In all honesty, I'm just some 15-year-old trying to figure out how to make an rpg game. I have spent the last 2 days just trying to figure out how to get my title screen to show up. I'm using game maker studio 2. I'm completely new to this and would appreciate if someone had the time to hold my hand through this because I don't get it.

This is my discord: Unibrow boy#9899

This is my teams discord server: https://discord.gg/2TdH6wY6

where's your programming skills at? have u any experience with technical stuff software wise

Nope, unless you count that stupid code block website, "scratch".

Do you want to make a specific type of RPG? Wouldn't RPG Maker not do the trick for your project? RPG maker can be quite an easy place to start.

I'd say that a RPG game for a first project on GameMaker is kind of ambitious, but I know that noone likes to hear that answer, so the basics for an RPG in GameMaker are: Make the character move > Make the character interact > Make the character collide with walls > Plan everything you need in your project before adding mechanics like battles or quests.

I think that by the time you learn how to do all of that you'll find if you want to make your first project a RPG game or not.

I believe Shaun Spalding made a series of tutorials on how to achieve a good looking result!

Also, RPG Maker is also pretty good option, and it's pretty cheap, but very limited if you don't know how to code or customize things in there. There are a lot of community plugins though. You should give it a try if you want to get working on your game asap.

Best of luck, it is a tedious journey!

first i'd start learnin HTML and CSS once you're familiar with Javascript, you can whip up some games. HTML5 canvas course is directed toward making canvas games. Jquery is also a good course because javascript gets lengthy and Jquery provides huge shortcuts.

of course im not telling you what to do, but all of this is available from sololearn.com and they have module quizes and little projects sprinkled in so it's quite engaging and invigorating as far as web game dev goes

I would start about 15x smaller in scope so that you actually finish the project and don't burn yourself out. Or use RPG Maker which does most of the grind for you, but even then something very small in scope.

RPGs are a nightmare for someone with almost no experience.

It's not that kind of RPG. It's like a mixture of sonic frontiers and deltarune.

sonic frontiers isn't an rpg, and deltarune is basically what you'd be able to make in rpg maker

well I guess I'll just attempt smaller projects and see what works.

Yeah those are very different games. Big open world plus RPG would be something like Xenobalde Chornicles X, quite a big project. As everyone pointed out you probably want to try something simpler to start with. Throwing scenes with dialog and battles together in RPG maker was quite easy and very rewarding when i was first playing around with it.

OK so, the game I just published is a tactical RPG, which is a bit different, but relevant. I'm gonna post a whole big thing here, so my apologies if it looks like a wall of text.

1) Story. Don't need one. A great story can absolutely elevate a game, and I love that, but you're new, so you basically want to cut out as much as possible. For your RPG, try and focus on dungeon crawling - that way, you'll spend more time working on stuff like mechanics, balancing, level design, enemy design, the stuff a good game NEEDS. If you have a good idea for a story, save it for your second game - this first game should be all about trying to make a simple, kinda short RPG that's fun to play, and learning skills that will make your second game much better. A very short premise is nice though - e.g. "you're a mushroom man and a pig ate your dad. Seek vengeance, mushroom boy".

2) Genre. It's an RPG - turn based, tactical, action? What kind of RPG is it? This kinda thing isn't that big of a deal, but I'd argue that action and tactical RPGs are easier to make than classic turn based RPGs. Keeping combat interesting is made much easier by aspects like movement speed and range. Your standard turn based RPG on the other hand, it lacks these elements, which means it is at once simpler to make, and harder to make WELL. Beyond that - fantasy, sci fi, western, just pick any old thing, the weirder the better. A really weird game with semi decent gameplay will outperform a normal game with semi decent gameplay 9 times out of 10. A Western action RPG where the player controls a sentient ear of corn with a gun, trying to fend off hungry farmers after a famine - as you level up, you can learn new passive and active abilities to deal with the "dungeon" full of hungry farmers. Weird shit like that, it's interesting. You can use that idea, or your own, I don't care too much either way.

3)Design. Now we get into the MEAT of it my dude. Design and balancing, these things are crucial. My game still has some glitches, but is sitting at a somewhat decent 3 stars - because I really wanted the design and balance to be good. So you want concepts for your character or characters, in terms of mechanical functionality. Take our corn gunslinger - he has a gun, so he's a ranged type. That means we probably want some enemies who can fire projectiles. Designing your enemies with a class/role/purpose in mind works well, you want to say "OK, I want a Soldier type enemy. Decent HP, decent damage, but low firing rate and probably a medium to slow move speed." Or, "I want a Tank type enemy. He needs really good HP so the player can't take him out easily, and strong damage, but he should be slow moving, and maybe have limited range." Then from there, you can come up with the actual in game enemy. For our Tank, let's have a Flamer Farmer - big, ugly and mean, with a flamethrower that will pop your corns in an instant. His flamer is highly damaging, but if you keep your distance, he can't burn you, but you can shoot him, and he's too slow to catch up to you.

4)still Design. So, we have a couple enemy concepts - now we want to consider level design. This is where class/role/purpose based design comes in really handy. Your big flamer farmer, he's great for area denial - put him in the middle of a big arena, and the player will have to avoid a big chunk of the area, but the enemies will not. Next, maybe has some fast enemies - farmers dogs, quick, weak, melee only. I refer to these as "skirmisher" enemies. And the farmers dogs come RUSHING at you from both sides. They're fast. but maybe just a LITTLE slower than the player. Now this section of your game, it's fun - the player has a clear challenge, wipe out the dogs so you can handle the big guy easily. Having clear roles and purposes with your enemies like this makes level design far easie, and thinking about what each group of enemies will do in a given encounter or dungeon is the key to making sure your game is fun.

5)The Player. Now, you've designed your player already, their base stats and whatnot. You've designed enemies and encounters around this base level player. Next, you want to think about progression - this is an RPG, you level up, maybe find new weapons and learn new skills. This is another aspect of design, and it's best to get started on it AFTER you've worked on some enemies and encounters. Creating good balance with your level 1 corn gunslinger will make maintaining game balance with your level 5 corn gunslinger that much easier. When it comes down to leveling, you can have things like better HP and damage as a given, but skills are where it's really at. Players want to be able to try different builds - giving the player a selection of skills or perks makes things fun and exciting, as you can experiment, and try and synergize the stuff you learn as you level up. For example, maybe you can learn Corn Grenade for 1 perk point, allowing you to throw an explosive kernel of corn from your body to do AoE damage. But you're ripping off your own flesh, so it costs HP. But maybe another perk, TransyllVegetable, gives you back health for the enemies you kill. These skills work great together, allowing you to handle large groups of weak enemies with ease - but while Corn Grenade might have good damage, you might not find that either of these is great for a boss fight. Skills should always have a downside - the health drain for Corn Grenade, and the dependence on available enemy minions for TranstllVegetable. It keeps things interesting. And as you go along, don't be afraid to add a skill that might destroy game balance - if it does, you can just nerf it later, buff the enemies, or add a new area with enemies that hard counter your "broken" skill.

God I'm longwinded. The point is, think carefully about the order in which you do things. Concept, basic player design, enemy design, level design, advanced player design, this is what works best for me. Good luck!