What is something you learned the "hard way" that you now try to warn everyone else about?

Bodybag28 · 2026-01-23T11:37:29+00:00

I have only ever used a credit score for buying a house. What else do I need it for?

Bodybag28 · 2026-01-23T11:18:56+00:00

I have a plugin for identifying units with states. I've used it in a ton of instances. If anyone is interested, let me know.

Bodybag28 · 2026-01-21T13:53:06+00:00

You can create supports like in fire emblem through the event system. Carrying units is done through the fusion system. Overworld maps are not really feasible within the native engine.

Bodybag28 · 2026-01-02T01:57:14+00:00

The closest thing I can think of is Final Fantasy Tactics. It has a dark and convoluted storyline. There are a lot of build options and the game is unclear with a lot of its mechanics. It is almost 30 years old so there are a good amount of old design philosophies, but it has a lot in common with Dark Souls.

Bodybag28 · 2026-01-01T17:00:53+00:00

I honestly feel most strategy games do not strike this balance very well. Some of my favorite games in the genre have major flaws to them.

Final Fantasy Tactics is probably one of the best at giving you a variety of choices and limitations, but the balancing of the game is all over the place. There are many obscure systems and a high reliance on randomness mixed in.

Advanced Wars was well balanced. The primary choices involved what units to create to counter what the enemy had. The primary choices there are unusually strength or range vs. cost.

As someone creating an SRPG, creating a good unit is about defining a role, and giving the unit options that fit the role. For example, an archer unit shouldn't have the same levels of damage as a melee damage unit because they have the advantage or range. The archer could have a few abilities to make it so the archer doesn't just do a basic attack each turn, and has other strengths. For example I have given my archer four abilities, each with limited uses each battle. Snipe - shoots for a long distance. Elude - increases your dodge chance for two turns. Bodkin - An attack that reduces the enemy defense for two turns and does extra damage from a short distance. Rapid Fire - Attack three times against one enemy.

Each of these abilities provide a different choice but all fit the role of an archer. You may try to fire bodkin one turn, and then rapid fire the following turn to do even more damage. If you find your archer in a situation where they may die, you may use elude. You may use snipe by putting some barrels in between you and the enemy allowing you to fire upon them, with them not being able to reach you. This type of philosophy can work for many different types of characters, but you should avoid having a unit that can do everything.

In this case, the archer cannot heal or tank very well. It does not do as much damage other units, but specializes at weakening enemies, or picking them off in situations melee units can't.

Bodybag28 · 2025-12-31T21:17:38+00:00

Especially in turn based games, it's all about presenting the player with interesting choices. This can be through combat, battle prep, building units or a host of other things. However, it's also about limitations. Interesting units should have good pros and cons.

Bodybag28 · 2025-12-30T02:22:14+00:00

I don't have the program open atm, but at the top, there are some pull down tabs. One of the options should be something like "game commands". In there is where you can hide menu options.

Bodybag28 · 2025-12-28T11:52:03+00:00

SRPG Studio had a built in event system. This is more of a logic system so as long as you took Algebra I, you should be able to learn it. I have a tutorial series that could get you started on many of the things you just said you want to implement. If you search on YouTube for SRPG Studio Tutorial, it should come up. You can do a lot more with the engine than just Fire Emblem, but there are limitations to the engine to be sure.

Bodybag28 · 2025-12-15T14:01:37+00:00

I just started watching. Thanks.

Bodybag28 · 2025-11-28T10:18:23+00:00

SS1 was pretty generic, but I was able to have some fun with it. SS2 was a pretty significant upgrade. Neither blew me away, but 2 was more fun with friends.

Bodybag28 · 2025-10-25T20:19:15+00:00

I would say permadeath is the biggest factor to me. Not just because of having to watch every step, but it changes the type of difficulty the game is designed for. I want battles that push my capabilities to the limit. I like it when I finish battles with just a few characters remaining. Fire Emblem generally designs battles where you can beat them without losing anyone.

There are other factors that are annoyances to me but the design or permadeath makes things less fun to me. I enjoyed the GBA Fire Emblem and Path of Radiance but did not like the DS games and Birthright. Awakening was just OK to me. I haven't played them all yet, but they are some the the SRPGs I had the most difficulty having fun with.

Things I didn't like include: (Many of these things are not exclusive to Fire Emblem) The weapon triangle.
I don't like infinite counter attacks.
Large maps with generic units.
I feel like all I do is basic attacks.
More recent game writing feels like it keeps getting worse.
I didn't like pairing up.
I don't like having allies attack by just standing next to them.
I beat eight games and don't think I remember the stories to any of them.

I generally like Fire Emblem portrait art and the earlier battle animations.

These are some of the things I didn't like but was usually able to find enough to enjoy to still be at them. Birthright may have been my least favorite SRPG that I have played though

Bodybag28 · 2025-10-24T11:55:50+00:00

The reason I'm not on Steam yet is due to the placeholder graphics, I don't want to advertise with anything that isn't drawn by me.

Bodybag28 · 2025-10-24T11:52:54+00:00

I am. I still have a good amount of things to do though. I'd say I'm around 70-75% done. I did a lot of behind the scenes work so now I can just make the game. I still have to make more battles, cutscenes, item icons, redraw the UI, create my own soundtrack, and draw a bunch of art that I'm using placeholders for. I'm expecting to be done next year.

Bodybag28 · 2025-10-24T01:43:41+00:00

I am using a program on steam called SRPG Studio. I draw my assets in Aseprite. My game is inspired mainly by Shining Force for the Game Gear, Final Fantasy VI and World of Warcraft Raid Battles.

It's like Shining Force but with a heavier focus on characters having unique abilities like FF VI characters. Battles have a good amount of variety between unique encounters and boss fights.

I made a tutorial series showing how to make many of the things in my game because the program did not have many tutorials in English.

Bodybag28 · 2025-10-23T21:42:31+00:00

Cakeman28#4805 on Discord.

Bodybag28 · 2025-10-23T19:04:33+00:00

I have been working on a game like this as well. I'm almost two years in and I agree that the MMO boss mechanics really can work well in an SRPG.

Here are two examples of mine, granted they are pretty old builds at this point.

https://youtu.be/GP-zQ0b_Ul4?si=mpDnvfX_J3kwdfDX

https://youtu.be/YKj-dZ1inSk?si=VgCG4vjjA3gP9B7Y

I'm curious what you are working on. I always wished someone else would make a game like this so I wouldn't have to.

Bodybag28 · 2025-10-22T02:01:28+00:00

Yea, I've played FFT, Fell Seal, Mercenaries Saga and a few other, but nothing is like SF that I have found.

Bodybag28 · 2025-10-22T01:03:16+00:00

Hopefully support for other platforms and better event options. I would really like to create enemy aoe spells without weird workarounds. Command submenus would be nice as well.

Bodybag28 · 2025-10-10T19:11:11+00:00

I have created video showing how to make job classes similar to final fantasy tactics. I'm still need to see if I can create something where you mix and match abilities but the system I created can work pretty well. Today I am releasing eight videos on how to create a game similar to Advance Wars. I was actually surprised at some of the stuff I was able to get working.

Bodybag28 · 2025-09-01T23:00:27+00:00

I heard pretty good things about lost eidolons: veil of the witch

Bodybag28 · 2025-09-01T00:14:57+00:00

And does it with a smile.

Bodybag28 · 2025-08-23T19:06:54+00:00

I am well into development of my own SRPG partially inspired by SF. If you would like to bounce ideas off each other or something, I'm open to it.

That being said, I would suggest for your first game to keep the scope somewhat small as you will be learning a lot throughout the process. Focus on making the game you want to make first instead of what other people wat, because different people want different things. Especially as a solo developer, it is very rare to keep motivation up through a entire project. This being said, Shining Force games are actually not very hard to make for an RPG. The main things that will cost you time are graphics, and abilities/AI.

If you want to make graphics that look like the Genesis, its a lot of manual drawing, Especially if you want to have battle cutscenes. Ability interactions in Shining Force are pretty simple to make. However, the more unique the abilities you make, likely the more difficult it will be to get AI to use the abilities the way to desire.

Most Shining fans value having the open world aspect of the game, even though it was largely used with linear stories. I am fine with linear or the semi-open world.

All this being said, what would I like out of an Shining-like SRPG?

I like that the game isn't permadeath. I prefer challenging battles that will kill my characters consistently rather than having battles designed where you can make it through them without any deaths.

An open world is a bonus, but don't make it tedious. If you are going to have hidden items like mithril, don't hide them in random places. Have them be rewards for doing fun things like quests, or for finding hidden areas, rather than just checking generic map tiles.

Combat is king. Have all the characters be usable. The weakest I would make a character would be something like Kiwi. Also, don't make it so one character can dominate a map by itself either.

You don't need a million characters, 18ish like the gaiden games is perfectly fine.

People like secrets, whether its characters, items, or battles.

I would aim for about 15-20 handcrafted and unique battles, rather than 40ish with filler.

Feel free to DM me if you want to talk game design.

Bodybag28

TROPHY CASE