Game Master was released in December 2014 — that was more than 10 years ago! Let’s see if I remember a thing or two about my first game and its development process, answering 10 questions (which I came up with myself, just so you know).
So, without further ado, here’s your Game Master trivia.
Question 1: Had there been Projects prior to Game Master?
Well, yes! In fact, there had been quite a few. I tried every main-line RPG Maker rather thoroughly before working on Game Master:
- RPG Maker 2000,
- RPG Maker 2003,
- RPG Maker XP,
- RPG Maker VX and also
- RPG Maker VX Ace with pre-GM projects.
I don’t think I ever reached the point of a playable demo, though. There were concepts, a few maps, maybe an intro cutscene or some test battles, but nothing that would come close to what I released as Wildsilver Zero.
I still remember that my very first project was supposed to be like a turn-based Terranigma, starting on some sort of post-apocalyptic Ayers Rock. Later, Eternal Darkness was the major influence for the atmosphere I tried to go for. And then there was Hearthstone, which actually prevailed as an inspiration in terms of synergetic ability/equipment customisation that can be found in all of my games.
Question 2: What Kind of Game is Game Master?
Game Master is a JRPG that combines classical and innovative elements.
I generally think gameplay-first, like game designers at Nintendo apparently do, and so my games aren’t quite as narrative-driven as other JRPGs. Instead, customisation and replayability are important to me. I also like to keep individual elements simple and derive complexity from combination (like in chess). And my games try to strike a balance between humour and seriousness.
While I love JRPGs, I also like a lot of other genres, and so I generally build a JRPG basis and then try to fit in the things I recently experienced as being a lot of fun in non-JRPGs.
For example, Game Master has a Diablo-III-like mechanic where you salvage equipment the protagonist can’t use due to class restrictions. The game structure, including revisiting areas and finding new sections, was inspired by Skyward Sword. And even though robotic companions aren’t exactly unknown to JRPG fans, it was the Engineer class in Torchlight II which sold me on the concept.
Question 3: What makes Game Master unique?
I would say it’s precisely what I just described: Game Master isn’t afraid to integrate elements rarely found in JRPGs. If you like the genre, there’s a good chance you will like Game Master, but it requires a certain openness to new experiences.
Question 4: What was the hardest Challenge?
Easy to answer: mustering the discipline!
As anyone who has ever tried making a game could tell you, it’s quite hard to stick to a project. You find a lot of inspiration in this game or that game, other media and completely unrelated things in life, and so you need to find a way to finish the game at hand, even though it will take many months — or years.
I’m not sure how I pulled it off back then, to be honest. I didn’t even use a to-do list back then.
I guess it’s generally quite important in life that you find some determination somewhere, and the earlier, the better.
Question 5: What was the brightest Highlight?
A friend of mine — Alexander Häger, who also composed the Swamp background music in Wildsilver, by the way — not only letsplayed the game just for me, but also recorded the Game Master Rap with funny lyrics about Elsa’s adventures and some of the particularities of the game. The letsplay was extremely helpful, of course, and the rap was just hilarious!
Question 6: What Tools did you use?
Well, RPG Maker VX Ace was the engine I used for Game Master.
In addition to that, I used Paint.NET for graphics (I’m pretty good at it, I’d venture to claim) and Guitar Pro 5 (still the best one) for the music (which I’m also quite familiar with, since we use it in my two bands).
I may have used some simple audio software to edit sound effects – like Audacity or Acoustica –, but I can’t say for sure.
There was also an image upscaler in my tools folder, but I think I only used it for the icons on the website. The name is simply ImageResizer, and the algorithm I used was XBR 4x with the WrapAround setting.
And that’s pretty much all you need to make your first indie JRPG!
Question 7: How long did it take?
Good question!
I don’t really know.
The earliest version I still have on my hard drive is 0.2.0, and that one’s from 19 February 2013. I guess I must have started back in 2012 with the first concepts and probably some work on the database, since that’s something I enjoy and tend to do very early in development.
There’s a project called Game Master Zero, which is from 14 March 2012, but it looks very different from the real Game Master, and so I wouldn’t really count this. It had none of the characters and probably very little of the story I ended up. Game Master Zero is also in German (like previous projects, by the way).
There’s a folder called ‘Game Master 2010’, which contains an RPG Maker VX project I can’t open at the moment. It must have been very different, again, from Game Master Zero, probably inspired by Fiesta Online, which I played too excessively back in the days.
Man, what a history, now that I’ve dug a bit deeper …
Question 8: What inspired Game Master?
The games I played back then, including Diablo III. But I don’t really remember, to be honest.
What Nintendo console was the current one at that time? Wii and Wii U?
So, there’s definitely some Skyward Sword in Game Master. As I said, the revisiting-locations thing was from there. I had Mario Party in mind while defining the look of the game boards, of course. And the Pokémon games have always been my inspiration in terms of mapping (the visual aspect of level design in RPG Maker).
But other than that, I really can’t say.
Question 9: How difficult is Game Master?
Well, it depends. It’s a bit like Silksong, I guess, in that you can either try to rush it and face some challenges or take your time, explore, find stuff and make your life a whole lot easier later on.
Overall, Game Master isn’t a very difficult game, though. Most players should be able to complete the main story without serious problems.
Question 10: Any Tips for new Players?
I kind of answered that in the last question: Take your time and explore! Speak to NPCs, examine objects, stray off the obvious path. There may even be a couple of secret maps for you to find …
As far as the battles are concerned, there’s definitely room for creative strategies. The equipment in Game Master is designed for customisation: There’s little linear equipment progression; instead, most weapons, armours and accessories stay useful throughout the game and can be combined any way you want. Some combinations are stronger than others, of course, so you’re encouraged to experiment.
Conclusion
And that’s 10 questions about Game Master answered!
I hope you found this kind of interesting — as a player or maybe as a game developer yourself.
It was definitely fun revelling in the past for a few hours. I may write in this format again about my other games at some point.
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Do you have any questions you’d like to ask me? Just put them in the comments below! I will answer them directly or even extend this article.