Learn how to create an event where the player must input a password. The event makes use of the ‘Name Input Processing’ command.
Archive for RPG Maker
Video Tutorial: Steal Command
Learn how to use battle events to create a skill where the player can steal items from enemies. This tutorial is an introduction to battle events and random variables.
Video Tutorial: Falling Pit with Region IDs
Learn how to create a simple pit that will cause the player to fall to the floor below. This tutorial explains how to use coordinate variables and region IDs in RPG Maker VX Ace.
Infographic: Understanding Switches and Variables
Hopefully this image will be useful to new RPG Maker users. It’s no substitute for my tutorials on Switches and Variables, but I think that it gets the job done and contains a lot of useful information. Read more
RMVX Ace: Using Map Coordinates, Part 2
This one’s been a long time coming—sorry for the wait, but it’s time to follow up my Using Map Coordinates tutorial with part two.
This tutorial builds on the contents of the first tutorial, so if you haven’t read that one, or if you need a refresher—go back and read it now. In it, we took a look at the grid plane in RPG Maker VX Ace, and how to store an event’s (or the player’s) map coordinates into variables. After that, we created a pressure-switch—as long as the player was standing on it, the door would open. And that’s where we left it. The player isn’t able to reach the door and stand on the switch at the same time, so we’re going to have to create a block that the player can push on top of that switch. Read more
Fuck Your Features: The Downside of Complexity in RPGs
Today’s topic is a good one (for me—maybe not for you). It’s a line that I’ve found myself repeating over and over again in response to many RPG Maker projects: “tone down the features”. A lot of amateur game designers will crowd their games with as many “features” as they can think of—the end result is often the opposite of what they expect: too many complicated features or systems can kill an RPG.
Before we get started, let’s make sure that we are on the same page. “Features” is a pretty vague word (and it isn’t one that I’m not using arbitrarily—my usage of the word “features” in this article is a response to the overuse of the term among users of RPG Maker). When I’m talking about “features”, I’m talking about nearly any kind of extra gameplay system that a designer can add into his game. This stuff is usually an add-on to one of the core gameplay elements: for example, your battle system by itself isn’t a feature, but that limit break system sure is.
In this article, I’m going to dive deep into the idea of adding features into your RPG: what purpose they serve (if any), when they are important to keep and when they are expendable. This is gonna be a fun one. Read more
Enemy Encounters: What You’re Doing Wrong
Pretty much every RPG makes use of battle encounters as its primary gameplay mechanic. In some RPGs, battles are the only real gameplay in the whole game—I’ve seen lots of games where the whole purpose of walking around on some maps is to just go from one battle to another. Most of the time, your characters’ skills, stats, items, etc are all based around their uses in battle. The battle system is the core of nearly every RPG, but it seems like lots of RPG designers put relatively little thought into the battles themselves.
There are lots of ways to handle RPG battles; not just the battle system itself, but even elements of the game that surround and connect to them. This article is going to cover some aspects of battle systems that deserve more thought than RPG designers may realize. Read more
RPG Skills: What You’re Doing Wrong
It’s been a while since I’ve written a straightforward article about RPG Design; today I want to talk about something that is crucial in most RPGs. When done right, skills can be a lot of fun (for the player and the developer!), but when done wrong they can make an otherwise-good battle system become boring fast. Read more
RMVX Ace: Using Map Coordinates, Part 1
Introduction
Yo. Uncle Despain here, with the latest entry in my series of RPG Maker VX Ace tutorials. Today I’m going to be explaining the map grid and its coordinates, and we’re going to create a puzzle where the player must push a block onto a weight-triggered switch in order to open a door. Once you understand the concepts in this tutorial, you will be comfortable creating a wide range of unique puzzles in your game.
This tutorial requires familiarity with the RPG Maker VX Ace interface, as well as a basic understanding of switches, variables, event pages, and conditional branches. If you aren’t comfortable with those topics, check out my tutorial on switches and variables before reading this. Read more