I'm just going to Necro-Post on this as hard as I can, Because we need to promote eachother, and eachother's games. I know most of us are here for help and for Dev Reasons, but seriously there are a lot of good/fun games out there. My absolute favorite RPG Maker game was never completed, and its developer disappeared into the wasteland long ago, but it was NYSE: Survivor.
Anytime I see a post about favorite games, I have to mention this game. Mainly because back when I first started messing with RM2k back when the fanbase was small, and everyone was using the unofficial translation [I was one of them too, and I know some of you all were too.] This game was one of the few that completely wend against the fantasy epic trope that many RPG Maker games followed.
Instead it took place in modern times, and had a different approach to rpg maker games than was done back then, including a completely custom evented battle system, that in itself was amazing considering the limitations of RM2k.
The story followed a man who's entire life in a hilarious cliche' went down the toilet all at once, lost his job, his stocks crashed and burned, and his family all left him. All at once. And now, he is just a bun on the streets of the city with nothing but the money in his pockets, and the cloths on his back.
From there, with a full day/night system, and a time/days system. You have one month in game to get your life back on track, you can find a job, get an apartment, buy furniture for your apartment, including decorating your apartment with said furnature how you like it. You can go to a bar, a concert, get into bum fights. [using the previously mentioned custom battle system]
The game had a LOT of custom graphics to create the city, the cars and people, stores ect. while a lot of the music in glorious midi format were taken from other things and bands ect, the game was well put together and just a joy to play, even though it wasn't 'complete' you still had a LOT you could do in the 30 days the game gave you to survive.
If anyone can find a copy online somewhere, definitely give it a download and try it out. I've got a copy of it somewhere, but when you unpack it, you might have to create a new project in the current version of RM2k and use the game.exe from that, so that the game can find the current RTP available. Or somehow find and install the RTP from the old RM2k that used to float around.
Aaaand now that I'm done shilling this game, In reality, for a game to catch my attention in the RPG Maker community, there are only a few things that need to be there. You have to show that your interested in promoting your game, and actually seeking for players to try it out. The act of looking for critique and opinions to me shows a massive desire to grow and improve.
Big things that I really like in RPG Maker Demo's is a clear indication of the end of the demo. Releasing your demo, where the end of the completed portions just leaves you unknowing, and exploring trying to figure out what your supposed to do next when there isn't anything left to do can be kinda annoying. And is kind of sloppy. In the case of open world style games, with a main story and a lot of extra side stuff, letting the game continue is fine, but at the end of the 'main story' stuff, a simple frame stating "this is the end of the available story content, please enjoy the rest of the side junk' ect ect, is cool, and lets people continue enjoying the other content/systems.
Big turn offs for me when it comes to RPG Maker games, is terrible grammar/spelling. Some leeway can be given when a non-native english speaking maker, is making it in english, but even then, I really encourage those people to make the game in their own language, and work with someone on translating the game for an english release.
Another one is ripped assets from other games, and using said assets along side other assets that just look and feel different and clearly have a conflicting style. RTP graphics are fine, and don't bother me to see them, especially if the gameplay and story are both good. I do however think if your making a fan game of something, like say a Final Fantasy fan game, and you're making it take place in say the world of FF3/6 ect, and you rip and build tilesets to allow you to recreate that world, that's cool, do your thing, there have been some great games that have done that. [Final Fantasy: Time and Again is an example of a great fangame]
And Finally, grossly oversized Download sizes. For complete games this isnt as big an issue, but if your releasing your demo, please for the sake of time management for those with lower download speeds [like me with my 4GLTE interwebs] Cut down your file sizes, remove as much of the unused stuff as possible, and if you can, use a filesize friendly format for your audio. In MV you can use the better compressed Audio available for the RTP to save a LOT of space in a project demo if your using RTP audio assets. Same with images, without losing much if any actual visual quality. Nothing is more of a pain than having to download 2.8 gigs of demo, for only an hour or so of gameplay to find out 60% + of the assets in the game folder aren't even being used in the game yet.
I can't really think of anything else that really turns me away off the top of my head. I'm kind of an enthusiast for RPG maker, since I've been using it since the days of Windows 98/2k/me whatever, so I am always looking to see what people come up with, and am always gung ho to give peoples games a play. GLHF and give it your best!
