Making an RPG for Android Options

[sillypieman]

Hello everyone, I just got a book about Android programming for Christmas, and I am very interested in making a game. I'm wondering if there are good resources for making games, specifically RPGs, for Android.

The first step for me will be finishing this books so that I have a basic understanding of it all. I feel like there are much deeper things I would need to learn for making an RPG though. In the book I will make a Sudoku game...and even though that will teach me a lot, I feel like there are other concepts and things that I will need to learn for RPGs since that is way different from Sudoku.

So yeah, if anyone wants to help me out or point me in the right direction that would be great =]

[Rukiri]

Your first game should always be pong as it teaches everything you need to know, your second game should be breakout or pac-man.
Also with everything being touch based I wouldn't make a rpg.

[seliphail]

There's a VERY long list of things you have to take into consideration.

Preemptively above all else, realize the limitations of the system you're working on. Somebody was panicking in the RMVX Help section about his fullscreen not working, we're pretty sure it was that his resolution was too big. When Crysis first came out, there wasn't a computer on Earth that could play it on full settings, because the developers overextended themselves. When I make GBA ROMHacks, I constantly run into the problem where I run out of room and have to rearrange.

Firstly, what kind of an RPG is it? Consider this your foundation. Fantasy RPG? Realistic?

Secondly, building off of your base, what are some things that you could do that involve something similar to the touch-screen functions, or something that can be mirrored? 'Paper Toss' on the iMac systems is a great example.

For a Realistic RPG , skip to the end.

For a Fantasy RPG, continue.

Thirdly, WITHOUT the system limitations in mind, create your universe in your head and on paper. Think of a universe where pencils are people and people are bedspreads and bedspreads or pencils. Or something, don't quote me on that, it was very random. Go absolutely nuts with your imagination.

Fourthly, trim that extravaganza into the bare minimums for the storyline and key features. ie. it's a magical realm, the magic taps a mana pool in the users house, they have to go and refill it. Or something. Keep the extravaganza, but don't expect to use it.

Fifthly, conceptualize the areas you'll be working in. For an Adroid with very limited space you won't have to worry too much about the areas your player will move around in.

Sixth(ly), conceptualize the characters and the plot. Do whichever works best for you first, personally I do the global plot, characters, then smaller plot. However, I'm also writing a 17-18 book series with an overall plot with smaller ones inside of that. lol. With the idea of areas and your world, you can get very complex with the characters very easily, rather than banging your head against the wall back in step two going
'I don't know what the heck the main character is gonna do! I'll come up with random things and then mold everything around that!'
^ That creates more plot holes than a slice of swiss cheese.

Seventh, apply everything to your system limitations. This is probably the biggest (and most heart wrenching) step.Take the key plot elements, character's interaction and areas, get em together, playtest.

Eighth, if you have more room, expand where you the creator think it's fit. There are some games that have little to no character depth, but they are good games nonetheless, because there's no need for character depth. Your game might need Bames Jond the super secret agent to have a side-quest revealing that his long lost lover is being mind-controlled by the evil overlord and if you do this that and the other thing then she is saved rather than dying. On the flip side, maybe you just need a minigame that involves shooting cans off of people's heads for money. Take into consideration the audience you are aiming for with the game (teenagers usually don't care about character depth), and the features in the game (for the sake of code reuse). Refer to your extravaganza from before, character bios, and so on.

Finally, implement everything and do a LOT of boundary testing. Begin with the parts that involve the touch-screen functions of the android, because that uses the system for what it was meant to do. It's like using a Wiimote to actually do motion sensor things, it makes sense, no? lol


Now, if the game is successful, you can build off of that success. People really liked the story? Go back to that extravaganza and make a sequel (or prequel) that focuses on the parts of the story you left out. They liked the gameplay? Take suggestions and implement them in the next version. It's all up to you and your ability to listen to feedback at this point.

???

Profit!

Edit: This is just to lay the groundwork and get a very basic, no combat or anything RPG running. For anything past this you'll need things that are probably outside of your books range of covered material, and most importantly arrays and algorithms, which I don't know if an Android can use.

This post has been edited by seliphail: Jan 1 2011, 09:10 AM

[Akisoft]

The game in the following two images runs on the android platform (ignore the fact it says iPhone, it's cross-platform), and shows an example of a touch screen control overlay.

http://udesign.me/files/iPhoneRPG.png

http://udesign.me/files/iPhoneRPG2.png

The map itself uses buffer and boundary map/sprite scrolling, as seen in the following screencast.

http://www.screencast.com/users/uDESIGNme/...fb-1a27a5e87846

If you're interested in talking so I can try and help you move in the right direction in terms of development (to get you started with this as a base to add your game logic and content to), feel free to drop me a PM.

[sillypieman]

@seli: Thank you, that was very helpful! I'm not having trouble with the design phase, I have it pretty well planned out. It's just that I don't understand how to make games from scratch at all. I don't even understand the basic concepts really. Without a program and engine like RPG Maker I am completely lost =/

@Akisoft: Wow...did they make that with RPG Maker or did they just use the graphics? Thank you, I might eventually get up with you to help me. Right now I just need to finish this book, that is step 1. I don't want to get too far ahead of myself.

[Akisoft]

We used a sample tileset from Mack to do some testing, the system itself has nothing to do with RPG Maker however. It's a proprietary system that is farily similar however.

[sillypieman]

Maybe could you walk me through the basics of making a game? Like relate it to RPG Maker as best you can.

For example, I have NO idea how you do the "database" for a game. Like...
1) Where do I put the Actors, their stats, weapons, armors, items, skills, stat growth, EXP required to level up, all that stuff?
2) How do you make the maps? I am completely clueless on this. Maybe you just have them as one big image file and you somehow, somewhere put coordinates of what is on the map?

[Akisoft]

1. You build a system that allows you to extract this data from somewhere. I currently have data stored in an SQLite database, with exp formulas in a single file.

2. Tiled! - http://www.mapeditor.org

[Ty]

Personally sillypieman, I think in your case you would be better off jumping from RPG Maker to a more advanced, easy-to-learn engine instead of just jumping in and dealing with game engine design. You completed games in RPG Maker before, something not many accomplished, so instead of going from designing games to designing engines that are cross-platform -which can become quite complex- I think it will be better for you to just expand your horizons a bit. Use a well-documented, cross-platform game engine that is easy to learn with a large helpful community. The more you use it, the more tricks you will learn which you can apply to your own engine in the future.


The engine I recommend is Unity ( http://unity3d.com/ ). Unity Free can be downloaded right now and you can start working with it and learning with it. It is cross-platform, although if you want to publish for the iOS, Android, PS3, Xbox360, etc you need a license. You can publish to Windows and use the Unity Player to integrate your game into a web browser. It has a very large and helpful community which can guide you and help you solve problems.

Although you will still face all the design problems associated with programming a game from scratch, Unity will give you the tools. You will have to find ways of overcoming problems such as what you described, such as storing Items, Weapons, Enemies, etc in an easy-to-access and modify way. Luckily Unity is very versatile and you will find many user-created add-ons or plugins (Some free, others not) which may help you get started even faster.

One such package which will make the transition from RPG Maker to Unity smoother would be a RPG Development Kit (Likewise, you can find FPS Dev Kits, Racing Dev Kits, etc) which provide a solid core that you can build your game on. A solid RPG Dev Kit for Unity would be the Okashi RPG Kit ( http://rpg-kit.com/ ). Basically, the Okashi RPG Kit gives you a solid base to build your game around, and provides you with editors and a data structure for databasing (Among other useful things). I think working with something like this would be the best option for you until you become more familiar with programming for games and are able to create your own data structures and solutions to many of the problems you will come across.

To summarize, slowly work your way up. Move from RPG Maker to a engine like Unity. Use a development kit to help with the transition. As you become more familiar with programming techniques and design create your own methods of databasing/whatever.

[sillypieman]

@Aki: Cool, I did some SQL in school so that should be pretty easy to pick up. That program looks really nice! How does it store the map? As an image file? Or as some sort of code?

@Ty: Sorry I'm so ignorant on this stuff...so this is me taking a wild stab in the dark at understanding this--Unity is like the scripts and core of the engine of RPG Maker, and the RPG Kit is like the actual RPG Maker program that you use to make the contents that the scripts use?

Edit: Holy crap, that UNITY is serious business...around $2,000 to get a license along with the Android add on O___o. So you're saying just use that as a learning tool not to actually make this game I'm guessing haha...unless you want to fund it =]

Edit2: http://www.andengine.org/forums/ I found this, do you think it would help me? This guy also said he doesn't require any payment, just credit.

[Akisoft]

Do not use Unity for 2D games on the iPhone or android, it's widely accepted as complete overkill. It's designed for 3D games, even if you just use two dimensions, it's ragingly overkill.

For 2D games on the iPhone or android, go with Corona! http://www.anscamobile.com/corona/

The people behind Corona formerly worked at adobe and other top industry names, it's a well developed engine and support is great.

-=-

To answer your question about Tiled, it stores in XML, CSV or Binary format, though you can also save it as an image file. There's even a library available for loading Tiled maps in to Corona and rendering the output to the screen. Corona is somewhat like Love, you simply write your logic in Lua and call the engine via easy to use api calls.

[sillypieman]

Yeah Corona looks closer to something I would use.

The problem is I feel like all of this is overkill. I don't need any fancy physics, I just want to make a fairly simple RPG. Not even any 3D graphics, I actually planned on doing it all with 'lo-res' pixel sprites, Dragon Warrior NES style.

Basically I want to start it off by making a working RPG not very different at all from Dragon Warrior. Once I get the hang of that, then I'm going to add all the other stuff. I want to have it quests based with an open world, the ability to add and remove characters from your party, and the ability to change those characters' jobs.

I also want to be able to be able to later add downloadable 'expansion packs'...is there something like with the code that I will have to do from the start to have it able to update like that?

[Akisoft]

Corona lets you do simple things, you don't even need to touch the physics api . There's support for sprite sheets (including animation), text display, graphics, media, e.t.c; so it'll do what you need it to do.

If you want to add in expansion packs, this isn't something I've looked at, but could you not just release updates which overwrite the existing version with the additional content?

[computerzombies]

Your first game should always be pong as it teaches everything you need to know, your second game should be breakout or pac-man.
Also with everything being touch based I wouldn't make a rpg.

you have posted an anti-rpg for mobile devices statement all over this board. I just wonder why? I would love (as a matter of fact) to have a 20+ hour gameplay on my iphone. It would rock to have something with great plot and a party, as well as all the other elements of a good rpg. Why would you not?