Any tips for a new rpgmaker dev who wants to make a wg horror game

General Discussion
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Some pitfalls I’ve dug myself out of that might come in handy:

  • RPG Maker recommends you using $ in front of large sprites, but you actually can use the regular sprite notation as long as you place them all in the same 2x4 format. You can make the sprites as big as you want, but I wouldn’t recommend going more than 2-3x the normal size since the tiles still go by 48x48 pixels for collision and interactions. Only use $ for odd sized sprites you can’t put into groups of 8.
  • Whenever you’re making cutscenes, ‘skip if cannot move’ is your best friend. Check that box every time you set an event’s movement route during an autorun event or you’re going to make a mistake somewhere (And believe me you will make many) and then the game is gonna lock and be completely unplayable.
  • In addition to the above, don’t forget to set a switch to turn the autorun event off after it’s done what you want it to do or it will just repeat endlessly. What I usually do is create a second completely blank event page triggered to the action button on the condition of one of the self switches, which I turn on at the end of the autorun event. EDIT: If you want to make an autorun event that plays every time you enter a room, use Erase Event instead.
  • EDIT: Just in general, use Erase Event if you want to temporarily get rid of an event until the next time you enter the room. Use a blank event page if you want to permanently get rid of an event.
  • You have to word wrap text boxes manually in Show Text. I recommend typing out all the text as normal after choosing a face icon but before adding icons and different colors to the text itself because those are going to throw off the guide line and make it useless.
  • You’re going to want to think carefully about how you want to organize your variables and switches right at the beginning because it is going to be a pain in the ass to switch them around later. I usually start with an x, y and z variable right at the beginning to store things temporarily, like randomizers and math stuff.
  • There are a bunch of third party plug-ins to make your game more interesting or generally improve the quality of life of both you and the player. Most of these ask you to give them a free copy of your game if you use them, but it might be in their best interest if you refrain from informing them that you’re using their code to make fetish smut.
  • Anytime you use Show Picture, the picture you show will stay on the screen forever until you either use Erase Picture or use Show Picture again to change it to something else.
  • You can use Set Movement Route to temporarily change an event’s sprite, handy for a WG game, but it will revert to it’s previous sprite as soon as you leave the room. Either make sure the sprite updates every time you enter that room, or use seperate event pages controlled by variables to determine which sprite to use. For the Player Character, use Change Actor Images instead.
  • If you use a Transfer Player event activated by Player Touch, make sure it’s opposite Transfer event drops the player 1 space away from the Player Touch event instead of right on top of it. This lets the player easily go back if they didn’t mean to enter a new room. For example, you put a player transfer event on a door that the player didn’t realize was a door and they accidentally open it when checking out the room. The player’s immediate reaction will be to go back down to continue checking the previous room, but because you placed them directly on a Player Touch Transfer event, the game won’t send them back to the room they were in. They would have to get off the Player Touch event and get back on to activate it, which is unintuitive and frustrating for the player.
  • On that note, be careful not to place Player Touch Transfer events so that a player can hit more than one by holding down a move key. For example, the player has a room entrance to their west and upon hitting the player entrance, the transfer places them next to another Transfer Player event to their west. That means if the player holds down the left movement key while moving from room to room, they will pass through both Transfer Events and completely skip an entire room, not even noticing it was there in the first place.

I hope you find these helpful.

EDIT: Funnily enough, Surviving has a very good example of those last two points on its very first two screens. If you take the bottom exit towards the wasteland at the start of a new day, it drops you directly on top of the right transfer point on the next screen and directly right of the left transfer point. That means if you hold down the left movement key when taking the bottom transfer point, it immediately spits you back out to the homestead and you have just wasted a time unit and you can’t immediately go back to the wasteland like you intended because it drops you directly onto the transfer point to get there.

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Thank you for the advice. Do you know what would be a good balance of wg smut and horror for a supernatural horror? (might put a little lovecraftian genre in it)

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Honestly, I’d say just make what you think feels right. There was this Korean artist who went by J8867bbw that did some cool rpgmaker wg horror games if you’re looking for inspiration, but I always felt their games ran too short and the wg elements were too rushed, going from skinny to blob in seconds. Then again, my favorite game on this site is Tiggertoo’s The Weighting Game, so I might not be the best judge when it comes to pacing.

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Start with a story that you want to tell first and foremost. What elements does the horror emanate from? From a story perspective, this fetish can shoulder horror elements quite well: force feeding; hard vore; gore and the grotesque; monstrous transformations; the manipulation, subversion and loss of will and control. And this is on top of all the more standard tropes that prey on player fears.

Horror games play on three key, persistent elements: 1) Ratcheting Tension, 2) The Unexpected & 3) Loss of Control. All monsters, blood and general freakery is just window dressing for your story but if you want the player to actually feel horror then you will dip into these three. How you interpret and utilise them is down to you; there’s no hard or fast answers here as the use of these will entirely depend on the story.

Do you want the player to be a psycho feeder that toys with their victims, stuffing them cruelly in bizarre experiments? Of flip the scenario, what about a terrified captive trying to survive a twisted situation or trying to save a helpless captive strapped to some monstrous feeding machine? A normal scenario that takes a creeping & imperceptible descent, or a sudden & violent lurch, into the bizarre? Big grotesque spectacles or small insidious details that fester in the player’s mind well after playing.

Erotica and horror are bedfellows at the end of the day based on how both prey on similar stimulations, however it is made trickier by the virtues of both being a game (where players having so much agency or repeated play can rob tension out of a scene) and one that caters to a niche erotic interest - done poorly and you’ll have a game that’s neither sexy nor horrific. This is why it is important to plan out a good story or premise.

It needn’t be a full narrative. For a quick, simple game you may just need an appropriately weighted premise. There was ages back on a site called Stuffedonline a simple Hangman game with the situation being that of a cute anthro lab mouse being forcibly fed whilst wearing a Saw-esque jaw contraption as part of an experiment. Each wrong answer led to her consuming ever more pies and the situation becoming ever more distressing for the mouse (and maybe even the player, haha).

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I was going to have the player character entered a mansion they were invited to, but find it dark and abandonned, soon to find both Bloated looking human creatures trying to stuff her and some trying to eat her to satisfy their hunger. I think “House of the Fed” is a good name for it.
Also, should I use the Mp and Hp as different kinds of health.

Ps:can I borrow that Psycho feeder idea hopefully in the future.

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Sounds like really neat game.

I’d definitely spend some time getting acquainted with RPG Maker if you haven’t already; I found the tutorial super helpful myself.

A lot of the rest is up to your personal preference and what you want to focus on. You could put a lot of time into making elaborate, maze-like maps if you wanted to focus on exploration. If you wanted to focus on the weight gain aspect, there’s a lot of resources for sprite creation and editing out there.

Concerning your MP/HP question, it sounds like there’s going to be a significant amount of combat to this game. You should probably begin by figuring out how you want combat to work with the Lovecraftian horror theme you’re going for; how do you plan on making the fights scary or unsettling?

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Thank you for the advice. I honestly wasn’t thinking of adding fights(could change in the future) but having different health management and enemies. I still need to learn about drawing to make the designs better, hope I actually finish this project.

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Whilst I know nothing about coding, I can give you some advice about the story and visuals themselves

Wether your going for a lighter or darker horror, the things to consider are: tension, atmosphere, threat, sounds, setting, motive and character

Tension is what drives the audiences fear, “it’s not the bang that gets them, but the anticipation of it”, so I would suggest leaving breadcrumbs at first for the player to find, giving them hints to what may happen if they’re caught and flashing the main threat in security tapes or audio logs (probably won’t work that well with gamemaker, but its still something to consider).

Building the atmosphere is doing more then just littering the ground in blood, adding otherworldly elements and bizarre occurrences is more then enough for the player to be on edge. As an example, if the game was about a manic that would force feed people until they pop, you would have subtle machine whirs, echo’s of loud bangs, people screaming then suddenly getting muffled as part of the ambience

Don’t reveal the threat too early, let the first two do their job and build up the encounter, the trick is to let it simmer in the mise en scene, and when it is revealed, let the encounter set up everything after, (personal add: i personally think giving the main threat glowing eyes helps establish what the audience should think about them and also allows for some more unique stuff when the full character isn’t visible)

Sounds help build and influence what the player should feel or think at any giving time, but the lack of it, can sometimes do way more

Setting helps way more then you would think, the setting helps build to the main threats reason for being there and demonstrates how big of a threat they are, going back to the previous example, if the setting was an insane asylum, the player would be left wondering how they got a hold of all that food, leaving the play feel unsatisfied at any reason you give them, however if the location was instead a run down food factory, the player won’t double guess the reasons due to the location. Time of day, the overall quality of the area and its population

a villians motive can be the deal breaker in most cases, having an excuse like, “because I can” or “they all deserve this” is well overdone, so in this case I’d consider either have the threat be a popaphile, or his victims being into overstuffing and him just going too far.

Lastly, both the main character and the villain need to have strong yet flexible personalities to work both independently and together, such as both of them being polar opposites of each other, like the protagonist being a person who has an utter distain for anything fetish related (think demoman from the 15.ai videos) while the antagonist is a festish fuelled murderer. Doing this allows both characters to naturally develop a conflict thanks to their beliefs.

Again, whilst non of this relates to coding, If you’d like any help with writing the story or any art work, I’m available to help

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not-sure-if-you-are-me-or-i-am-you

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Yeah, it really sucks having to settle with rpgmaker character maker for a while. v_v

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WG Horror is a tough concept to crack all in all. Generally speaking Ero-Horror is kind of niche and usually more for “horrific” kinks, non-con, guro, etc. This is because combining the ero and the horror is pretty easy, due to the subject matter.

I think to adequately make a proper horror game out of a weight gain fetish game, you’ll want to do one of a few things. To avoid creating an experience that has sudden jumps in tone.

  1. Focus on the horror part of weight gain. What makes it miserable for your protagonist. Make it uncomfortable. I cannot think of a particularly good example of this honestly.
  2. Separate the horror and the fetish parts, this brings it’s own issues, but remove weight gain from the equation as a negative thing. Include areas that are particularly “safe” so that it’s more understandable when something is meant to be scary, or enticing. This still has some issues with the tone, but yeah.
  3. Don’t make it explicitly about being scary, but instead make it more of a haunted house “horror themed” romp. I would say JBBW’s games fall under this category, as none of them are particularly scary, but tend to have horror elements as their set dressing.

Rpgmaker is also a somewhat limiting software, I don’t think it lends itself to true in the moment scares, the best it can do is present horrific ideas, story, and horrific imagery, the art. Think about the intent of your project and the skills required to make it, compare it with your own, and see what you need to focus on.

On the topic of art, I think consistency is going to be key in setting mood and tone. Either picking the right assets that match together well, or making new ones yourself to force consistency. You can of course separate certain parts of the style. Many games use default tilesets but have unique portrait art and cg art. Some Bullshit is a great example of this. A big reason I think that having a consistent style is that strong horror can be drawn of when you break that style. (Link warning for unsettling imagery?)

Anyway yeah! Other than that I have some really basic general project advice. Work on it a little everyday if you can, don’t berate yourself too much if you miss a day or don’t get much done, revel in your victories to keep your momentum going. Do not share too much, the desire to share your work is strong as a motivator, keeping your work in progress to yourself can help your forward momentum, only share when you feel you have enough behind you already.

Work with others if you feel like it would help out. There’s no harm in asking for help, and sometimes working with others can be a positive experience. Just try not to rely exclusively on the help of others, sometimes plans fall through and you might be left with partial work, that’s alright, just pick up where things were left off.

I hope this long post is at least a little insightful, I’m no project master or anything, but I like to pitch in my two cents when I feel like I can. Take it all with a grain of salt, I try to write with confidence but if you disagree with me, by all means do it your way. I hope to see your game in the future!

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That’s actually what makes RPGMaker a decent software for this: you have to rely on using the atmosphere in the game.
A pitfall of most anything in the horror genre is an over reliance on jumpscares, which can become cheap and boring very quickly if overdone.
If you’ve heard of Subnautica - which isn’t a RPGMaker game but bear with me here - that game is more of exploration and crafting type, yet part of its appeal is that borrows various horror tropes, the non-scripted ones, to unsettle the player. It’s a good example of horror done right in a non-horror game.
There are predators and unknown entities that could do you in, you have no real means of defending yourself, and they are ever present on the planet. This all makes your quest to escape the planet that much harder.
Some are similar to sharks and other mundane things on Earth, things we’re familiar with, yet we have these large monstrosities that are aptly given the term “leviathan” within their name. Big enough to chomp you in one bite if you’re out in the open.
Even some of the smaller threats can scare and incite terror: there’s a threat that’s small as your hand in game yet if you get too close, they start hypnotizing you while you hear the voice of the helpful AI in game beckoning you to swim closer to it. The whole scenario disturbs you as your attempts to escape are proven more difficult than should be: you can’t turn away, it’s harder than usual to swim the opposite direction, and that threat is getting closer because you’re swimming closer to it. The creature eventually bites you, but that one bite takes out enough health to be worrisome.
But it’s not the wildlife beasts that are scariest, oh no. What kept me from exploring to more distant locations was the uncertainty; you couldn’t see too far in the depths of the water, any threat could come out of nowhere, and the silence only being broken by the roars of a monster didn’t help my hesitation and anxiety at times.
Another heart pounding factor was how the survival mechanics that you’d find in any exploration game played a role: in a creepy cavern with “grim-looking snake things” that you’re trying to avoid? Better keep an eye on your air so that doesn’t do you in.
Going on an expedition across a large, unexplored part of the map to a small island? Better pack more than provisions, because the only resources for base building are near one of the apex predators of the planet, dubbed the “Reaper Leviathan”. And so on, so forth.
Using the scenes and sound in your game to create a sense of unease and fear is a better strategy than in the moment scares in the long run, as one uses the players own fears to incite a sense of dread, while the other can become predictable if it’s the only thing that’s supposed to scare.
Another thing that’s unrelated, one movie that’s a good inspiration as well is the classic Predator movie. What makes the horror in the movie work is that you have these men who are proven to be trained soldiers who are badass at their roles, yet as the movie goes on, we go from a typical action movie, to a hint that there’s something not right, to a confirmation that they are out classed and outgunned by an unknown, alien threat, to a horror-thriller as these trained professionals are now fighting for their lives against this menace.
Resident Evil 1 is a game that does this concept similarly with the same success. The protagonists are more than capable against any other threat that normal civilians wouldn’t handle, yet this threat is one that goes well outside their jurisdiction.
Of course, I’m not saying that horror stories with characters who aren’t military soldiers are inferior protagonists either. They work when they aren’t made to be dumb just so that they can die. No one wants a character who’s an idiot for the sake of plot, like choosing to split up when there’s a dangerous murderer running around or deciding to go down the obviously dark area where the murderer might be lurking. We are all human, but that does not mean all humans are morons either.

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Me again, this might be something that you’re looking for. Granted, this depends on what version you’re using.
Horror Effects plugin for RPG Maker MV by Olivia (itch.io)

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I’m not sure what kind of gameplay you’re going for, but with the premise of being trapped in a house with monsters, I’d avoid large amounts of direct combat. Unless you want to have a focus on resource management (think of the classic resident evil games, 1 and 2 specifically, where concerns about running out of healing items and ammo was half of the horror). If you’re looking for inspiration, the original Japanese released only Clock Tower could be worth a look, especially if you go for a low combat type of game.

When it comes to humanoid designs, generally go for things like: missing noses, missing ears, all pupil eyes without any eye glint, bald or patchy hair, misplaced or multiple mouths, jaws that stretch to the ground, barely unnatural skin colors like a darker pink, skin that’s oily or very rough and bumpy etc. Sprite animations during cutscenes could slowed down or speed up (or alternate between both for a jerky look) to just the right speeds to look unnatural.

Audio is extremely important for building suspense and dread. Footsteps and bangs in the distance are classics, but with this fetish more organic sound effects like squelching, stomach churning sounds, soft pounding (like excess flesh flopping onto something), lip smacking, chewing, deep long but quiet belches etc.

Last thing I have to say is in regards to lighting. It’s not just about making things dark, it’s more about how you contrast the light and the dark. White and black isn’t the only colors that can be used either, blues, reds, oranges, and purple are very effective as well. You will want to use a plugin for more dynamic lighting, otherwise you will only be tinting the entire screen one color. For examples I would suggest watching “The Thing” and, as strange as it sounds, the latter two original Wallace and Grommit shorts for examples of lighting that would work for horror.

I hope this helps, if you have any questions feel free to send me a message.

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So, I know this thread is kind of old, but I figured I’d chip in anyway since other folks might pop in here for tips.

For RPG Maker, I strongly recommend reading Yanfly’s game design comics. They mainly cover how to make a dungeon crawler RPG, but there’s a decent bit of advice (specifically pertaining to map wrangling and databasing) that can be useful in any project.

And from personal experience with game design, the best advice I can give is to think small. A lot of novice gamemakers end up in the pitfall of trying to make things Big - a big game because that’s what they’re used to, a really complicated project with lots of features, or a big map with tons of space because it’s more realistic. The problem with this mindset is that it can easily lead to a project becoming unmanageably large, features that are badly implemented and/or don’t add anything to the story, or in the case of maps, they just end up visually unappealing and/or difficult to navigate. On the other hand, a small project is both easier to manage, and easier to make good without doing a ton of work. Not all your projects have to be tiny, of course, but it’s a good idea to at least start tiny for your first few attempts, then as you get a feel for RPG Maker and a stronger idea of what you want to create, you can start adding more length and complexity until you figure out where your comfort zone is.

Another thing I’d suggest, especially if you aren’t confident making your own art, is to use the SHIT out of the free resources made by the RPG Maker community. There’s a ton of stuff out there that’s completely free to use, and I’ve found in many cases that if I need some weird niche thing that the RTP just isn’t providing, someone out there has already made it. You can find a ton of resources on the RPG Maker forums, and there are several other sites that have tiles, characters, etc.

If you’re planning on using RTP and/or RTP-like graphics but creating your own characters, I would also recommend picking up Schlangan’s Extended Character Generator. It’s a more robust version of the built-in character generator, and it lets you do things like adding multiple elements from the same layer (e.g. multiple accessories), importing resources without having to rename them manually so that they don’t overwrite the default resources, and using parts on any character regardless of gender/age.

So those are my tips. I don’t have much experience to share in the way of making horror games, since that’s not really my forte, but it seems like these other folks have got you covered in that department.

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A new question before I reignite my motivation for game deving:Should I have one protag or let the player choose one of four protags?

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I was about to link to a previous post I had on the topic of horror in gaming, only to realise this is the same thread from years back. :joy:

The post in question

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Lmao, sometimes it do be like that.

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If you have problems with motivation, I’d just go with one. if you had to choose 4, that’s a lot of extra work you’d need to do. Dialogue and art for sure, but then other things to make them more distinct like skillsets if you would want, would also have to be done.

it could go the other way too though, like if you get bored of the one character you have, it might sap motivation as well. Go with what you think will happen.

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It depends on how invested you want the player to be with the character. Depending on how the story or gameplay shakes out, you may finding your horror game protagonists being… disposable… so for some games it becomes less about the individual character themselves and more of a broad archetype or role that they play. Think of games where you play as characters defined simply by their namesakes - The Knight, The Doctor, The Jock etc.

If you want to do a deeper, more personal dive then you want to devote yourself to a single character to get the most emotional investment and attachment from the player.

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