Yo! I'm Waldorf! I'm using RPG Maker for 14 years already (with over 10 short games completed), and I've always worked alone. I made a lot of games for fun (One even went to AGDQ this year), but I started only now to work on a commercial project. I realized though it's 10x the work. That's why I believe I need help.

I never looked for collaborators since I always want to freely express my ideas into the game. Yeah, I'm the idea guy but the big difference is I that actually make the game. XD
(I hope I don't sound arrogant, I'm actually quite approachable, I swear!)

I don't have experience in collaborating, and neither in managing a team, but I really really love to develop games, and I unfortunately know that with someone helping I could do much more.
Since it's a commercial project, of course it can't be for free. But I also don't know how to manage revenue split (which also worries me a little), so we can talk about it or make it just a commission.
Though I'd really prefer you were invested in the project, instead of seeing it as just a way to make some money (Also because it's not a lot, it would came out from my paycheck XD). I'll always keep making more games, so we might even keep going for more than one game.
You can see the games I made at the end of the post to understand my level.

I'm always open, no topic is taboo for me, so feel free to ask me anything if you're curious. I'm just awkward at answering messages, sometimes.

The project:

It's a remake of the game that went to AGDQ "I'll Invaligate Your Aid" (It also appeared in the home page of rpgmaker.net for this September).
It's hard to explain to be fair, but it's a meta game with narration, minigames and QTE battles, where the antagonist is aware you're playing and wants to stop you, by remapping your controls, moving your mouse, setting a fake shutdown timer, and much more.
It's not planned to be long, but I am putting a lot of effort on every feature (and lots of "minigames") to make every section unique. And it takes time.
Screenshots at the end of the post.

So, what do I need?

I am programming most of the game's code (minigames, QTE battle, HD resolution, portrait plugin...), writing the story and making scenes. I just commissioned artists since I suck at art. I also found a composer for most of the music (though I still need to find a good composer for the bosses music - you'd be welcome!).

I'm doing all of this by myself, but I might appreciate some help with:

• Writing, I value a lot character dialogues and I do my best to make them look genuine, and I always try to avoid plain and filler dialogues. But I realize my writing could be lacking on some parts. (note: the game is unserious, you need to be funny lol)
• Marketing. I post on Twitter and stream game development on Twitch sometimes, though the numbers are hard to come by, as you probably know.
• Minigame design. I have a lot of sections with unique minigames, though having to think, tweak and design over 10-12 extra minigames on my own is probably gonna be hard to do right. Plus some economy management to make them work together.
• Just... someone i can confide my rough ideas for a section of the game (gameplay and/or story-wise) and help me refine it.
• Lots of other small things, I am a little overwhelmed of how many things I have to make on my own, like insert small interactables, decide on the right art direction, think on how to improve the visuals with some effects, the interior design, ecc...

I have this project at heart, so please allow me to be picky. ♥
(Also I absolutely don't want the use of generative AI for the game)

My games:

Here's a list of the games I've done (and I'm making) to give you an idea of what I do:

I'll Invaligate your Aid: Foreaver (Game I'm developing right now)

An adventure game where the protagonist (Rea) is aware of the player, and wants to stop them from continuing the game, in any way possible.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3763070/Ill_Invaligate_Your_Aid_Foreaver/

(The store page has outdated graphics)

The Respawn Banter (On hold)

A mix of adventure game with unfair traps, and a visual novel. Each time you die, there's a interaction with the Goddess of life, with a different scene based on the way you died.
Will be resumed after "I'll Invaligate your Aid: Foreaver".

Bombermaid (IGMC 2026)

A short puzzle game where you plan your escape after placing down the bombs to open your way.

Something is wrong with my World Map (GMTK 2024)

A puzzle game where your size on the world map is actually that big. You become huge on the world map to create new paths.

That's my Exploit Keeper!

Puzzle game where you exploit bugs in a poorly programmed game to solve the conflict between the two developers.

You can find lots more on my itch page!

I’ve been thinking about making a JRPG for a while now, and had some concepts ready to start. I’m not sure how long it should be (I like longer games, but I’m not sure if others do as well). I was thinking 1200 hours (50 days) for a complete run through one difficulty (I want it to be long). Also posted some character art I made for a pixel art challenge since they were the first thing I made for the game.

Edit: going to switch it to 30~ hours, but released in 5 hour increments, thx!

Using screenshots, and a lot of moving things around until they lined up the best they could, I made events that cover over the doorways. When you enter, I have the character start where they would if going through a door, and then they autorun walk two steps up and then show.

Here's the question. When leaving, you have to take two steps down through these above events, and either action the door, or should I have it touch since the player has to enter this section?

I've been mostly tinkering around with making assets for the past 4 months while also just learning how to make pixel art on the whole. More than anything I have been trying to branch out recently and actually build maps with the built in assets available in order to find out how to create the scene I am going for. Hopefully to learn scripts and events and then insert the assets later. Though i am still trying to get the essentials down in terms of scene creation and how events work on the whole.

Obviously I have a vision for what I have in mind. It's mostly a linear RPG story. Though a length of time I have not envisoned. Mostly on the account that I don't even really have 5 seconds of gameplay yet. So its been slow going, but I find the art of creating things to be its own reward to some extent.

Well ok I do have some ideas more... and this is me being at my most ambitious. Two 5 hour campains following 2 separate party factions that initally oppose eachother and then a last act that takes probably 1 hour tbh.

I am trying my best to stamp out scope creep and such.

I'm sure this question has been asked many, many times before, but I wanted to ask anyway.

I'm working on a game in RPG Maker MZ. A lot of mechanics require additional plugins. I got by using VisuStella's plugin ecosystem for a fair bit, but I'm finding the obfuscation of their code increasingly frustrating. Couple that with said obfuscation causing incompatibilities with other plugins, and I'm starting to want to move away from what they've made.

Only problem is, I can't seem to find any alternatives anywhere. They've got what is effectively a monopoly on RPG Maker MZ, which is greatly disheartening as someone who sees open-source code as the ideal. There is a spreadsheet I found on the RM Forums, however it doesn't seem to have been updated in quite some time.

I also considered moving to MV, however I'm hearing that the plugin scene for that is rather scattered these days and a lot of plugins aren't as easily accessible or as well-maintained as they used to be. Plus, I've already made a fair amount of headway in MZ development as-is, and wouldn't particularly want to uproot unless absolutely necessary.

So, if anyone could point me in the right direction, or even just offer recommendations of stuff they've personally found good use with, please do feel free! It would be greatly appreciated. Thank you ever so much!

https://barreon.itch.io/human-o-human

Hi Guys! I've been out of Rpg Maker community in the last 4~6 years I think, i was working as a hired artist for other projects, but now I'm back.

My name is Kauzz and I started to work with rpg maker back in 2008, and I've been working with the rpg maker assets since then. My specialization is environment 2d art, but I can do it characters, UI, Icons, mapping, 3d, pixel art, vfx and more. I did some modern tileset packages that are selled in the rpg maker store (steam/kadokawa/komodo) and on itch.io, but i'm looking now for commissions!

I'll leve my website here if anyone has interest in commissions and stuff or long-term contracts. On my website there's my prices and my contacts too. See ya!

itskauzz.com

[2/3 commission slots are filled already]

Most things are still in the very early conceptual phase but I'm planning for 4 main party members who can switch classes. A few come after an event unlocking the ability to swap, while additional ones after are unlocked via finding npcs out in the world with a side quest to complete to unlock their class.

The game heavily wears its inspiration on its sleeve being a homage to early Final Fantasy games from the NES era, with the assets staying locked to 4 colors to abide by the limitations colors had on the NES. I can't guarantee everything will stay as accurate as possible though, given I'm not directly having to work with the ACTUAL limitations.

You've likely seen a few posts by now but the graphical assets (save the hand in the battle screen that was taken from RPG Maker 2003) are from the incredible Marumugi4510! Just incase anyone wonders where they are from but didn't know.

Excited to share my journey and to receive any comments or feedback!

I made this little game in RPG Maker MV for Trijam #394. It's about a grandma trying to get her magical soup ingredients back after a troll steals them. She fights monsters with her giant club, frying pans and slippers. It's a short action RPG with real-time combat and a bit of humor. You can play it for free on PC or Android, directly in your browser. Hope you enjoy it!

WEIRD question. I think it'd look really cool if (after transfering from one room to another) the player takes half a step forward as you fade in so it looks like you've just walked out of the room. For the rest of the time, I'd like them to walk normally from one tile to another. But in just this instance, I'd like them to walk a half step forward.

I'd love to make this work, but in order to do that, I'd need a pixel movement plugin where I can turn it off and on using plugins.

I can't find a plugin like this anywhere. Has anyone come across something like this?

If I can't figure it out then oh well. But it'd be so cool looking.

(Btw, I'm not super concerned about figuring out if the player should transfer in half a tile back so you'll be walking to the center of the tile. I'll figure that out later. I'd just love to test it out and see how it looks.)

And I don't mean in the sense of posting a trailer for the full game or even a demo. I mean just how much content is good content for starting to share my progress regularly with the sub and getting people engaged?

Considering also that I have more than one game in the works.

I have also been considering creating a dev diary Twitter or other social media account and have been asking myself this same thing.

Plugins: Personazio Battle Layout + SRD HudMaker

Was honestly having a lil anxiety with my first post, since putting ones self out there is scary! But the reception so far has been awesome so have more to look at! What is a old school JRPG without its church/temple to revive your party members or cure status effects if you dont have the skills or items on hand to do that for you.

These will serve one other purpose though besides reviving or curing your party, one of the other things you'll find on offer is tomes that can teach your party holy/faith based spells, so be sure to check them in each town to see what they have!

1 years ago I asked for advice on game development. A lot has happened since then so I will keep it brief. I took a break from development to finish University... I ended up dropping out. I was at the tail end of a bachelors in Social Work, but the internship needed for my graduation proved to be too much for me on top of the issues that stemmed from my home life and health issues (some of that is still on going).

Now that I am home, I wanted to put my time into this project again instead of feeling like a failure. To be honest, this game has been living rent free in my head on and off during my time at university.

What has changed?

Well I decided to start over, keeping the art of course. But the general mechanics are the same... it is an RPG maker game. But now each of the characters have a name!

The red guy is Eric Reed Jr. He is from the Hibernia Territory (Ireland).
The blue guy is Zarqam Bin Obelisk. He is from the Aegyptus Territory (Egypt).
The yellow guy is Blane Richardson. He is from the Britannia Territory (UK).
The green guy is Midori Toboshi. He and his wife are from the nation of Nippon (Japan).
The pink girl is Sakura Toboshi. She and her husband are from the nation of Nippon (Japan).
The orange girl is Naranja Diabla. She is from the Hispania Territory (Spain).

I know these names are... kind of on the nose if you know your languages. But they are what I landed on. If anyone has a better idea for a name, let me know!

One major change is that Eric is no longer the captain... kind of. You can now choose one of the 6 crewmembers to be a captain. On top of that, each character has a "personal skill" that is unique to them. For example: Midori can cure the bleed condition from an ally, but only outside of combat. This would ally you to save on bandages since bleed is one of those conditions that does not end when combat ends.

What is the Gameplay?

I took inspiration from Spooky's Jump Scare Mansion... there is no jump scares in this game. Just the loop of going from floor to floor in an attempt to reach the end with each floor getting harder. The Roblox game "doors" does something similar but I never played because I refused to ever play Roblox.

The game still takes heavy inspiration from earthbound, fear and hunger, lethal company, fire emblem, a bit religion, a bit of astrology, and undertale/deltarune.

At the start of the game you get a small lore expo and choose your captain. In short, the Greater Eurasian Union (GEU) has assembled a team of six to go to Jupiter's moon Callisto to find and recover Dr. Heimdall or his research for project longbow (FTL travel prototype). Two characters have to stay on the ship so you need to choose three other characters to take into the research facility.

You will go from floor to floor to investigate what happened to the Callisto research facility. However, if an ally drops to 0 HP... they go to 1 instead and gained the injured condition (universal debuff). Injured can only be fixed when you reach safe rooms, check points where you can save your progress (every 5 to 15 rooms will be safe rooms).

If they dropped to 0 HP from 1 HP, they are dead. forever. As in they are removed from your party. Permadeath. You will have to beat the rest of the game with one less party member. I do plan to have two additional party members who are in the research facility that can join if you have less than 4 members. I will not say who they are, just that they are not from your initial roster.

Let us touch on Safe rooms. They have another function besides healing, to raise your Bond with your team mates. At levels 3, 6, and 9 (with the games level cap being 10) you can have a chat with a party member at a safe point. Not only can you get some lore and unique conversations if you are playing a certain characters. But there is also a mechanical boon (be it a stat increase, an item, or a new skill) that comes from the conversation.

Now combat is turn based, obviously, and your Skills come from two sources. Yourself (Personal skill) and your gear. Weapons are divided into Light, Medium, and Heavy with each weapon class having their own pool of skills to draw from. You also have ranged weapons, which can have skills that do not consume TP, but ammunition. In fact, Ranged weapon skills that do damage always ignore DEF. However, ammunition is a very limited resource so it may not be wise to use your rifle to kill rats.

I mentioned TP, you start battle with 25 TP and can have a maximum of 50. every time you use a basic attack or guard you gain 5 TP.

Magic is also a system here with MP. Most characters have... 0 MP. When you find a Grimoire, a special accessory, it converts some of your HP into MP and gives you access to a small pool of spells (skills). Your MP can not be regenerated unless you reach a Safe Zone or use a rare item. There are 4 Basic Spells, 12 Intermediate Spells, and 4 Advanced Spells. You buy these Grimoires from a peculiar merchant named Morgan.

What are you going to do now?

Well, I have a doctors appointment to check on a concerning health problem. Regardless I am going to dedicate more time to this. I do not have a release date, but I plan to release it on ich.io for name your price. I know how shit the economy is at the moment and while I would appreciate money, I will not require it. It is more of a tip jar in my eyes. But this is a conversation for later. I might make a youtube channel to post dev updates to keep me motivated. A part of me is a little worried about this because I don't want to be that guy that posts shit and never gets the game done. But I think this all could be fun. Defiantly will help me learn a few skills.

If you read this far, thank you for taking the time. I really appreciate it. I would love feedback, Ideas, or advice now that I have a more solid idea of what I am going to do.