Hello from Germany!

[Gudetama]

Ahoi,

fellow members! MinisterJay introduced me to this nice forum (thank you again) some time ago!
My goal is to make a neat little game about the story of Abraham and Sara, as part of my master thesis in university, but unfortunately, I don´t know anything about programming and the RPG Maker ...
On the bright side, I really have good sources and plenty books about the book Genesis of the Bible and beeing a gamer myself since the early 90´s!
As for the rpgm, I bought a copy of "Beginning RPG Maker MV (Perez, 2016), but I´m really excited and looking forward to all the tipps and hint I may find here!

Greetings

Gudetama (went to Tokyo this year, therefore the username :) )

 

[Lore]

Welcome to the forums! Feel free to ask any questions you may have, because we are all here to help. :)

Also @MinisterJay is awesome :)

 

[Dad3353]

Good morning, @Gudetama , and ...

... Plenty to read and amuse you here, and lots to learn and share. Good luck with your Project, we'd like to see it when it's finished. Ask away if you get stuck and need help.

 

[Gudetama]

Thank you for your nice welcome!

I´ve just started MV for the first time and try to figure it out step by step ... up to now, I can manage mapchanges and switches.
My first question to the professionels here: This would be a game for school children, but for my master thesis, only a few chapters must be playable (maybe 2h - 3h gaming time in total). I do have 6 months for writing (60 pages and at least 50+ books as source). Now my question to the professionals: Is it possible to create this game in the given time?!
Thnx and greetings!

 

[A13XIS]

Hello from germany back!
Welcome and so on...
Regarding your question, I think you should post in in the right subforum, because that's where the experts are.
I am NOT an expert but the most time consuming part after theoretical design like story and world/character building is the gameplay customization.
If you use the "vanilla" rpg maker elements and don't change the overall gameplay it should be possible.

 

[Dad3353]

...
I´ve just started MV for the first time and try to figure it out step by step ...

The most effective way of learning would be to go through tutorial videos and threads, and actually trying out the techniques described in a modest 'dummy' Project. Whilst doing this, sketch out in a notebook or similar the story that you wish to relate, with a few rough pictures, diagrams, descriptions. Once the basic principles of RPG Maker are in place, it could take as little as a few evenings to get a running Game; maybe a couple of weeks if there's a problem or two to resolve. If you don't require speciality graphics or customise behaviour, it will really depend on just how much time and attention you are willing to spend on it. Be aware that specific graphics or programming could be payable, and may have time constraints.
Try out an simple,' Demo' scene or two, and ask in a separate 'Projects' thread when you have questions..? Good luck with it.

 

[Gudetama]

Thanks!
As stated before, this is my first day using rpg-maker and spent the last 6 hours reading and watching tutorials! This is going to be fun (I hope). Thanks again for the advise!

 

[Cunechan]

Hello~
Lol, I'm from Germany too xD So many people to see here. For learning the engine you can make a playground project and test things out :D It's the funniest way to learn the engine~ However, don't plan too much for your first project, it takes so much time to make it and it's really hard. Anyway feel free to ask if you have any questions and welcome to the forums. Have a nice day and a lot of fun in the forums~

EDIT: (woah this didn't send, I am terribly sorry D:)

 

[MinisterJay]

Hi @Gudetama . Welcome to the community. Do I know you from Steam or from a forum/social media?

 

[Gudetama]

Evening, gentlemen!
@ MinisterJay: I contacted you via steam when I saw that you´ve worked on a similiar topic! It has been a while, since I was working at a school in the meantime and had some trips/vacation.

 

[Juneberry]

Hi there, Gudetama! Interesting name you chose, though the background kind of went over my head.

I don't understand programming and such much, but I do understand that your plan to use games for your thesis is quite intriguing! What is it you're trying to Master? Because the mix of religion and games is an interesting one to me.

 

[Gudetama]

Ahoi!

Gudetama is a lazy egg, which is quite popular in Japan as it seems (together with Hello Kitty and Kumamon).
My approach is to show the possibilities we may have when we use videogames for teaching. It was a long way - when I grew up, we were playing Bubble Bobble, Operation Silkworm or Prehistoric, and it was mostly jsut for the fun of it. Since then, gaming has come a long way.
Just take games like Bioshock - not only is it a wonderfull parable of how a planned utopia hits rock bottom, but it also deals with the objectivistic philosphy and its condemnation of altruism, which arose around the beginning of the 20th century.
Or games like This war of mine, which doesn´t put you in the role of a war hero like in CoD, but let´s you play as a surviving civillian who is simply trying to get through these hard times.
My goal is, to show the old stories in a new light. It really took me some time, but the bible itself is a fantastic work of art, not only because of its philosophy, but also because of all the hidden sidenotes you may discover if you take the time. The story of Abraham and Sara is a nice and wonderfull telling with a very unlikely hero - after the devastation of the flood (Noah), the murder of Abel and the urge of the people of Babel who tried to "make their own name big", there is a guy who completly trusts in his faith, while he himself is no hero: After leaving everything behind which has value to him (you can almost feel the tension, when the bible states "leave your country, your kin, the home of your father") he more or less sells his own wife in a marriage with the pharao after migrating to egypt. On a sidenote - the text implies, that God gave the pharao impotence for taking Abrahams wife (if you read between the lines).
So, showing some more informations and making this very old text interesting again, would be one of the goals, and I´m planning several sidequests to just show that.
One example for such a quest:
When there is still no son for Abraham and Sara, Sara gives the slave Haggar (egypt word for "to flee", hinting at what will happen later) to Abraham so he could finally have a son. What may seem strange to modern pupils, was indeed a legimate case in the old orient. In fact, Sara even quotes word for word the paragraph of the codex Hammirapi, on of the oldest known laws known to mankind, from Babylon, which deals with this matter.
So, while discussing this case with Abraham, I will send Sara on a Sidequest, searching for this old law and finally handing Haggar to Abraham.
This is just an example, but maybe it shows, what I´m trying to do.
No all I gotta do is learning how this enginge works!

Greetings

Gudetama