Sientir's Blog

For quite some time now, I've been trying to make an RPG in RPG Maker MV . Each time, I've run into problems, but I've also learned from those problems. They're pretty variable, but they all result in me getting utterly bogged down in particulars that drain me of all interest or motivation in continuing to make my current game. Along the way, I've also learned a few things about RPGs in general, both from my own gaming experience and from watching other's playthroughs. I'd like to share some of these thoughts, because I know doing so will help me better process the lessons I've been learning. Before I really get into it, though, something that's important to know about me as a creative is that I'm a pantser. (A word from the writing world that refers to "flying by the seat of your pants." People like me need to figure things out as they go. It stands in contrast to "plotters," who plan everything out ahead of time, and then ma...

Last night, as I lay in my bed with the intention of falling asleep, my brain, as it so often does, had other plans: thinking about game design. Specifically, I was contemplating something I'd been noticing as I've been replaying Dark Souls III in preparation for a video retrospective series on the trilogy, which is that it seems like I've spent the entire game making my character and her build, which means there won't be any game left in which to actually use that build. Put bluntly, I don't like this. Granted, New Game+ exists, thankfully, but nevertheless, it got a thought-train rolling. I also thought about how that contrasted with my experiences with Guild Wars 1 , a game that generally wants you to get set up very early and that has a lot of game to experience after you've got your build put together (as much as "a" build is a thing in that game, anyway—it encourages experimentation and variety). I much prefer this, where I can feel like I'v...

I recently released an article introducing the game I'm working on in RPG Maker MV , which I'm calling Psychopomps Are Missing (at least until I come up with a finalized title). While discussing it with a Patron afterwards, he pointed out that, while I'd talked a lot about the game's design and mechanics, I'd failed to give a clear sense of what my final goal is or how to determine how close to achieving that goal I am. I intend to correct that oversight here, and to release regular articles in the future to communicate my progress on the game. I'll consider Psychopomps Are Missing completed when the twelve world regions are finished (the ten primary game regions of The Abyss, Wandering Wood, Ashdala, Avarei, Bowan, Kingdom of Dolfy, Ghymnipolis, United Streets, Cybernight City, and the mashup location that I should come up with a general term for that's a combination of two destroyed regions, plus the Pocket Dimension and Crossroads of Reality), the over...

So there I was, thinking about things that I wish were a bit different in RPG Maker MV, when I started thinking about the drop table system. You know, the thing that looks like this: I personally find this to be entirely insufficient for three reasons. One, I can only have three items in the list; two, I can only have an item quantity of one drop per thing; and three, the drop probabilities are in the form 1/N (where N is a whole number). This last one is notably annoying because it means I can't have drop chances between 100% and 50%. So, like I said, I got to thinking about this, and that's when it hit me: I could easily write a plugin to solve these problems! Well, to easily solve two of these problems, anyway...changing the number of entries in the list is not so easy. So I'll do just that: write a plugin to change how drop chances work and to enable drop quantities of more than one. I decided I wanted to share this process, primarily my methodology and how I approach f...