Welcome to Week Three of my project, “I Created A Video Game in 8 Weeks, Using RPG Maker MZ,” where I create a self-contained video game quest with impact, choices, and multiple endings, from scratch, using RPG Maker MZ!
Last week, I wrote a full plot outline, learned how to create branching dialogue and text choices, programmed an interaction with some flirtatious potatoes, and crafted a fully-customized main character. Read all about it, here!
Want to play the game in its current form? Click this link!
(The password to access the game is: “intro.”)
A few things to know before playing the game:
The game works in Firefox and Safari, but people have experienced loading issues when using Google Chrome.
You will need to make the game full screen in order to read any of the text boxes. You can do this by clicking on the ‘fullscreen’ icon on the bottom right.
This Week’s Goal
My goal for this week was to create a complete, fully-playable, exposition-heavy video game intro.
I also wanted to finish the entire bedroom map, start the town map, and basically get one third of the game completed. HA. That didn’t happen.
Surprise! It turns out that creating a video game intro is a LOT of work. It’s a mixture of programming, narrative design, timing (that was a new one for me), sound design, visuals, and of course, writing that tells the player whether or not they are interested in continuing the game at all. It’s a high-stakes creation, and I was feeling the stakes!
This week was my most self-taught one.
In previous weeks, I relied heavily on tutorials to show me how to use RPG Maker MZ. By this week, however, I had enough under my belt to learn a lot on-the-fly.
The result was a series of interlooped cutscenes to begin the game, my first-ever designed jump-scare, and the first time I programmed a character’s scripted movements.
It has been a very exciting few days!
Crafting the Beginning
The name of the game this week was: exposition, exposition, exposition. And tone.
This week was all about the beginning of the game. Which, surprisingly (or not, for anyone more familiar with creating video games) meant that the entire week was really about the ending of the game, and what information had to be established and conveyed in order for that ending to make sense.
I would compare it to: not preparing a grocery list until you know what you’re planning to cook with the food you buy.
In my case, the information I needed immediately on-hand was two-fold:
Who/What is G.R.A.N.D.M.A., and what information do the characters have about G.R.A.N.D.M.A. prior to the beginning of the story?
Why is the main character trying to visit G.R.A.N.D.M.A. to begin with? What are his motivations behind doing so?
Firmly convinced that I had all of this information in-hand (I didn’t), I confidently set out to learn how to create cutscenes that would suck the player in, and not let them go.
(Click here to read the full post about creating the intro!)
(A Fun Continuation of Last Week): Customizable Character Skills
This was a small part of my week, but I also figured out how to add personalized skills to my character! It was the final piece of the customization puzzle, and I’m so excited that I finally figured it out!
He now has two “Special” skills: Empathetic listener, and Drunk Dancing.
Conclusion
This week felt like that scene in Legally Blonde, where Warner is surprised that Elle is attending Harvard, and she says “What, like it’s hard?”
Except in this case, I WAS WARNER, looking back at baby-faced me from 7 days ago who had no idea what I was about to get myself into.
I am in awe of all of the game developers who do this for a living. I hope to join them soon, but hopefully next time I will have more than 7 scheduled days to create a video game intro that...
Establishes lore and a long-term goal
Introduces characters
Introduces emotional connections
Introduces suspense
Provides a logical reason for the game beginning where it does
Provides incentive to keep playing
(But if I only have seven days to do it...I’ll make that work, too!)
Before beginning this project, I had no idea how many game designer hats I would have to put on. Turns out, making video games is hard? Who knew? (This is sarcasm.) Anyone? Bueller?
Overall, I am incredibly proud of this week.
I’m so excited to have a working intro!
My goals for Week Four are to:
Create maps for the Messiah’s manor
Make as many interactive spaces in the opening bedroom map as possible
Implement the feedback I get from my upcoming test players (very exciting)!!
Click here to read all about it!