Damage formulas aren’t programming, they’re just math formulas.
Actor(party member)/enemy/weapon/armor/etc stats are just object structures. You create global structures for each of those with the entries and stats for each one as children and their subchildren. In RPG Maker the numbers you enter get written to javascript objects the same as GDevelop.
To be honest you seem to get frustrated and give up easily and while RPG Maker may make some things easier (like a premade battle system), others (like trying to do isometric in it) will be a lot harder. RPGs are longer projects, and it’s common for users in the RPG Maker community to spend years making one game and still never finish. Even Pokemon or other RPG fangames that are all using ripped assets or editing systems already made still take years to make.
Not just damage formulas, but stats like agility and speed. I also need a premade battle system, it’s too difficult to do that in GDevelop especially one like from Breath of Fire 3.
Look, I get it that you like GDevelop. Honestly, I do too. It was a lot of fun to use it. But it wasn’t the right choice for me. I need premade systems to work from that I can easily draw my own art and replace those things with. GDevelop, a lot of this is still quite cumbersome to do.
RPG Architect is also very promising and is basically more powerful than RPG Maker, and also easy for beginners. GDevelop is simply not beginner friendly for those who love RPGs and want to make RPGS. You don’t even have an extension for RPG stats you can easily map onto objects… you just have health covered, that’s it. You also don’t have an extension for pre made battle systems. Also, RPG Architect makes doing isometric EXTREMELY EASY via a robust system where it takes your tilemap then adds height to it, allowing you to also texture the walls around raised areas. It looks gorgeous!
Extensions are supposed to be here to make it easier for people like me, but you don’t have the ones I need… I’m sorry…
I am actually a lot more familiar with RPG Maker than GDevelop but I know javascript well enough that I know what’s going on under the hood and how to replicate those systems in GDevelop. I’ve personally had to write a lot of lines of javascript in RPG Maker to get the engine to do what I actually want it to do because the templates are so restrictive. I also know RPG Maker is bad at isometric or anything that’s not 2D top down view.
RPG Maker has a lot of competitors, go ahead and try them out, maybe one is better for your use case.
Yeah, I’m sorry if I sound whiny or anything, I don’t want to come off as frustrating to deal with. You guys are honestly welcoming and helpful as heck. It’s encouraging to know that GDevelop has such great people using it. <3
You know, I’ll still use GDevelop to make games. Just not big RPGs I am motivated and passionate to make. I might be able to do more simple upgrade systems, like I learned from the tutorial for making a Roguelite from the premium tutorial bundle when it was on sale. The wave based Survivors style Roguelite tutorial… maybe I should open that up and see how the upgrades work? Well, actually, I wrote it all down including all the events. In fact, I have over 70000 characters in my notes written down from tutorials in GDevelop.
RPG Maker is great and fun, but quite frankly I rather try to go for a competitor like RPG Architect. It seems way better and more robust. Maybe I can take what i learned from GDevelop into that, especially learning so much about variables, if/then thought processes, and whatnot.
Thank you for hearing me out and talking to me. <3
I personally am in no hurry to attempt an isometric game in GDevelop - I remember trying to do isometric in 1984 - utter pain in the jacksy! i’m pretty sure that there’s better engines to do it in. But RPG stats like speed, agility, armour etc is just playing with number variables and building formulas. But if that’s not something you enjoy doing - then don’t - either work on a project with someone who does (honestly there’s been a few people on here who are great at coding and desperate to work with a creative artist.) or stick to RPG Maker.
Giving things a go is never wasted time, and autism, anxiety - most of us on here are in that boat to some degree!
onwards and upwards!!
Eh, it’s too late for that because I’ll be switch engines to something else.
That is really cool and awesome. If GDevelop had something like this, it would help me out a lot… and also tutorials about how to do 2D isometric tilemaps, I shouldn’t have to use weird blocks like in the template that was linked up above. Tilemaps are just incredible and fun to use ~
It is such a shame because GDevelop is so close to being perfect for me, but as a fan of RPGs it is all much too complicated because I want “no coding” which also means not complicated math too.
The thing is, I do understand some concepts in GDevelop and they are quite fun to do. It’s just, at a certain point it’s getting too complicated for me to understand, especially since I plan on doing a limit break style system with the dragon transformations. I mean, it (Inner_Fire global variable, a stat ) reaches a certain number and then activates a boolean global variable called Seph_Dragon_Transformation that is set to “False” by default, but then sets it to “True”. I understand that at least and it’s not that hard, except there is nothing even prototyped or done yet in terms of art because I am also struggling with the art part because it turns out my art kind of looks bad when scaled down to even a HD 2D 256x256 sprite. Or maybe that is just me not being used to drawing such small, blurry images. Also doesn’t help that I don’t have any way to easily make animation frames to use, I just have Clip Studio Paint which I use for my commission work regularly.
I mean… maybe the problem is I haven’t even prototyped anything yet, or tried anything. But I said I had choice paralysis issues, and you’re witnessing it now. I have the dedication and discipline to follow tutorials every day for 4 hours like I did quite a few times until recently, when I learned everything I wanted to learn so I’m ready to start making a game… but GDevelop doesn’t seem suitable for the game I want to make. I am basically stuck right now, and wanting to switch engines.
Ok - But It does seem to me, that you started out with gdevelop under a weight of personal pressure to achieve something incredible with it. Im pretty sure i did the same thing, but I was deluded enough to imagine that at some point it would start turning into something incredible! In retrospect I probably should have digested the example projects and just experimented with stuff - played about without putting any pressure on myself to actually achieve anything wonderfully impossible.
Sadly I’ve learnt nothing and I’m still desperately trying to achieve my impossible dreams!
Sadly, it seems like I want to give up now. I don’t know why I even tried. I was so excited, having fun, and motivated. But there is always some problem I am running in to with every engine. Why can’t you just make game dev easier.
May it be how awful my art looks when I draw at 256x256, then put it in game, or having to code difficult and insane things from scratch, such as a party based RPG. Or being forced to go down to 64x64 sprites or tilemaps which I can’t do and my art looks horrendous at that size because I don’t do pixel art. Sure, RPG Architect makes it much easier to make RPGs, but I am not going to relearn art all over again just to draw crappy pixel art at 64x64, 32x32, or 16x16. I spent 30 years of my life drawing and learning art, I don’t want to have to do that again when I am 37 years old and not getting any younger.
So really, what hope is there for me? I’m going to go cry my eyes out, wondering why no one makes games about dragons or dragon main characters, and how I failed to do even that.
Really, I’m so sick of us humans thinking we are so amazing and special and attractive, that we can’t find the humanity in inhuman things that clearly speak, clearly feel what we feel, and more. Barely any indie devs or AAA studios are even bothering to do anything with dragons. And I failed to even try to rectify this problem…
Even with that said… the motivation… excitement… fun… and inspiration… it is still there… it has been this whole time… if only I could get over my disgust with working at small sprite sizes… if only I could figure out what the first step should be in making a game… if only I could stop just wanting to wallow in my own pain, sitting around doing nothing but complain to people… I don’t know what to do anymore. This has honestly been a massive emotional rollercoaster for me over the last few weeks of trying to learn game dev.
There are games with dragon protagonists but they’re typically shapeshifters that are human 99 percent of the time and turning into a dragon is used as a temporary power up or a plot point. Examples are your Breath of Fire, Fire Emblem Fates, and Dragalia Lost.
Then there’s games where you’re actually 100 percent dragon like Spyro or Reign of Fire.
Typically an animal protagonist will appeal to kids or furries. Most people relate more to a human or humanoid protagonist with human problems being human themselves. Dragalia Lost had A LOT of dragon characters but as time went on a lot of the dragons were given human forms to be more relatable or just started to look like humans with horns and wings, etc. Because Dragalia was a gacha game, the characters HAD to have mass appeal and sell to enough players for the game to survive.
That said, you can make a dragon protagonist if you want, the appeal may be niche, but indie games thrive in niches.
Hey Arkveveen!
Sorry that this has been such an emotional roller coaster for you. I know everyone giving you choices and opinions might not be the most helpful thing, but I thought why not throw mine into the mix and maybe they might be helpful!
Did you know MOST GDevelop extensions are made by the community? If you figured out how to make an extension like that, you could help someone in the future! (Or even sell it for $$$ )
Even if you don’t end up making the game in GDevelop, or only end up making part of the game, you could still help that person in the future who also wants to make an RPG game
Woke up in a deep depression and feel hopeless. This has honestly been the worst few weeks of my life. I want to do t his so bad, I feel motivated and inspired, but I can’t do it…
I mean, I’m a furry, so of course most people wouldn’t understand what I am going through. Really just sick of human protagonists. I mean, Breath of Fire is at least a good middle ground type of concept for a game, and it can be used as a timely allegory for various marginalized groups. I really want to tell that kind of story and make that kind of emotionally resonant story that tackles serious topics, and also just be a fun solid game too, and don’t forget dragons too that’s for sure. <3
I basically see the humanity in the inhuman, when it comes to characters. It sucks that people generally struggle to find humanity more easily, it actually shows why people are so quick to just dehumanize groups of people in real life.
That preset is extremely helpful but it would still be hard to make a party based RPG, let alone figure out how to make stats work that aren’t just damage or defense types of stats.
The other stats are typically speed, accuracy, evasion, and crit chance. Speed is something you’d do a for each “battler” object command at the start of the battle or turn, assign a turn order rank number to that battler, or push them into a position in an array. The turn then plays out by those rankings. Accuracy, evasion, and crit are all damage multipliers the same way attack and defense are, just percentage based.
I am losing hope and crying again. Not even with RPG Architect am I able to do what I want. I can’t do pixel art worth a damn as it is. I don’t know what to do. I wasted money on RPG Architect and can’t get a refund because I spent 3 hours in it so far on Steam.
There is no hope for me. I can’t do this. My game dev journey ends here. It’s been damaging my mental health. I only felt motivation, inspiration, and joy to make something bigger, not smaller. Unless you have any ideas for something smaller that could give me want I want to see in the world. Doesn’t change the fact that I can’t get over the art hurdle anyway, my art looks too awful at 256x256 or lower. I suck at pixel art.
@Arkveveen …this thread has become a bit of a hole and you need to step out of it into the ‘how do I section’ and look at all the interesting ways that other people have overcome their problems with the help of complete strangers!..it’s inspiring stuff!
)