RPG Maker for Teens Michael Duggan Course Technology PTR A part of Cengage Learning Australia . Brazil . Japan . Korea . Mexico . Singapore . Spain . UnitedKingdom . UnitedStates RPGMakerforTeens ©2012CourseTechnology,apartofCengageLearning. MichaelDuggan ALLRIGHTSRESERVED.Nopartofthisworkcoveredbythecopyright hereinmaybereproduced,transmitted,stored,orusedinanyformor PublisherandGeneralManager, CourseTechnologyPTR:StacyL.Hiquet byanymeansgraphic,electronic,ormechanical,includingbutnot limitedtophotocopying,recording,scanning,digitizing,taping,Web AssociateDirectorofMarketing: distribution,informationnetworks,orinformationstorageandretrieval SarahPanella systems,exceptaspermittedunderSection107or108ofthe1976 ManagerofEditorialServices: UnitedStatesCopyrightAct,withoutthepriorwrittenpermissionofthe HeatherTalbot publisher. MarketingManager:JordanCastellani SeniorAcquisitionsEditor:EmiSmith Forproductinformationandtechnologyassistance,contactusat ProjectEditor:JennyDavidson CengageLearningCustomer&SalesSupport,1-800-354-9706 TechnicalReviewer:JTHiquet Forpermissiontousematerialfromthistextorproduct, InteriorLayoutTech:MPSLimited, submitallrequestsonlineatwww.cengage.com/permissions aMacmillanCompany Furtherpermissionsquestionscanbeemailedto [email protected]. CoverDesigner:MikeTanamachi Indexer:SharonShock Alltrademarksarethepropertyoftheirrespectiveowners. Proofreader:MichaelBeady Allimages©CengageLearningunlessotherwisenoted. LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2011926539 ISBN-13:978-1-4354-5966-3 ISBN-10:1-4354-5966-0 eISBN-10:1-4354-5967-9 CourseTechnology,apartofCengageLearning 20ChannelCenterStreet Boston,MA02210 USA CengageLearningisaleadingproviderofcustomizedlearningsolutions withofficelocationsaroundtheglobe,includingSingapore,theUnited Kingdom,Australia,Mexico,Brazil,andJapan.Locateyourlocalofficeat: international.cengage.com/region CengageLearningproductsarerepresentedinCanadabyNelson Education,Ltd. Foryourlifelonglearningsolutions,visitcourseptr.com Visitourcorporatewebsiteatcengage.com PrintedbyRRDonnelley.Crawfordsville,IN.1stPtg.05/2011 Printed in the United States of America 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 13 12 11 This is for Jephael, a bright and curious girl with a temperament more like an animal than a human, a natural artistic gift, and a love of all things Pokemon . . . Now you can make your own fantasy RPG worlds! Acknowledgments Forthecreationofthisbooktherehavebeenmanysupporters,especiallyfromthe RPG Maker community. Several people helped really tailor this tome into a fi suitable tforourreaders,includingEmiSmith,JennyDavidson,JTHiquet,and fi the rest of the ne folks at Cengage Learning. I also want to thank Krystal, Levi, and Hayley for putting up with my late hours working at game play. About the Author MichaelDugganisaSouthern-basedauthorandillustratorofeighttextbookson the subjects of video game design and digital media. He is also an applications developer and computer art instructor at North Arkansas College. He currently residesintheOzarkMountainswithhiswifeandstep-children.Hisloveforvideo game design comes from playing role-playing games as a kid. Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x Chapter 1 What Is a Fantasy RPG?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 The Role-Playing Game (RPG). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Tabletop RPGs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Pick-Your-Path Game Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Computer RPGs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Massively Multiplayer Online RPGs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Why RPGs? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Elements of Fantasy RPGs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Characters: So-And-So Has Joined Your Party! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Game World: A Trip to Never-land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Narrative: Twists and Turns in RPGs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Quests: Go Fetch! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Inventory: Now Where Did I Put That? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Combat: Turn-by-Turn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Some RPG Clichés to Watch Out For. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 East Meets West When It Comes to RPGs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 RPGs and Anime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 What’s Next? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Chapter 2 Making a Fantasy RPG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 How an RPG Is Made . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Game Development and Game Publishing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 vi Contents vii Indie Game Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 What a Game Developer Does . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Game Developer Team Roles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Game Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Getting a Job as a Developer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Game Design Documents and Project Schedules. . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 The Development Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Getting the Game Out There . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 How to Make an RPG Yourself. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Generating Game Ideas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Writing Game Design Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Planning the Development Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Finding the Right Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 What’s Next? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Chapter 3 Building Game Worlds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 Purpose of a Game World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 A Game World Sets the Stage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 A Game World Creates Proper Flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 A Game World Sets the Mood. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 A Game World Fences the Player In. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Creating a Paper Prototype Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Getting Inspiration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 Maps and Landforms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Weather and Climate Conditions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 Cultures and Customs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 Technology and Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 Transportation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 Medicine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 Weapons and Combat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 Political Climate and Conflicts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 Monsters and Animals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 World-Building in RPG Maker. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Different Types of Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 What Are Tile-Based Maps?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 Creating a New Game Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 viii Contents Building Maps for Your Game Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 Connecting the Two Maps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 What’s Next? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 Chapter 4 Creating Characters and Writing Dialogue . . . . . . . . . . . 155 Inventing RPG Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 Getting Inspiration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 Creating Memorable Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 NPC Dialogue: “I’m Sorry. . . You Said What?” . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 Putting Characters in Thug Wallow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 Customizing Your Party. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 Adding NPCs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207 What’s Next? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214 Chapter 5 Staging Battle Encounters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 Creating a Monster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 Subtypes of RPG Monsters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 The RPG Maker Monsters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 Editing RPG Maker Monsters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219 Editing RPG Maker Troops. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226 Mapping Battle Encounters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232 What’s Next? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236 Chapter 6 Quest Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 RPGs and Interactive Storytelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238 Immerse Your Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 Player Empowerment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246 Keep Your Player Entertained . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249 Provide Reactive Environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251 Challenge Your Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251 Types of Game Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252 Interactive Storytelling with RPG Maker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260 In the Beginning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260 The Middle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265 The End . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276 What’s Next? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277 Chapter 7 Final Touches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279 Last-Minute Modifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279 Lighting and Weather Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280 Contents ix Some Nasty Surprises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282 Title and Game Over Screens. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284 Terms Used in the Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288 Background Music and Sound FX. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290 Battle Faces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294 Add More as You Like . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298 What’s Next? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298 Chapter 8 Where to Go from Here . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299 Editing Your Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300 Publishing Your Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302 Creating a ReadMe File. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304 Burning Your Game to Disc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304 Putting Your Game on the Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306 Can I Make Money Selling My RPGs?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318 Gathering a Game Portfolio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319 What’s Next? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319 Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333