RPG 20XX Engine Redux

Download RPG 20XX

A while ago I wrote an article about RPG 20XX. It has since had an update. According to the site's blurb:

RPG 20XX is a redesign of RPG Maker 20XX... Which was an upgrade replacement for RPG Maker 2003's engine. This newer engine will have nothing to do with the RPG Maker series of engines apart from the familiarity of the editor and engine features.

RPG 20XX should provide lots of advanced features yet remain faithful to the retro scale of RPG Maker 2003. It should not require actual writing of program scripts and instead provide a clever implementation of a click-together event scripting system similar to the older RPG Maker engines. Most notably the ability to re-adjust the battle calculations purely through event scripting.

Lots of common tedium and annoyances of RPG Maker 2003 should be eliminated. RPG 20XX will provide global battle events for all battles, a quest system, simplified character development, local save variables per event, and other simple conveniences.

Lastly, there is a need for an engine that runs on older and more modern systems. A game created with RPG 20XX now will be much easier to get running again in the year 20XX later. All of this is currently licensed under the GNU GPL v3 so you can check out the source code any time if you really wanted to. It will be a community project, free as in price and in freedom to create the RPGs in a fun familiar way like you always wished RPG Maker 2003 could do these days.

So, this is definitely something to look into. I'll be checking it out during my days off.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Image borrowed from Blingee

Attack of The Blog Gremlins!

It appears that gremlins have invaded RPG Maker Times!

Borrowed from BubbleWS

The layout is messed up, although I suspect it's due to a re-import of the prototype skin that resulted in many of the additional coding (including the tabs layout) being overwritten.

From this point, I may just return to the previous layout and redo the style sheets accordingly - kind of like a child theme - or I'll re-imagine this one and make it much better. It's too bad Blogger's dynamic templates are so limited and cumbersomely uncustomizable; otherwise, I'd use one of those and add the same widgets I have now.

I've a lot of work to do on this site and the RPG Maker Times & Companion blog, which I can only do on my days off unfortunately, resulting in slow but steady progress.

Windowskins Update

The Windowskins blog has been updated. Most of the windowskins have now been updated; I'm sure there are others I've done but overlooked, so I'll check and update accordingly.

The Windowskins Tutorials currently on the main blogsite will be migrated to the RPG Maker Times Windowskins, with the current posts already in place simply redirected.

The focus will then shift onto properly recategorising and tagging the windowskins to make searching easier. Updates will then continue on the rest of the blogs.

Work on Merged Blogsite Continues

Work on RPG Maker Times & Companion is continuing. Right now, I'm attempting to streamline it by cleaning up some of the widgets, along with the categories and tags list, and some of the posts.

As far as this blog is concerned: It will still continue, as it has been, but the major posts and articles will now appear on the RPG Maker Times & Companion blogsite, with links posted here. Any other articles posted here will also be replicated on the other as well. A number of links on this blog no longer work, but they're being updated on the other blogsite, and will eventually be modified here as well, since the main focus will now be on the domain name blog.

I'm also in the process of revamping the Windowskins subdomain. This year, you can also expect more windowskins and a better keyword search feature (search engine optimized) to make it easier to find specific types of windowskins.

I don't have much time to spend on this re-organization, but I'm determined to spend in between 2-3 hours per day on it to bring it up-to-date and where I'd like it to be. Keep checking (both blogs) regularly for updates.

Blog Update/Revamp Continues

As the merging of this blog and RPG Maker Times & Companion continues, I've started revamping the tags system for easier reference.

Although progress is slow, it's a lot easier than I thought it would be. Still a lot of work to go before completion, so here are some of the things being worked on:

• Reformation of all tags
• Non-working links now working
• Revamping and recategorisation of sections, particularly Scripts/Scriptlets and Tutorials/How-To's

Other areas to be worked on are the Resources section. This includes the Windowskins, which will eventually be complete.

I'll continue working on this in between work and my days off.

And then from that point on, the big updates will be on RPG Maker Times & Companion, while the updates on this blog will point to the pages there.

Merging Sites, Emerging Updates

As of February 13, 2014, the RPG Maker Times and RPG Maker Times Companion blogs have merged.

The latter will now be the official blog for RPG Maker Times and will no longer be a "companion" site. The original RPG Maker Times blog will remain, but it will be used mostly for any updates that appear on the site. (The title will remain the same to avoid confusion.)

I will be doing a lot of work on it over the next few weeks (on my days off from work), tweaking keywords/tags, posts and layouts, and updating any old posts with links that no longer work.

6 Crimes You Can Get Away With In Most RPG/MMORPG Games

In almost every RPG and MMORPG, it's been possible to commit numerous crimes without reciprocation. In fact, very few actually have a decent crime-and-punishment system in place, giving you free reign to essentially do as you will. Here are six crimes (by today's standardised laws) within an RPG/MMO game.

1. Theft - You can go into people's houses and rifle through their drawers, cupboards and chests, and take whatever's inside.
2. Murder - You can kill people and not face any consequences.
3. Genocide - You can go on a killing spree, piling up the bodies of races or particular types of people.
4.  Extinction - You can slay countless animals, races, peoples and monsters, virtually to extinction (notwithstanding they spawn endlessly).
5. Vandalism - You can damage property without having to worry about cleaning it up afterwards.
6. Assassination - You can assassinate leaders of gangs, etc. who are causing something of a nuisance for someone else.

Of course, if you can think of any more, write them in the comments below and I'll update them accordingly.

Q-Engine/Q-Engine Updates & Complete Chests Tutorial

Q-Engine & Q-Engine Add-Ons

The Q-Engine is ready for upload. I'm on holiday next week, so it'll give me an opportunity to finally update the site. I've also updated/written some Q-Engine Add-Ons.

• Q-Engine v3.0
• Q-Engine CBS Add-On v1.0
• Q-Engine Map Add-On v1.0

They will be available for download on RPG Maker Times Companion. I'll also try and work on a demo, as well as update the manuals.

Q-Engine Requirements

The Q-Engine and its add-ons require the Global Colors Module and the Universal Configurations Settings Module to run.

Complete Chests Tutorial

The Complete Chests Tutorial will also be having an update, including a demo for each RPG Maker (this may take some time).

Q-Engine 3.1 and Q-Engine CBS Add-On Complete

The Q-Engine has been updated to version 3.1, now fully integrated with the Universal Settings and Universal Colors modules. Each script (past and future) has an integrated required modules checker to determine if their required scripts/modules are installed.

The Q-Engine CBS has also been updated, with several new features added, with several bugs fixed, and will be released shortly.

I'll be updating RPG Maker Times Companion on one of my days off from work. (Note: The page/post hasn't been updated yet, but will be when I upload the script. Also, the root website will become a portal page, redirecting to the corresponding pages on the blog.

I'm also hoping to have a video demo, as well as the updated manual, available soon.