My game won't really be what I'd think of as an rpg. There will not be any combat, for example. There will be survival and some kind of hunger/energy system, but there doesn't need to be any sort of progress bars or meters or anything. If I can make a window in the corner that displays the current values for hunger and energy, etc., that will be enough. I suppose I'll need an inventory system of some kind, but that can be worked around if I can just set certain options to appear only when the player "has" an item (that variable being set to 1 or whatever). I know this is all possible based on what I've seen already, but I'll have to see how simple or complicated it will be to implement.
I didn't have time to play around with it yesterday and, sadly, it doesn't look like I'll get a chance tonight, either. Life is too busy. Anyway I'm free on Friday and the weekend, so at least by then I'll be able to finally have a look and see if I can manage this.
EDIT: Of course, the question is moot if I can't get the program to work on my computer. On their forums they said my problem should be fixed if I updated my graphics drivers. I did so, and the program is still freezing just a few screens after I start the tutorial. I cannot for the life of me imagine that a program like this requires a high-powered video card to work properly. This computer never gave me any trouble with graphics until I started trying to run really demanding games on it. This game is using STILL IMAGES and nothing more. For fuck's sake, this should not be a difficult thing to make work.
And now I'm pissed off because I suspect that somebody fucked up my computer. I let this guy (father of a private student) take the machine for a couple of days because he wanted to install some translation software that I could use to get some extra money. He's a professional translator and kept going on about how much money I could make taking some translation jobs now and then -- but I HAVE to use this software, he says, or they won't give me the jobs. So I let him do it. And I will never trust anyone to touch my computer ever again. Not only did he load on 6 different large programs (this old machine doesn't have the space for that, so he told me he removed some "junk" that my computer didn't need). He also updated every piece of software on the computer (including the operating system, which I specifically was NOT updating because I tended to get problems whenever I updated Windows in the past) and deleted several of my programs. He changed all my options and settings, REMOVED Microsoft Office 2003 and installed Office 2010, which I ABHOR. When I said I don't like 2010, he glared at me and told me that this one is BETTER and he's an EXPERT so I need to just fucking listen to him. He messed around with absolutely everything, and ever since I got the computer back from him, nothing works properly. I have had programs glitching and crashing all the time, and I even got my very first blue screen of death about a week after I got the computer back. Best of all, although he promised me loads of jobs and lots of money, I have not gotten one. Single. Job. Not one. No translation, no money. My computer, which I have loved for five years and which has never done me any wrong, is fucked up, and I don't even have anything to show for it.
I suppose I might just have to format the computer and reinstall everything from scratch. In the five years I've had this machine, I have never once had a problem with it. I've never had to format, never gotten a virus, never had a crash. Everything always worked smoothly. The hardware is a little out of date, sure, but as a writing/work machine it's spectacular. Now it looks like if I want to salvage my baby, I'll have to wipe it clean. I HATE having to do that. I've always been extra-careful with my computer just to ensure that I wouldn't need to do that. Now this one douchebag has fucked everything up. And I can't even confront him about it, because he's an enormous, terrifying, aggressive man who has already screamed at me (a very tiny and passive girl) over such trivialities as the correct way to pronounce English words (I'm a native speaker, he's not). I'd be terrified to think what he'd do if I told him he fucked up my computer and demanded some kind of reimbursement or assistance fixing it. One time he got absolutely hammered while I was supposed to be teaching his 5-year-old son English and ranted at me about how much he hates his wife and how cute I am for hours on end. I sent him a message asking him to please not drink alcohol around me anymore. I didn't get an apology. Instead, he just paid me a little extra for his son's lesson the next week. That's how he thinks it works. He fucks something up, just throw a little extra money at it and it's all just fine.
So I feel like screaming now. Please excuse the rant, but this has been a problem for months now and it seems that it's now interfering with my ability to make this game on top of everything else. I wish I had enough money to buy a new computer (my newer one is an overpriced pile of shit I got suckered into buying and couldn't return after I got it because my grandmother smuggled it to me from the USA).