Hello gamedev.net, I am brand new here. I am not the best at articulating myself or at formatting forum posts so sorry ahead, but I want to try and make my first post count so I'll jump right in.

I love the time that we live in - I love that pixelated graphics have been so prominent in gaming these past years. I like to think that a lot of people developing 2D games these days have the same mentality as me, which is 2D graphics are beautiful (I've heard people call 2D development "lazy" which is possibly true for some, but I like my positive viewpoint). Sword of Mana for example, despite it's age and 2D graphics is a wonderful, whimsical, beauty. It has a fun hack and slash style of combat, addictive crafting (mob grinding for loot/seeds) and a creative housing system for the time. I've replayed this game many times throughout the years. Each time I play it I'm at a different level of maturity in my life (more or less lol). As I've aged my perspective has changed due to life and it's struggles, so the game means something different to me each time I play it.

To get to the point of why I created this account - I want to learn how to make a top-down, 2D, RPG that plays like Sword of Mana. I have no illusions that it will be easy and I'm hoping for some solid advice from the experienced users on this forum to get me pointed in the right direction. I have no skills with game programming, minimal music ability (I have three practice tunes on soundcloud if you want to check them out - bottom of post), and no skill with pixel art, but am willing to learn. So if you have any advice whatsoever I'm all ears!

For a place to start or a better idea of how to start, please read this link - https://www.gamedev.net/page/resources/_/technical/game-programming/your-first-step-to-game-development-starts-here-r2976

Since your goal is to recreate a game, may I suggest Gamemaker. Easy to get into and get something up quickly.

Technically speaking, Sword of Mana and similar games are quite straightforward. That doesn't mean they'll be trivial to make, though. You should first get started with making even simpler games like Pong or whatever. The blog Alpha_ProgDes linked above is a good starting point.

Game Maker is a good tool to consider using as well. Making top-down 2D games is well within its wheelhouse. 

The most important thing for you to do is practice: practice making simple games, building to more complex ones, and eventually to your 2D RPG. The same goes with art: if you're not going to try to find somebody to work with to create art, you're going to have to make it yourself, and that means spending time practicing it until you feel comfortable with your ability to produce the quality level you want for this game of yours.

Fortunately, the "pixel art" aesthetic of games like Sword of Mana is super popular right now, and it's fairly easy to find large lists of tutorials and guides just by poking around Google.

I would also like to just clarify you should look into Gamemaker studio 2.  The '2' is important because it has an integrated tilemap map editor which would be real useful for an topdown/isometric RPG.

Thanks everyone for the comments and advice. Another question I have is if I wanted to create everything from scratch - including a simple engine - are there tutorials for that? If I ever were to create a game and hypothetically put it to market, I would like to say I did it all myself, because that is the type of person that I am. Not out of, "I want more money for myself, greeeeeed," more so that I would like to have it as a main hobby/challenge for myself (I'll definitely be asking a lot of questions and sharing any progress I make).

I will absolutely check out Game Maker Studio 2 in the meantime and, "The Big List Of Pixel Art Tutorials," that jpetrie linked.

5 minutes ago, Patapo said:

Thanks everyone for the comments and advice. Another question I have is if I wanted to create everything from scratch - including a simple engine - are there tutorials for that? 

No. This requires you to first invent the universe.

It's practically-speaking impossible to make something "from scratch." You're going to be using a computer somebody else built. You're going to be using a compiler somebody else built. And you're going to be using APIs somebody else built.

So the real question is when you say "from scratch," how much do you mean? If you mean not using tools like Game Maker, then absolutely there are tutorials for the whole host of various and sundry specific topics you will need to build a game (you do not need to build "an engine," that's not a requirement to have a game and building one well, for real, requires having built a bunch of games before, unless you want to delude yourself). Doing this is significantly more work, of course, especially if you have no skill at game programming. You'll be spending some non-trivial amount of time learning to program and writing basic text-based programs before you even get to learning how to put a window on the screen and draw graphics into it. But is certainly a path open to you, if developing that skill is more important to you than finishing your game.
 

9 minutes ago, Patapo said:

Not out of, "I want more money for myself, greeeeeed," more so that I would like to have it as a main hobby/challenge for myself (I'll definitely be asking a lot of questions and sharing any progress I make).

Good, because you'll actually, practically speaking, make less money this way. Mostly due to the opportunity cost if nothing else.

I don't want this to get convoluted but I'll try to articulate what I mean in a better way -

37 minutes ago, jpetrie said:

No. This requires you to first invent the universe.

It's practically-speaking impossible to make something "from scratch." You're going to be using a computer somebody else built. You're going to be using a compiler somebody else built. And you're going to be using APIs somebody else built.

I understand that everything is interconnected and that nothing that I do will ever be from original or from scratch (thanks for reminding me how insignificant I am lol) - that being said, what I meant was more simple - I want to do it all myself. When I say, "myself," I don't mean, "all by myself." I learn better when I do it myself, using my own hands. When I press left on the control stick and my character, as well as the background behind him moves - I want to know what goes behind that and I want to be able to know how to program that.

40 minutes ago, jpetrie said:

Good, because you'll actually, practically speaking, make less money this way. Mostly due to the opportunity cost if nothing else.

I shouldn't have even brought up money haha, the only reason I did was to make the point that I want this more as a hobby, for fun, without the thought of ever trying to make money with it. More in line with the spirit of art, being creative, and disciplining myself enough to try and finish a goal.

I have a good idea where to start with the artwork (thanks again jpetrie), and with music. So, to get to the heart of it, and to make it simple for myself as a beginner - where should I begin learning for programming?

Pick a language; I'd suggest C# or Python. Search the internet for "learning C#" or "learning Python" tutorials or whatnot. Follow them, practice building simple programs like a guess-the-number game, blackjack or hangman style game using the basic (usually text-based) IO available. 

2 hours ago, jpetrie said:

Pick a language; I'd suggest C# or Python. Search the internet for "learning C#" or "learning Python" tutorials or whatnot. Follow them, practice building simple programs like a guess-the-number game, blackjack or hangman style game using the basic (usually text-based) IO available. 

Will do man! Thanks for all the advice!

I would also find a level/map editor so you don't have to make your own.  Trust me when I say you don't want to tackle making your own on your first real project unless you have to.  Practice loading the map file format of your chosen map editor.