Typical useless, bullshit, GDNet knee jerk post.
This is the epitome of why this forum blows. If you're not going to leave a thread better off than how you found it, why bother posting?
The OP says that he has about 18 months to finish a MMORPG and basis it on Zenomia 5. On top of that, he admits that he is a beginner. Also, he's going to present this to some judges. You really think this is possible to do, in that time frame, with the needed polish, and testing....? It's one thing if he wants to make a game. A simple game. I've post the list later (I've done it 10 times now). That's cool. But designing even Zelda --offline-- is not something you can just design in a month and code in a couple of months. There are play mechanics, artwork, level design, sound, storyline, and character design. And that's before you even figure out in what way are you going to make this online.
So telling the OP that he's biting off a bit more than he can chew is doing him a service. Especially if he isn't proficient in Java yet. Based on what he's said, he's still learning that as well.
Zenonia 5 is an simple android top down action RPG. It's 90% design and 10% programming. It's not some big, insurmountable goal.
Maybe simple for you, but I doubt it would be for him. The deadline makes the goal even harder than it should be.
For android you'll want Java (read a book and learn it all first, if you jump ahead, you'll spend your entire year stuck on trivial things) + libGDX (don't touch until you complete a java book) will cover your programming needs.
So he's gonna learn from a book --all of the book-- and ask questions here. Be proficient in Java (well proficient enough) to then go straight into game development and create this game. All in 18 months?
RPG Maker (now available on steam) is a much better choice, but they don't seem to have android support. The developer says they have been working on Android support, but that doesn't mean it's coming any time soon, or that it will even work well.
I've used Game Maker before. And if RPG Maker is anything like it, then he is still going to have to learn that API inside and out to do non-trivial things. Not everything is going to be drag-and-drop. And even drag-and-drop is not 100% straightforward.
Character design is not a technical thing. Get a pencil and a notepad and start creating. Figure out what your game is going to be about first, and then design characters that will take on the roles needed. When your design is finished, you'll know exactly what you need and an start working on them in a paint program.
Character, game, or level design is time-consuming. You can spend months --not weeks-- doing it. And for a MMORPG, you'll be doing a lot of it.
Keep your game small, simple, and focused. If you want to finish it in a year and a half starting from scratch you'll have to dial it back to something small, like 1 town and one randomly generated dungeon. If you can finish that, you can use it as a nice base to keep working on another game after that.
I agree with this advice. But this advice doesn't help the OP with his initial goal of a Zenonia 5 MMORPG. If anything, it just reinforces what I and others have said: "Lower the bar, keep small".