Hi everyone, and welcome to my design blog for a video game roleplaying game (henceforth, I’ll use the term “RPG”) I’m building. I’m using a program called RPG Maker VX. This is a fairly powerful editing tool that allows users to create old-school-style RPGs, such as games in the Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, SaGa and Dragon Warrior/Dragon Quest series. This is the latest version of this program, and Enterbrain, the Japanese publisher of the program, released the English translation just a short while ago, at the end of February 2008. The original programs in the series were RPG Maker Tsukūru Dante 98, then RPG Maker 2000/2003, and also RPG Maker XP. There might be a version or two of the program that I’m missing, but I’m sure the RPG Maker experts out there will tell me. I do know that there were a few versions of this editor for the Playstation and Playstation 2.
So just what the heck is this Borealis RPG blog going to cover? First of all, I just started using the program about a week or so ago, so this design blog is going to cover not only the design of the game but also the problems I run into and the solutions I find while designing and building it. There are a few online communities (www.rpgmakervx.net, www.rpgrevolutions.com) out there for this version of the program and for the older versions as well. I’ve been compiling information from these forums, as well as screenshots that help illustrate the steps necessary to make the game do what you want it to do, and I plan on editing and formalizing this information in future posts. Don’t worry, I plan to credit the users on these forums for this information. If it wasn’t for them, new users to RPG Maker (like me) would be pretty lost. I’ve already learned a great deal from reading the forums on these sites, and I wouldn’t be nearly as far along with Borealis as I am without having spent the time reading the topics in the RPG Maker VX Support forum on www.rpgmakervx.net.
The best up-to-date help you can get is on these forums, as the moderators and experienced users of this program post often and are really trying to build a community around this program.
All that said, I’m going to be documenting my experiences in a fairly detailed fashion. I’m hoping that this blog will become a valuable resource for users new to RPG Maker, as I plan on providing a number of step-by-step, illustrated (with screenshots) example. I also hope that as I get better at using the program, I’ll be able to cover more advanced topics (hopefully some scripting) so experienced users will get something out of any time they spend here. I’ll also post any custom resources (graphics, sound, title screens, etc.) here as I create them (though I currently suck as a sprite artist). If you want to use anything, the only rule I have is that you credit this blog here somewhere in your final game.
So, before I get into the game design itself, and the design process, in my next post I’ll talk a little bit about why I’m embarking on this venture to create an old-school console RPG for PC users. Stay tuned.
The Borealis RPG Design Blog 
