Re: I want to create a Monster Girl game like VH or Anise - how do I get started?
There's no easy way to tell you how it's done. I can only have you think about a few things in particular to gauge your motivation and drive:
Every tile you see in Adventures of Garnet was made by hand. It's not a map out of whole cloth, but built from a single tile in each square. Unless you're reusing tilesets, which would be the cheating man's way, you have to do each tile yourself. The average screen is, say, 225 tiles, 15*15 square. So, that means you have to design enough unique tiles to construct a 225 tile square and convincingly not make it look like crap. Now, imagine doing that for more than one map type. Imagine doing it for, at least 10. Dwell on that.
Every sprite you see in Adventures of Garnet has at least 13 standard frames. (13, right?) 3 movement frames for up, down, left/right, and 4 standing frames. Unless you're reusing sprites, which would be the cheating man's way, you have to construct 13 frames for each sprite just to make sprites that don't look like total ass when in motion. You can lower that quantity by having NPCs that don't move, but you can't do that with everyone. The standard RTP has... somewhere like, 40-50 unique sprite characters? Maybe more, I don't really recall. NPCs and enemies. That's 650 sprites if you want to have the same repository size. All different characters. Dwell on that.
You have animations for attacks, if you want it to be fun. I'll just hazard that the RTP has about 30 different attack animations. The standard would be about 4-5 totally different graphics for use in animation. So, 120-150 of those. The attacks are the one thing that you will probably end up making simple or reusing from somewhere else. You'll have the few attacks that you hopefully make by yourself that are special and awesome. Dwell on that.
You have sounds/music. Again, you can reuse from somewhere else, but I think people underestimate the importance of appropriate sound and music. I'm *tired* of hearing the default RTP. I've heard it for literally years. If you use music from somewhere else, you have to make sure it's common license, or you'll get very angry, very self-important people finding that their SO SPECIAL music is being used in a porn game. These people have nothing better to do than harass you. Don't think they won't. Artists are the most assholish people you will ever meet. Many are brilliant, but they're also complete assholes when it comes to anyone "misusing" their product, even if they got paid for it. You'll want to have at least 2 or 3 standard battle themes, 2 or 3 boss themes, 2 or 3 town themes, and hopefully one theme for each major map type you decide to use. (cavern, volcano, field etc.) Then, you have dynamic music usage, which is used for specific events. You have porn events, surprise events, comedic events, suspense events, etc. You're looking at 30 pieces of music just to convey a variety of events without sounding samey. Dwell on that.
This is just the resource side of the equation. If you're using the RTP, you are able to make a rather uninspired game using existing resources, and build from scratch/edit up what you need in addition to it.
Now, what's your real story? Who are your characters? What's their personalities? When does this occur? Where does it occur? Why does it occur? Why are you fighting monsters? What's the history of it? Why are the towns like they are? Why is the world map the way it is? What's the motivation for the quest? What's the explanation for your MC's abilities? What's the economy like? Why are people selling weapons of mass monster extermination on the street? Etc.
Every decision you make in designing the story should have some rationalization in your head. Some of these (or a lot of these, like in my case) will make no goddamn good sense. People are going to read it and go "Wait, what?" Some of the rationalizations, story, and events that you think are dumb and stupid will turn out to be beloved by the people that play. They'll be quirky, fresh, and not seen a lot, or hearken back to the days of old where you could have quirky stuff and not have to worry about a brooding, painful reason for it. I like to think of it as the Amira Factor.
The Amira Factor is extremely hard to create. The problem with too quirky is that people might not like it. Etc.
Now, for coding: unless you know how to code before getting into this, you are going to suffer. Horribly. I can read code and understand what it does. Even I would not set out to design my own game system without dreading the task. If you use RPG Maker, you have to learn Ruby. RPG Maker CANNOT do what you will eventually WANT to do. Even VX Ace is an over-sized turd ball. If you don't learn Ruby to the point where you can understand how the actual RPG Maker standard library works, and how the standard systems work, you will be lost. You will be newb patching things, and one day, you will break it, and you will not fix it. You just won't know how.
Not knowing how to code/design processes will limit your creative vision. You'll be constantly wondering what your limits are, instead of knowing how to create what you need to exceed those limits. Same with the art process. Same with the story process.
Now, my advice is simple: start off slow. Build something you think is simple, dumb, and unexciting. If you're using RPG Maker, build maps, place NPCs, fiddle with triggers, map changes, etc. Get a feel for the basics. Make something dumb. But make it work, and make it right. Once you feel like you can bully through map creation, try battle creation. Build a custom encounter, assign triggers, make things happen dynamically. Try and IMPROVE upon the basic fighting system. Learn Ruby so that you can add an SP bar under your MP. That's going to be your most fun early challenge. Adding a separate mana system. Next, try to build something on the map which links the two systems into a coherent story. Build an event. Walk from point X to point Y, have something happen outside of the player's control, have a battle, have a resolution, and keep going. If you find you can't do any of the aforementioned, read more, look more, and learn more. You'll either learn and do it, or realize you don't have the motivation to do it.
Having overarching goals is AWESOME, but you will truly test your motivation to make something by getting into the meat and taters of the operation and creation. You have an idea of what you want to do, but those are only ideas. You have nothing that connects them to a coherent process and result.
The organic thing that will make your games good is a quality that will come from you, and cannot be discerned by others until it's used in a product. You will not know whether you can do more than mechanically make something until you do it. Until you try to put the spark of fun into something, you just won't know. That fun comes from everything you are as a person. What you've learned, who you've known, what you've said, what you believe, what you've played, what you're hoping for, and, most importantly, what you love. Unless you believe in the thing you're creating to the point where you almost don't care who plays the damn thing, you just want to make it, you might not get that organic element. The danger is that you might be WRONG, not in what you believe, but in what others want. The ultimate danger of being an artist is making something that is simply not appreciated. It might be technically good, it might have something unique that's never been seen, but the ultimate outcome is sometimes simply out of your hands: will they like it?
You won't know that until you try it and see what fails. And don't be afraid of failure. Everyone and anyone worth a damn has failed horribly at something. The important part is knowing why you failed, and knowing how you can fix it.
