Searching for advice in order to make a Mother fangame. « Fan Games and Programs « Forum

Kywii

Hello everyone.
So I recently (re-)discovered the Mother franchise, and it was a blast, as it should be.
But then, I noticed the many, MANY fan works around it, including fan-games.
After thinking for less than 15 seconds, I decided to join in the party and try to make one.

Now, I’m no pro game developper, but I did use a lot of engines in the past (GM:S, RPG Maker, Unity…), I can also do some spriting and artwork, nothing amazing though, and I think I have a solid plot to tie up everything.
But, my main concern is… where should I start with the game making part ?

Basically, what engine should I use, and what are the advantages of one over the other (if there are multiple choices) ?
I did some research on the subject, but I’m still not sure at all… like, RPG Maker seems solid, but good plugins are sparce for VX Ace (the only version I know of), Gamemaker looks decent, but recreating the system I want (a point of fusion between Mother 2 and 3 battle systems, kind of…) would take a huge chunk of time…
And so, after making my brain melt over this subject, I finally decided to seek for help here.

Excuse my (eventual) bad English wording (french shenanigans eheh).

EDIT : I forgot to mention, I’m using RPG Maker VX Ace right now, I have a very small demo with a decent plugin I found, I’m still looking for answers though.

Motomario

Hmm alright, so as far as i know it may be a good choice to use gamemaker or any type of engine that includes coding, the thing is that some of those engines costs money, now if you want to start making the game itself i reccomend to get some people that can help you with all type of different stuff, like pixel art,music or coding, speaking again of engines if you want to go for something simple RPG maker 2003 or any others RPG makers may be a good choice, but some of them cost money so beware

BoundedMarx321

TL;DR at the end, but I think anyone looking to make a fan-game (especially Kywii) should read this.

I’m currently using VX Ace as well, and I’m actually going to go against the common consensus and say that it’s a perfectly valid platform to use to make a Mother fan game if that’s what you’re familiar with. I found Earthbound battle scripts that work perfectly for what I’m trying to achieve (it even has proper rolling HP that’s not buggy) so I honestly don’t feel that the difficulty gap in jumping to Game Maker or Unity isn’t worth it. Of course that’s my subjective viewpoint as a person with not much time, those programs have an excellent pay-off in learning them, but I just disagree with the sentiment that RPG Maker can’t make good fan games and that it’s necessary to switch to something else.
[EDIT a year later because wow I can’t believe I actually said OMORI was good lmfao no]

You say that good scripts (you called them plugins, but you’re using VX Ace so I assume you mean scripts) are hard to come by, but I’ve found some pretty good ones myself on the RPG Maker Forums that are public use. I don’t want to derail this thread since it’s kind of off-topic, but if you do end up using RPG Maker VX Ace then feel free to PM me if you’re looking for something specific or if you want to know more about the scripts I’m using.

Regardless of which program you end up using, I encourage you and every fan game creator reading this spiel all the same. Just make sure you really think about whether it’s worth going public (i.e. posting a game thread with updates here or somewhere else, making a Discord server, etc). Sometimes it’s best to just work on the game privately, get like 80% done, and then go public. Of course, there’s benefits to both sides, but I’m getting off-topic again, I can explain the two sides if you want. Longer than I thought (as per usual with me), but this is something I’m passionate about and I want to explain the benefits of both sides.

tl;dr: If you have a lot of time to invest into this (and I mean a lot) and you want more freedom in what you’re doing for this and future projects, use Game Maker or a different coding software. Otherwise, RPG Maker VX Ace is a valid software and there are free scripts that should allow to achieve the basics (and possibly more) of what you’re looking for.

Motomario

BoundedMarx321:
TL;DR at the end, but I think anyone looking to make a fan-game (especially Kywii) should read this.

I’m currently using VX Ace as well, and I’m actually going to go against the common consensus and say that it’s a perfectly valid platform to use to make a Mother fan game if that’s what you’re familiar with. I found Earthbound battle scripts that work perfectly for what I’m trying to achieve (it even has proper rolling HP that’s not buggy) so I honestly don’t feel that the difficulty gap in jumping to Game Maker or Unity isn’t worth it. Of course that’s my subjective viewpoint as a person with not much time, those programs have an excellent pay-off in learning them, but I just disagree with the sentiment that RPG Maker can’t make good fan games and that it’s necessary to switch to something else (see OMORI).

You say that good scripts (you called them plugins, but you’re using VX Ace so I assume you mean scripts) are hard to come by, but I’ve found some pretty good ones myself on the RPG Maker Forums that are public use. I don’t want to derail this thread since it’s kind of off-topic, but if you do end up using RPG Maker VX Ace then feel free to PM me if you’re looking for something specific or if you want to know more about the scripts I’m using.

Regardless of which program you end up using, I encourage you and every fan game creator reading this spiel all the same. Just make sure you really think about whether it’s worth going public (i.e. posting a game thread with updates here or somewhere else, making a Discord server, etc). Sometimes it’s best to just work on the game privately, get like 80% done, and then go public. Of course, there’s benefits to both sides, but I’m getting off-topic again, I can explain the two sides if you want. Longer than I thought (as per usual with me), but this is something I’m passionate about and I want to explain the benefits of both sides.

tl;dr: If you have a lot of time to invest into this (and I mean a lot) and you want more freedom in what you’re doing for this and future projects, use Game Maker or a different coding software. Otherwise, RPG Maker VX Ace is a valid software and there are free scripts that should allow to achieve the basics (and possibly more) of what you’re looking for.

Incredible! you said some really good points there! (and i can understand the public topic, in a project i was working at, the second in charge fired me because the art for my OWN game was horrible, which i consider pretty unfair)

PsychoLOLogist

The fact that Heartbeast, one of the most well-known GameMaker youtubers, has switched to Godot should tell you something.

Heartbeast on GameMaker vs Godot
Emilio & Heartbeast on GameMaker vs Godot
Another Godot convert

Also, if you ever plan on getting other team members, good luck getting them to pay for a GameMaker license.
Godot is free and open-source, and its scripting language is easy to learn and use, even for first-time programmers.

Kywii

I already started working on RPG Maker VX Ace, I found a good amount of scripts to help me achieve what I want.
I’ll definitively keep an eye out for Godot though, so thanks for the advice.