Self Taught Game Makers

[Mittens2317]

I'm trying to teach myself at the moment, however the scripting is lost on me. When it comes to event sizes, 8-direction movement and so forth, I'll need a good script. However, the gameplay directions seem quite simple with events and switches. I'm sure I'll find it a lot harder when I get deeper into my games, at the moment though, all I need is a few extra pairs of hands to speed up progress a little.

BTW, if you see me asking for help, please understand that I'm a willing learner, I will be taking everything in, as opposed to most of the members who I've noticed will simply piece other people's work together and call it their own game.

 

[blazingamer]

Me, I taught myself everything. I only requested like 3 scripts and none of them were ever solved so I gave up. Scripting I learned by looking at how one was formed, and believe it or not, I learned how to event and map back when I was 8 and using RPG95 and OHRRPGCE.

I know how to sprite and all, I just suck at it so I request every now and then, so it's not that it's that I don't know how, it's because even a n00b could do better than me.

I find it annoying though that people just start to use RMXP and they're throwing out 50,000 requests for crap in 2 min. I didn't start doing that until after a year of working with RMXP.

 

[Kraft]

I personally hate it when people ask the noob questions (how to make a character say something? how to make screen transitions? etc...)

I am 100% self taught, other than the odd mapping tutorial that I read because it has a thousand views, or a pixel art tutorial...

anyway, I hate people who ask questions like that...

same with any other program, or even the computer!

I mean, when I was like 10 or 12, I knew nothing about computers, and one day I went into the control panel, and opened up every single one of the things in it, and scrolled through every tab and just learned what every one did.

Same with RMXP, I know a lot about it because one day, I looked through the event editor, and clicked on every single one of the event commands, and learned what they did.

And because of that, I can event almost anything, because I read what they did, and used them until I understood how they worked.

Anyway, I would suggest to anyone who is a noob to RMXP to do that as well, and also do the same thing in the Database editor. ^_^

~Kraft

 

[Spiritual]

I learned a bit with RM 2k3, although I was only around ten and it wasn't even my computer, so it was mostly very basic things (i.e. Setting a graphic to an event). Eventually, I tried out the RMXP trial and learned a bit more. During the time after my trial ended and before I bought RMXP (which was about half a year later), I read tutorials and learned the functions as best as I could without the actual program, and practiced making sprites. By the time I got RMXP, I just had to adjust from reading about it to using the actual program, and began to mess around.

I'm not particularly comfortable with asking for others' help either, so I never really asked questions or requested anything.

 

[PINEDAXP]

Exactly, since you never know if someone's gonna turn his eyes at you in a bad way....

I personally support a 100% of Kraft's post... that's the way to go

 

[badmonur]

well, when i got the program i didnt have the internet. I got it from a friend and my internet was shot so i did everything through trial and error.

 

[SoManyQuestions]

Ok. Being my second post on this site and about 7-8 levels in on my first game. (High Xp requirement and high inflation since it's only going to level 20 for now.) I have to say having questions answered is nice, I typically don't post because someone else has answered my question some where in here. But sometimes teaching yourself is a daunting task. I have next to no experence in programming/coding so i'm alittle cautious about venturing into the ruby system. Everything is currently run on events. I'm sure scripting will make my life easier and eventually I will tackle that beast and when I do I appreceate the fact that people are here to answer questions. I agree if the answer is posted already then asking again would constitue a stupid question. I understand that answering the same questions over and over could get old fairly quickly, but I figure this is a good chance to thank you "self taught" game makers for answering the questions of those of us who appreceate the help, not as a sign of laziness, but more so as a convienence... or maybe laziness. :p How often do you get up to change the channel when the remote is next to you?

 

[Anglachel]

Well I basically taught myself from RM2k3 like a lot of people here, so making the transition to RMXP was easy. When I was learning a lot of trial and error came into it, but what really helped me was looking at other peoples games, maps and events. This speeded up the process hugely, so its a shame almost all games are locked these days. The help file was also a huge help.

When I was first beggining I was eager for knowledge and I asked a lot of question on support boards. Mind you these weren't "How do you make a new weapon" questions, but nevertheless I'm sure people eventually got sick of me :P

Everyone was new once, so unless they are constantly asking ridiculous questions don't be too hard on 'em. With all the tutorials around these days I think the ride might be a little easier.

 

[PINEDAXP]

Even so, they still ask for silly things... I think people doesn't consider practicing or trying before posting a question

 

[jimmyly]

I'm self taught. All i did was read all the Help Notes build in the program. It was pretty hard, but it was worth it ^_^

 

[Clizzz]

I am self taught like kraft. I also agree with pine, but I still think that you are looking at this the wrong way. The purpose of a community is for people to draw of the more experianced members. We are supposed to be a help to one another. Yes, it might be kind of annoying when people request for obvious ( or easy) things. I made that mistake once my self. I think the real problem here is that people dont believe enough in their own skills. I made a resource request the other day for a battler, after I saw that I wasnt going to get an answer, I decided to make my own battler and I did pretty good ( I didnt end up using it) but you get the picture. My point is, If we get all High Horse about how people who know considerably less than we do, keep asking stupid questions, then what is the purpose of The Master - Student relationship? Everybodys got to ask questions some times. That's where experience comes in. Thanks for listening :D

 

[PINEDAXP]

Truth, but wrong, I got no problem in helping noobs, my whole point is that, apparently, self teaching is pretty much in a coma

 

[Prexus]

I self taught, because when I was making RPGs, rips and fangames were in. I got a bunch of ripped graphics from FF6, made a fan game, and taught myself how to do all the little intricacies that are necessary to make a functional game.

The rest is just familiarity and practice. Artistry is a talent, that requires intensive practice if you don't have innate talents. Composing even more so, because you can't fake it by simply saying "It's the style I am using." as many Artists do. Scripting is just like learning a language, anyone can learn it and be good at it but you can't simply learn it by trying to read it (except, in the case of Ruby, you can since it reads just like English)

 

[Venetia]

Scripting is just like learning a language, anyone can learn it and be good at it but you can't simply learn it by trying to read it (except, in the case of Ruby, you can since it reads just like English)

Oh, Prexus, were that only true for everyone :s.

I wouldn't consider myself dense ... But man, I hit a brick wall when I look at Ruby. I know a little of VB, HTML, and XML ... Everyone says Ruby is simpler, but I just can't get it, no matter how many tuts I read!

Oh well, some folks're just not code-inclined. I blame it on my abhorrence of math that I don't pick up on logic-based stuff :p.

 

[Prexus]

All programming languages use the same basic logical flow as everything in the entire world. It reads just like a book, but with Object Oriented Programming, you need to know where the cues are to look elsewhere to find the next paragraph of the story, pretty much.

This is good for it, Venetia: http://poignantguide.net/ruby/

 

[Axerax]

I started working on Kailis 6 years ago, less than a month from 7 years. And I started learning in RM2K3. I learned to use many events in there, and utilized the right click feature to find out what everything did. When I transfered and bought RMXP, I had to learn all those events again. After I felt comfortable with events, I originally started making an event based ABS, but gave up after a while, it has been lost in translation from a computer switch, I imagine it is still there if I turned it on.

I still don't quite understand some event parts, such as common events that are supposed to constantly be running and will do something if such and such happens never work well for me, so I rarely use Common Events. But everything else I understand quite well.

After that ABS shot with events, I looked into scripts and got interested in them, dreamed about possibilities, and after a few years most of them came true, but I took the time with each script I got, to see if it was what I really needed and what was a pointless extra as well I took time to learn how they all worked and utilized them to the max I possibly could, there are many things I haven't strained on my 10 or less scripts I use on my game, 3 of which are antilag, 3 for an ABS, 1 Message script, 1 mini map, 1 clock with day/night, and a few font addons.

Essentials to make my game the way it is now.

I admit, It took me a long time to get my mapping good and a good style for my self to get things accomplished quickly, after I picked my own up I got through things much easier and easily I'm one of the better mappers on the forum. Now I am learning to use my new Breeze tilesets and it is a challenge because they are smaller and require more to fill spaces and create depth in the world, so it is a new, but fun relearning experience.

Still to this day, I go back and look at my old work, revise it, and incorporate it into the game. I've even tried learning to sprite, I've made my HUD on my game, I've frankensprited and recolored, tried composing, and many other things. But writing, mapping, spriting for fun, and character development have always been my stronger points.

-----
Every day, I see new projects, with huge ambitions. But most if not all that are started by someone younger than 14 or even 15 are usually scrapped because their minds don't comprehend the amount of time it will take to stay dedicated and work needed for their wild imagination. It is nice to think big, but after you filter out all the ideas that seem outrageous for RMXP, you can get a really great game.

That is how I feel.

 

[Skie Fortress]

I'm mostly self taught from RM2k3, so Eventing, Mapping, Database, and all that good stuff I'm fine with. My 'n00b' questions'll be found in the RGSS support forum. Scripting is something I just can't touch, but I'm reading up on it and hoping I can get it down someday. ':|

As for others, they can ask all the questions they want. If it'll help them to be a bit less of an idiot the next time around, then so be it.

 

[The Creator]

I've been on computers since I was 4. Yes back then they were dinosaurs. And I started programming at like 8, learned it all on my own. Having like 18 years of programming then a few years off and now I can't even figure out the Ruby thing or scripting, haven't tried events yet. Even my maps are questionable right now...still practicing that one.

I used to do Basic, Pascal, Fortran, VB (yes the ancient languages of the 80s) and I might be able to do those but Ruby...for some reason I can't pick it up.

Lesson learned...never take like 4 years off from something or you might lose it.

The problem here is that there are a lot of younger people who don't know what is involved. Some do but some don't. If you have a forum with 21+ people then you'll get less of those questions that seem to be annoying people but there are people here who are like 11-16 or so and some have experience and some don't. The ones who don't are just over their heads and sometimes it happens to the best of them.

If you don't like it, don't respond to them. Wouldn't that make it easier? But at one time we were all new to something and someone had to show the way or you figured it out on your own.

Who knows, one of the people may make the best game ever. They just need direction...or cash to pay someone to do it XD

 

[Calibre]

EDIT: I wrote this while the creator was posting so some repeated points!

I started with game maker programs not too soon before I created my known project, it was called Celestial Requiem back then about a year and a half ago maybe. I felt I already had the artistry and creativity, I just needed the logic within the program. For this reason I remade my game like 50 times, for each time I got better and wasn't pleased with what I had previously.

People are being a bit harsh on newcomers though, I'd rather take a few moments to help a question (with decent grammar) than to have the numbers fall and fall. If no one would have helped me then I'd likely have no game to speak of despite the majority still being self taught.

The other thing is that yeah, some of these kids are really young and therefore act really young, and while it's a little annoying there is a decent chance they will mature into decent game makers in time.

 

[AceJP]

Well, I dont know how "new" this phenomana is, but it's ok, within reason.
I have been using the rpg maker series since 95' so, and when that came out, I did not have the luxury of hopping online and finding solutions. I had to learn by trial and error, experimenting and just fooling around with the features.
With each new editor, new functions were added, and the process of learning thru experiementation started again. I believe that was the best way to learn eventing.
The issue that gets me, is when new users jump online and ask a question that could have been easily answered thru general messing around within rmxp, and thats ok, you will always find me in the general help forum helping out. But I do wish people took a little more time to mess around by themselves to try and find the answer.
One thing I have learned in the professional world, is that those who do not attempt to solve a problem by themselves first don't move up in the business world. Asking to many questions is looked down upon. So I think it is important to hone the ability to solve problems in an unknown setting without help.

But I guess you do have to have leaniance with people who are brand new to game making. They dont knwo what is a sprite is, and half the time dont even know that they didn't know. So oh well.

I guess to summarize, new member asking for help will always be ok. But those who haven't exausted all other resources before asking for help should try harder before taking the easy way out, because ultimately that will hinder there game mkaing skills in the future when they are working on more complex systems.