Sunday, October 18, 2015

How to Make an RPG: October Update

Hello, I'm writing a book (and a assembling a package of source code, assets and other goodies) about how to write your own RPG computer game. The book goes from drawing images to the screen to a fully featured Final Fantasy 6 style JRPG. Sound interesting? There are more details here and you can sign up for the email list to be notified when it's released!

Inside the arena battling monsters
Over two-thousand people have signed up for the release mailing list so that's really encouraging. The first draft of the book is finished and I'm in the editing stages.

Editing includes checking all the text, adding any missing text, making things clearer, cutting text where appropriate. It also includes creating the final screenshots, figures and diagrams. Ensuring all the figure numbers are linked correctly in the text and that kind of thing. It's a slow process but it's going well.

The steps to release are:
  1. Edit the text
  2. Get final art back from the artists and integrate
  3. Front matter, appendices, title cover 
  4. Create the sales page
  5. Small release
  6. Integrate feedback
  7. General release
The book is split into three parts
  1. Exploration
    1. [100%] First Draft
    2. [100%] Editing
    3. [100%] Final Art
  2. Combat
    1. [100%] First Draft
    2. [30%] Editing  
    3. [100%] Final Art
  3. Quests
    1. [100%] First Draft
    2. [0%] Editing
    3. [25%] Final Art

The plan for October

We're already mid-way into October but things are going well. I've found someone to finish the art and that's starting to come back. The Exploration section was completed last month. Progress in the the Combat section is, so far, faster because when I was writing this section I'd settled on most of the book's conventions. Also I published parts of some chapters as blog posts first (Stats, Levels), which allowed me to refine this text earlier on.

Most of the combat section should be finished by the end of month. Final art for the Quests section will also starting coming back this month.

Every week I publish an article about making RPGs to the How to Make an RPG website. Here are some of the more popular releases. (Arguably time writing these articles could be time editing but I find they're complementary activites. When I can't force myself to do more editing, I still feel fine to create an article and vice versa.)

  1. Case Study: How to Release a Successful Indie Game. Guild of Dungeoneering.
  2. The Power of One. Using the Range of 0-1 When Coding.
  3. Sine of the Times. How You Can Spruce Up Your Game Effects With Sine Waves.
  4. State Machines for RPGs. Where. When and Why to Use State Machines in RPGs.
  5. An Invitation to Challenge Yourself

Thanks for reading! For more regular updates follow me on twitter @HowToMakeAnRPG

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