Sutible RPG Maker for CT fan game

[Masterofmind]

I am Planning a CT related fangame BUT I have NEVER USED a RPG Maker! so I am Looking for one that will both a) Create the game itself and script and b) Help make the sprites! I would Apreciate any help!

[Bard_of_Time]

First thing you want to do is pick out the engine. I tried to work with it once and I got a bit stumped.

There are some naturally English versions of the game, but I'm pretty sure that they're harder to get and have less in terms of resources available.

Pros of 2000
+The engine has a sort of... what is it, Dragon Quest? That sort of battle set up. That means you don't actually SEE the player characters in battle, so you only need a spriteset for wandering around and cutscenes and the like.
+The engine is generally simpler to use, I've found.
Cons of 2000
-The engine itself was translated from Japanese to Russian to English. Naturally, some things are NOT going to look nice. You'll even find with the included stuff is a demo game that has you choose Russian or English (and the English is just awful)
-Because it's a simpler engine, you'll have less customizability.

Pros of 2003
+The translation is MUCH BETTER. Like for serious, the difference is AMAZING.
+Pretty sure you can add many more characters.
+The engine is more fleshed out, so it's got more to tweak and the like.
Cons of 2003
-The engine is more complicated and has a lot more you'll be working with.
-The battle system is Final Fantasy styled, so along with walking and stuff like that, you'll need a battleset. These can by really intricate sprites or even just rehashes of the walking sprites (ala FF6)

Both are REALLY good choices, and I'm more familiar with the two of them than I am with the latest stuff. What I'd suggest in terms of sprites is looking up the charas generator and getting just a blank body, then drawing the clothes and such onto the characters. That way you don't try to draw a character from scratch and end up with something that doesn't fit into the frames.

[Masterofmind]

Thanks!! um...These do Allow you to make scipts and Effects right?

[Bard_of_Time]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure they do. A lot of really good games have been made with them. There's a definite learning curve, but once you get the hang of it it's just like anything else.

[Schala Zeal]

Pros of XP
+ Ruby scripting allows even more customizability
+ Tilesets can be a lot larger compared to 2000/2003
Cons of XP
- It uses Ruby 1.8, which is criticized for its poor memory management
- Must be bought (unless you find a pirated copy somewhere, not telling though)

[Romana]

Try VX. I find it to be more user-friendly and basic as it's closer to 2003 in style and simplicity, but contains the more advanced features of XP (scripts). There's only one spare tileset, but that can be overcome with a neat little program called SwapXT: http://rmrk.net/index.php?topic=39511.0

Look into finding neat scripts like 8-directional movement and stuff!
There's also a rad thing called Yanfly's Battle Engine Melody, which is a huge collection of collaborated scripts and the most polished stuff you can find for VX. It's absolutely worth checking out the demo here: http://207.58.190.245/index.php?topic=42396.0

There used to be an official wiki, but it's down at the moment: wiki.pockethouse.com

2000 and 2003 are really limited and there's only so much you can do with them, so have a shot with that.

[Schala Zeal]

Also note VX and XP share the same downsides. They are not free and they both use Ruby 1.8

[Ramsus]

RPG Maker VX is only $60, and you can try it for 30 days on a trial basis. That's not a bad price to pay for what it is. I wouldn't worry too much about memory problems with the version of the Ruby implementation they embedded in their engine either, since you're just creating some simple games where most of the heavy data (graphics and sound) is managed by library routines in the engine anyway.

The hardest part will simply be introducing yourself to programming for the first time -- unless you already know a bit about programming, in which case you'll mostly just be familiarizing yourself with the little Ruby framework they've created for their RPG Maker engine so you can customize and enhance it.

Fortunately, Ruby is a very nice language, and you can actually accomplish quite a bit in RPG Maker without touching any code.

[Ramsus]

You might also find this to be useful:

http://www.rpgmakerweb.com/tutorial/rpg-maker-vx

[TheMage]

As for the spriteing all 4 - (2000, 2003, XP, and VX) come with their own sprites and there are tons of resources out there that have sprites and maps for the games. A good example is:

http://charas-project.net/resources.php?lang=en

however this site only supports graphics  for 2000 and 2003.

The best program for spriteing in my opinion is Character Maker 1999 which gives you an upclose view- you can get that- and the rpg maker games here:

http://crankeye.com/?page=downloads

For codeing it'd be best for VX and XP however 2003 can support a bit of code.

[Schala Zeal]

The next RPG Maker should be voxel-based instead of pixel-based.

[TheMage]

The next RPG Maker should be voxel-based instead of pixel-based.

Now that would be fun!

[Mr Bekkler]

It would be cool to use one of those nifty character creation modules you find on so many games for a 3d rpg maker, if one were ever made that worked well. Seriously if Tony Hawk 2 can do it, why hasn't anyone in Japan thought of this yet? Even if it had preset buildings and trees and stuff people would find a way to be creative with it.

[Nangbaby]

This is a necrobump, but it is related to the topic.

Someone finally made a CT-like Battle System for RPG Maker.

Obviously, it's an approximation and not the exact thing, but it's functionally close and actually offers more possibilities from a gameplay perspective.

[chrono.source]

Did any games come to fruition from this?