I just want to respond quickly to two things. First, no, innovation is not required to have success on the indie market. There are enough examples out there of companies that don't need any "gimmick" for lack of a better word to be successful. The innovative, or art-like indie games simply draw a lot more attention from us game programmers, but there really is a big market out there for non-innovative games. There are many indies who make games that are not driven by innovative gameplay, but by strong storytelling or by targetting a specific niche market. These indies have been around for years. They might not be millionairs, but they are making a living. And yes, you can even make a living making 2D RPG games in RPG maker as long as you can reach the right group of people.
Although I completely agree that for him to use UDK is a bad, bad idea, I don't think that using UDK for such a game is a bad idea. Mainly because you get access to a very strong visual pipeline that could create a very fancy looking 2D/3D game, and that could draw some unique attention. But yeah, UDK is not a place for a beginner unless it is basically a simple FPS mod. Ok, now I need to give an example because more people are saying it is a bad idea:
http://mildlydisconc....com/drillboid/
Here, this game is created with unity, but the same principles.
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Alright ill take the innovation advice to mind and heart, normally for me, i find that innovation can come more from the way of thinking about the game as you play it, rather then some tacky way of actually physically playing the game. Such as, A storyline thats better than most Indies, or Character development, or charm that draws you in. Without those things, in the way that i play games at least, im less drawn in and fueled to actually play.
Games today seem to lack a really fantastical or good storyline that really connects with people, Few big titles i have seen have really done that for me... God of War was one of them. Halo kind of did it, Zelda Twilight princess was pretty okay. Dont get me wrong or anything, i dont mean to say their arent other s or anything, there's tons of course. But we have strayed so far from the charm and ideas of classic games that a good deal arent appealing to me any more at least.
Carbon copy FPS, I think The indygame community puts out more intriguing games, because they do things a little differently and try new things, while mainstream EA shovels shit into the hand of every gamer outside of select few titles.
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I Love that little game you posted, the art style and animations and movements are totally fantastic looking.
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And ill in the end learn game maker probably because that gets tossed around, i just dont want to take all the time learning and find out that this really wasnt what i wanted to do.
Im just looking for the right tools.
If Game maker can create a game identical to the game play, mechanics and so forth of games like Earthbound and Final fantasy( whether it be 1-7) Then its probably the system i want to use.
Also, something important i would like to know, Can Game maker pull off like a really neat "Puppet boss" Kind of thing, like the battles you would find in the Castlevania games or something alot like Gunstar super heroes.
I do like the 3d-2d idea, another thing to consider, i guess im in the process of finding out what i want and what i need to get it done, then ill hop onto the Learning curve, but im just interested in how much C++ or whatever that i actually need to learn to make something in the fashion of an rpg. (Im not going wow, as i said before, im not having all kinds of crazy numbers and damage dealing spells and that ridiculous stuff. im not a wow fan
Were branching off, IM BRANCHING OFF!!! lol anyways, I appreciate everyone help and comments about things.