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Path to a great RPG: Part VIII

For those of you who haven't read my last tutorial(Continuing the path to a great RPG) This is an 'epilogue' to the famous: Path to a great RPG. I know quite well that I’ll never continue the series as Arix would have but at least I can continue teaching paths to great RPGs.
Arix brought to you:

· The primary paperwork, including character development, world development, and basic story making.
· The secondary paperwork, including the list of events in your game, naming of miscellaneous stuff, and solutions to puzzles.
· How to make an intro that keeps your audience interested.
· What to put in your inventory.
· Minigames and side quests.
· Interactions between the player and NPCs.
· Puzzle logic.
· Easter eggs and hidden goodies.
· Hints to give the player a clue on hard puzzles.
· His final step showed you how to make maps

Followed by me adding:
· How to make maps2.
· List monsters used.
· Post your upcoming project.
· Write in monster stats.
· Fill in Item/Weapon/Armor fields

As I said last time we are going to cover:
· Debugging
· Adding systems
· Credits
· Title
· Game over
· End

"Gee, that seems like a lot to cover…"
That is why I'm here to help you (not do it for you!!!)
----------------------------Title----------------------------
The title is almost the most important part of the game as it is what the game player first sees. Usually you'd want a title that fits the game(Duh!) (EG: Final Fantasy, White BG, title name underlined, picture behind title fading from color to another--blue to green-- prelude music) Do not do things as crazy as a robotic title for a game in the time frame 100 A.D. or vice versa!

Ask yourself this: "is the game happy, sad, tragic or vengeful?"
(NOTE: Close your eyes and think of the story as you cycle through title music possibilities. Call me crazy but this actually works!)
If vengeful you could have a battle music playing.
Happy: a lively song
Sad: (these style games are often used so no help is needed but this music type will cause the player to play faster than usual [sometimes])
Tragic: a song that when you close your eyes it screams 'MURDER MURDER!'

(NOTE: THE TITLE SHOULD SOMEWHAT TIE INTO THE STORY)

I think that wraps this section up…(if I missed anything here: PLEASE POST IT IN A COMMENT AND I'LL ADD IT NEXT TIME)

----------------------------Game Over----------------------------
"(I don't want to die!!!)"

This part of the game can be messed up.(and when it does it sometimes can ruin the game!) An all-over the place G.O. can distract from the fact that the player just 'died'.
I'd recommend a G.O. that's black, or close to it. There is no rule that says it has to be black, so you can use any color. Just make it plain that the player has kicked the bucket. An example of what not to do is Phylomortis: it's Game over screen says "your lack of valor will be remembered always." The BG is a scene of a hill, this doesn't say anywhere that you have lost… this can be fixed by adding 'Game over' to the screen.(NOTE: IN NO WAY AM I PREJUDICED TO PHYLO.)

Also play a song that is somewhat slow and subliminally says 'you have lost, play again and save the world, ETC.'

I think that wraps this section up…(if I missed anything here: PLEASE POST IT IN A COMMENT AND I'LL ADD IT NEXT TIME)

----------------------------Adding systems----------------------------
This would be a terribly long section, so I'll shorten it…
Before you start creating the maps, battles, cutscenes, etc. you ought to gather in your mid the systems used… I know that you most likely posted your upcoming game by now, so remember to add those too. But things like subsystems can be planed here. Sketch out the systems here too.
"more pencil work?!?"
Not exactly… just scribble lines that look the way you want them to look while playing (EX: line here to separate commands from party status, money box goes here, step count won't be used in this game, bars used for HP/MP instead of numbers etc.)
(battle players on this side no ATB, status bar and commands up there not down here etc.)
(NOTE: RPG XP users, if you intend on encrypting your files at least hand out one script/resource for playing the game, this will get more people to play sometimes)

----------------------------End----------------------------
Make the end something that can be remembered. Often for the final battle there ends up being two. Use this as a plot twist. Then finish up showing how every one fairs after the player beats the game. (an epilogue) then wrap into the credits. (SEE BELOW)

----------------------------Credits----------------------------
Credits usually are in these categories:

Producer(AKA: Director): You (you give people instruction)

Executive producer: The guy who monitors everyone and tells the producer their status.

Programmer: the person who creates the platform .EXE file (If you are using a game creator then write the creators of that program).

Graphic artist: the person/people who provide all of your graphics(be sure to include creators of borrowed resources).

Concept artist: this person creates a sketch or info of the Hero's (Hero#1 has blue eyes,red hair, etc)

Graphic leader(AKA: coordinator, this person leads the drawing of graphics in your way, you say what you need and he/she hand chooses the artists to draw it)
(reports to Ex. Producer)

Graphic editor: this person occasionally edit’s the graphics if they do not fit your description.

Music artist: the creator(s) of your music(EX: your using Final Fantasy MP3s then name the composer, usually the composer for FF games is Nobuo Uematsu).

Music coordinator: the person that gathers and chooses the music to be used in-game. (reports to Ex. Producer)

Story writer: usually you.

Scripter: this person is in charge of writing the dialogue in cutscenes.

Event scripter: he/she writes most of the events mainly the ones used in cutscenes.

Battle scripter: these people write the scripts/codes that make up the battle.

Battle event scripter: they create in-battle events(EX: steal command, drain, demi, cutscene txt, etc).

Battle coordinator: Coordinates the creation of the battle system(reports to Ex. Producer).

Debuggers: people that test for bugs(EG: during so-and-so mini-game player can avoid death by accident, etc). {debugging should be done at thoroughly, 60 to 100+ then a few by you depending on the amount of custom systems and other}.

Beta testers: unlike Debuggers they test the game and not the system(EG: this graphic is choppy, player moves to fast here, this paragraph of text does not fit well, this pic looks too hi/lo-tech for this style game, etc){beta testing should be done at least 20 times, then a few by you}.

Effects creator: they use graphics and plan how they will be used effectively(EG: this help bar slides here, then after a little while slides here then there and disappears, etc).

Hosts: these are the sites that you've posted or will post your game on(EG: if you post on this forum, put 'Ultima island' followed by the URL).

Special thanks: any people that you were helped by in miscellaneous subjects(EG: Bob, and his plot help, Sally and here plot twists, Arix and Enix2 for these set of tutorials,
So-and-so game and it's team for their inspiration, etc).

RPG XP credits(added to above if using RPG XP)-------------

Scripts coordinator: Coordinates the creation of RGSS scripts [EX: this script comes first as it is more important](reports to Ex. Producer).

Script writers: The writers of the scripts(include creators of scripts that you borrowed from other games).

Script testers: Along with the debuggers these test how the scripts will react in-game and with other scripts, they also test to see if scripts made by the team's scripter's really work(so scripter's don't have to test them themselves).

Also, if you plan on making a joint game(part one and part two, etc) then include just producer, ex producer, coordinators, and hosts. Maybe you can show those as a teaser trailer plays. Then, when you've finally finished the parts include the above plus all the others.

(if I missed anything here: PLEASE POST IT IN A COMMENT AND I'LL ADD IT NEXT TIME)

----------------------------Debugging----------------------------

Debugging, which includes beta testing is a long and hard process. When debugging you, or the debugger needs to test every nook and cranny, press buttons, pushing this prod that and look for even the slightest misplaced pixel(yes, each and every pixel out of 640x480 etc, pixels on the screen). As stated above debugging should be done 60 to 100+ times, it seems like a lot but it is worth it. Even professional games have bugs so I, nor anyone else expect you to get every bug (but you should try). You have it easy, compared to real game makers, the product sometimes doesn't even make it to the shelves because of bugs(the marketer has a group of testers, and if it doesn't meet their standards then they wont even sponser the game!). Anyway, be sure to debug a lot!
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Okay… you've managed to additionally cover this:
· Debugging
· Adding systems
· Credits
· Title
· Game over
· End

Next installment will be kept secret(either I like to build suspense, or I haven't thought of it yet… XD XD)

This is (MY NAME HERE), tutorial writer of Enix2 & Co. saying good bye!
Until then, may you always debug the newly added credit/title/end/game over systems for some reason (I remembered!)

I hadn't given much thought to the game over screen, but it makes since. Other than that, I like the way you stress the credits. Share the spotlight. Not your best, but good tutorial overall.