Making a dungeon crawler in RPG Maker: opinions, ideas, suggestions - all welcome!

[Sunri]

For the last two weeks, I have been testing plugins, engine limitations and other features in RPG Maker MV. After some successes and failures, I have decided to create a dungeon crawler game inspired mostly by Wizardry, but without the first-person perspective.

Some basic stuff that i already made:

Six Character party (Max default party size in RPG maker is 4 so i had to add a plugin to increase it to 6)

Simple storyline that give excuse to go to around dungeons and kill things.

Four starting Classes (Fighter, Thief, Mage, Cleric)

Four Races (Human, Elf, Dwarf, Fairy) Dwarf restricted to male Fairy to female characters there is no race tab in RPG maker so to make races i made 4 versions of the same class with different parameters and skills.

How it looks

Character Creator

Character Creation Process

Turn Based Combat

Basic Example

Minor things like sprite for character and enemies some spells, items, etc

Layout for tutorial dungeon

Picture

What i want to add:

Im not sure what multi class system i should make but i want to add a lot of advance classes like paladin, druid, psionic etc. but i dont know if the character should start over with the new class and lose previous abilities and levels or just keep everything (stats, abilities, spells) and just reset level the problem is that would result in statistic bloat something to think about.

Central Hub similar to fire link shrine in dark souls where you can send NPCs that you meet during gameplay, so they can serve as teachers/merchants

Lock picking/disarming trap system I'm not sure how to implement it so far i had only one idea make traps/lock with different difficulties roll random number during unlocking/disarming add bonus from primary statistic and see if it worked or triggered trap if you didnt roll high enough.

I made some simple animation for monster sprites but then i discovered that RPG maker support only PNG files, not sure if there is free plugin that would allow adding GIF files or something similar i tried to make one myself but i didnt work.

Moving picture

Limb/Part cutting system similar to one in fear and hunger games it's easy to make but i think i will only use it for certain bosses/huge enemies like hydra, so you can strike different heads or body cool stuff easy to implement.

Some though at the end

Why shitty pixel art?

It's easy to make and i wanted consistent art style.

Why shitty engine like RPG maker?

I tried Unity and was kinda overwhelmed by it, there are tons of tutorials but when i tried to make simple things like UI i was facing problem after problem, and it took me hours to just make some buttons, at least in RPG maker there is some framework to work with.

Thats all, I will post some progress later in this thread all suggestions, ideas, critique welcome.

Some cool sprites:

Sprites

 

[Reinhardt]

Why shitty engine like RPG maker?

if you could use pierre's tools

 

[Sunri]

Why shitty engine like RPG maker?

if you could use pierre's tools

It would be hard to make a module for a game that i didn't even like and dropped midway, lol

 

[Justinian]

Should've used gamemaker, a lot more flexibility.

4 base classes + advanced classes is not standard design for this type of rpg. Not sure how much flexibility rpg maker gives you on classes. But personally I don't like the "classic" wiz formula where just your health and spells transfer over. Maybe something like Stranger of Sword City where you can learn a bunch of skills and then use them in a limited number of skill slots would be better.

 

[GrafvonMoltke]

The game needs sex mechanics

 

[Mortmal]

I am really shocked coming from you that there's male and female but no gender fluid option...
Joke aside, really why bother doing this, almost no one like blobbers , and when they do they expect something considerably more complex than this, like grimoire. You'd better make a solasta mod if you dont like kotc2 editor.
Good luck anyway.

 

[Sunri]

Should've used gamemaker, a lot more flexibility.

4 base classes + advanced classes is not standard design for this type of rpg. Not sure how much flexibility rpg maker gives you on classes. But personally I don't like the "classic" wiz formula where just your health and spells transfer over. Maybe something like Stranger of Sword City where you can learn a bunch of skills and then use them in a limited number of skill slots would be better.

Hmm, that sounds like an interesting idea, but I feel like this would kill class identity i will look up the game you mentioned i never heard about it before

 

[Sunri]

The game needs sex mechanics

This is something that I'm thinking about if you check https://store.steampowered.com/publisher/Kagura even the shittiest game with horrible art and trash tier sex scenes have some reviews and i dont think people are playing them for their complex battle system/character progression if you look at other media like visual novels like fate they too have low tier cringe sexual content that is unrelated to main story the problem is that I'm already committed to creating a full party so what I'm supposed to add? Gang raping bosses or what, lol

 

[Sunri]

I am really shocked coming from you that there's male and female but no gender fluid option...
Joke aside, really why bother doing this, almost no one like blobbers , and when they do they expect something considerably more complex than this, like grimoire. You'd better make a solasta mod if you dont like kotc2 editor.
Good luck anyway.

Another gender, another sprite to make, I don't think the game need to have feature bloat and some convoluted mechanics to be honest I'm playing all sort of dungeon crawlers recently and some of them would be better if they scrapped retarded shit like aging characters and the problem with kotc 2 is not the editor but the fact that the game is overpriced and dead on the other hand Solasta committed cardinal sin of having only 4 character in party.

 

[Mortmal]

I am really shocked coming from you that there's male and female but no gender fluid option...
Joke aside, really why bother doing this, almost no one like blobbers , and when they do they expect something considerably more complex than this, like grimoire. You'd better make a solasta mod if you dont like kotc2 editor.
Good luck anyway.

Another gender, another sprite to make, I don't think the game need to have feature bloat and some convoluted mechanics to be honest I'm playing all sort of dungeon crawlers recently and some of them would be better if they scrapped retarded shit like aging characters and the problem with kotc 2 is not the editor but the fact that the game is overpriced and dead on the other hand Solasta committed cardinal sin of having only 4 character in party.

You can play solasta with any numbers you want with the unfinished business mod. It even pefectly blend into the interface

 

[GrafvonMoltke]

The game needs sex mechanics

This is something that I'm thinking about if you check https://store.steampowered.com/publisher/Kagura even the shittiest game with horrible art and trash tier sex scenes have some reviews and i dont think people are playing them for their complex battle system/character progression if you look at other media like visual novels like fate they too have low tier cringe sexual content that is unrelated to main story the problem is that I'm already committed to creating a full party so what I'm supposed to add? Gang raping bosses or what, lol

Consider this your template

 

[Sunri]

The game needs sex mechanics

This is something that I'm thinking about if you check https://store.steampowered.com/publisher/Kagura even the shittiest game with horrible art and trash tier sex scenes have some reviews and i dont think people are playing them for their complex battle system/character progression if you look at other media like visual novels like fate they too have low tier cringe sexual content that is unrelated to main story the problem is that I'm already committed to creating a full party so what I'm supposed to add? Gang raping bosses or what, lol

Consider this your template

i cant believe people are playing those games, but they buy hentai puzzles 2 so who knows

 

[GrafvonMoltke]

The game needs sex mechanics

This is something that I'm thinking about if you check https://store.steampowered.com/publisher/Kagura even the shittiest game with horrible art and trash tier sex scenes have some reviews and i dont think people are playing them for their complex battle system/character progression if you look at other media like visual novels like fate they too have low tier cringe sexual content that is unrelated to main story the problem is that I'm already committed to creating a full party so what I'm supposed to add? Gang raping bosses or what, lol

Consider this your template

i cant believe people are playing those games, but they buy hentai puzzles 2 so who knows

Karryn's Prison is a profound experience with deep and extensive game mechanics

 

[Justinian]

Should've used gamemaker, a lot more flexibility.

4 base classes + advanced classes is not standard design for this type of rpg. Not sure how much flexibility rpg maker gives you on classes. But personally I don't like the "classic" wiz formula where just your health and spells transfer over. Maybe something like Stranger of Sword City where you can learn a bunch of skills and then use them in a limited number of skill slots would be better.

Hmm, that sounds like an interesting idea, but I feel like this would kill class identity i will look up the game you mentioned i never heard about it before

You can have, (for example) 3 skill slots that can only take skills from your current class and 3 skill slots that can be used for all skills. This way your current class still matters. You can also not reduce your level when you change classes, and with a level cap + needing high level in a class to access its higher tier skills, limit how much you can go around and cherrypick from other classes.

 

[Sunri]

The game needs sex mechanics

This is something that I'm thinking about if you check https://store.steampowered.com/publisher/Kagura even the shittiest game with horrible art and trash tier sex scenes have some reviews and i dont think people are playing them for their complex battle system/character progression if you look at other media like visual novels like fate they too have low tier cringe sexual content that is unrelated to main story the problem is that I'm already committed to creating a full party so what I'm supposed to add? Gang raping bosses or what, lol

Consider this your template

i cant believe people are playing those games, but they buy hentai puzzles 2 so who knows

Karryn's Prison is a profound experience with deep and extensive game mechanics

I looked up some gameplay and there is nothing in this game for me, you play as a woman, and you get fucked and degraded i dont play that much ero games but if i wanted to make one i would take example from Rance or Eiyu Senki where you have some male protag that does some cool stuff but that doesnt fit what I'm making right now with custom party so i gave up on this idea i will add some cute npc's and monsters tho maybe recruitable companions

cuteelf

 

[GrafvonMoltke]

The game needs sex mechanics

This is something that I'm thinking about if you check https://store.steampowered.com/publisher/Kagura even the shittiest game with horrible art and trash tier sex scenes have some reviews and i dont think people are playing them for their complex battle system/character progression if you look at other media like visual novels like fate they too have low tier cringe sexual content that is unrelated to main story the problem is that I'm already committed to creating a full party so what I'm supposed to add? Gang raping bosses or what, lol

Consider this your template

i cant believe people are playing those games, but they buy hentai puzzles 2 so who knows

Karryn's Prison is a profound experience with deep and extensive game mechanics

I looked up some gameplay and there is nothing in this game for me, you play as a woman, and you get fucked and degraded i dont play that much ero games but if i wanted to make one i would take example from Rance or Eiyu Senki where you have some male protag that does some cool stuff but that doesnt fit what I'm making right now with custom party so i gave up on this idea i will add some cute npc's and monsters tho maybe recruitable companions

cuteelf

You only get fucked and degraded if you WANT to get fucked and degraded, hehe

 

[Tyranicon]

It's always interesting to me that there's so many eroge/NSFW games where you play a woman getting degraded instead of a heavily muscled Conan knockoff getting loads of babes.

Video games are masculine power fantasies, but porn games usually aren't.

Lame.

 

[Reinhardt]

if you go with female main character at least go full sexy lesbians route.

 

[orochi2k]

If you want to add something sexual, it may be better to separate it from your main game so that your game will not be automatically banned in some regions such as China/Germany/South Korea.
Personally, I am pretending I didn't add anything adult-only in my game. This mod in the Steam Workshop is uploaded by a player. If Gabe asks, I know nothing about it.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2799030844

 

[Tweed]

Video games are masculine power fantasies, but porn games usually aren't.

That's because porn is for losers. People mod regular games to have sex and bang chicks after a long day of killing (or raping) dragons, but people play porn games to get shit on just like they do in real life.

 

[Sunri]

i looked up some plugins, and it turns out that a lot of things that i wanted to add are already made by others I'm surprised how much you can customize things in rpg maker.

Screenshot

You can now manually distribute statistics after lv up, seems like something basic, but it's impossible without plugin.

123

Visible action order during battle

123

Plugin that allows enemies to chase player after he enters their fov

123

And the last thing that I'm considering adding is a Formation plugin that allows the player to set up his characters similar to how wizardry 8 works unfortunately it's not perfect because characters in last row can still be attacked by enemies they just take less dmg, but I'm not sure if it's worth all the trouble with setting skills, weapons and other stuff

 

[Justinian]

Infinite Adventures works that way: characters in back row take 50% damage unless they get hit with ranged attacks (or spears from first row), and one of the classes has a passive that lets them do full damage with a greatsword to backrow characters if maxed). Enemies are also less likely to attack them.

 

[Sunri]

Infinite Adventures works that way: characters in back row take 50% damage unless they get hit with ranged attacks (or spears from first row), and one of the classes has a passive that lets them do full damage with a greatsword to backrow characters if maxed). Enemies are also less likely to attack them.

Yea, it seemed like a cool thing, but i encountered a big problem when trying to implement this i wanted to make generic skills like shoot, slash etc. assign weapon to them and limit them to certain rows, but then i realized that you can assign only two weapons per skill in RPG maker, so it's impossible to make it this way so for now i gave up on this idea.

 

[Sunri]

Btw here is explained how this plugin works, maybe someone will have idea how to solve this problem.

 

[Justinian]

What's the problem? Looks like it does what you want: stops melee characters from reaching back row.