Calling all creators!

Want to make your own SNES-style retro RPG but don’t know where to start? This is the book for you! It takes you from nothing to a professionally finished RPG.

This is your chance to make your awesome idea a reality, stop watching from the sidelines and make it happen.

Features

• Your world, your game, your vision.
• Step-by-step examples.
• Master timeless architectural patterns.
• You’ll implement Exploration, Combat and Quests.
• You own everything you make, to do with as you feel fit.
• No restrictions, if you can think of it, you can make it.
• Open-source multiplatform graphics engine let’s you concentrate on your game.

What’s in the Book?

Go from displaying a single image, to an entire fantasy world. We’ll cover the three pillars of RPGs; exploration, combat and questing.

The boring stuff is taken care of so you can concentrate on making an RPG, not writing boilerplate code for communicating with your graphics card or kerning fonts correctly. A fast game engine is provided, including the source. If you want dig into the hardcore C++ code and tweak it - you can! Everything you make, you own; to sell or giveaway as you wish - it’s yours - go wild!

You’ll learn the fundamentals - After reading the book, you’ll be able apply the lessons to any platform or language. The book uses Lua code; the game industry standard scripting language. In fact, we’ll be using a special version called LuaJIT which is tuned for speed. Lua is elegant, extremely fast and quick to learn. Games from Fable to World of Warcraft use it, with good reason.

Take the first step in making your game and Buy Now.

Table of Contents

Here is the table of contents. Only major headings are shown.

• Introduction

• Origins

• Development Philosophy

• RPG Architecture

• Tools

• Part I - Exploration

• World Building

• Tilemap

• From Maps to World

• A Living World

• User Interface

• Menu

• Small RPG: Dungeon

• Part II - Combat

• Stats

• Levels

• The Party

• Equipment

• Combat Flow

• Combat State

• Combat Actions

• Winners, Losers and Loot

• Advanced Combat

• Small RPG: The Arena

• Part III - Quests

• Planning

• The Town

• The World Map

• The Cave Map

• Game State

• Small RPG game: Cave Quest

• Closing

It’s not just a book, it’s a whole development kit:

• Over 200 example projects demonstrating how an RPG game is made step-by-step.
• Hundreds of assets including sprites, tiles, maps, fonts and sounds files
• Full Lua source code for 3 complete mini-games.
• Full source code for the underlying C++ engine. (You never have to look at this but if you ever get curious it’s yours!)

What You’ll Learn In Each Section

The book is divided into three main sections; Exploration, Combat and Quests. These instruct you how to build RPG systems from the ground up. Once you understand the content you can use this knowledge for any engine in the future.

The book starts by describing how to breakdown parts of the RPG architecture into easy to implement pieces. Then you’re shown step-by-step how to implement those pieces in code. Every step of the way you’ll have running code that demonstrates a part of your game. By the end of the book, you’ll have mastered all the techniques to make many different types of games and you’ll have several demos that make an excellent foundation for you own ideas.

Introduction

Learn where RPGs came from and how H.P. Lovecraft was involved!

Discover the correct mindset and philosophy to develop games to completion. Are you endlessly starting but never finishing projects? This section will help.

A brief introduction to the engine we’ll use. It’s clear, clean and allows rapid development.

Part I - Exploration

In this first section you’ll learn how to create your own world! And how to write the code to let your players discover it’s secrets.

The player is trapped in a dungeon. Part of the mini-RPG you’ll create at the end of the Exploration section.

Some of the topics covered in Part I:

• World-Building Mastery: Discover how game designers use simple tiles to build immersive, beautiful worlds. Tell a story with every screen.
• Frame Your Adventure: Ever wonder how games always seem to focus on the right spot? We’ll unravel the mystery of 2D cameras.
• Craft Cinematic Cutscenes: Bring your story to life with a flexible, reusable cutscene system. Use your creativity to create moments that leave a lasting impression, long after the credits roll.
• Breathe Life into NPCs: Bring your world to life by adding memorable characters that can move and react to the player.
• Engage Your Players: Discover how to add trigger zones that react to player actions; setting off combat, conversations, or cutscenes.
• Build Iconic RPG UI Elements: Discover how to craft dialog boxes and other UI components that reflect the timeless design of beloved RPGs.
• Create Intelligent Behaviors: Dive into the fascinating world of state machines, to make characters more interactive.
• Build Essential RPG Interfaces: Discover how to create character menus, inventory systems, and level-up screens to give players a smooth experience as they track their treasures and level up.
• Add Auditory Magic: Learn to implement simple sound effects that bring your game world to life.

... and Much More!

This chapter ends with a small demo. We’ll create a mini-RPG with cutscenes, dialog, puzzles and a bit of intrigue!

Part II - Combat

In this section you’ll learn how to add combat to your world. What creatures will you add? What are your world’s magic and weapons?

The player stands outside the combat arena, preparing for battle. Part of the mini-RPG you’ll create at the end of the Combat section.

• Learn how to use to stats to represent the game world.
• Learn how to create a level curve that suits your game.
• Learn how to represent weapons, armor and items in a way that’s easy to extend
• Learn how to create a party of characters the player can recruit
• Learn how to create monsters in a way that’s easy to extend
• Learn the correct architecture to make dynamic combat simple, understandable and easy to extend
• Learn about magic, special abilities, attacks and using items
• ... plus much more!

This chapter ends with a small demo. The player is outside a grand arena. He can recruit characters, find items and battle his way through each round of the arena until he reaches the dangerous boss monster!

Part III - Quests

In this section you’ll write your own quest, with puzzles, monsters, story and action!

The player attempts to solve a puzzle in a dark dungeon.

• Learn how to design a full game
• Learn what it means to make a full game
• Learn how track the state of quests
• Learn how to save and load game data
• Learn how to make a world map with random encounters
• Learn how to adds shops, towns folk and simple conversation
• ... plus much more!

This chapter deals with creating a small, fully-featured game. By the end you’ll have a full game with a quest, a dungeon, overworld map, twists and end boss.

What Others Are Saying

Whether you’re a complete beginner or a seasoned programmer, this book has something to offer everyone on the path to building their first RPG.

A Reference Text for Harvard’s Game Course

The How To Make an RPG book is used as a reference text for Harvard’s "Introduction to Game Development Course (CS50)" in Lecture 7.

Add this book to your library.

"Great book, I preordered it and have enjoyed it thoroughly. If anyone’s making an RPG, even using a different engine, I’d definitely recommend adding this to your library."

• GrizzlyWolfAdam

"Best buy I’ve made in a while!"

• Oli Bedsole

"Your book is helping my dreams come true"

• Terrence Young

"A load more content than I ever expected"

"A load more content than I ever expected. The step-by-step explanations, with visual examples for everything are just amazing. I’ve been through a ton of different guides and have made Zelda clones, but the detail and depth of your guide and well-written explanations/functions, UI design, and generally everything have been amazing."

• Async0x42

"Immensely helpful on a conceptual level"

"I have been programming for about 15 years, but I was unsure of some of the design decisions for a game of this scale. I first found your website via articles, which were incredibly helpful. Your book has been immensely helpful on a conceptual level. I don’t think I ever truly understood the State Machine quite as well as I do after going through the first few chapters of your book."

• Dan (A different Dan :D)

Gravastar is an upcoming JPRG with great visuals!