The rpg academy

[The Niche]

I'm probably not the first person to suggest this, but a game that teaches people about making rpgs? I probably won't be able to do much work on it for the minute, but I think it'd be an interesting opportunity to let us all compile our knowledge and see if we can make  it enjoyable.

So what i'd suggest is that we do courses in different aspects.

Story
Mapping
Spriting
Concept arting
Scripting
Eventing
Making tea

We could add in a plot that tests what the students have learned and so on. Feedback?

[Valdred]

I started this once, but i've canceled it.

[Blizzard]

Falcon started this once and it didn't get too far.

[lonely_cubone]

I think it might be interesting. Then again, Valdred and Blizz probably know more about the idea, since one of them tried it and the other one's Blizzard . Still, I could do a section on eventing if you're still interested.

[Blizzard]

That's what the Tutorials section is for. If you have knowledge to share, post it there. Though, if you have an actual event system to share, it goes into Event Systems rather than Tutorials.

[The Niche]

I know what you mean about tutorials, but what I was thinking is that we could a) make rpgs a lot better by creating a fun way to learn and b) it'd be a really cool way to show off our creativity. I mean, come on we'd be trying to make LEARNING fun! And Cubone, you'd be one of the best professors of storytelling ever.

[lonely_cubone]

I know what you mean about tutorials, but what I was thinking is that we could a) make rpgs a lot better by creating a fun way to learn and b) it'd be a really cool way to show off our creativity. I mean, come on we'd be trying to make LEARNING fun! And Cubone, you'd be one of the best professors of storytelling ever.

I agree with the first part, reading tutorials can often get boring, and playing one game to learn lots of different ideas in an entertaining way would probably be a better way for a lot of people to learn it. I'm still interested in helping with this.

About being a "professor of storytelling", I know you're thinking of the Dimension Adventures, and thanks, but it really isn't that original. I just made up some really strange characters, and put them inside, frankly, a rather commonplace storyline. Most of my ideas for games are even less original. I guess I could give story a shot, but I don't know how well I'd do

[The Niche]

Ok then. How about professor of characters? I'll fight you for it!
GO! SCYTHANDIBLE!

[Shining Riku]

If you guys wanted I could help out too. I've learned a whole lot about using switches and variables, and i'm also skilled with events.

Maybe I could help out? I could use an off-hand project 

[Subsonic_Noise]

I could try to make something about the use of of music and sounds if needed.

[The Niche]

All right!Now we're obviously going to have to brainstorm to make this fun. Cube, I'm going to give you an object and I want you to unleash the full scale of your fucked up head on it. Ready?

[lonely_cubone]

Yep, give me your best shot.

[The Niche]

SPOON!

[lonely_cubone]

Vathno Spee is deathly afraid of soup. As a small child, he used to enjoy it, but one day some scalding soup spilled all over his body, giving him some second-degree burns. Since then, Vathno's always been afraid to eat soup. Until, that is, he found the magical Super Soup Spoon.

The Super Soup Spoon is an extremely powerful artifact that has complete control over all soup. Vathno can simply wave the spoon around, and he can control the movements of all soup. This power is extremely useful to him, because it gives him the confidence to eat soup again, knowing that if it starts to spill, he can stop it in midair and make it fly into his mouth. But such power comes with a cost.

The International Rangers of Stew (IRS) have been trying to destroy this spoon for decades, since the IRS firmly believe that soup is a threat to the overall popularity of stew, and destroying the Super Soup Spoon might actually destroy all soup in existence. Finally, they've received word that it has been seen in the possession of a young man from Portugal! So the IRS heads to Portugal, and tries to get the spoon from Vathno, who uses the spoon's powers to throw boiling balls of soup at these annoying people who say they're the IRS and want to destroy his spoon.


How was that?

[The Niche]

*Blinks and reads that again*
*Repeats*
*Levels up Cubone*

Brilliant! Now what kind of plot could we make for a game about going to school?

Cubone, use imagination attack on a paintbrush!
And please try to keep it relevant. 

[lonely_cubone]

Okay, paintbrush... Activate insanity mode

The Northwind Guild of Artisans has existed for thousands of years. Their skills are considered legendary, and their artwork is praised worldwide. The Aritsans themselves are put through intense training before they are even considered to be members of the guild.

The guild has a dangerous secret. Buried under the mountain on which it stands is a giant, volatile pool of cheese. If this cheese was so much as nudged slightly, the entire earth could explode. Northwind was actually created to protect this cheese using the powerful magic of the Paintbrush of Dairy Wonders. This paintbrush creates a protective barrier around the cheese, preventing it from moving.

One of the youngest artisans, Lanessa Keeph, believes that the whole business with the cheese is, in fact, an abomination. She believes that the cheese is, in fact, a living being, and deserves to be released. Obviously, she hasn't mentioned this to anyone out of fear of being kicked out of the guild, which would make it much more difficult to rescue the cheese. She is biding her time until the Headmaster slips up and she can save the cheese.


How was that one? In case you couldn't tell, since she kinda sounds evil there, you play as Lanessa.

[The Niche]

Better, but we've gotta make it yet more relevant to a place where you learn about making rpgs.
The paintbrush might be a central object, but it's only relevant to artists, spriters and mappers.

The player might have to actually get into the academy. Then on their way in, they meet two people discussing the plot object. (I'll use the paintbrush for the minute) I suppose if we wanted to give the hero a personality, we could slot in a flashback there.

The player enters into the academy and learns some stuff about their course. Then they move onto another plot point. About five lessons and plot points later, we test their ability and so on.

Soon enough, the villains make a swoop for the paintbrush and the player has to use their mapping skills or suchlike to stop them. Possible characters:

The player: A good (or bad) student of (insert course here). He/she has an unusual past to say the least. (Of course, we could have the player come into the academy bland and uninteresting an then leave without their sanity)

Professor X: Dude who teaches exterior mapping. He's a total nutter.
Professor Y: Now now children, we can't be making an interiormap like that, can we?
Professor Z: WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND?! YOU HAVE THE BEST CAVE MAPPING TEACHER IN THE WORLD AND YOU STILL CAN'T UNDERSTAND A SIMPLE THING LIKE ASYMMETRICAL COUNTER DYNAMICS?!
YOU ARE BANISHED TO THE LAB!!! (He's based on my physics teacher. That was a freaky class. I went into the lab and sat there for the whole class playing games on my laptop )

[lonely_cubone]

Okay, that makes more sense. I thought we were just talking about the "learning storywriting" part of the game, not the actual plot of the game itself. But yeah, I know what you're talking about now. I can probably come up with something better, just give me a while. Hey, what if I combine the spoon and the paintbrush and come up with a completely different idea? Yeah, I'll do that.

And that's funny about your physics class, that's exactly what I did in physics all the time! Except usually making games instead of playing them

[The Niche]

Life's fun isn't it? Yeah, go for it. SOrry about lack of clarity.

[SBR*]

Why can't the paintbrush-cheese idea be used? Maybe the hero has to make things he learned in the classes about eventing, mapping, pixel-arting and, optionally, scripting (flashbacks ftw!) with the paintbrush on papers to unlock things and, as the ultimate goal, free the gigantic cheese!

Anyway, I'm pretty good at eventing, I can script (CMS's, Shops, etc.) and I can *cough*pixel-art*cough* (<---Not really...). So, you can count me in, well, for a bit. I won't be a full member I guess... But I still think I can do alot. However, I'm really busy (fix the bugs in my guide on Maplestory, finish my scripts, play Maplestory, etc.), but I'd be happy to help!

GL!

-SBR*