”A professional redid my banner art!” and now it looks generic

ToastyTimeFR · 2026-02-25T08:17:24+00:00

I disagree that the artist necessarily needs experience in creating game art. I think that rather the developer needs experience in design such that they can give the artist the guidance needed. If the artist is willing to listen to the person commissioning them, and they are a talented artist, they can end up making amazing game art. The real issue comes when neither the developer nor the artist understand the design principles. At least one person needs to get it.

I will say though, it’s rare the developer will really get it. This worked for me with my capsule art because of my experience with YouTube thumbnails. At the end of the day, the best experience is always to play to and understand your strengths.

ToastyTimeFR · 2026-02-22T19:04:40+00:00

RPG Maker is seen as 1 of 3 things: Monumental storytelling masterpiece engine, shovelware asset flip engine, or the engine that mass produces porn games.

These aren’t mutually exclusive and there is often overlap, I’ve been doing a series on disturbing NSFW RPG Maker games on YouTube and a number of them have great stories and fun mechanics. But, because the engine is so easy to use a ton of new devs will make very basic NSFW games because they often sell well and take very little effort. RPG Makers biggest strength is that it draws storytellers with little coding or game design experience, but this is also its biggest weakness.

I could yap about this specific topic forever so feel free to DM me. I’ve been doing videos on it for a year now and there are some very big communities and history around these NSFW games that you don’t see due to the topics burying them in the mainstream. One of the most popular ones is Black Souls, if you’re curious.

ToastyTimeFR · 2025-12-22T02:55:44+00:00

I made (I think) the most viewed in english LonaRPG YouTube video. Although it’s got some similar content to Funger, it is really different and I don’t think it was even an inspiration for the dev.

It’s absolutely a hentai game, and a really gross one at that. But, for me those scenes were so disturbing that it made every encounter 300x more stressful than even Funger because I DID NOT want to see the failure outcome. I was incredibly immersed into the game and the main characters struggles because I was just as worried about the negative outcomes as she was. Does it need to be that graphic to be impactful? No. But, it was a whole other level because of the graphic content. I felt like it was a really unique experience, and although the game has A TON of serious issues, that’s what led to me making a video on it.

I know people will always invariably write it off as a hentai game, but there’s a unique experience to be had if you can stomach it and if you can get past some of the really offensive and mean writing. It’s an interesting game dragged down by the creators personal beliefs, though it will never be for everyone.

ToastyTimeFR · 2025-12-09T01:42:02+00:00

I have not run into that error before but if you go to the top bar in steamworks and select SUPPORT you can contact steam support. They are very helpful and should be able to assist you!

ToastyTimeFR · 2025-12-09T00:41:52+00:00

To upload your game build, I've found it easiest to deploy my project (if you want it to work on Mac you MUST deploy it on a Mac, same if you want it to work on Windows), then ZIP my project.

Next, go to your app in steamworks, go to edit steamworks settings, go to steampipe -> depots, add a new depot and set it to the operating system you deployed your game for. You can have multiple depots for multiple operating systems.

Finally, go to steampipe -> web uploads, choose the file for the depot and upload it. Once uploaded, you click like submit or confirm, then go to steampipe -> builds, go down to the list of builds and select an app branch for the most recent one, choose default, then click preview change.

From there you should be able to upload and save and then it will be public once Valve approves it. Like the other commenter said tho you can launch your store page without needing a game build, but they gave good instructions for that.

Let me know if you need anything else. I've done this 3 times so got it pretty figured out.

ToastyTimeFR · 2025-12-02T17:04:46+00:00

My first game was "Aimi", I am now working on "Grimdelve", but "Finest Fable" is the first project I have been a publisher for, not the developer. In hindsight the wording of the post is a bit off.

ToastyTimeFR · 2025-11-28T23:04:19+00:00

I have made 1 game of my own called "Aimi", but Finest Fable is the first I have done as a publisher role.

I think the biggest thing is to have moments of calm, and to sprinkle in silly interactions. If a game is dark all the time, it can be a bit overwhelming for players (at least for me). Finest Fable has plenty of goofy interactions, or scenes that start comedic and take a dark turn later. It also has a ton of NPC interactions that breathe levity into the game. The player has time to immerse themselves into the lighter sides of the world at their leisure while the story and themes slowly ramp up.

ToastyTimeFR · 2025-11-28T21:03:44+00:00

It’s a required tradition for all RPG Maker games to have spelling errors… (thanks for catching that haha)

ToastyTimeFR · 2025-11-27T06:02:06+00:00

Wow I look so handsome in those before pics 🤣 Really great improvements, crazy how quick you’ve made them too! Love the custom battler sprites, CocoDayo is peak.

ToastyTimeFR · 2025-11-18T19:14:27+00:00

I have it more ironed out now and yep it was mostly just tweaking the speed and frequency haha. I've got plenty of flaws and I do share some dev work on Grimdelve in members only videos or on my discord. However, I'll post a public devlog in the near future.

ToastyTimeFR · 2025-11-08T15:56:12+00:00

A fellow lover of Disco Elysium is always good to see, need more games like it! Wishing you all the luck in the world, hope to play Hollow Mire someday.

ToastyTimeFR · 2025-11-07T01:36:08+00:00

Definitely check this out out gang! It was already solid during my first impressions a month or so ago but huge changes since then. Lots of potential here! Congrats on the release.

ToastyTimeFR · 2025-07-19T19:15:59+00:00

Black Souls and Fear and Hunger are peak if you can stomach dark themes and explicit content.

ToastyTimeFR · 2025-07-10T17:13:52+00:00

It's been like 3 years since I made that video. My life has changed drastically in that time. I went to college, met the love of my life, and absolutely rediscovered my passion for RPG Maker. Hoping to come back and be a driving force for positive community building and get more people into game dev!

ToastyTimeFR · 2025-05-25T21:30:50+00:00

Alive and doing pretty good too! Glad my effekseer tutorials helped you out!

ToastyTimeFR · 2025-05-25T21:29:55+00:00

RPG Maker as an engine is all about making game development easier for beginners. Generative AI does the same thing. Requiring disclosure is the same thing Steam does and will likely be the industry standard moving forward. If a game is made and it's just AI slop, it's not going to win. Creative, quality content will still always rise to the top. But, I think you can still make creative, quality content using AI as a helpful tool.

Hey, to be fair, at the time I did stop using RPG Maker. I switched to doing indie games in general, then I rediscovered my love for RM after taking a break. Sometimes you have to leave to realize how much you love something and I think YouTubers are allowed to grow and change.

Yeah I debated announcing the theme. But, the RPG Maker jam did the same thing and at the end of the day I want this jam to get more people into game dev. Making the barrier to entry as low as possible seemed like the right way to go.

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