RPG Maker and your education - maybe you can combine it?

じ☆ve冰风

I recently graduated with a Master of Science, and while it might sound hilarious at first, I did so by creating a game in RPG Maker MZ.
Since it worked really well for me and there is quite a lot of potential there, I wanted to write this essay/tutorial about combining your hobby with your education and maybe give you some inspiration and maybe tips on how to make it happen for your own path.

First of all: You need to spot the opportunity!
Whenever larger projects come up, there is your chance. Since game making - and especially, quality game making - can take up quite a lot of time, for me it worked twice: once for a larger project that I had to do for my degree and a second time now for the actual thesis.

For you this could be any larger project that gives you enough hours to actually create something. I would say, the rule of thumb is 1 hour of playtime equals 1000 hours of development - with a lot of wiggle room, depending how skilled you already are and how many additional things (plugins, graphics, etc.) you have to make on your own.

You need to have a good idea of the pre-condition of said project, before you pitch it!

Because, while you might need to convince the teacher/prof/etc., you need to be realistic about what you can deliver.

For that pitch, you need to make some things clear:

• Why is making a game a good idea for said project?
  
• What level of quality is about to expect?
  
• Just the project?
  

1) Virtually any subject can benefit from a game!
You might consider bringing a certain play or book to life by turning a scene into something other people can explore in game! Re-imagine a certain historical period by making a little accurate slice of life game showing how it was to be alive at the time! Make a fun math game where people can practice or learn new topics! There is no limit. From my experience, every topic or subject can be turned into a game, just make sure to find the right balance - your game has to have enough of said topic in it to pass.

2) Whoever grades you usually has no clue what RM is.
That is okay, but that also is something you have to make clear. The engine and your experience and time will limit what the result can deliver. In German you say “try baking smaller rolls”, which means: set smaller, more realistic goals. Rather pitch something you can be sure you can finish and add more than promised than the other way around!
This also affects the playtime. Look how much time you are given and then use the formula above to see what you can realistically make. If you have around 170 hours to put into the project, don’t plan for anything longer than 10 minutes. Playtesting and quality management takes up a lot of time and certain bugs will stall you for days, so leave enough time for that in the end.

3) Depending what you make the project for, your game might not be the only thing you have to hand in. If you write a thesis for example, you will have to write a huge part about actual scientific stuff, there you can put in comparisons with similar games, playtest results and statistics and a lot of related literature work. If you just do a little thing for school, you might get away with just a paper with a small description of your game, but depending where you are in your education, this can be very important. Have some ideas ready for your pitch!


This is not supposed to be a "Hey hey, look look what I did", but more an inspiration. It took me quite some time until I was not too embarassed to tell my professor: "Well, I think I could do a game for said project, look, this is my idea." Looking back, I could have rocked my German class when we were supposed to do something creative with Goethe's Faust, I could have easily made a little scene from the play as a little game. I could've brought that into my university education so much earlier, since there were many project opportunities.

And I am very glad I did. Having a clear, comparingly small project that I HAD to make, gave me a lot of experience and skill that I now have ready for any other project I might wanna take up at a later point in life. Most of us struggle to finish something, so why not make something you are very sure you can finish and that has already a place in your schedule since... well, it is in your schedule? Just labeled as something like "Creative project" ;3


So, what did I make?

Project 1:
For a general project for my degree I created a game that kinda plays itself like a video and shows which subjects are part of said degree. It can be shown to any new student to understand what they have to expect in the next years in a kinda fun and unique way.

With a partner - she made all the sounds, composed and played the music and did the cut of the final video - I created little "levels" which where just one room of the same screen size each for each class, and besides the brainstorming the whole design part was my task. That was a very fun project, but it only was because a) I knew what I could handle and b) because I was willing to put in more hours than said project is supposed to take up.

It was a massive task, but I learnt a lot designwise, especially when it came to turning the classes into something that could be a game - including a fun boss fight for the thesis!

The written part here was just a little documentation what we did and how, since it was a practical project.

Some screens:

Webprogramming...




... choosing what to do in your practical semester...




...and the Boss fight agains the thesis






Project 2:
My thesis was an educational escape room game to be uses in math lessons. It's total playtime is around 45 minutes, but since it was part of a thesis, there had to be a huge scientific part. I went to schools, talkes to teachers, did surveys and documented testgames, studied and wrote about literature about game making and education and, well, did develope a full game. Besides a little snippet by Hudell (teleport to click), every line of code, every graphic and every mechanic was made my myself. Granted, I had 6 months for the whole thing, but already the prestudies with teachers and the testing and polishing ate more than you'd expect.

Some screens (ignore the timer, I can click through the whole thing in less than a minute because I basically can enter the numbers asleep by now ;D):










Also: If this left you with any questions, feel free to ask



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