Are these things possible?

Hi there,

My idea revolves around a prequel section that has a constant time-limit enforced on it, with the notion being that how you spend that time - levelling either A or B - affects how the game will be for you after the time-limit, which is counting down to a boss fight in which the amount of time you take to defeat it will affect the game world post battle. If you are not at the battle site when the clock reaches zero, game over.

So, before I set out on what I know will be a LOT of work and learning (I'm totally, 100% new to this but very willing to learn), I want to know if the things I want are even achievable with RPG Maker.

- Two levels for your character (Fighting skill and Celebrity) that level independently of one another. Fighting skill affects the obvious, Celebrity would mainly effect choices available, story and the game world.

- A time-limit as described

- Being able to have the game become one of any 3 different games after the time-limit boss battle. For example, if player did A, then he's a cop fighting crime syndicates that took hold during the time-limit period. If the player did B, he's a freedom fighter. C, he's surviving in an apocalyptic wasteland. A huge amount of work, yes! But is it possible?

If I've been unclear, please ask me to clarify and let me know what you think!

Cheers, David

You can do something similar to having two levels with variables, or if you want the second level shown there are scripts that show alignment, or fame, that could be modified to do this.

I THINK you can make things be timed, there is a timer after-all.

If you mean multiple endings/branching story, yes it is possible.

You can use variables to implement as many levels as you need for the player.  Then you can set Events to trigger if the level is at or above a given value.  For example, a cop with high Celebrity might attract fans.

Story branching is definitely possible in RPG Maker.  You can use a variable to indicate the branch the player took. The tricky part here is putting it all together.

There is a built-in Timer which can be set to count down, and events may be triggered when the timer reaches 0.

So, yes, all of these are possible in RPG Maker.

Fantastic - I appreciate your answering my very basic questions! I've been looking at tutorials etc but it's difficult to know where to start. Your input has given me that confidence that I can at least start writing my story etc!

So thanks again guys!