Today I opened RPG Maker VX Ace and had no clue what I was doing. When I closed the engine, I had slightly more of a clue. Still, slightly more of a clue is better than none at all!
This may be a weird connection, but so far RPG Maker reminds me of RenPy...in that it starts out very confusing and bewildering, but once you start actually hammering stuff out it starts to come to you. I already have the two main characters (one generated, one a default villainous NPC option that looked enough like a robot to me, granted its a far cry from the cutesy wheeled baby boy I had in mind but I honestly kind of like totes-not-haunted-armor-man better), some edited items/classes/movesets (admittedly, i'm keeping it simple for my first project and sticking with a lot of defaults (i do not even WANT to attempt important custom sprites at this stage!), but i did want to spice up some stuff just to see if i could), a first map, and the start of a menu (kind of want it to be red and a different font, surely thats possible). So I got a nice little base set up!
Tomorrow, I want to edit the first map so that 1.) the dudes aren't in two places at once and 2.) they aren't walking on the trees. I'd also like to add a little intro dialogue/cutscene to set up the game. Maybe add some extra bits like a chest or two, or even a building. Possibly the aforementioned edits to the main menu. Essentially, I just want to get this first screen the way I want it to be before trying to add in new maps or combat.
So far, I'm just excited to learn something new! And to do so under a deadline, so that I actually get work done!
(Seriously, you guys, apparently I need some sort of deadline initiated by an outside force otherwise I will not get any game projects done. I'm not as disciplined as I thought I was.)