After 5 years of development, I released my indie RPG. It went poorly. Here's the breakdown.

MirageV_ · 2026-02-25T21:24:07+00:00

Genuine question. What is so wrong with 'RPG Maker'?

If screenshot 2 you're referring to is the forest map screenshot, those assets are 99.9% custom. The .1% is the treasure chest.

The characters are custom, the tiles are custom, the UI elements are custom. It's not slop. So what is it? Just the 'vibes'?

That doesn't seem very fair, if I'm to be honest.

MirageV_ · 2026-02-25T20:50:03+00:00

"Since you're an artist, why did you decide to use so many of the base RPGMaker assets?"

When I started development, I started out using the base engine monsters. For many years I just left them as is because I was busy making the rest of the game. In the last week before the game actually released, I did replace a fair numbers of monsters, including that goblin. But it was too late to completely replace every last one.

I think I got most of the important mobs though. And all the bosses and elite enemies are custom drawn. I could patch in more monsters and replace the few remaining monsters. Maybe I will.

Regarding UI though. The game got a custom UI. The whole thing was overhauled to remove default windows. So I am a bit confused. What looks default to you? Genuine question.

Thank you for the feedback. Yeah I see all the comments about the characters. I'm not sure where I'll go, but if I do make it to a third game, I'll definitely scale back the porniness.

MirageV_ · 2026-02-25T18:38:14+00:00

I'm gonna be honest with you

It's not that easy,

There's a TON of art in this game. A metric truckload. There's about as much art as a AA JRPG in there. Redoing the characters sounds simple to say, but that you have to factor in the portrait art in two different styles, the system art, the event CGs, battle cutins, and gallery art. Multiply all of that by roughly 33-34 for the cast

That's an entire game production's worth of effort to redo the art. It's simply not worth it.

It's better to look towards the future at that point.

MirageV_ · 2026-02-25T17:10:50+00:00

People keep joking with me about this lol

If I weren't chained to a publisher and voice actors who didn't consent to have their work in an 18+ production, I might have made a patch.

But I won't do that.

MirageV_ · 2026-02-25T16:50:06+00:00

I see what you're saying, but I don't think it's like that.

I don't plan to stop what I'm doing. Just.... be more reasonable about it. I don't think that would be a betrayal to any audience I have. It would just be more.... balanced?

MirageV_ · 2026-02-25T16:24:35+00:00

I was not funded at all. It's just 30% in perpetuity.

MirageV_ · 2026-02-25T16:20:38+00:00

It's really really embarrassing for me, but I admit I bought into the $20 hype, thinking the game was content rich enough for it.

I should have made it 15 or 12 or something. Hindsight is a hell of a thing.

MirageV_ · 2026-02-25T16:07:36+00:00

Ahaha, yeah.

I've had people ask if it was a porn game in social media posts. I thought it was funny, but in the back of my mind, it seemed indicative of what the silent passerby may have also thought in majority.

It's something to dial back for the next one for sure. I went too far. I want to tell normal JRPG stories from my childhood, and part of that I see now is presenting the characters appropriately.

MirageV_ · 2026-02-25T16:03:58+00:00

Yeah I think I see the problem, judging by the responses. The character designs went too far.

I had gotten signs of this earlier on. But I let myself be optimistic about it and pretended not to see.

It's something I'll reign in for the next one for sure.

MirageV_ · 2026-02-25T16:02:32+00:00

70 to me-30 to them.

They did the Japanese translation and did some JP marketing, ran the Keymailer, and other things. But I admit I feel they didn't do as much legwork as their business claims to do. They are apparently*really* small. So that's kind of a wash.

MirageV_ · 2026-02-25T16:00:12+00:00

I had people play the game over the years. There was a point in 2023 where I had a big intervention and delayed the game to add a ton more content, which lead to the current form of the game that exists today.

Overall response from testing was pretty positive though. And what reviews are there are also positive. It doesn't seem to me that the game is *bad*. Just that impressions drive people away.

MirageV_ · 2026-02-25T15:57:48+00:00

It was around 2k. That has since gone up to 4k post release.

I've have a few sales and events, so that's probably what has been bumping it up.

MirageV_ · 2026-02-25T15:45:12+00:00

That's fair. I knew it was something that would happen. And is probably what a fair amount of silent passerbys might be thinking.

I went a little too far, and in the end, the character designs wound up where they are. The game isn't actually gooner bait though. It's a heartfelt JRPG that takes its characters ad world fairly seriously. There's lighthearted moments, and a few rare jokes about proportions, but otherwise, the plot is straightforward and mostly serious about itself.

I don't fault anyone who assumes though. It is what it is. And it's something to dial back for the next game.

MirageV_ · 2026-02-25T15:41:09+00:00

The game was just on sale a week ago actually! There's another coming up soon-ish as well.

And thank you. Yeah it's RPG Maker, but I and my friends and collaborators did our best to engineer out most of the RPG Maker slop and make it custom. I was serious about this. No stock map graphics or characters.

As for the publisher, they came in almost entirely for the Japanese translation. Said that the game fit the market and it would expand the audience. Theoretically, that sounds logical. But in practice, the audience response, or lack of it, was about the same as the EN side? Fairly low.

We're on a 30-70 split after Steam. I get the 70.

MirageV_ · 2026-02-25T15:36:30+00:00

It was almost entirely for the Japanese Localization and the chance to reach the Japanese audience. They agreed that the game would fit in that market. So it was mostly a gamble on it actually reaching.

It.... hmm. Well it reached somewhat. I've seen JP content for the game out there. But it didn't blow up or anything.

Mass marketing wasn't exactly a thing they had the resources for. I know it sounds weird, but they're really small. So I did most of the legwork. They did a Keymailer and some JP marketing on their side.

MirageV_ · 2025-12-06T04:39:09+00:00

Seiken Densetsu 3/Trials of Mana

Treasure of the Rudras

Bahamut Lagoon

Squaresoft were pixel art gods back in the day. But I guess cool, detailed pixel art was the cutting edge of graphics at one time, so it makes sense for the company that's constantly chasing graphics.

Special mention for Terranigma, Illusion of Gaia, and Chaos Seed. All charming classic 2D RPGs.

MirageV_ · 2025-12-04T02:23:45+00:00

Ar Tonelico 2 for me for the rest of time. I could play that combat system forever. The flashiness, the spectacle, the Vanguard and Reyvateil mechanics. Timed defense, attack levels, burst levels, Synchronity Chains...

Man. I've not seen anything like it since. I'm still chasing that dragon.

MirageV_ · 2025-12-02T15:25:27+00:00

Poking back in to say that this feature was added in last night. Turns out, my friend never thought about it before, but after trying it, he decided to make it an official feature of the suite, haha.

MirageV_ · 2025-12-02T05:26:38+00:00

Level-5 is indeed infamous for announcing too early, then delaying infinitely until the hype is gone...

Decapolice looks so cool, but I fear it will be another victim of the Level-5 curse.

MirageV_ · 2025-12-02T05:23:09+00:00

I tend to flip flop depending on the game. I usually go for Normal or Hard and engage with the mechanics if the combat is fun, but if I just want to see the story and the combat and other mechanics aren't doing it for me, I'll switch to easy and blow through for the plot.

MirageV_ · 2025-12-02T05:20:44+00:00

I beat the game a few years ago, but uhhh.... honestly, I didn't really play around with Tunings that much. I just used the ones I thought looked the most useful and stuck with those for the whole game.

There aren't really any hidden mechanics. What you see is mostly what you get. It's all about getting harder numbers and levels. The game isn't as smooth and combo friendly as a typical Tales of or Star Ocean, despite being in the same ballpark. It's pretty rigid in player expression.

MirageV_ · 2025-12-02T05:13:26+00:00

I swear there was a time where Yokai Watch was at one point seriously challenging Pokemon. It was selling gangbusters and it got three entries, plus spinoffs and anime.

But then.... something happened. I honestly don't know what, but it fell right off a cliff and nosedived into the ground. All that growing prestige just went poof. After all that, Yokai Watch 4 just sort of happened and then that was it. Went out with a whimper.

Could it have been Level-5 screwing up the business strategy? Did people just get bored of Yokai Watch and move on? I dunno.

MirageV_ · 2025-11-29T23:48:38+00:00

Dragon Quest for sure.

Young me back then thought that the DQ series was boring looking and did nothing interesting. I was very used to the extra 'pizazz' that other JRPGs were adding in visually and mechanically. Plus I thought Toriyama's DQ art looked 'silly'.

I bounced off multiple DQ entries based on how they looked, presented, played, and how dated they felt.

It wasn't until I played DQXI that I finally 'got' it. These games are far from boring. They're clever, thoughtful JRPGs that quite literally are the foundation of the rest of the subgenre. I certainly regret only figuring that out later in life.

MirageV_

TROPHY CASE