Are you interested in making your own role-playing game (RPG)? In this section, I will be adding articles and tutorials to help you make games like some of your favorite RPGs, with focus for now on turn-based games such as Final Fantasy and Pokemon.
We are putting together a self-paced online course about programming role-playing games (RPGs) in Java, with a mixture of free and paid content. We are asking for feedback and contact info, if you’re interested in enrolling. To send feedback and be notified about when the class is ready, please fill out this form.
Articles
Why Is It So Hard to Program RPGs?
RPGs are one of the most complicated game genres to program, especially for new developers. But what makes it so difficult? The first step to developing an RPG is understanding what goes into programming one.
The Importance of Randomness in RPGs
Randomness is a critical element in RPGs. In this article, we take a look at the many ways that random numbers impact RPGs.
RPG Design Choices: Objective Systems
Many RPGs have vast worlds to explore, with lots of quests, items, monsters, and other things to discover. So at any given time, how does the player know what to do next?
Data Structures in RPGs: Arrays
Arrays are a common data structure in many programming languages. This article is a brief overview of arrays and how they can be applied to RPGs.
Data Structures in RPGs: Lists
When we discussed arrays, we also briefly mentioned lists, a similar data structure. This article is a brief overview of lists and how they can be applied to RPGs.
Data Structures in RPGs: Sets
We now discuss sets, a data structure that only contains unique items. This article is a brief overview of sets and how they can be applied to RPGs.
Data Structures in RPGs: Associative Arrays
We now discuss associative arrays, a data structure that stores key/value pairs. This article is a brief overview of associative arrays and how they can be applied to RPGs.
Data Structures in RPGs: Stacks
We now discuss stacks, an ordered collection that adds to and removes from the top of the structure. This article is a brief overview of stacks and how they can be applied to RPGs.
Tutorials
RPG Tutorial: Text-Based Yo-Kai Watch Lottery in Java
In this tutorial, we’ll discuss how to implement a text-based lottery system/game similar to the one in some of the Yo-kai Watch games.
){kind=link}