I agree with the above post, stick with low res. 256x192 is good. Nintendo DS uses it, and it's very close to SNES. I'd recommend against widescreen. My current game (somewhere between FF1 and FF6 style) is on GBA and thus 240x160, which is a little cramped. Taller is better for these games, because the battle menu takes up a lot of vertical real estate.

High res pixel art is really hard, IME. 16x16 tiles and 16x24 sprites are my favorite, and look just right at 256x192.

If you ever want to chat about RPG making, feel free to message me :) I'm on MSN as my name here at hotmail.com.

I should probably note, my last game was a 2D game at 1920x1080 native using raster art. Imagine how hard that was!

I have Skype. However, I haven't checked whether I can use MSN on my iPad, which I tend to use for forums and chat, since I'm paranoid that if I use my computer too much for more than game development, it will wear out.

Development started December 1992. And yes, there are ample reasons why a game that to 35 people a year to make 20 years ago can be replicated with a much smaller group of people today.

SIgh. Did I claim anything different?

One after another. Which one of you really disagrees with what I said:

1) The development team of FFVI 20 years ago had more capacity than what OP alone has today

2) big part of development resource goes into designing and planning and that workload cannot be lessened with technology

Because 1) and 2) this project of OP's seriously needs some downscaling from 20+ hours duration and everything else FFVI is and most here seem to agree on that. Somehow everyone wants to bully me regardless. Tell me why in PM so I can improve the way I help people because that's all I try to do.

I would rather not see my name or content of my posts pop up under this thread anymore. Start discussing OP and what he said.

I would challenge you to create a small area (say 8*8 tiles in size where 1 tile is 32*32 pixels) in which a character walks around in that includes one exit. The area has 2 or 3 different objects that can be collided with and one NPC that just stands in one place. When you approach the NPC (include clicking a button or a key if you want) a dialogue appears indicating that you should leave now. When you leave through the exit, the program terminates.

A comparatively simple scene but covers a number of fundamental game elements which should give you a feel of what you're getting into.

Good luck.

I've made my own Final Fantasy VI-alike game engine. (Some screenshots:

http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q316/exseiken/Mon%20RPG/fight.jpg,

http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q316/exseiken/Mon%20RPG/world_map.jpg,

http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q316/exseiken/Mon%20RPG/screenshot9.jpg

Most graphics assets are RPG Maker graphics I borrowed.)

Making a game engine for a 2D RPG is totally doable on your own, however you are going to be working on it for a long time before seeing results. When I built that game engine, it didn't take me an eternity but I had no job, no school and no lover so I could afford to work on that project from 10 AM to 3 AM if I wanted to. And I also had an unending love for old-school Final Fantasy games. I could never afford to do that now at 29. I have stayed away from Final Fantasy since they turned bad, and it gave me an idea for a new battle system that would be (IMHO) a lot more fun and tactical than this ATB that I copied, plus a new skill system, item system, etc. but I just don't have the time to work on it. I wish I had the time to work on it full time. =/

But I disgress...

I would suggest working on a simpler genre. Unlike most other genres, Japanese-style RPGs like that don't have much physics to deal with, which might make them sound easier to make, but the amount of data that is involved in a RPG is absolutely crazy. You have item data, weapon data, armor data, skill data, enemy data, enemy group data, hero data, shop data. And then you have two major and separate game modes to create: the area map mode where you talk to NPC, open chests and show cutscenes, and the battle mode where you, well, fight monsters. If you want the game engine to have features similar to FFVI, you're going to put a lot of work in both. For example, FFVI had a very extensive battle animation system, where you could of course draw sprites, but also generate vectorial stencils that mask parts of the animation, generate trails for character sprites, animate palettes. So a cheap "missile-with-particle-system" 2D animation system just isn't going to cut it. (Again, assuming you want FFVI-level quality.) I could definitely be wrong, but since this is the "For Beginners" forums I'm assuming that you're not ready for that kind of game. A RPG also involves a very large amount of content, and players chew through that content really fast. It can take me 2 hours to make a cutscene of 5 minutes (which is still a joke compared to the time it takes to make a CG 3D cutscene of 5 minutes...) and a player will typically only see a cutscene once, unless it's before a hard boss or something. My RPG took 2 hours to do from start to where I was at when I left it (when I decided to rework it into something that isn't as much of a FFVI ripoff), but I had probably spent 4 months just creating content. (Not programming or drawing.)

I think a simpler genre would be something like a side scroller. You have a lot more physics to deal with, but you only have one game mode instead of two, much less content to do, less music, probably less assets too (although I could be wrong on that one.)

Keep in mind though, you are kind of discouraging the creation of a game rather than encouraging it. After seeing this thread, I am now less likely to make the game as I was discouraged by all the theoretical work to do to the point where I'm not seeing the magic anymore. I can't even say in pride I'm making a game "like" Final Fantasy VI, because people will say I'm flashing a Final Fantasy VI card.

I'm not sure what I'm looking for at this point. Someone on this forum inspired me to make threads on the subject, and I hoped to gain positive information. This person never put their head on the chopping block by saying I could make the game for sure and it would be easy, but they didn't discourage me from doing it. And that's the kind of attitude I like to see and what keeps me coming back to the forum.

I understand much of what you're saying, ShadowFlar, I just don't agree with it. You seemed to suggest a certain SNES style game required a team of people.

You might disagree with how he came across, but the moral of his story is accurate.

1) FFVI is an enormous undertaking for one person. Too big for the majority of people here.

2) Certain SNES games WOULD still take more than one programmer. Unfortunately, that includes RPGs (there are just too many details).

3) The whole spill about "technical" clones and so forth, accurate but overly wordy, borderline unnecessary.

The forum has a way of harshly and abruptly shutting down ideas they view as a bad idea. lol

I will hold off agreeing or disagreeing with you for now, Aspirer, and ask a question. I have pretty much made Super Metroid and Megaman X clones before. How much harder would a Final Fantasy VI clone be?

I don't think people are opposing this primarily over the difficulty--no one's really questioning your skill or ability. Not saying it wouldn't be hard, but it's the sheer amount of data involved would probably overwhelm one person.

Not only would you have dozens of items, but each would have dozens of statistics to keep track of. A lot of them would need their own individual artwork.

Dozens of spells, also with dozens of effects/stats to keep track of. Unique animations for each individual spell.

Several dozen enemies, all with their own sprites, stats for these too. Their own animations and attack patterns. You could probably get away with having regular enemies use one of their skills randomly, but boss enemies would need at least some basic AI.

Dozens of crucial NPCs, shops, so forth. (An RPG isn't much of an RPG without a lot of NPC interaction IMO)

And even with all those worked out, the most crucial part of an RPG for most people is 100% the story. What usually set Final Fantasy (and all of Square Soft/Enix's RPGs) in such high regard were well thought out, involved, detailed and intriguing story lines. You need to have your game's background story, current storyline/plot, think up a slightly believable (or at least intriguing) reason for your character(s) to be involved in whatever story is taking place. You need enough unique plot twists, etc. to make several hours of gameplay not seem completely repetitive. Most of the time, each character has a semi-involved background of their own that's involved, but totally distinct from the main story.

Anyway, FFVI isn't an exception to those rules. Do you have the ability to do each one of those things? Probably. EVERY one of those to a much smaller scale? Possibly. But taking charge of all those things on that scope would be too much for 99% of the most seasoned developers. Not because they're incapable or not smart enough to do it; just because one person can only do so much without being overwhelmed.

That's going to be your biggest problem.

I will hold off agreeing or disagreeing with you for now, Aspirer, and ask a question. I have pretty much made Super Metroid and Megaman X clones before. How much harder would a Final Fantasy VI clone be?

This depends entirely on your definition of "pretty much". Were they finished, polished and shippable clones? Or were they basically prototypes that emulated a few of the core aspects of those game, using assets ripped from those games or others, enough that you told yourself that you were finished? Because the former is so, so drastically different from the latter.

I will hold off agreeing or disagreeing with you for now, Aspirer, and ask a question. I have pretty much made Super Metroid and Megaman X clones before. How much harder would a Final Fantasy VI clone be?

This depends entirely on your definition of "pretty much". Were they finished, polished and shippable clones? Or were they basically prototypes that emulated a few of the core aspects of those game, using assets ripped from those games or others, enough that you told yourself that you were finished? Because the former is so, so drastically different from the latter.

The Super Metroid clone used the amount of gameplay to the extent that it was as big as 2-3 Super Metroid planets. I made custom art for it. The game seemed to take me 6 months or so.

For the Megaman X clone, I worked with a novice artist and he made the art and I pretty much got most of Megaman X down - sliding, controls, etc. We produced close to a level in under a week.

I would consider the first a clone. Second, more of a prototype. Still, both are good accomplishments.

Either way though, I would suggest for your first full RPG, first making a basic story line, nothing extraordinary (save that for your eventual masterpiece). Maybe on an island with two or three towns and a couple caves/dungeons. Maybe a dragon or some sort of end-game boss in one of the caves. Like 2 main quests, 4 or 5 side-quests. 10 basic items, 5 weapons, 5 armors, 3 accessories. 10-15 enemies. Completely linear storyline. This would be a couple hours of game-play, feasible for one person and still a hell of an accomplishment.

In this game, rip two or three of your personal favorite features from FFVI, put it in this game.

When you've finished this, use and build upon this for a separate, more in-depth RPG.