An Rpg Maker Tool, Would You Like That?

[Amon_Re]

I've been having fun with my gp2x for afew weeks now, and i've got to say it got me excited about coding again, so i thought, maybe now's a good time to actually make something i've wanted to do for ages (but i never actually did because i didn't have motivation enough )

The idea is to make an RPG Maker tool (not a port, I repeat, NOT A PORT) which would allow people to make their own RPG's, with a runtime to play them on the GP2x.

The creator would run on Windows/Linux/OSx (maybe, i don't own a mac (yet?)), and a small executable to run the games with.

Now, keep in mind that the last time i even considered coding a game was way, WAAAY back in the days of the C64 (in asm even!) and i've never even coding anything closely like a game in C before, so this might never happen, or be crappy, or even worse, but atleast it looks like fun!

Cheers

 

[Yono]

You might want to get aquainted with the coding environment first. Might I suggest trying to do a simple SDL port to get started? After that, based on that experience reassess if this is something you think you will be able to do. There is no reason for someone with ambition to jump right in, get frustrated, and give up when there are more gradual and rewarding ways to begin. Just a suggestion.

Just my 2 cents.

If you decide to try an SDL port, try looking in the wiki or on the official libsdl page (just remember OpenGL games are currently off limits).

 

[woogal]

I'm actually working on a kind of RPG maker at the moment. It's quite basic because I'm only interested in the 'pick up objects and use them' type of gameplay, and not the whole stats and fighting thing (think Dizzy style gameplay with Zelda style top down view). I plan to release the source (C/SDL) once I've finalised the game data structure, so if you're planning to do more of a full RPG engine then you could take my badly written code and expand it if you want.

 

[Amon_Re]

You might want to get aquainted with the coding environment first. Might I suggest trying to do a simple SDL port to get started? After that, based on that experience reassess if this is something you think you will be able to do. There is no reason for someone with ambition to jump right in, get frustrated, and give up when there are more gradual and rewarding ways to begin. Just a suggestion.

Actually, i've got a pretty decent idea of how to achieve what i want to, down to the diagrams of the program flow
This is an idea i've been playing with for awhile now, i figure i might aswell go through with it, i know my way arround a compiler, i'm pretty confident i can pull it off.

If you decide to try an SDL port, try looking in the wiki or on the official libsdl page (just remember OpenGL games are currently off limits).

Ports can actually sometimes be more frustrating that creating something from scratch, i can show you code that would make your head hurt just by even looking at it , i'm not aiming for the be-all of RPG creator tools, i'm starting it off pretty basic, no fancy 3D or any such junk
OpenGL is something i wouldn't even touch with a big stick, i'm a 2D kind of guy

I'm actually working on a kind of RPG maker at the moment. It's quite basic because I'm only interested in the 'pick up objects and use them' type of gameplay, and not the whole stats and fighting thing (think Dizzy style gameplay with Zelda style top down view). I plan to release the source (C/SDL) once I've finalised the game data structure, so if you're planning to do more of a full RPG engine then you could take my badly written code and expand it if you want.

How far along are you? will you be using scrolling? Tilemaps?

 

[woogal]

How far along are you? will you be using scrolling? Tilemaps?

I'll hopefully have a first release of the player ready in the next couple of weeks, not started on the editor yet. Yes, there's scrolling variable sized maps, and also variable screen sizes (the idea is to also create a j2me player, but it's also fun to drop the res to 160x120 on the gp2x and let the hardware scale it up - more of a retro feel ). Please don't let this put you off though - more game editors means more interesting little games to play .

 

[Dimacus]

Amon_Re:
You could take a peek at the Adventure2X code (a rpg project that i participated in) for some ideas or a laugh for the poorly written code

Ever since that project died i have been tinkering with little rpgish thing too.

Link to the source:
Whoops seems that the svn server we used isnt anymore.
PM me if you would like the code.

 

[Amon_Re]

Amon_Re:
You could take a peek at the Adventure2X code (a rpg project that i participated in) for some ideas or a laugh for the poorly written code

Ever since that project died i have been tinkering with little rpgish thing too.

Link to the source:
Whoops seems that the svn server we used isnt anymore.
PM me if you would like the code.

I don't need the code (yet? ) but what i will need are tilemaps with 32x32 sized tiles with an indexed color palette of 256 colors, i'll make my own for now, but my graphical skills are woofully bad B)

How far along are you? will you be using scrolling? Tilemaps?

I'll hopefully have a first release of the player ready in the next couple of weeks, not started on the editor yet. Yes, there's scrolling variable sized maps, and also variable screen sizes (the idea is to also create a j2me player, but it's also fun to drop the res to 160x120 on the gp2x and let the hardware scale it up - more of a retro feel ). Please don't let this put you off though - more game editors means more interesting little games to play .

I'm developing the creator & runtime in parallel, i'm doing the creator in SDL aswell, eventhough that means alot of work (making my own menu system for one, quite a dounting task!), it seems like a faster approuch to me.

 

[Ravnos]

I have a bunch of links for SDL based GUI toolkits bookmarked at work. If you want, I can post them when I go in tonight. Might lighten the load a bit.

 

[Amon_Re]

I have a bunch of links for SDL based GUI toolkits bookmarked at work. If you want, I can post them when I go in tonight. Might lighten the load a bit.

Cool, thx

 

[Ravnos]

Ok, here's a few GUI libs based on SDL that you might want to take a look at.

http://guichan.sourceforge.net/
http://www.paragui.org/
http://www.picogui.org/
http://aedgui.sourceforge.net/

Not sure how useful they'll be but hopefully they'll help you out a bit.

 

[Blah]

@Amon_Re: See if you can figure out Python.
Okay so its not the fastest, but its not slow, its also easy for beginners. You can start by downloading How to Think Like a Computer Scientist: Learning wIth Python.

Oh and if I were to code an RPG maker tool (and I just might), I wouldn't worry about the GUI just yet. I would start with the basic engine logic (no gfx at first, etc) and use text files for the ingame code. The IDE and GUI and etc come later.

 

[Amon_Re]

Ok at here's a few GUI libs based on SDL that you might want to take a look at.

http://guichan.sourceforge.net/
http://www.paragui.org/
http://www.picogui.org/
http://aedgui.sourceforge.net/

Not sure how useful they'll be but hopefully they'll help you out a bit.

At first glanse paragui & picogui look intresting, thx for the links!

@Amon_Re: See if you can figure out Python.
Okay so its not the fastest, but its not slow, its also easy for beginners. You can start by downloading How to Think Like a Computer Scientist: Learning wIth Python.

No offence, but i'm more versed in C, i could learn python (i'm guessing it's not more complex then eg php) but for what i want to do it's "silly" to learn a new language just for the heck of it.

I'm actually supriced at how much i still remember about C & pointers and such, and it seems that the biggest "problems" will be gfx & music related (not so much displaying them or playing them, but creating them )

Oh and if I were to code an RPG maker tool (and I just might),

Yaay! Competition!

I wouldn't worry about the GUI just yet. I would start with the basic engine logic (no gfx at first, etc) and use text files for the ingame code. The IDE and GUI and etc come later.

I'm not worried about the GUI, it's another part of the whole puzzle i'll have to tackle, and as for the scripting engine, i've got that one pretty well planned out, like i said in the opening post, i've been giving this thing alot of thought already.

 

[saehn]

I'm actually supriced at how much i still remember about C & pointers and such, and it seems that the biggest "problems" will be gfx & music related (not so much displaying them or playing them, but creating them )

Once you get it to the point where some of the basic functionality can be shown off, I'm sure you could easily get members of the community to help you to create a tileset and graphics. Same for music, too. I remember one forum member was at one point pretty much asking around for music projects in which he could participate.

Of course, this is assuming that you wouldn't rather do it all yourself.

 

[Amon_Re]

Well, i'm still chewing on this, and i think i've got my font engine & tile engine pretty much licked,it's still very, *VERY* rough at the moment (and i need to add upper-case letters to my font), but it seems to be working code, wich is great

I have a question tho for the gfx artists, considering the GP2X's screenres, i'm wondering if i should go for 8bits (255 colors), 16bits (65535 colors iirc) or 24bit (16,7 mil colors) for screendepth?

Would the difference between 8bit & 16bit be (very?) noticeable?

 

[saehn]

I have a question tho for the gfx artists, considering the GP2X's screenres, i'm wondering if i should go for 8bits (255 colors), 16bits (65535 colors iirc) or 24bit (16,7 mil colors) for screendepth? Would the difference between 8bit & 16bit be (very?) noticeable?

256 is enough for me, but then... I like the SNES semi-blocky look. I personally don't need images to be super anti-aliased. I assume that you're going for something of a cartoon style? It would be hard to do otherwise at this resolution and physical screen size, IMO.

Check this link out. It was directed towards GP32 devvers but I think it applies here. He talks about speed gains outweighing any graphic quality lost (that perhaps wouldn't be noticed anyway).

http://www.unet.univie.ac.at/~a0200586/vid...es/palette.html

 

[ryosaeba]

The blitter uses 16bit.
24bits will be useless since they won't be displayed, also SDL is faster at 16bit (on the gp2x) and even if you use 8bit you'll end up converting them on loading to gain speed, but it may still be useful for saving space on sd and if you want a more retro look.

 

[Blah]

Try PNG compression before you go with 8bit, as Ryo said, it isn't any faster. If compression doesn't make it small enough, then go for it.

Also you need to use 24bit mode on surfaces that use alpha blending. The extra 8 bits are alpha channel, and don't have anything to do with the screens capabilities as its only used by SDL, not the hardware.

 

[Amon_Re]

Thx for all the replies, 16bit it is then!

 

[Shikaku]

There are also png crunchers for various OSs if you REALLY want the filesize to go down...

 

[Amon_Re]

Well, after 2 days of work i nearly blew up my computer :angry:
Spent the last 2 days making a fixed width font to use, and just when it's finished & i'm saving it, Paint Shop Pro went poof!

ARGH! I hate it when that happens :angry: there goes the file with the font

I knew i should've made in in the GIMP *sigh*

Anyways, the project is still moving along nicely, at a slow but steady pace, i'm off to recreate my font *sigh*