Hmm... I would not go with RPG maker. It isn't a really good tool. But that is just my opinion.
All I got to say is that I agree with the others. Start small, really small. Some clone of older game to get basic knowlage of the tools that you will use. Game Maker is good for the starters if you are not aiming at professional game development. If you do, well then you have to learn some programming language.
But both ways are the same. Start small, learn from that and go for a little bigger project.

It is nice that someone new asked for info. Welcome to TIGsource :D

If you don't make a professional game there's nothing wrong with using RPG Maker if you want to make an RPG. Probably the quickest way to get started and the thing that makes many RPG Maker games shit is bad writing and terrible use of chipsets.

Well, guess you've got a point, but when Dota 2 arrives are people still going to complain that they have to pay for things?

I'm sure there will be people complaining. I will probably buy it because it won't be a full price game I guess and the Valve polish will justify that price. But yeah I wouldn't be too surprised if people moaned that they have to pay for something they can get for free (DotA or LoL).

I don't understand why this is so popular when I feel HoN is much more true to the feeling of DOTA... Maybe it's HoN's bad community

That and one is free, the other isn't.

Well seeing how Demon's Souls was a Japanese take on Western style RPGs I think it isn't such a bad idea... maybe.

You think the average IGF judge would seriously consider Canabalt for a narrative prize? 

Do you think it should be a nominee for such a prize? 

I think they only said 4 player parties work best.

Only because if you need a massive amount of text / dialogue to tell your story, maybe "games" wasn't the right choice of medium.

Really disagree with that -- I think there's a place for games that have a massive amount of text & dialog.  Like, I don't look at IF generally and say, "why didn't they just write a book" ... it's a legitimate & distinct form to me.

There's probably a difference between a lot of text in IF and let's say tons of sit-back-and-watch dialog in MGS4.

Yeah, server-use of Java is fine, Oracle takes care of that. But for application development it's a big deal if OSX is suddenly out of the equation. For example no more Eclipse for Mac users.

Even worse for me personally is the issue with Processing. I was never a fan of Java but Processing makes it fun to use. Now I believe there's quite a bit of overlap between the digital art community and Mac users. This is definitely bad news for Processing (or Nodebox 2).

Ah, there it is. I knew they were using some sort of WebKit package but couldn't remember the exact name.

I couldn't either, but I remembered the site when I clicked the link for Akarui.

I've heard of people embedding WebKit in their apps to make UIs. Steam and Overgrowth do this don't they?

The Overgrowth guys definitely do this. In fact they use Awesomium from the same developer as Akarui.

I really hope with Bethesda and id Software under one roof, they take advantage of id's great engines. The Gamebyro engine really is shit for actiony games.

I think that is just how Blizzard got to do 3D. With Starcraft 2 people said the same, when really Warcraft 3 and World of Warcraft were just the first 3D Blizzard games. It's their art style.

im afraid when talking about fighting games there is such a thing as "signature moves" and cool hunting definitely is one. BB Hood is, after all, a fighting game character.

Also whats the point in putting in a character if they're radically different?

its ryu but he plays like e honda...

Uhm, you can change animations and still have basically the same attack..

When talking about BB Hood I didn't talk about Cool Hunting specifically but more about standard moves. I can understand when character morphing with standard moves can be difficult to do, but for a special move getting two more characters on-screen can't be the problem.

Also characters don't need to be 1:1 ports. No shame in putting in BB Hood with different animations.

hardcore mode sounds like a crappy Pathologic.

Fixed that for you. 

and santaragione is turning Tales Of Unspoken World into a new one button game called FOTONICA, thread is here with a link to his page to play the web build.

I was going to post this. Incredibly addicting and fun game. Like a first-person Canabalt with abstract graphics.

Damn you Edmund for making us wait!   

I feel that in SMB it really was bad judgement on the judges part if it's true what Ed and Tommy said. In the end an indie developer wouldn't need that award only for the money and a publishing deal, but in some cases also as motivation, moral support and such.
Especially in Team Meat's case (they also talked about how hard and taxing development and entering IGF was for them on a psychological level) there are factors which the judges can't really take into account.

Now Minecraft's case is probably a bit more obvious, but in cases like SMB and Monaco it troubles me to hear that some judges go simply beyond what they can know.

Edmund and Tommy gave some interesting insight on this matter in the Indiegames podcast. They talked about how multiple judges came to them after the last IGF and told them they would have voted for SMB but thought Monaco needed it more since Ed and Tommy already had a publishing deal.

Oh what would be IGF without me controversy?