1. Help from (Stuff I ripped)
2. How to get started
3. The process of making a game
4. Secrets
5. Commonly asked Questions
6. Other references.
7. Good-bye!
1. Crap you won't want to read.
First of all the only places you may see this guide are on Gamefaqs,
Dex Drive City, and RPG Planet. If you see it elsewhere, without my
name, Guy Who's Too Obsessed, then please tell me. If not then screw
it.
Some of these things are not my own work. I asked Dias Flac to copy the
stuff from his post on commonly asked questions. Sniffy taught me how
to use more than three frames for items on one block. Ok, crap over.
2. Getting started
Ok, well so you heard of RPG Maker and you started making ideas and you
want to do it. Well, first you'll need RPG Maker. RPG Maker is at EB,
Babbages, and just about any video game store near you. It will not be
in the super popular sections because most people are too lazy to use
RPG Maker. I got mine for 30$ when I bought it.
Another essential item you may really want is a dex drive. These are
not really supported anymore and you can pick one up for 10$. You
simply install the software, and hook up the wires and you're all set
to save all your memory cards on to your computer. You can back up
games. This allows you to download and upload RPGM games to the
Internet.
Make you sure to scheme up some ideas! No RPG was ever created by just
winging it!
3. The process of making games
First as I said before, you need an idea. What you need to do is work
out an idea that will work in a game, and can be entertaining. We don't
want to play super mom's sewing adventure, you know? It's got to have
some excitement and intrigue. Make sure it's got good reasoning as to
why things happen, and work out this idea thoroughly.
After you have a story it is a good idea to circulate it around to
people so they can give you feedback. People will enjoy the game more
if they see their suggestions and such. Also if you do not catch an
error in your story or some illogical plot jump, people can point them
out for you. This is where gamefaqs.com or rpgmpavilion.net comes into
play. The people here will tell what they do and do not like.
One thing almost everyone does is scripting. Write out dialogues that
your characters will have. Make sure that the dialogue is not cheesy,
unless that is what you are going for. It must flow, and sound like
normal people are talking, unless they are not supposed to talk like
that. Make all the dialogue stay in character. A great example of this
is Chrono Cross. The people talk the same way the whole time. Another
part involved in scripting is what is going to happen. If there is
going to be a giant explosion, write that down. If the person is going
to be flashing, make sure you write that too. Anything that you know is
going to happen and you are going to program write down on paper or
your computer. This could be essentially one of the most important
steps, because if you screw this up, your game will be.
The next process for me is to work the system data. Make sure you have
a notebook handy to keep any notes you may need. First, make sure all
the parameters and game-play data. Second I create the characters. I
change their graphic to what I want and put in their starting stats. A
good rule to make sure the characters are not too strong or too weak
(balanced) is the 30 rule (some use 35). It's simple. When putting in
their stats make sure they all equal 30 or 35. Next make each character
skill. I have not really figured out how to balance this one exactly,
but I usually do 1-5 on these stats and it seems to work nicely. Also
involved in creating characters is creating items. Make their armor,
weapons, and accessories that they can equip throughout the whole game.
While your there create key items, food, and all the other stuff you
need. But what's a char. without magic? Next go into the menu and
create and magic and skills you may need. Remember that for a character
start with an S ATK (which takes away from HP) it must go into their
skill. For magic (takes away from MP), you can program when a character
learns it in the actual character edit. But do not think you can only
add magic and skills these ways. You can always add them through events
in scenario data. Next make your monsters and make them so that the
first types can be killed easily and they progressively get harder.
Make sure that you make monsters that will fit into your game and the
places you put them. You wouldn't want to fight an octopus in a forest,
or a fire spirit underwater.
Next thing you'll need are the dungeons and fields. First, I'd design a
really cool field. Putting them together like a puzzle makes these. You
take squares and put them next to each other. After that you can place
towns, dungeons, and the like on through the town button. I would wait
before saying which switches make which towns appear though. So onto
dungeons. There are two types of custom dungeons, indoor and outdoor.
If you don't know what each part does then return RPGM, because your
intelligence is too low to play this game. Think of your intro, and
what the dungeon must look like. If you just need a black screen make a
custom dungeon but don't put anything down. Here you can do simple text
messages in the Final Fantasy style. When making your dungeon make sure
that places the hero can walk are marked with a circle next to that
shoe icon, or else they can't walk on it. Some tiles may look like you
can walk on them, but you really can't. Some tiles can have stuff put
on them, like the grass, mud, or floor type tiles. In the dungeon
editor you cannot put a small flame in a big flame. (Although you can
do that with the use of events)
So you're done all that huh? Next, I would re-check all your things,
add a few more items and magic before proceeding. It's time for the
scenario data. You do have your notebook handy right? This is where you
actually start making things happen, such as cut-scenes, so you'll need
to keep a page and write down 1-500. Check off each switch as you turn
it on. Use pencil so that you can un-check a switch in case you can
turn it off later in the game to save space. Make sure that an
important event cannot be avoided. If you're in a hall two spaces wide,
don't just make one event. You have to make sure he can't pass over it.
Events are everything that happens. A bad event means bad games. Just
remember that almost everything needs an event. Talking needs an event.
A towns-person is an event. Going to another area is an event. All of
these are regular events. You set them down a certain place and they
require the event button. Make sure that if they just need to step on
the event its a touch event, and if they must press X its a check
event. But let's say you want to put down treasure. Well there's a
treasure event for that. There's a simple before and after graphic, and
the items inside.
After you think you've finished make sure you have every item you need,
and all the dungeons and fields work (i.e. make sure you can't skip
over places and such). Now you must play your game through. Talk to
everyone and check everything. Try to cheat your own game to find all
the bugs and glitches. Fix them and then after you do this ask people
to play test the game. They will find the bugs and errors you couldn't.
Fix them and ask a few more people, and then fix.
THERE! Your ready to show the world your creation. Of course make sure
you put in all the proper credit.
4. Secrets
Hidden Sprites-
Well RPG Maker is pretty straightforward, but there are a ways you can
manipulate it. For one, they have hidden sprites (characters) that you
can save to your memory card. They are the last few ones, which end in
00.
Two-hand/Permanent Shield-
Sometimes you want your hero to equip a shield, not two weapons, or you
want your hero to use two-handed weapons. But you don't just want to
tell the person to equip a shield; you want to make it happen. Now you
must make sure there are no items that cure curse, or any magic for
that matter. Make a shield that is cursed and call it shield. You must
put it in the hero's arm in the character menu in the system menu. Or
if you want something called second hand, make sure you hide the status
so that the second hand doesn't appear as a weapon.
System switch-
I forget who knew this one, but someone at the RPGM Garden said this.
THIS IS NOT CONFIRMED!!! Make sure that the last dungeon of the 1st
system is the same as the 1st dungeon of the second system. Now when the
hero gets to the last dungeon they save it at a save point. Ask them to
shut off the game and continue, but with the new system, and it should
load up. Make sure you have scenario data for this system.
More than three items per block-
Usually you'd think that only the three middle frames could be used for
items in a sprite because those are the directions. Well, I'd tell you
to think again. What happens when you move one up facing up? Well it
changes the graphic to the picture on the right. So the pictures on the
right side are called the right field. The left field is column on the
left. To get items in the middle simply choose the direction of that
item. The top row is down, the middle is left and right, and the bottom
is up. To get items in the right field, place the event one away in the
opposite direction (If you want the top right corner place it one above
the place you want it). Now to get the right graphic simply move it
down one. For the left field it needs to move three times. Make sure
that an intro event takes over to this event and changes the screen
black so no one can see it change.
5. Commonly asked questions
(You can thank Dias for this section.)
"Switches? NOOOOOOOOOOO!" or "How do I stop this event from repeating?"
Switches have two main purposes: to be used as page conditions and to
make things appear on the field. Now, if you want to stop an event from
repeating, you need to use switches. Take a boss fight, for example. At
the end of the boss fight event, turn a switch on (we'll use switch 001
for the example, though number is completely irrelevant). Now, add a
page to the back of the event (make sure it's the last page). On that
page of the event, put a condition of switch 001 being on and leave the
rest blank. That will stop it from repeating after it's been done. Now,
for using switches to make things appear on the field. Say that you
want the party to reach a town after crossing some plains. On the other
side of the plains at the exit (the side with the town you want the
party to access), put an event that looks like this:
00:Switch 001 On (the number is, again, irrelevant)
01:Move Location:Field:Plains
Now, Field Edit, go back and make the town. Where it says "Appear", put
"Switch 001 On." Next, draw a path from the plains to the town. Do the
same thing for appear as you did with the town and leave "Move" as
"Always." That'll make the path to the town and the town itself appears
once the party has crossed the plains.
"How do I make the insides of buildings?"
Create the outside of the building with an entrance of your choice in
Dungeon Edit. Create a separate dungeon for the inside with an exit.
Put a Move Location event in the entrance that moves the character to
the inside. On the inside, put a Move Location event in the exit that
leads to the outside.
"What does Take Over do?" or "I have this cut-scene where I want a guy
to approach the party. Help?"
The Take Over command tells one event to stop executing (the event you
put the Take Over in) and tells another event to go (the event that you
target with the Take Over). In other words, if you put a Take Over at
the end of Event 1 with a target of Event 2, Event 2 will execute as
soon as Event 1 runs across the Take Over. To get people to approach
the party during an event, use a Take Over. Here's an example:
Event 1 Page 1/1
00:Message: "Hero: I hope no guards show up..."
01:Take Over: Event 2, Page 1
Event 2, Page 1/1
00:Move to Point: (beside Hero)
01:Message: "Guard: I've found you!"
In this example, Hero says something, and then a guard immediately
approaches Hero and says something. The player does not get control
back at any point during that sequence of events.
"How do I make the party disappear for a cut-scene?"
This is easy. Choose the Party Display command and then choose
Disappear. When you want them to be visible again, choose Party Display
and then Default.
"How do I make events execute automatically?"
Again, quite easy. Just use an Intro Event (available in the menu where
you pick Create Event, Treasure Event, etc.). The Intro Event will
execute as soon as the party enters the room. Though many commands are
disabled in Intro Event, Take Over is not, which means that you can
Take Over to a normal event with whatever commands you want in it.
"How do I make boss fights?"
Use the Battle command. Characters can't escape from battles initiated
by the Battle command.
System Data
---------------------------------------------------
"Why don't my monsters hit my party members/party members hit my
monsters?"
Agility is often overlooked as merely a stat that determines turn
order. It does A LOT more than that. The most important thing that is
overlooked is hit rate. Agility determines a monster's ability to hit
and dodge. If the monster misses too much, raise his agility. If the
party misses the monster too much, lower his agility. Simple as that.
"Can characters learn magic in ways other than leveling up? Can
characters learn S ATKs without using skills?"
Yes and yes. Under the Character Status event command, you'll find the
Learn Magic command. You can use this command to teach characters magic
AND S ATKs through events instead of levels and skills.
"What?! M DEF doesn't reduce magic damage?!"
That's right. M DEF determines resistance to status ailments, and has
NO BEARING on the amount of damage magic does. If you don't want a boss
to be affected by status ailments, raise his M DEF to 9999.
"AHHHHH! Why can't my characters walk in my dungeon?!"
You used tiles that looked like they could be walked on, when in
reality they can't. Look for the shoe icon in Dungeon Edit. Scroll over
any tiles in question. If the shoe has a circle beside it, characters
can walk on the tile. If it's an X, they can't. Be careful: you may
have problems with the reverse as well.
"The 35 or 30-point rule? What's that?" or "Help me balance my
characters!"
The 30 and 35-point rules are used to balance games. This rule
originated (from what I can tell) with the Game Balance guide (I think
that's the one...) on this site. The rule states that the stats you set
for each character should add up to 30 (35 if you're using M DEF). It
has proven to be an excellent tool for making party members balanced.
These rules DO NOT apply to monsters. The only way to balance monsters
is by fighting in Battle Test or using Test Play to fight until you are
satisfied with the balance of your monsters.
6. Other references
You can find other things at the sites listed below.
Gamefaqs.com
RPGMpavilion.net
Dexdrivecity.cjb.net
Rpgmmag.8m.com
Google.com (search for RPGM)
