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What would you recommend for a Jrpg game?

Started by December 27, 2014 12:38 AM
5 comments, last by kburkhart84 10 years, 1 month ago

Hey. right now i am trying to make a JRPG game, mostly to get my little story told.

But i got some questions, i would like answered. ^^

I want it to look a little like "Mad Father" so if you have that in mind. What would you do?

What resolution would you recommend? (1:1?)

What Tile size would you recommend?

And what sprite size would you recommend?

I think you should look at the RPG maker products. That will fast-track you from an idea to a game. As someone who has been working on a JRPG built from scratch for the last several years, I will tell you that it is a lot of work to build your own game. There are a lot of communities out there for people making RPGMaker games that can help you answer the types of questions you ask. I've never used the software myself, so I'm unsure about what it supports.

Really, what resolution and sizes you go for really depend on what visual style and platform you are targeting. We use 32x32 pixel tiles, which seems to be more or less the most common size that games like this use. Our sprites are 32x64 pixels (2 tiles high), but if you're going for a more cartoonish or cute style, you may want to make them 48x32 or shorter.

I took a brief look at Mad Father on google image search and to me it looks like it has 16x16 pixel tiles (another common format) and sprites that are maybe around 20x32 pixels.

Hero of Allacrost - A free, open-source 2D RPG in development.
Latest release June, 2015 - GameDev annoucement

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I agree with Roots 100%.

I think you should look at the RPG maker products.

Definitely start here. It's a tad costly (though you can find it on sale on Steam from time to time). You can also try GameMaker and Construct2, but RPG Maker is more RPG-focused, letting you get prototyping quickly.

As someone who has been working on a JRPG built from scratch for the last several years, I will tell you that it is a lot of work to build your own game.

Totally agree. While I haven't been doing it as long as Root's Hereos of Allocrost project, I've been working on my own RPG for 3 1/2 years now.

We use 32x32 pixel tiles, which seems to be more or less the most common size that games like this use. Our sprites are 32x64 pixels (2 tiles high), but if you're going for a more cartoonish or cute style, you may want to make them 48x32 or shorter.


My game uses 48x48, and character sprites are 48x96 (two-tiles high) - closer to 1 and 1/2 high. In-combat enemy sprites will vary greatly.
As a basic measurement in my own game, 1 pixel = 1 inch, so 48x48 = 4ft x 4ft.

I've made and completed what is pretty much a clone of Final Fantasy VI's engine and I have to agree with Roots and Servants as well. I don't regret doing it since my engine and editor are significantly more powerful than RPG Maker, but I'd have trouble justifying the effort vs time/price ratio when a tool such as RPG Maker exists.

Unity 2d does well. Used rpg maker but found it limiting though my last foray was with 2k3. I am told newer versions assessed that.
Please don't stick to stock assets though :)

Alot of the answers your looking for will depend on a few things like what is your end target? What is your currentl skill set? As someone who has spent years trying different things and many different tools, what you decide to do with your project in the end can dictate which tools would be best for the job.

Personally, I am not an expert coder, but I make up for it with my stubborness. Something that might take someone a week to create could take me a few weeks. :)

I recently got into MonkeyX this year after evaluating my hobby plan. I've worked on my ultimate uber RPG for years and have gone through quite few different languages in doing it.

I ultimately decided to throw my gloves in the ring of Mobile Developement and started that path using Java. After completing my first game, I realized the mess I was in. I had to rewrite the game in order to port it to each device. Thats where I found MonkeyX, a damn good write once, port to many devices enviroment. I rewrote my original game in 1 week using MonkeyX and got it ported to Android and Iphone. Its great for 2d or 2.5d style of games.

Unity is another option, but I've never looked at it so I can't give it a fair recommendation.

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One thing to consider that I didn't see mentioned above is what your goals are now and in the future. RPG Maker has a place, and is likely to get you what you want faster if all you want is a JRPG. If you use it though, it will (almost) force upon you a tile size, character size, etc... Now there are alternatives, some of them mentioned above. I didn't see GMStudio(from yoyogames) mentioned. It is great for multi-platform 2d games as well, though it isn't free software for everything.

The reason I mention the future goals is....are you going to want to make games later? Other types of games or only RPGs? Or is all you want to just tell that single story and maybe never make another game again? I ask these things because if you are interested in making other types of games in the near future, you may want to use something other than RPGMaker in order to get a head start at that. Then once you learn how to make games without such a dedicated only to RPG kind of software, you can then make your RPG your own way without the limitations, getting you a better product in the end. You wouldn't have to do all the workarounds, for example to change the battle style that RPGMaker uses. And you would have a base knowledge to make other different games too that RPGMaker simply doesn't do.



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