How to make RPG Maker games not suck

I heard RPG Maker gets kind of a bad reputation because there are so many bad games made with it. I don't want any game I make in RM to be like that, so I'd like to hear some advice for what I can do to make my RPG Maker game not suck.

Unfortunately, for a large majority of people out there, if there's anything noticeably from the rpg maker engine, your project will be pegged as an rpg maker game and will have a massive stigma to overcome right away.

The simplest answer to your question is to modify everything so much that the average person wouldn't be able to tell it was made with rpg maker in the first place, so that stigma is never applied.

Obviously, that's not very feasible, so the best advice I could give would be to avoid using default, or even DLC assets, so no one could quickly recognize your project as "another one using that same tileset", and avoid using default animations, sound effects and music wherever possible.

Of course, none of that matters at all if no one will play your game, so you'll also want to make sure it's actually something someone would want to play in the first place.

Oh brother...it's' here! It came!

To answer your question, OP?

MAKE A GOOD GAME

Thank you, thank you, I'll see myself out.

Really, it has nothing to do with RPG Maker.

If you're not sure whether your game is good, there are metric tons of resources - from books to videos to blogs from game developers to actual college courses on game design.

Then you do lots of playtesting to get feedback before you offer it to the general public.

There's no way your game is inherently worse for being made in RPG Maker.

Title revision
"How to make my game not suck"

And that is a very broad topic. And we can talk about everything.
But, I will say, if you market it to the wrong people, your game may be seen as bad.
So, market it to the right audience.

Also, just as a quick addendum:

Nothing in there is wrong, per se, but I would suggest that the quality of the game has nothing to do with whether the assets are included or not.

People can accuse a given game of being low-budget (or even low-effort in that specific regard) for using RTP assets, but no sane person could say that a game with the same quality of writing and gameplay goes from being a good game if it has unique visuals to a bad game if it uses the RTP.

So that might affect how marketable it is (to some people - it is not a majority of people on Steam who recognize RPG Maker assets), but it does not affect how good the game is.

Okay, but @TRIDIUM is spot on XD

Your focus shouldn't be on making a game in RPG Maker that isn't RPG-Maker-y, your focus should be making a game, full stop. That's a big enough challenge on its own, I assure you. Is your first RPG Maker game going to be a masterpiece? No, and that's okay!

Also: someone who's determined to hate RPG Maker games just because they're RPG Maker isn't your target audience. You'll never please everyone, so why bother trying to sell to the toughest crowd? There are people out there who love RPG Maker games because they're RPG Maker. There are a lot of people out there who play games without knowing the first thing about the engine that makes them.

Some bullet-point advice for making a "good" game, in my experience:

-Start small. The One-Map Game Challenge is a great place to get a feel for the steps of making a game and familiarizing yourself wih the engine. Once you're comfortable with the basics of using the engine, maybe try a game jam.

-Visual consistancy. It doesn't matter if you're using default-style or fully-custom graphics, the key to having a "good-looking" game is to have a style and stick to it. You can't account for taste: there are plenty of games with highly-praised graphics that I personally don't enjoy the look of.

-Spelling and grammar counts. A lot. Read your text boxes aloud. Ask someone to proofread for you. You'll probably still miss a typo here and there, because that's how being a human is, but there shouldn't be many. Be especially through in proofreading anything you intend to use to promote your game! First impressions last.

-Have fun, and I mean that. I truly, truly mean that. Your project should spark joy. Players can spot a labor of love.

Yeah, it's pretty much exactly what @TRIDIUM said. RM gets a bad rep because people make bad asset flips and porn games most of the time.

Make a good game and (almost) nobody will complain. Make something mediocre and people won't like it. Simple as that.

It ultimately comes down to a few things. Unique story, unique aesthetic, unique themes. OFF and Space Funeral don't have the craziest combat or tilesets for example, but people still love them cause there's just nothing else like them.

More recent games like LISA or Funger have a lot of interesting gameplay decisions and dark elements that you don't get out of the AAA. So be unique, be original, and be yourself; and with a little bit of elbow grease, you'll find an audience.

Jesus Christ, create a game first then ask these things later.

@SangHendrix "Create a game and then learn how to make a good game" doesn't seem like useful advice (and, for native English speakers, the wording of your post comes across as blatantly rude).

it might not have good wording but he has a point.
It is not about making the game first, and then learn how to make a good game later. I interpret it as "make the game first then ask for feedback"

I would still disagree with that sentiment.

It makes perfect sense to understand how to do something correctly (whether it's using events, writing an engaging plot, writing good dialogue, crafting an interesting gameplay system) before you start trying to implement it into a game.

How many stories have you seen from people who get stuck making something and then trying to go back and revamp systems?

I suppose the thing is…
You can only study so much before you simply need experience.

So many people end up not doing anything at all.
If everyone had to wait until they were “ready” then no one will ever become good.

Learn.
Plan.
Practice.
Then.

No need to look up to people's stories.
Experienced it in our circle project. Dunno how many reboots has it been.

We can all theorize and have the skill to make things happen, but putting things together in practice is different. You don't know what makes it good. So, just get the game out and listen to people's feedback.

I don't know if we're misunderstanding each other, but your posts sound like you're saying "You should not try to make a good game," which I completely disagree with.

You don't do any outline of a plot before you start to make a game? You don't do any brainstorming about what your combat mechanics should be?

These are all preliminary steps to make parts of your game be good before you put them into RPG Maker as a game project.

Yes, you absolutely do/can. I'm not saying you can make a perfect game without playtesting and feedback - no one in this thread has said that. But there are absolutely steps you can take during your initial creation that are better or worse.

I said, "Make the game then ask for people's feedback".
I initially responded to your reply to "create a game first then ask these things later.", which I explained it is about asking for feedback. I don't know where you got that idea.

The context is, the OP might be too scared/paranoid to step out because they asked these things. Hence "create a game first then ask these things later". I'm not saying you should be ignorant of good practices. I'm saying "Don't worry about it, feedback will shape your game".

Initial planning is good, but in the end, the player will be playing your game and might completely throw off your design by doing something unexpected.

I'm referencing Spongebob on this one because the most important ingredient of all... is love.

Having all these unique parts of a game is one thing, but never forget to love your project.

Even some nsfw RM games I played, which tend to tarnish the engine's reputation, had love put into it.

Because that text you quoted, which I disagreed with, is giving the impression that there is nothing to be done inside that action of "make the game" that can make the game better or worse.

That there's nothing you, the designer, can do which will affect the outcome and reception of the game until it gets playtested. Since there are games that get hundreds of thousands of people crashing the beta download servers and games that that never make it past their Kickstarter or Early Access, I think that's demonstrably untrue.

To my reading, that's the point of this thread - the OP is asking "what are good practices, so my game isn't bad immediately"?

I'm gonna bow out of this, as it's derailing the topic for anything the OP might get out of it.

Maybe a little too much love.