RPG Maker VX - Your RMVX Source

The Saturday VXian
__________6/20/2009 - 6/27/2009__________

Eye Candy

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep. ~Scott Adams (Cartoonist, “Dilbert“)

There is certainly no shortage of creativity within this community. This is clearly evident when it comes to the hand-drawn and photoshopped achievements of certain stand-out members of the community demonstrate their excellent craftsmanship by creating distinctive imagery which harmonizes with the standards of RPG Maker VX’s RTP. If you happen to be using the visuals from the RTP in your project and require personality and uniqueness, look no further.

That being said, today we shall take a dive into the fantastic world of Facesets, Profile images, and Battlers.

One of the most industrious members we’ve had the pleasure of welcoming is one that needs no introduction. She’s a friendly, hard working genuine artist who doesn’t mind taking a gamble. Razvan-Sedekiah is truly a unique and talented lady who in most cases completely hand-draws unique, original, interesting faces and profiles. She has truly ascended beyond the ordinary and shown that her abilities and persistance are nothing short of incredible. You may also be able to employ her talents if needed.

Being Resource Staff really says something for your artistic credibility. Soruve definitely deserves all the credit she’s given, and then some. Her ability to mimic the style of the RTP graphics is top-notch with 100% accuracy. Furthermore, she’s provided us a spectacular set of faces based on the releases from Enterbrain/Famitsu’s tKool (RPG Maker) Blog. When it comes to this field, Soruve is a master of her art.

Dark Horseman has a knack for battlers, this much is clear. From swordsmen(and women!) to gun-totting soldiers, this guy has it down. By doing the community a huge favor in creating authentic front-view battler images, he is rapidly gaining notation as a valuable asset within the RPG Maker VX fellowship.

Of truly honorable mention: Joy and her RTP Faceset Edits shop demonstrates how one can gain respect and notability quickly. Kumi is also exhibiting her artistic prowess in her intriguing thread. Sakura Martinez presents her unending devotion to please with her plethora of ripped Ragnarok Online battlers. Finally, while not necessarily pioneering in the concept of expanding upon the RTP character’s facial emotional range, projectlight is certainly expanding upon them by composing unique expressions for our well-known and beloved characters.

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In other news, the fall of a true legend has occurred Thursday. We have been faced with the death of the smooth criminal. Say what you will, but Micheal Jackson’s impact on music will never be forgotten and should never be ignored. You will be missed, Mr. Jackson.

Community news: for those interested, respected member Jonny Roxard has created a Dragonball (Z) game/ruleset under the D20/D&D 4th Edition conventions complete with an exceptionally well-done rulebook. If you happen to be a Dragonball and Dungeons & Dragon’s fan, give it a peek!

In closing, I’d like to thank you, the reader, for enduring the latency of this issue. For various reasons, The Friday VXian will now be The Saturday VXian. Next week, we’ll wrap up the graphical side of things with Tilesets, Icons, and character animations.

The Friday VXian
__________6/12/2009 - 6/19/2009__________

Now That’s What I Call Style!

When you find yourself requiring that “something extra”, oftentimes it’s a affair of aesthetic. Whether it is a matter of Title screens, Game Over screens, or Windowskins, their impact on the overall atmosphere of a game is never to be ignored. It is said that first impressions have the largest impact. One should not fall victim to a lifeless Title screen image, and an uninspired Game Over screen is as good as a game with no ending cut-scene.

Obviously, the subject at hand this week as promised, deals with Windowskins, Title & Game Over Screens, and the noble, generous artists who regularly contribute them for the community.

First up: one of the community’s most beloved and respected members. Joining on March 14th, 2008, the multi-talented Aindra graced the community with her adorable bunny avatar and awe-strikingly helpful demeanor. There is much to be noted about this outstanding lady, but today’s topic involves her impressive knack for windowskins. Not only has she provided a fair share of original window dressing and individual windowskin pieces, but she - along with the aid of Woratana, has provided a full-fledged windowskin generator for users to generate their own personalized windowskins with little effort. So next time you happen to see a certain little white bunny hopping about, leave her a carrot to show your thanks.

Second on the list is a gentleman who is no stranger to the RPG Maker communities. He possesses an amazing talent for imagery and an eagerness to do the job right. Joining us on February 6th, 2008, Hanzo Kimura has been a welcome member of the community since the day he delighted us with his Graphics Station. He welcomes requests for stylish custom logos for your title imagery needs, provided his station is open, of course! Please note that the images below are only examples of completed requests and should not be used.

Third on the list is fairly fresh meat. Having been with us since March 21st, 2009, this FACELESS individual has began to garner consideration with his Title & Game Over Shop. He’s an industrious fellow with an open mind and a commitment to please. For those who cannot do for themselves, this genius will make quick work of their demands.

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Plug time! If you haven’t heard of it yet, Mr. Meow Meow Meow Mix’s project, Rhapsody of Kitties is an interesting community-based project in which forum regulars submit a character in the form of a cat. You may select a personality type/role from a base of 50 individual archetypes (at the time of writing, 35 remain) and you even have the opportunity to create the sprite and its face from a template. This is a very interesting and exciting chance for the community to demonstrate their originality. Give it a look!

In other news, a few weeks back one of our dear Resource Staff, AmberDragon, had to resign due to personal reasons. We will miss her and her contributions. Hopefully she will return when things have been resolved. On the bright side, this also has left a position open for a new member of the resource staff. If you’re interested in such a position, have examples of your work ready, as more information will be posted soon.

Now for member news. One of our relatively newer members, Lyricmaniac, gave birth to a brand new handsome baby boy this week. Champaign and cigars were distributed. Congratulations to Lyricmaniac, and to her new son for having managed to get himself born! Best wishes of health and happiness to the both of you.

That sums it up for this week. Check back next week when we explore the wonderful world of facesets and more!

Art - [ahrt] - noun - 1. the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance.

One cannot overstate the importance of artistry withing the gaming community, much less the game creation community. Its graphical significance alone being so powerful within the video game industry, that what was once considered irrelevant to the mass public is now observed as an entire sub-genre of art. As this community evolves and expands, the ambitious artistic endeavors amassed within these forums is something to be admired.

Today I will be highlighting some of the pixelated professionals that have emerged from our kinship.

First up: a man who needs no introduction. Joining the forums on October 27th, 2007, PINEDAVX is not only one of the forum’s longest-lasting members, but also one of the top contributors. The sheer abundance of unique and original spritework is hailed as top-notch in respects to color-palette and dimensions. The degree of excellence this man produces should be strived after by all sprite artists within the community. He is patient and persistent in his work. If he makes critique on your work, you’d do well to take it to heart!

Second on the list is another one of the forum’s longest-lasting members. On November 17th, 2007, we were graced by the self-proclaimed “professional goose-kicker”, Antares. Not only is she providing the community a vast amount of vibrant, unique, original charactersets, but she has also provided the community with a wealth of recolored RTP characters with matching faces. The art is strong with this one.

Next up we have a distinguished gentleman who has an equally wonderful knack for with the art of pixel-based perfection. As with the previous two artists mentioned above, his art is featured in regular within the RPGMakerVX.com staff resource submissions. Joining on August 10th, 2008, Lyonn and his artistic gymnastics were welcomed into the community with arms wide open. If you happen to working on a historically (medieval) themed project, be sure to give his work a peek.

A sprite artist who is gaining rapid attention through his bungalow of assorted sprites, blank_erza’s contributions to the community through happily accepting requests is an honorably notable effort. When you need need the job done right, this guy should not be overlooked!

Also of honorable mention: Let us not forget Kilink’s Little Brother’s gallery of strange and wonderful things. Neglect of VIII’s humorous and gruesome work (note: may not be suitable for children) will earn you a possible position on his autopsy table.

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In other news, the deadline for submissions to the What If… Contest has been pushed back a bit once again to July 15th. This is to account for potential submissions that some users may not have been able to work with due to time obligations, since we are only on the beginning of summer. There will be prizes!

Speaking of summer break, to celebrate the summer season, the staff at RPGMakerVX.net have decided to change their forum handles to different sizes and forms of Ed. Global moderator BigEd781 is great at dealing with terrifying and dangerous situations involving trolls and new members who refuse to follow the rules. Therefore, as a preventative measure, they shall all bare the banner of Ed to strike fear in the minds of potential offenders.

Being that this is a new feature, each week’s updates will systematically cover a specific category of resources. When this cycle resets itself (being that all topics have been covered), I’ll summarize the best community submissions of the previous week.

Anyhow, that’s all for this week (if a bit late). Next week we’ll explore the wonderful world of Windowskins, Gameover screens, Title screens, other nifty still-frame imagery will finds itself jazzing up your system folder. Thanks for reading, and see you next week!

For this next Release it’s charsets time. Three, to be exact. All three by me and then a track brought to you by our local top musician, RoelfMik.

I was working on this char for a while now, and I finallly finished. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out as it represents what it should perfectly, I won’t say who it is but I’m sure it should be self explanatory, if not then…. ._.

Then, another animal! Isn’t it great to have variety? As much as it just took some editing, a bad hand could’ve screwed this up so badly… Now the cow has a partner :3 Don’t say the colors are wrong. If you want a different race of bull then just edit it

Last but not least, as far as sprites go. This is a special gift I made for Pyro and for Sevith to use in his Community Game but I decided to make it public since I fell in love with it and I want you guys to see it as well

It’s a Red Mage from the classic concept

That’s all for sprites. Now we have Roelf’s Track right here:

this song

Download, play, use. Damn that Roelf is awesome!!!

That’s it this once, see you round the corner

June!

Hey there, June has come, there’s less than a month less for my birthday and this is the ReStaff Release that will blow your mind away…

I always look forward for Soruve’s releases, and Lyon… well, he’s a beast too… You might remember he made a promise for a royal family and medieval setting series. Well, damn…

Let’s start with Lyonn, like I said, his release is awesome and here’s what he gave us this once: The Black Prince of Wales (you better explain this Lyonn, I don’t know anything about this… )

Also, Soruve… hell man… Do you remember my pig? My goose? Well now they have faces!!!!!! :3

Don’t you ever forget the credits and well… a well earned round of applause…

*slow motion applause*

May II

I forgot to post this

Anyways, Aindra while she’s in her weekend, left us something nice to use in your games. Did you ever want to roll some dice and found no way to do so? Now Aindra has some graphical help for you.

Click on the dice to see Ai’s surprise

Then the bad news. RoelfMik hasn’t been on lately due to some tests he’s taking. So I’m covering up for him using this cool sprite of a myth commonly used in FF games. Carbuncle

There it is, some more non standard creature

May

March II

Man, AmberDragon rocks…! You know she’s the number one spriter when it comes to making monsters, right? Well, she’s done it again! Continuing her signature releases with us she sprited an RMXP monster to fit in with VX’s chibi style and I’m really impressed by it. Another great addition for your games without a question.

Now, I’m in this release as well and I feel pretty happy with it. I decided to take another step forward in VX’s animals spriting and decided to make myself a 100% original pig. That’s the difference between me and someone’s animals, I make them, instead of editing them from XP’d RTP and making them look like VX’s colors

Remember to save them as PNG and to include a $ at the beginning of the names to make them work, that is all for this release

See you again soon!

PS: remember, credit AmberDragon for the Giant and PinedaVX for the pig

March

Hello guys, at the beginning of a new month, new resources are in order. The forum keeps getting stronger and with it our resource staff releases. In this ocaasion it’s the turn of our amazing face artist, Soruve, and our very own action figure, Macys_Hero.

If you know Soruve’s work, you can see her style in this set of, listen, eight (8) faces! All set for importing and using in your VX games, check this out, I know you’ll love it!

Secondly, our own Macys_Hero, who’s famous for his work at poses and such; has sprited this sets. They were done for particular users who requested them, but the Hero is a sharing and loving man and here they are for you, feel Macys_Hero’s love:

That’s it, go do some RM and remember, credit their respective authors and say your comments on the release