Battledome proved to be too much for him, managing to advance only trough illegitimate means and eventually loosing twice... Nobody knows where he went after that, but he's still a foe to remain wary from. He must be stopped before he grows too powerful.

The 'ToughLove' vaccine: While there is indeed no cure for the Legion Virus, this vaccine can be applied to strengthen a person's immune system against its contraction. A known side effect of the vaccine is a mild rudeness caused in the vaccinated subject that could result in the hurt feelings of those most insecure people around them.
_
Also, why don't you group all the robots together, as if they were another race?
And I wonder if is Ok to mod my Rhymebot into a Super Ninja Robot. Mmhhh...

RMNverse

This is all great stuff! But I think the article is missing the Battle-plans some of us did for our Battledome character. =P

Makerscore

Why is 'game image' even listed if it's worth nothing? You could at least make it 1 makerscore or something...

Edit: In any case I think a blog and a image should be worth the same... there can be a lot of work behind either one but more often than nothing that's not quite the case, so a small number (like a 2) should be enough so not to encourage people to abuse the 'system'

Edit: Also 4 is too little for a a game page, while 15 is too much for a download, so how about 10 for both? ...what? you're not taking suggestions? Ok, my bad.

On Story Structure

What it's said in this article somehow reminded me of 'Legend of mana' where you can choose among other things: your hero's gender, and its home location in the world map; And then all you do is run aimlessly through several other places you 'plant' arround your house... I never made heads or tails out of that game, I can't even remember if I finished it, I can only remember the basic stuff that all Mana games are about and that the art was pretty, Heh;
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