I've always wanted to make a RPG Game from scratch since I was little. When I was a kid, I always used a game maker like OHRRPGCE or RPG Maker 2003, but I always wanted to make the engine.

Programmed in Java, this engine is on par (feature-wise) with the Dragon Warrior games or the early Final Fantasy games. I programmed in things like:

• Shops
• Battles
• Skills
• Items (healing, teaching, equippable)
• Basic Plot Scripting
• Maps (doors, NPC's, 2 layers of tiles)
• MP3 and MIDI Support for music

I learned an incredible amount while making this. I definitely think making a game from scratch is the best way to learn many important programming techniques like:

• Resource Pools, and loading resources from files
• Dynamic Features on Demand, loading screens or features when you need them, and not before
• Making your own interpreted language and interpreter (for plot scripting)
• 2D graphics (handling things like transparencies)
• True Object Oriented Paradigms like containing logic in classes and packages

I made a fairly simple game, with a run time of a couple hours. I'll completely admit that my goal was to make the engine, and that's where my 70% of my time was dedicated. The sound comes from some of my favourite SNES games, and the graphics come from various game and online collections.

The game is called Project SafeGuard. The game follows Bart, a scavenger of old technology, in a post-apocalyptic world. One day he stumbles upon an old world bunker that is still operational, even 80 years after the end of the world. This starts him on a journey to find out the mystery of the old world government.