I picked up my old RPGMaker MV engine to try and work on a project after years of neglect, and it's moving at a really good pace so far. There are several reasons why, but I think one of the biggest is that I actually picked up a design process that works for me, compared to when I first tried this. My process might not work for everyone, but I hope sharing this might help someone find their footing.

First, before doing any sort of programming, I bring out a word document/notepad and start brainstorming. This might sound obvious to some people, but there are so many tutorials out there that skip straight to implementing mechanics or programming without ever touching the fundamentals. I jot down all the ideas and questions I have, regardless of whether I think they're stupid, then I leave, get some sleep or something. Often, when I come back to look again, some idea that seemed cool at first is actually garbage when observed with fresh eyes. Conversely, something I dismissed before might have more potential to be expanded on that I initially gave it credit for.

Second, once I actually boot up my creation software, is to not do any kind of programming or add any objects beyond defaults. My only objective at that early stage is to form the basic structure of the game. So many tutorials and game samples for RPGMaker games start straight off with plugins or other advanced systems, when the main point of an RPG is usually to tell a story. You don't need a dynamic lighting program to be able to do that.

On my last RPGMaker project that never saw the light of day, I made new items, skills, enemies, etc. on the spot as I came up with new ideas. This ended up bloating the game with stuff I didn't use, or worse, filled it with garbage mechanics because I didn't want to waste the effort of making them. For my revival of my old project, I've scrapped all the clutter and am starting fresh.

So before I actually create any skills/items/etc. I'm brainstorming all the major characters and the broad strokes of what kind of skills and weaknesses they have, what they can and can't do. Once that's done, I have some direction when designing the skills that will be implemented in my game. For example, one character I designed for the original project had a weird mix of tank and debuff skills that failed to mesh at all and felt awkward to play. This time, I've brainstormed him as a hardcore survivalist with healing, status effect control, and ways to avoid damage The result gels much better as a support that specializes in DoT, and it works with his backstory too.

So after repeating that process with all the other items and enemies, then I think I will have reached the point where I can start doing all those advanced programming and plugins to try and enhance the game experience and make something special with it. Then comes beta testing, then the game should be complete (I make that last part sound so simple).

I think that's everything for now. I'm tired after writing all of that. But it felt good to do it. Hope that helps someone out there.