RPG Maker Tutorial

Make Your Own Game Tutorial I: Overview of Program Structure
What is RPG Maker VX Ace? But if it is simple enough for anyone to use,
why do we need these tutorials?
RPG Maker VX Ace is a game engine designed to
make 2D Roleplaying Games. RPG Maker VX Ace was The purpose of this series of tutorials is to give the
created to be simple enough for anyone to use: You dont people who read them a head start in making their own
need any specialized programming knowledge to run it. game with RPG Maker. While you can learn on your own,
and many people have, there are plenty of pitfalls that can
All the aspects of creating an RPG can be controlled be easily avoided with a bit of information.
in RPG Maker VX Ace through a simple point and click
graphical user interface. Throughout this series of tutorials, we will make a
simple game from beginning to end, going into every part
of the program needed to show how to make your own
game.
With the use of this tutorial, you should be able to
grasp the basics of using RPG Maker VX Ace faster, so
you can move on to exploring some of the more advanced,
powerful options available to you.
Before we get into making a game though, lets take a
moment to examine the basic structure of RPG Maker VX
Ace, and how each of the major components interacts, to
give you a basic knowledge of terms used later on.
RPG Maker VX Ace Editor View
http://www.rpgmakerweb.com/ 1
RPG Maker VX Ace Structure
RGSS3 but the use of scripts made by other people is common.

You can obtain premade scripts from fan blogs, online fan
RGSS3 (Ruby Game Scripting System) is the communities, the RPG Maker Web Forum, or any number
lowest level structure of RPG Maker VX Ace that you as of other places on the web.
a developer have access to. It is a scripting language based
Most premade scripts are plug and play, you can just
on the Ruby Programming Language that interprets every
insert them into the script editor and adjust the settings
other component of the game. Everything from how battles
based on what you want.
run to how the maps are drawn on the screen are controlled
by the scripts. This series of tutorials will not cover the use of scripts,
as they are more advanced than what we plan to cover,
RGSS3 is very powerful, allowing you to edit nearly
but it is important for you to be aware of their existence,
every portion of the way your game works. Most users of
especially when moving beyond this series into making
RPG Maker VX Ace will never edit the scripts themselves,
your own game.
Database Actors: This tab is for creating and editing playable characters
for your game. It defines the starting conditions of each
The Database is where you create and edit most of the playable character.
gameplay components of your game. It is organized into
Classes: This tab is for creating the classes used by your
tabs, each holding a different category of components of
playable characters. Classes determine a characters stat
the game. The tabs are listed to the right.
growth as well as the skills they learn as they level up.
Skills, Animations: The Skills tab is for creating the skills
used by both playable characters and by your enemies. The
Animations tab is for creates the skills animations.
Items, Weapons, Armors: These tabs are for creating the items
and equipment that your heroes will find, use, and equip.
Enemies, Troops: The Enemies tab is for creating the enemies
your characters will fight, the Troops tab is for setting them
into the groups your characters will encounter.
States: This tab is for creating the status effects that can
affect your characters and enemies.
System, Terms: These tabs are used to set a lot of the standard
settings of the game, such as menu sound effects.
Database: Class Tab Common Events, Tilesets: These tabs will be covered later.
Map Editor
The Map Editor is where you create the world that

your characters will explore.
Maps are created by selecting a Tileset to use and then
painting the map on screen using your mouse to design the
map you want. Its as easy as using MS Paint.
Tilesets are premade 32x32 pixel graphics that you
can combine to create your maps. RPG Maker VX Ace
comes with 4 Tilesets to use to create your game (Field,
Exterior, Interior, and Dungeon) and you can also import
new Tilesets or edit the existing ones in a graphics editor.
To create a Tileset from tiles created in a graphics
editor you use the Tileset tab in the Database. The Tileset Map Editor: Creating a World Map
tab determines what tiles are in the set and what tiles your
characters can and cannot walk through (you dont want Each map also has a Map Properties window (found
the player walking through the wall!) and also several other by right clicking on the map in the list in the bottom left)
settings such as ladder tags and terrain tags. which defines things like the name of the map, the music
on the map, which tileset it uses, how large the map is, and
The Map Editor also allows you to draw RegionIDs a
whether it loops or not.The Map Properties are also used to
layer not visible during gameplay to be used to seperate your
set random encounters
map into sections to use for things like enemy encounters.
Events Battle Events: Battle Events are set up in the Troops tab of
the database and are specific to individual battle setups.
Events serve two major purposes in RPG Maker They can be used to have certain things happen in battle
VX Ace. The first is to give your characters something to after specific triggers.
interact with on your maps. This includes things such as
Eventing is very powerful, and can be used to create
non-playable characters to talk to, treasure chests to open,
complex systems without ever touching RGSS3 scripts.
and shops to buy items at.
The second purpose is to control the flow of your game
and its scenes. Things like changing what NPCs say based
on your actions, opening up new portions of a quest, or
allowing the player to travel to new areas are all controlled
by events.
There are three types of events that are accessed
through different parts of RPG Maker VX Ace:
Map Events: These events appear on individual maps, and
are accessed by using the map layer of the Map Editor. They
are used for NPCs, transfering the player to a new map,
shops, and other similar map specific things.
Common Events: These events are set up in the Common
Event tab in the Database. They are used when events need Event: Creating a Simple Transfer Event
to be repeatedly called regardless of the players location.
How It All Works Together Next Tutorial Preview
Now that weve looked at each individual major In the next tutorial, we will move on to begin creating
component of RPG Maker VX Ace game creation, lets look a basic game, starting with mapping out a rural village that
at it all together. our hero will be a resident of.
The Database contains most aspects of what the player About the Tutorial Author
characters will be, from their stats to the equipment and
skills they will use. It also contains the stats for enemies, Nick Touchfuzzy Palmer
and the graphics that will be used by the Maps. has been a regular fixture of the
The Map Editor is used to create the world the RPG Maker fan communities for
characters and enemies you created in the database will several years as both a member
reside in from a graphical perspective. It borrows from the and then as an admininstrator
database to determine what tiles can be used, and how the of one of the largest RPG
character can walk on those tiles. Maker Communities. He now
works for Degica running the
Events are used to give your game flow, and to put official RPG Maker Web blog,
things on your maps for your characters to interact with. Portrait by Scinaya Facebook, Twitter and forums.
RGSS3 is what controls all the rest of the components He got his start in RPG Maker using the SNES Super
and interprets what they mean. Dante RPG Tsukuru.
As you can see, we can do almost anything with this Outside of RPG Maker, Nick is a family man who
combination, as long as we know where to look. spends most of his days at home with his two kids and wife.
Make Your Own Game Tutorial II: Intro to Mapping
What is a Map in RPG Maker VX Ace? The First Step in Creating your Own Game
A map in RPG Maker VX Ace is a single continuous With this tutorial, we will take the first step into
collection of tiles used to visually create a location in your actually creating our short example game. This game will
games world. consist of the following:
As we discussed in the last tutorial, a map is constructed 1 Town
from 32 x 32 pixel tiles. There is an element of layering as
well, allowing you to put different types of tiles on top of 1 Small World Map
each other, giving you a composite tile. 1 Dungeon with two floors
Combined these tiles will create a single location for 3 Playable Heroes with unique skills
your characters to explore.
A variety of Random Encounters
1 Big Bad Boss
In the tutorials, I will show you the techniques I am
using to create each component, but you can easily modify
each step as you see fit. In fact, some steps will be left for
you to finish using the techniques I am teaching.
Our first step will be to create the map of the main
An RPG Maker VX Ace Map characters home village. But first, we will look at some
fundamentals.
The Map Editor Interface
Figure 2-1 shows the Map Editor with the important

parts labelled. The labelled portions are detailed below.
A, Map Canvas: This is where you create your map. Just left
click on it to draw using your currently selected tile.
B, Tile Palette: This is where you select the tile you wish
to use. There are multiple tabs, listed from A to as high
as E depending on how the way the tileset is set up in the
database. The standard Exterior tileset shown here has tabs
A through C.
Figure 2-1: Map Editor
C, Map List: This is where all the maps in your game are
listed for you to select. You also create new maps by right F, Layer Selection: This is where you select which layer you
clicking in this area, as well as adjust the properties of your are working on. VX Ace has three selectable layers, Map,
existing ones. Event, and RegionID. This tutorial will focus on the Map
layer, and its internal layering.
D, Copy/Paste Tools: These allow you to cut, copy, paste or
delete the map you have selected in the Map List. G, Tools: This is the drawing tools you have available. They
are, Pen, Box, Ellipse, Fill, and Shadow.
E, Undo Button: This allows you to undo the last change
you made to your map. H, Zoom Selection: This allows you to change your zoom
level
Autotiles Tile B-E
Autotiles are a special type of tile that make creating

maps quick and easy. An autotile is a single tile selectable in
the Tile Palette that when used on the Map Canvas creates
shaped tile areas. There are a variety of autotile types, which
are all part of the A tab in the Tile Palette.
There are two layers in the A tab, the bottom layer,
and the embellishment layer, which can be seen with the
fence below.
Figure 2-3: Tile B-E
The B through E tab tiles are all used on a third layer

above the two A tab layers. They are used mostly for adding
details to existing maps.
The blue checkered area in the Palette represents the
transparent portions of the tiles, which will allow the A tab
tile below it to show through.
Figure 2-3 shows a variety of B-E tiles added to the
previous autotile example map.
Figure 2-2: Various Autotiles
Right Click Copying Shift Click Copying
Figure 2-4: Right Click Copied => Left Click Paste Figure 2-5: Shift Click Copied Wall => Shift Click Paste
If you need to quickly copy a composite tile you This of course leads to the question: What if you need
already have built in another place on your map, you can to keep the autotiles drawn the way your copied selection
just right click on the tile to change your selected tile in the was?
palette to the composite tile you just clicked.
This is luckily very easy. First hold down the shift key.
You can then draw it by left clicking on your map While holding it down right click (or right drag click) the
in other areas. You can also use this to copy larger sections tiles you want, then while STILL holding shift, left click on
by right click dragging across the entire area you want to the area you want to paste.
copy as shown in Figure 2-4. Side Note: You can also select
multiple tiles from the tile palette by dragging across them. You can see in Figure 2-5 that the autotile configuration
stayed the same when it was shift click pasted.
Remember, this will copy the entire composite tile,
meaning both A tab tile layers, and any B-E tile tabl layer You can use this in many ways to make your maps
you have. It will also redraw any autotiles to match the new look much more polished. A few of these ways will be
shape you have created. covered when we make our mountain village map later in
this tutorial.
Perspective: Understanding the Standard 2D
Top Down RPG Viewpoint
Lets take a moment away from the program itself
to discuss a subject that is important to good map design:
Perspective.
Perspective is how a scene can be drawn onto a 2D
medium, such a computer screen, to represent 3D scenes,
such as your game world (unless you happen to be making
an RPG based on Edwin Abbot Abbots Flatland).
Perspective is shown in Figure 2-6 of a concrete block
box with a metal top sitting on a grassy field. Two things Figure 2-6: Standard Perspective
should be immediately noticeable. The first is that there
is a vanishing point. What this means is that parallel lines Unfortunately this type of perspective cant be used in
of the object such as the left and right side of the grass get most 2D RPGs as when the map moves left and right, the
closer together the further from the observer they get. vanishing points would have to move to accommodate the
new viewpoint, which is not possible.
The second is foreshortening, which is where the top
of the block, which is closer to the observer appears larger Another problem is that when the map moves up or
than the bottom of the block, which is further from the down, objects would have to change size as the observer
observer. Foreshortening makes the block jump out at us, becomes closer to it, which is another thing that we cant
and indicates that it is not a part of the ground. manage with a pure 2D environment.
Now we run into another problem. With this style of
projection, everything gets slightly squashed because of the
angle we are viewing it at. This makes it somewhat difficult
to show details, on walls especially.
In an RPG we might need those details, so with
traditional top down RPG perspective, walls and floors
are stretched to allow full detail. This is shown in Figure
2-8.
Figure 2-7: Parallel Projection Perspective
Perspective (Cont.)
In Figure 2-7, we have the same object shown with

parallel projection. In parallel projection, two parallel
lines on the object are drawn parallel on the image. It also
removes foreshortening.
As you can see, this flattens out the image tremendously
and makes it look much less 3D, but it does remove the
problems we had previously with moving the viewpoint of
Figure 2-8: Top Down RPG Perspective
the observer.
Why Understanding the Perspective Matters
So now we understand the perspective used in RPG

Maker VX Ace and why it is used, but why does it matter?
Because this perspective is used in the majority of
2D top down rpgs, almost all visual cues to height are
removed. Without foreshortening or vanishing points,
all the normal cues to the grade (angle) of the ground are Figure 2-10
removed.
Figure 2-10 shows a representation of the same area
This means that every change in height in your game with 3D perspective when height is viewed as cubes. You
needs to be seperated by a very steep change in height will also notice that the stairs have to be adjusted due to the
signified by an obvious height changer (such as a cliff wall.) stretching of the cliff walls in the top down perspective
making them appear wider than they are.
The best way to look at
your maps is to view them as In Figure 2-11. you
cubes. Each vertical wall raises can see mistakes that are
that level by one unit. For an made by not thinking of
example, first look at Figure vertical height in cubes. On
2-9. This is a simple section of the right, there is a vertical
a town map with some height wall height change, and on
Figure 2-9
changes. the left we see a lack of a Figure 2-11
height changer tile.
The Setting of our First Map Step 1: Creating the Map Base
For our first map, we are going to make the area The first thing you need to do when creating a new
around the main characters home. Our main character is map is to create the map. To do this, right click on your
the son of the village elder of a small mountain community. project name in the map list and select New Map.
Rather than mapping an entire town, we will focus This will bring up the Map Properties screen for you
on the area surrounding the village elders house. This will to set a few basic things about the map you are creating.
let us focus more on the exact methods I am using, which With this map, we will only need to change a few settings
can be easily transferred to a larger map. as shown below. Name the map, select the Exterior Tileset
and make the map 30 tiles by 20. We wont need much area
The first thing to do is decide what areas we want to here. Select a Town theme you like and set it as the BGM.
include on the map. By area, I mean the specific important Im pretty partial to Town5. After you are done, click OK.
places on the map the player can visit. Areas and pathing
are the most important parts of a map, as that is how your
players travel through your world.
With this map, I am settling on the bare minimum
for needed for play. We will include the following:
The Village Elders House
A Travelling Merchant
A Small Shack
A Small Garden
Step 2: First Dominant Geographical Feature
geographical feature of your map will be. Being a mountain
village, Ive decided we need a river.
The first thing you will notice is that your entire map
is covered with a blue checkered pattern. This represents Select the deep water autotile in the A tab (Column
transparency. Since we are making a grassy mountainous 2, Row 1) and draw a meandering river using the pen tool.
area, lets set that to grass. Select the grass autotile in the A Im making mine about 3 tiles thick, though 2 or even 1 is
tab (Column 1, Row 3) and use the flood fill tool to cover a valid choice, just try and balance it to the overall map size.
the map with it.
Try to keep your river a consistent width unless it
The next thing to consider is what the most dominant splits or merges with another source of water.
Now we have a river, but it has no depth. It looks very
flat. This is because we used the deep water tile to draw it. Tips and Tricks: VX Ace Sample Maps
With a few simple clicks, we can give the water depth using
the shallow water autotile (Column 1, Row 1). RPG Maker VX Ace comes loaded with a large
collection of Sample Maps. To use one, right click on
Any portion of the river border that is horizontal and your project name in the Map List and select Load
has grass above, and water below, replace the deep water Sample Map.
autotile with the shallow water tile.
Even if you dont plan to use them in your game
The sample maps dont use the water tiles this way, directly, Sample Maps are great for inspiration as well as
but I prefer it. examining how certain tiles are meant to be used.
As an example, you can load the Mountain Village
map to learn how to do a lot of the things needed for our
current map.
Step 3: Adding the Mountain to the Village
click one of the corners from top to bottom (3 tiles high),
and place several down. Then, I connect them together to
Obviously, something is missing if we want to have a form a solid wall using the other corner and the flat tiles.
Mountain Village: we need some elevation. Remember to use the inside corner tiles as well.
To do this, we are going to use the non-autotile cliff For this map I seperated the map into two levels of
tiles near the bottom of the A tab. These tiles are pictured elevation, plus a back wall to prevent players from walking
below. There is also a cliff autotile, but it is not as useful off the north side. Use the waterfall autotile in the A tab
for creating multitiered maps, as it requires a lot of shift where the cliffs pass the river (Column 2, Row 2).
copying to get the same effects that you can get just by
using the non-autotile versions.
Keep in mind that it is easiest to build a map uphill.
The taller sections should be further north on your map.
Its possible to map the other direction, but not easy.
I have found the easiest way to make the cliffs is to drag
Step 4: Height Variations Step 5: Placing Your Areas
These flat, two tile high cliffs makes the change in Now that you are familiar with the Tile Palette, lets
height way too abrupt. start adding more complicated components. Place the areas
that your player can travel to on the map. Dont worry if he
To break it up, add a few more height variations in by cant currently reach them because of cliffs.
placing shorter cliffs. Putting in a few here and there really
breaks up the sheer cliff feel of the map. Make sure to check Some of these tiles are in the B and C tab. Remember
to make sure you are always using a bottom cliff tile in any that these layer on top of A tab tiles. Also, the fence autotile
place that is touching grass. is in the embellishment layer of the A tab.
Step 6: Creating Paths In this step, stairs are placed as well. Any change in
vertical height needs to have a height changer tile between
Our map now has several points of interest for our it, so either ladders or stairs are needed for the player to
player to travel between, so lets put in paths between them change height.
to draw them in the right direction.
Points of interest and pathing are the most important
Im going to use the dirt path autotile from the A tab part of creating any map. Yes, you want to make something
(Column 2, Row 3) to draw in a path. I think a two tile that is good looking, but what is truly important is that
wide path works best for most of he map, though a couple you do not confuse the player andthat he has a clear idea of
of areas that I consider lightly travelled with a spotty grown where he is supposed to go.
over single tile wide path.
Shift clicking will be incredibly important for this
step. If you are putting down a bridge, make sure to hold
shift while doing it so that it does not change the water
autotiles around it. When making the path, look for nearby
tiles in the correct shape for you to shift click copy when
needed. I also used shift clicking to have the paths move
under the house and shack doors.
Step 7: Filling in Void Areas and Decoration On top of filling in void areas, this is a good time
to add decorative tiles to your map. Go wild, but dont go
The important parts of the map are done. The player TOO wild. Try and pick things that make sense. For the
has places to travel to, and designated paths to go between tent I put down (which was for the travelling merchant)
them. The next step is to fill in the void areas to make the I decided to place some boxes and barrels for his goods,
map look less empty. along with a firepit he has been using at night.
Since we are in a rural area, I decided to go with You can also use darker green areas and tall grass
bunches of trees. There are two different types of green trees to spice up the map. I added a fishing dock near the top
in the B tab of the tileset, and overlapping tiles for when waterfall just for some flavor.
they overlap identical types of trees.
Now you may be wondering, what if I need to overlap
two different types of trees, or just any two B through E tab
tiles. For now, just put down the tile that will be on the
lower layer, we will add in the upper layer in our next step.
In the picture below, you can see an example of lapped
trees that have no composite tiles to use to combine them.
Step 8: Add Decorative Events You also need to make a
few changes to the event options.
Remember those trees that we lapped that didnt have Deselect Walking Anim. and
an upper layer? We will fix this by using the event layer to select both Stepping Anim.
add some extra tile graphics. First, select the event layer in and Direction Fix.
the Layer Selection tools. Now, right click on a place you
need an extra layer and select New Event. What this does is make it
so the event does not turn and
The only thing you will have to do for the tree lapping cycles through its full animation while standing still.
is change the event graphic. Just scroll down to select Tile B
and pick the graphic you need.
Waterfalls also use decorative events to dress up the
bottom and top of the falls. Shown below, the two different
graphics are selected (the one on the left is for the bottoms,
one on the right is for the tops). They are both in Object2.
Step 9: Adjust Shadows Tutorial Wrapup
The only thing left to do is to adjust the shadows on This tutorial should have gotten you familiar with the
the map. Switch back to the Map Layer and switch to the Map Editor and how it works. We now know the layout of
Shadow tool. This tool operates in 16x16 pixel areas (1/4 of the Map Editor, and how to navigate the Tile Palette to find
a tile) and can both create and erase shadows. the tiles we need to draw on the Map Canvas.
There are many ways to place shadows, but I just used We have also discussed a lot of theories to help make
a simple 1 column next to the right of any vertical height good maps, such as how to prepare for the Top Down
change in this map. RPG perspective and the concept of points of interest
connected by clear paths.
By combining these concepts, you can easily create
any map you need. If you want, you can expand the map
we have already made, making it larger and including more
points of interest.
Next Tutorial Preview
In the next tutorial, we will take a break from creating

our game world to begin making our three Heroes. A young
fighter from the mountain village, a pious preistess from
a secluded monastery, and a mischevious seasoned rogue
who weilds mystical powers.
Make Your Own Game Tutorial III: Creating Characters
What Makes a Character? What is it that makes a Playable Character? Playable
characters are not just a personality and force of the narrative
A character is obviously any person who is represented in an RPG, they also have statistics to allow the player to
in the story of your RPG. overcome challenges in the gameplay.
There are two categories of characters in an RPG: In order to create a PC we are going to take our first
Playable Characters (PCs) and Non-Playable Characters foray into the Database. Quite a few parts of the database
(NPCs). This tutorial is going to focus on Playable are dedicated to creating PCs, and throughout this tutorial
Characters. we will be editing things in the following tabs:
Actors
Classes
Skills
Terms
As you can see, characters have a large number of
components that make up what they are and what they can
do. Weapons and Armors are also part of creating characters,
but will be covered in the next tutorial.
Before we get to designing characters, lets go over the
A Playable Character shown in the game Menu default stats and resources available to a character.
Character Stats and Resources There are six major stats in RMVX Ace. Of these, 4
are only used in damage formulas (Attack, Defense, Magic
While more can be added through scripting, I will be Attack, and Magic Defense), and are therefore useable in
going over the major Stats and Resources that each character any way you would like. I will cover their default use here.
possesses. Stats are static numbers used in equations to
Attack: Attack represents the amount of damage done by
determine outcomes of actions, Resources are numbers that
physical attacks, such as hitting people with a weapon.
can be spent, lost, grow, and be regained over the course of
Weapons generally also boost this stat.
a battle.
Defense: Defense is generally used to lower the amount of
There are three major resources in RMVX Ace:
damage you take from physical attacks. Armor generally
HP (Hit Points): HP is the amount of damage a character boosts this stat.
can take before dying. When you attack you attack or are
Magic Attack: This stat is used to determine the amount of
attacked, damage is usually done to this resource. Maximum
damage done by magical attacks.
HP (MHP), is a stat that is specific to each specific character
depending on how much damage he/she can take. Magic Defense: This stat is used to lower the amount of
damage you take from magical attacks.
MP (Magic Points): MP is spent to use skills, usually magic,
hence the name. Maximum MP (MMP), is also a stat. Agility: This stat determines turn order during combat.
TP (Tech Points): TP is spent to use skills. TP behaves Luck: This stat is used in calculating chances of taking/
differently than HP and MP in that the max TP of every giving a status effect or buff/debuff.
character is 100. You gain TP over each turn based on what
has occured that turn. Remember that all of these resources and stats can be
renamed.
Stat/Resource Consistency
So what does this mean for your game? An important

part of creating the game is creating consistent gameplay
mechanics.
Without consistency, players can make mistakes in
customizing characters. For instance if you had a weapon
skill that did damage based on Magic Attack in a game where
Evasion at Work it is normally based on Attack, a player might be boosting
his Attack to do damage with it and gaining nothing.
Character Stats (Cont.)
You also need to be consistent with resources, making
similar types of skills always consume the same type of
There are also 4 more minor character stats that we resource. This makes the game seem more cohesive as a
will use in the next tutorial. whole.
HIT (Hit Rate): Determines the chance of an attack hitting. For consistency, Im going to lay out some ground
EVA (Evasion): Determines the chance of avoiding an rules for my example game.
attack. 1. Weapon Skills always consume TP and use Attack
TGR (Target Rate): Chance of being targetted by an attack. to do damage, and Defense to prevent damage.
CRI (Critical Rate): Chance of a critical hit being scored. 2. Magic Skills always consume MP and use Magic
Attack to do damage, and Magic Defense to prevent damage.
Character Design Concept: Variety
Lets move on to designing characters now. When it

comes to designing characters, both from a narrative and
gameplay perspective, variety is an important thing to keep
in mind.
With narrative variety, you want characters to have
different viewpoints and personalities. Just think of a
Not So Brilliant Character Variety
conversation between two brooding heroes:
Character 1: ... characters will have vastly different backgrounds that have
taught them vastly different skills.
Character 2: ...
The first character will be the village elders son. He
Not very exciting. This is an exaggeration, but consider grew up in a rural area and is friendly and relaxed. He uses
any two characters who are too alike. Without contrast swords and doesnt use magic.
conversations between the characters would become boring.
The second character will be a priestess. She grew up
With gameplay, you want different characters to play in a monastery and is very proper and dedicated. She uses
differently. If most of the characters are similar in how they Spears and casts healing magic.
play, they become interchangeable in play, and you lose a
lot of party customization. The third character will be a mystic thief. Her past is
mysterious and she is arrogant and aloof. She uses daggers
Keeping variety in mind, I decide that my three and casts offensive magic.
Planning Is Everything [Character Name]/[Class Name]
Im sure right now you are ready to jump into the Character History: This is used to just write
database and just start creating away, BUT that really isnt a short version of what has happened to the
the best next step. The problem is, making a character in the character. No need to get too in depth.
database is spread across so many tabs, its not easy to keep Character Personality: Personality is
track of everything about one character. Instead its best to incredibly important in an RPG. This makes
a good guideline when you ask yourself: What
plan out a character before you ever touch the program.
would this character say?
On the right is a profile template that I will be using Character Purpose: This is mostly just to cover what purpose they
over the next few pages for the characters I am designing for have in the game, both gameplay wise, and in the narrative
the example game. It includes the faceset of the character, a Stat Priorities: Here, you can just say what stats the character will
short description of their history, personality, and purpose have the highest, above average, average lowest. Keep it loose at this
in the game. point in planning.
Skill Focus: What will the character be able to accomplish with
Under the profile is a screenshot of a games statistic their skills. This ties a lot into the character purpose.
planning spreadsheet I use to determine overall design before
I touch the database in order to have all the information in
one place for reference.
Take these character builds as exercises in learning
how to think through the design of your party as a cohesive
whole. For your own game, consider making your own
characters, using similar processes.
Ryan/Swordsman Breakdown
Character History: Ryan grew up in a small I designed Ryan to be the character who represents
village in the mountains as the son of the the player. His lack of formal education combined with his
village elder. His sword skill is self taught. lack of travel helps in excusing him from knowledge of the
Character Personality: Ryan is naive and world outside of his small local area. This is a good thing as
good spirited. He isnt terrible educated. He it lets him ask the questions the player might want to know
is loyal and will help anyone in need.
the answer to without it seeming too odd.
Character Purpose: In the narrative, Ryan exists to be the heroic
lead. He also serves as the area local. Mechanically, he serves the I picked a more heroic personality mostly as
purpose of the partys main damage dealer. preference and as an extension of his upbringing.
Stat Priorities: Ryan will have a high attack stat. His MHP and
Defense will be above average. His Agility, Luck, and Magic Defense Gameplay wise, I mostly focus his character around
will be average. His Magic Attack and MMP will be low. doing straight damage. Magic Attack and MMP are kept
down to a minimum as he will never use them.
Skill Focus: What will the character be able to accomplish with
their skills. This ties a lot into the character purpose. With his skills I again focus on damage. The only skill
not focused on damage is pommel strike, which does low
damage + stun. Putting a few skills outside the main focus
is good, as it makes them less one dimensional, but try not
to diversify so much you lose your main focus.
Weapons will be covered in the next tutorial with the
rest of Equipment.
Madilyn/Priestess Breakdown
Character History: Madilyn grew up in a When I went to create a second character, I wanted to
monastery. She has been trained from very create someone who personality wise contrasted Ryan, who
young to perform her duties. is a very friendly outgoing guy. So when thinking about how
Character Personality: Madilyn is dedicated. to contrast a laid back character, I designed a character who
She relies on herself and her faith and has a was regimental and dedicated. From this came Madilyn.
hard time letting people share her burden.
Character Purpose: In the narrative, Madilyn exists as a driving She does share some traits with Ryan though, a bit
force. She also serves to bring the quest to the other PCs. Gameplay of common ground, both grew up in somewhat sheltered
wise she is meant to be a healer and damage absorber. areas, and each are naive to the world as a whole becasue of
Stat Priorities: Madilyn will have really high defense. Her Magic it. I decided to make her the type who tries to take on all
stats will be above average. Her MHP, MMP, and Attack will be the burdens herself to create a bit of PC disagreement.
average. She will suffer from low Agility and Luck.
In gameplay, I knew I would need some kind of
Skill Focus: Her skills will mostly focus on keeping other characters
standing and absorbing damage. healer. And if we have a character who is dedicated, why
not work them into being a classical RPG Priest. I made
her also have high defense to keep her from being the frail
damsel cliche.
With her skills, she mostly focuses on healing or
absorbing damage. Once again, I put in a contrasting skill
with the Lunge skill just to add a bit of variety to her in
battle use.
Winter/Mystic Thief Breakdown
Character History: Winter grew up on With the final character, I wanted someone who
the city streets. She was later recruited by a contrasted the other characters, while having similarities
mysterious mystical organization. as well. With this, Winter was born. She is dedicated like
Character Personality: Winter is mysterious Madilyn, while being more laid back about it like Ryan,
and arrogant. She is very knowleadgeable of but she has a lot of other things going on.
the world. She is very closed off emotionally.
Character Purpose: In the narrative, Winter serves to be a foil to She is more knowleadgable than either of them, which
Madilyns personality. She also serves to explain things about the gives me a character to explain details.
world. Gameplay wise she is meant to weaken enemies.
She also works as a foil for Madilyn, whos dedication
Stat Priorities: Winter has high Magic Attack. She has above
average Luck and MMP. Her Agility, Magic Defense, and Attack and obsession with taking on burden comes up against
are average. Her MHP and Defense are low. Winters assessment of her actual abilities.
Skill Focus: Her skills will be mostly based around inflicting status From a gameplay perspective she adds a bit of strategy
effects and debuffs to the enemy. to the game. Both the other two characters are there to do
straight forward things: Damage and Heal. I felt going with
status effects would be more interesting strategically and
keep her from being redundant.
Her status focus shows through with her skills. She
also has two off type skills that help make up for her low
HP and Defense.
Starting with the Class Tab After you put in the class name, double click one of
the stats to have the parameter curve box to pop up.
While you can start in the Actor tab, I prefer to start
with the class tab when inputting the information we already
have. I will walk through establishing one characters stats
and menu information, then you can use the same methods
to add the others.
The first time we go into the Class Tab, we will be
concerned with only the portion shown below:
Here you can set the parameter curve you need. You
can set each level manually, use a Quick Setting button, or
click the Generate Curve button to put in the rank at level
1 and 99 and have it create the curve for you.
Since we are still working with rough stats, lets use
Here you can see the class name, and parameter the quick settings. A for high, B for above average, C for
curves for the class stats. Paramater curves determine what Average, and D for Low. I use the Generate Curve button
the stats will be rated at for each level. for MMP for Ryan, to set it to 0 at all levels.
On to the Actor Tab Now to select a face graphic, just double click on the
face section to pop up the face selection window. Just put
Now we will move on to the Actor Tab. Here we will the White Box around the face you want and click ok.
focus on the General Settings and Graphics section shown
below.
Put in the name of your character, and then link the
Actor to his class.
Next you can give
the character a nickname. You can then repeat the same process to pick a sprite.
The nickname appears in Double click on the sprite to open the sprite selection
the menu and you can also window, select the sprite you want and click OK.
address it in message boxes.
Im using it for a short
descriptor rather than an
actual nickname.
Since the game is short, I moved the maximum level
to only 8. No reason for the player to be able to level higher
than that.
The description appears in the Status menu in game,
Now weve gotten the basis of the character down,
and is good for a quick overview of the character.
lets move on to making some skills.
Creating Skills The first thing to know is that the first two skills
in the database are the default Attack and Guard options
The first thing we will want to do is flip over to the available to all characters in battle. Dont edit these unless
Terms tab. This might seem a bit odd, but we need to fill you want to change the way damage is calculated for the
out all the Skill Types we will use. Skill Types are shown in default options.
the battle menus for characters select before being given the
list of skills within that type to use. The skill I will be creating is Ryans Focus Skill.
We can go back to the

character planning sheets to find all
the Skill Types (listed as Skillsets on
the spreadsheets) we will need for
characters.
Lets fill all those in. We might
be adding more for enemies, but this
covers the PCs. The list of what I used
is shown on the left. Each character
has a Weapon Skill, and Madilyn and In the General Settings section we can set the name,
Winter have Magic Skills. description, Skill Type, Cost, Scope (Target), and Occasion.
Now that we have that done, we can move over to the We can also select an icon that will be shown next
skill tab. I will walk you through creating one skill, then to the name in the menus. Most of this section is pretty
cover damage formulas afterwards. straight forward.
Creating Skills (cont.)
Since this is a Sword Skill, I decided to make it

require him to be weilding a sword to use it in the Required
Weapons settings.
Below the general settings is the Invocation settings.

This includes settings that affect how it is used by the player.
For Focus, we want the skill to have it only occur
once (Repeats: 1), always succeed, and have a powerup style This section is a bit more complex. In the Effects
animation. If you want to preview the animations, or create settings double click on a blank line. This will pop up the
new animations you can check them in the Animations Tab. Effects Box. You can create a huge variety of effects using
this.
In the Using Message settings, we just fill out what

we want it to say in the battle messages when the character In the Param tab you can create a buff. Put in the
uses the skill. I left this pretty basic for Focus. number of turns you want it to last and click OK.
Damage Formulas When using the Quick box, an equation will be
created based on the following:
There is one last setting box that I didnt have to deal
x + y * (a.atk * 0.04 - b.def * 0.02) + z * (a.mat * 0.02) - b.mdf * 0.02)
with making the Focus skill, but is vitally important to
creating an RPG: The damage settings. Where X = Base Value, Y = Physical, and Z = Magical.
The standard default attack is based on Physical 100, Base
Ace lets us put in any formula we can think of. For
Value = 0, Magical = 0.
the example game we will be using the default formulas.
Variance is the max percent the skill can vary from
the result of the formula.
Remember that this is used for not only Damage, but
also for recovery skills, just change the Type to Recover.
Tips and Tricks: Default Database

Set up here is a spell that drains a target. To create the When you first opened the Database, you may
formula I used the Quick button. The Quick box is shown have noticed that it contains default skills, weapons, and
below. characters already. You can use these yourself, but the
true advantage of it is to learn how to make skills.
Dont know how to create a certain skill? Check
the default database for something similar!
Connecting Skills to Classes Tutorial Wrapup
Now we head back to the Class Tab to link the skills This tutorial should have gotten you familiar with
we made to the classes and determine what levels they are making your way around the database to create characters
gained at.
The basics of the Actor and Class tab should be
opened to you, and you should be able to create your own
skills with ease.
You should have also discovered some fundamental
In the Skills section on the Class tab, just double click character design theories. One such theory is character
on a blank line to open the Skills box. variety, in which you try and make character have not only
narrative variety, but also gameplay variety.
We also explored defining character purpose, so that
each character has a place in the game.
Here you can select the skill the class learns, as well as
what level they learn it at, then click OK to add it. In the next tutorial, we will be exploring Features, an
Sidenote: You may have noticed Note boxes in a lot of areas important part of creating characters in RPG Maker VX
that Im not using. You can use these to leave notes for yourself Ace. We will also get into creating Equipment and other
that the player cant see. Some RGSS3 scripters also use them to Treasures, and create ways for our players to obtain them
extend functionality. in game.
Make Your Own Game Tutorial IV: Equipment, Items, and Features
Purpose of Equipment
To understand designing equipment, lets first look at

what Equipment is generally used for in RPGs.
Equipment has two major purposes in RPGs:
Stat Growth
The first is just to help the character become more
Equipment Screen Ingame
powerful in the game. This is usually very easy to accomplish,
a Basic Sword may give you +20 Attack, while a Great Sword pieces of equipment from a similar tier of power.
gives you +25 Attack.
Leather Armor: +12 Defense
This is the part of equipment that most players are
most familiar with. You get to a new town and the first Cloak: +8 Defense, +5 M. Attack, +5 M. Defense
thing you do is check the Weapon and Armor shops for the If you had a character who could equip both of these,
newest biggest beat stick/armor you can buy. which would be better to choose? It would depend on the
Character Customization situation and what the player wanted the character could
do. If you wanted a bit of extra oomph to your spells, or
The second use is to customize characters. This requires
were going into an area where you knew a lot of magic
a bit more thought on the part of the game designer and on
attacks would come your way, the Cloak would be better, if
the player as well as it is not linear growth.
you just needed Defense, the Leather Armor is better.
To explain this use of equipment, lets look at two
Player choice is almost always a good idea.
Who Can Use What Equipment? Torso Armor and Shields will have 2 tiers, and the other
equipment options will have 1 tier.
Another thing that is a good to look at is different
The idea of Character Customization is good, so I
ways to distribute equipment among your characters. How
decide to use armor as primarily for customization rather
do you determine who can use what?
than pure stat growth.
There are multiple ways to handle this, from having
As far as deciding who uses what, I decide I want to
each character have their own unique equipment, to having
make weapons unique to each character. As a primarily stat
every character be capable of using any equipment.
growth piece of equipment, each character can have their
You can also have categories of equipment, such own weapons to use.
as Character A and Character B can use Swords, while
With Armor, I am going with categories. Each
Character B and Character C can use Daggers. Mixing and
character will have access to two different categories of
matching is also possible, with different types of equipment
armor, and there will be overlap between characters.
being divided in different ways.
Different categories excel at different things, so it lets you
Putting it All Together customize your characters a bit.
Shields are unique to Madilyn, because I decided
Now that we have looked at the possibilities of how
Winter would dual wield, and Ryan is using two handed
to approach equipment, Ill make some decisions in the
weapons.
how I want to use equipment in the Sample Game.
The final equipment slot, Accessories I decide will be
I decide that yes, linear growth is a good idea, so
special, and not give stat bonuses at, instead giving other
there will be tiers of equipment. Weapons will have 3 tiers,
advantages. They will all be equipabble by anyone.
Back to Planning In the end I decide on 4 types of armor plus shields,
and what they affect.
And now we are back to the most important part of
Clothes: Equippable by Winter, clothes will provide low
making an RPG: Planning.
Defense, while giving a boost to Accuracy, Agility, and
Weapons are pretty straight forward, Ryan uses Evade rate.
swords, Madilyn uses spears, Winter uses daggers. I like
Robes: Equippable by Winter and Madilyn, robes will
dual wielding daggers, so Winter will be use two weapons.
provide low Defense, while boosting Magic Attack and
The main purpose of the weapons in this game are Magic Defense.
linear stat growth, so I start with a relatively small number
Light Armor: Equippable by Madilyn and Ryan, light armor
of +Attack and add more as they go up tiers. Thinking
will provide only medium Defense.
about it, I also decide to make the top weapon in each
group an elemental weapon, with different elements for Heavy Armor: Equippable by Ryan, Heavy Armor will
each character. provide high defense, but a penalty to Accuracy, Agility and
Evade Rate.
Armor is a bit more complex. With it done in
categories and focusing on choice, I need to decide what Shields: Equippable by Madilyn, shields provide a bonus to
categories I want and what bonuses they will give. Defense and Evade Rate, while lowering Accuracy.
Planning (cont.)
As you can see, every character has a choice when

it comes to their armor. Ryan can go for high defense at
the expense of his accuracy, evade, and agility by equipping
Heavy Armor. Madilyn has to choose between bonuses to
her magic attack and defense, or a higher defense. Winter
has to choose between magic attack and defense, or agility,
evade, and accuracy.
Madilyn also has another choice with Shields. Shields
increase her defense, but lower her accuracy.
All of these are choices. Character growth choices are
important in RPGs because it helps players feel like they
are THEIR characters. What we are doing in this example
game is admittedly very minor, but it prevents all players
playing the game from having identical stats. Above is the full spreadsheet planning list for non-
weapon equipment (for weapons, check the planning sheets
Accessories, I have decided will not be necessary
from the last tutorial).
equipment for stat growth, instead giving boosts that help
out in different ways. One each will regen your resources (HP, As you can see, the same themes are carried across to
MP, TP) and the other will get rid of random encounters. head armor as well. Ive also done some work on how they
Accessories will be equippable by anyone. will be acquired, I will be covering that later.
Prep Work in the Database Intro to Features
First lets do a bit of prep work before making our Features are one of the new components in RPG
equipment. Click over to the terms tab. Just like with skills, Maker VX Ace, and is one of the most important.
we need to put in weapon and armor types. Just fill in the
3 types of weapons and the 6 types of armor. If you cant Features are used to affect the character in the
remember how to do this, just check back to Tutorial III. following ways:
The next piece of prep work needed is to apply which What they can equip
characters can equip which type of equipment. This involves What skill types they can use
one of the most important parts of the database: Features. Type of damage done on attack
States added on attack
Adjusting primary stats
Setting secondary stats
And more...
One of the biggest advantages of Features is that they
arent restricted to one tab in the database. Features are
available to be added to Actors, Classes, Weapons, Armors,
States, and Enemies.
This allows you to create customization systems very
easily, as you can have different components add together
in different ways to create your character.
Using Features to Add Equipment Types
The first thing to do when adding any feature is decide

what portion of the character it needs to go in. With the
example game, I have two options for equipment types:
Actor and Class.
Since in the example game, the characters all have
Above, the Features section is highlighted on a
unique classes and no one ever change class, the Actor and
screenshot of Ryans Actor in the database. Much like you
Class tab Features are effectively interchangeable.
did with effects on skills, double click an empty line.
With other setups, such as a game with a class system,
This will pop up the Features box. Navigate over to
you may want to split things up with persistent parts of the
the Equip tab and check Equip Weapon and select Swords.
character on the Actor tab, and class based things on the
Then hit OK. Simple as that, youve added a feature!
Class tab.
Just for organizational purposes, I am going to be
using the Actor tab Features box for all the Equip types
and Skill types, and the Class tab Feature box for all other
persistent features of the character.
Ill add a single Equipment type feature to Ryans
Actor, and then you can add the rest on you own by
following the same method.
Using Features to Add Skill Types Using Features to Adjust Secondary Stats
Now that weve added Equipment types, we need to Remember those secondary stats we were going to
add Skill Types too, since we didnt do it in the last tutorial use (HIT, EVA, TGR, and CRI)? This is how we will set
(I was saving it for this Feature section!) those. If you flip over to the Class tab, you will notice that
the defaults are already set out for you.
Im throwing this in the Actor tab Feature section as
well, so double click on an empty line there to pop up the Just double click on one you want to change (if you
Features box again. want to see the changes I made, check the planning sheet for
each character in Tutorial III), and then adjust as necessary.
Switch to the Skill tab, check Add Skill Type and
select the appropriate skill type (Im working on Ryan right You can also add them yourself on equipment when
now, so Ill select Sword skill here). Repeat across all actors we work on that later by just adding a new feature and
for every skill type they use. heading over to the Param Tab.
One Last Feature to Add
Tips and Tricks: VX Ace In Editor Help
In the example game, Im making Winter dual wield.
Well, that is ALSO a feature, so lets head right on over to Unfortunately, I dont have the space to go over
her Class and double click on the Feature section to pull up every possible option here, but there are already two
the Feature Box. great resources for you to use.
Head over to the Equip tab and check Slot Type. The First you can hover over any option and get a nice
only option in this one is Dual Wield, so just hit OK. popup hint to explain it.
Second, is the huge Help file that goes in depth on

almost every option in the editor.
That does it for features for now. We will be exploring

Features more when creating equipment.
Creating Weapons and Armor You should be able to quickly fill this section out and
move on to the Parameter Changes section.
Ill be making a basic piece of armor first that will show
most of methods you will use to create all equipment, then
will go over a few things to keep in mind with Weapons.
The General Settings section in the Weapons and
Armor tab should look pretty familiar after creating skills
in the third Tutorial. The only new options are Equip Type In the Parameter Changes section, you put in the flat
in Armor and Price which is on both Weapons and Armor. increases that the piece of equipment will give to a character
equipping it. For this piece of Armor, we add increases to
Agility and Defense.
The last thing needed for the Cloth shirt is to head
over to the Features section and add in some Eva and
Accuracy increases. Just follow the instructions on adjusting
secondary stats on page 7.
Price is the default price it will sell for in shops in

game, while Equip Type covers which Equip slot it goes
into.
Useful Weapon Features Creating Items
One Feature to keep in mind when creating weapons Creating items is incredibly similar to creating skills,
is the Atk Element Feature. in fact, the only things added are Price, which we went over
with Armor, Consume.
This is useful for the Top Tier weapons in the example
game, as we want them to do elemental damage rather than The consume tag is used for comsumable items such
physical. as herbs/potions. If it is set to yes, the item will be used up
once it is used once.
Another feature that is useful for weapons is the Seal
Equip Feature. The main use for it is to create two handed Since we dont need to go over item creation, lets go
weapons. By having them Seal the shield slot, you can have over some design theory on items instead.
a weapon that cant be used at the same time as a shield.
In general, you dont want items to overshadow skills.
In the example game, this isnt really necessary, since This doesnt mean they cant be more powerful than skills,
Ryan cant use shields anyway, but I applied it anyway just you can make an item powerful that is rare, but items you
to illustrate the point. can easily acquire need to be less powerful than compareable
skills.
The Features of the Lightning Bladeis shown below.
Another thing to keep in mind is gameplay need. For
instance, in the example game, we have no skills that can
reserruct a fallen hero.
So I need to make a buyable item to fill in this gap
that can handle it for me.
Treasure Chests!
So we have a bunch of items and equipment now, but

how does your player acquire any of it in game?
The first way we are going to explore is Treasure
Chests. Treasure chests are an easy event to handle, as we
can create them with the Quick Event Creation options.
Switch over to the event layer on our Village map and right
I select Armor, and select the item I want, in this case,
click to the left of the waterfall south of the steps.
the Mystic Robe.
Now that Ive done that, I look at the Treasure Chest
Graphic. The bright red chest doesnt match our village very
well, so I double click on that to pop up the graphic select
window. There I select a nice wooden treasure chest.
Then you can select Quick Event Creation => Treasure

Chest.
This will pop up the Treasure Chest Event options.
Shops! Priority needs to be set to Same as Characters so that
you cant walk over him, and the Trigger needs to be set to
Now that weve put our toes in the shallow end of Action button so that the event activates when the player
eventing with cosmetic events and quick event creation, its hits the Action button while facing it.
finally time to really look at a custom scripted event. Lets
Now look over at the large section on the right side of
make a shop so that players can buy some stuff.
the event. Double click on the @> end line to insert a new
In the example game, I have a spot set up for a event command into the event.
travelling merchant who cant leave town until a nearby
Note: You can right click insert as well. You can also right click
landslide is cleared up.
to edit an event command, or right click to delete an existing
While in the event layer, lets right click between the event command.
crate of fish and crate of tomatoes and hit New Event. You
The next thing you need to do is DONT BE
should already know how to set the Graphic from Tutorial
INTIMIDATED. Yes there are a lot of options, but we can
II. Make sure you set the Priority and Trigger correctly.
learn them a little bit at a time. Switch to the third tab and
find Shop Processing in the Scene Control Group.
Shops! (cont.) Now, lets add some messages before and after the
shop window so that our Merchant can actually talk to us.
In shop processing, you can just double click to
First, double click on the Shop Procession event
bring up the goods window and add any item or piece of
command in your window, this will insert a new event
equipment you want to the list of things they will sell.
command above it in the event. (Events always run from
the top to the bottom unless event commands change the
processing order)
In the message group on tab 1 of the event commands,
select show text.
You can let it set it to use the Standard price, or a

custom price if you want.
After you are done, just click OK and you have a
Write in some appropriately worded text for our
working shop. Unfortunately, its a bit boring. You click the
merchant to say and select a face graphic to use. Be careful
action button on him in game and the shop menu pops up
about going over the limit per line. If you are worried, click
and when you are done shopping, it goes away.
the preview button to see what it will look like in game.
Shops! (cont.) Tutorial Wrapup
Repeat this step to give him some text after the shop In this tutorial, we have covered a LOT of important
menu goes away by double clicking on the @> at the end of things.
the event. Now you have a nice working shop!
First we explored how the point of equipment in
Your even should now resemble the screenshot below most RPGs and things to keep in mind when designing it.
After that we went over how to design them in the editor.
We also got introduced to the very important Features
system that RPG Maker VX Ace brings to bear. Features
allow us a ton of customization.
After that, we went over how to create Treasure chests
using the Quick Event Creation system.
Finally, we got further into the basics of eventing
by writing a working event from scratch, a Shop for our
characters to buy equipment from.
In the next tutorial, we will be getting back to mapping,

this time focusing on World Maps and Dungeons!
Make Your Own Game Tutorial V: Other Types of Maps
What Kind of Maps Will We Cover?
We will view maps using the following categories.
Exterior Safe: This covers most town exteriors, as well as any
outside area that has no encounters.
Interior Safe: This covers the insides of buildings in towns
primarily, but also covers friendly castles, temples and other
similar places.
Man-made Dungeon: This covers any area that a player will
travel through which will have encounters, and is based in
a building or other sentient being based structure.
Natural Dungeon: This covers not only the obvious (caves),
but also things like forests, or any other natural occurring
environment with monsters.
World Maps: While not universal in RPGs, this is a common
map type, and one we will be using in our example game
This is the main map that you will travel on to link together
maps that are distant from one another.
We will be making three interior safe maps, and one each of
Different Map Types taken from the VX Ace Sample Maps
the dungeons and a world map in this tutorial.
Things You Should Already Know This Tutorial Reads a Little Different
Because this is continuing on our mapping knowledge Unlike earlier tutorials, this tutorial will spend less
that we first explored in Tutorial II: Intro to Mapping, there time on the specifics of what is being done, and more on
are a number of things you should already know before the structured approach and thought processes I use to get
starting this Tutorial: to the end goal.
How to create a new map and adjust the map properties The reason for this is that after mastering the basic
skills, mapping is mostly just an individual process and set
The different layer tools in the map editor. of tastes. Every person will map differently. Because of this,
the main purpose of this tutorial is to showcase different
The different brush tools available
types of maps, and to walk you through a single perspective
About the tile tabs and their relationship to layers. (my own) that will be used to create the maps.
How to shift copy and shift paste tile sections. You will most likely find your own methods and
processes the more you practice, and this is a good thing.
How to use cosmetic events. My approach generally involves starting with a base and
building on top of it, but you might work better working
If any of these sound unfamiliar to you, take a moment on smaller areas at a time.
to go back to Tutorial II and refresh yourself there.
Both are valid approaches, and there are a million
These techniques will not be explained but will be other approaches as well. Find the approach that works for
used in this tutorial and without a firm grasp of the basics you and practice practice practice. Time is the best teacher
you will quickly get lost. of good mapping.
Village Elders House Floor 1 Village Elders House Floor 2 Storage Shack
First, Im going to fill in the interiors of the two Now I select an appropriate wall top tile (in the A Tab
buildings I created in Tutorial II when making the outside of the tileset). Since all three of these buildings are wood,
area around the Village Elders house. I select the older looking wood autotile for the Storage
Shack, and the newer wood autotile for both floors of the
I will be making three maps at the same time here, as Village Elders House.
the methods used are the same.
From this point I draw the basic shape of the
To start the map, I will create a map using the Interior building. Dont try and keep the insides the same size as
tileset in the Map Properties. 17 x 13 tiles is the minimum the outside, just keep the same general shape, and keep the
size of a VX Ace map, and in this case, I believe all three can scale between buildings similar. I settle on a scale of ~2:1
be made in that size or less. between inside:outside dimensions.
Next, using the same wall top tile, divide each map single long room for a library. This will be used to put a
into the rooms that will be in the building. few books for the player to read to fill him in on the myth
and lore of the world. On the right is a meeting area and
Always keep in mind what you are going to put in kitchen. The small middle room is a place to put stairs.
each area. Dont divide up the buildings without a plan,
otherwise you will probably spend most of your time The upper floor is divided from left to right into the
mapping moving walls around to adjust to what you are Village Elders bedroom, hallway, and Ryans bedroom.
putting in. Ryans bedroom will be used to heal up the party.
In the first floor of the Village Elders house I divide The storage shack remains the same at this point, as it
the map into three rooms. On the left, I am creating a doesnt need rooms.
Switch your tile to a wall tile. Generally you can use First of all, notice that while a vertical wall section
the wall tile that matches up with the wall top you used, is only one tile wide, a horizontal wall section is three tiles
but you can switch it up if you feel you need to. wide.
In this case, I feel the matched tiles look best. Place Because of this, you have to sometimes stretch things
two tiles below each horizontal wall top tile section. You from top to bottom to fit in things you need. As an example,
can go with one tile high walls if you desire, but the RTP is in the last step, it looked like I was leaving a lot of room for
designed around two tile high by default. the stairs in that small middle room on the lower floor.
Because of this, there are some things to keep in mind In reality, I was leaving only a single floor tile area to
when mapping out a room. place it on.
Now that we have walls, the next thing we need are For the storage shack, I just select some dirt floor. No
floors. Look at the floor tiles available to you, and identify reason for them to have put in flooring material.
ones that will be useful for you.
I also take the time here to cut out doors. Remember
For the Village Elders House, I select the horizontal that if you have a passageway going from left to right, rather
running hardwood floors for the majority of the house, and than top to bottom, you will need to cut away on tile of the
a simple checkered tile floor for the kitchen area. ceiling for floor and replace two with wall tiles. Right click
copying makes this much faster.
Try and make sure the tile matches the area not just
visibly but logically. A village elder in a small mountain I went ahead and put the stairs in place as well. Make
town isnt going to have expensive looking carpet. sure their locations match up from the top to bottom floor.
Now its time to fill the rooms. You might think this and books all over the floor, along with barrels, bags of
step should be much longer, but in reality almost all the grain, etc? No, probably not. People tend to keep things
things in this step are very similar. relatively clean, so dont try to clutter up living spaces unless
a character is specifically rather messy.
Aside from the counter autotile used for the table and
desks which are on Tab A, the rest of the tiles are all on Tile Another thing to keep in mind is placing items against
B and C. Select tiles that match the area you are putting walls. Because of the way the RTP is designed, if you place
them in, try and fill up the large areas of blank space. a single item like a stove or bookshelf against a wall, it is
best to cover the entire wall to avoid the bottom of the
Try not to just put tiles down to create clutter though. wall being visible. This keeps players from noticing that the
Look around your own living room. Do you have papers bottom of the shelf is in the same place as the wall bottom.
Next, lets turn our attention to creating a World Next I turn my attention to something I mentioned
Map. First, I create a map using the Field tileset with a size in Tutorial IV. The Merchant was trapped in the village
of 40 x 30 tiles. because of a landslide. Of course, I would need mountains
anyway for the village, but this gives me a clue to the
When creating a World Map, dont make it larger location we will need to place them.
than you really need. Its hard to fill in too much space.
I create a ridge of mountains blocking travelling
The first thing to do is just draw a vague shape for outside of the area Im working with to the southeast. I
what you are working with the primary tile you will be create a single pass that I will have blocked by a worker
using for that landmass (in this case, grass). later.
Lets dress up our mountain range. Thinking back to my items, I remember that I have
ice crystals as a drop item. Well it makes sense to have these
First, grab the hill tile. Generally you dont have drop from monsters in snowy areas.
mountains turning directly into plains. So why dont we
put hills all around the mountains. I switch to the snow autotile and paint the northern
tip of the peninsula I had created. It still looks a little bland,
Along with hills, since this was an area that was so I draw a pine forest in the snowy area.
preventing travel, why dont we put some really high peaks
in there as well. These are found in Tile B. You use these To lap some of flora, I extend the pine forest into the
just like we did large tree tiles in the village map. grasslands to the south of it.
But where will we put our dungeon? I like the idea Now for the finishing touches.
of a fiery volcano dungeon, so why dont we build it on a
separate island. I start by placing my locations. I place the village
elders house over near the mountains in the hilly areas,
I build it originally with rock ground autotile, then then place a volcano with a small ruins in front of it on the
lap a bit of volcanic ground autotile near the center. island.
I use a different type of mountains in to have a place Next, I put a dock for a small boat, and connect the
to put my volcano. As a side note this also gives me a good pass, dock, and town with paths. Finally, I drop a few extra
place for monsters to drop fire crystals. tiles in to break up the grassland.
For my dungeon, I want to have a temple ruin that Now I proceed to make interior rooms. Dont over
opens up in the back into a lava cave. The temple ruin will think it when you are creating man-made structures and
obviously fit in the man-made dungeon category. put in mazes and such (unless it was specifically made as a
I start this similar to how I would an interior safe maze).
map. First start a new map with the Dungeon tileset. You In general humans create symmetrical designs, or
will want this to be bigger so to provide more area for your close enough to symmetrical. We also favor straight walls
player to travel. This map is 30 x 20 tiles. and precise angles in our designs. With that in mind I create
I pick a wall top tile and draw out the building outline. a main room, a hallway, and two side rooms.
Now its time to put in the walls. Now I fill in the floors. Being a temple, I decided to
go with a slate tile floor tile for both the interior, as well as
I create the interior walls two high, while the outside for the outside stoop section. I thought about using two
walls are three high. This is so I can throw in a height change types of tiles inside, but felt it was unnecessary.
to create an outside stoop.
Remember the fill tool, no reason to put these in a
Remember to always keep overall height differences single tile at a time.
from the ground level in mind when creating the walls. If
you dont always go the same number of tiles from two areas For outside the building I pick a grey rocky terrain, as
of the same height, you create an incorrect perspective. we are sitting right outside of a volcano.
In this step, Ive done several things. First, Ive cut out In this last step, I put in decorations. Most of these
for the doors. In this one I did all vertical passageways. I set are crumbling cracks in the walls and floor and rubble.
them symmetrical for balance, this was a temple after all.
I place a cave-like doorway in the back which will
The second thing I did was put in stairs. Since its old head into the fire cave. It will remain hidden until the
and abandoned, I pick the crumbling stairs. player finishes a small riddle puzzle that is based on the
dragon statue and the two tablets on the walls.
The last thing I did was make the building look like it
was built into the rock face by building cliffs on either side. Try not to overdo the cracks and destruction though,
Remember, varying height is interesting to the eye. too much and it looks repetitive.
Varying Barriers
This is a good time to stop and talk about a bit of

map building theory that Ive discovered while working on
my own maps.
A lot of people when they create caves, rely solely on
cave walls to keep players in. This is functional, but not
incredibly pretty.
Instead, try to vary what blocks the players path. In a
cave you can have all kinds of barriers:
Now I can move on to the last map we will be making
Cave Walls
in this tutorial: The Fire Cave.
Water
With caves, I tend to start with the wall top tile and
Lava
fill the entire map (this one is 40 x 30). Then I carve out
using the floor tile and fill in what I carve out. Height changes
Rubble
I skipped the individual steps as putting in walls
should be familiar to you at this point. Try not to draw too Man-Made barriers like jail bars
the walls too straight. Caves are more chaotic, being made
By varying the kinds of barriers you use you can create
by nature, rather than human hands.
a much more visually appealing map.
This map overall grew much more organically, and At this point, I continue to add varying barriers.
much less structured. In an odd way, this mirrors its natural
origin. I add in some height changes, and actually convert
some areas that were originally walls into walkable areas.
The first thing I did is bring in some lava to vary the At this point we learn another cool feature of autotiles: You
barriers imposed in my map. Being inside a volcano, I felt can walk on top of autotile walls as long as you have a way
this was a natural choice. to get up there.
Also, dont be afraid to alter the shape of what you The raised walkable sections look like the same tile
originally had if it looks better. Map making is all about as the lower walkable sections, but actually arent, its a wall
constant adjustments, nothing is written in stone. top tile with the same design.
Now I add in some spots in the lava that you cant In this stage I add a lot of detail, as well as a raise
actually reach. Why put things down you cant reach? man-made temple style area for the boss fight.
Because it breaks up the lava visually.
I used a darker lava stone tile to break up the walkable
You will also notice the large amount of shift copy- area a bit visually, and used smaller pools of lava regularly
pasting Ive used on the lava. Since the lava isnt ending so it is almost always visible. I also decided to cut all the
right where the wall tops are, we need to get rid of the way into one walkable area and place a bridge down.
shore it builds in the autotile.
One thing to keep in mind is you have to shift click
Shift right click appropriate lava tiles and shift left the area right to the south of the stone steps so that it doesnt
click to put them in place to get rid of these shores. have the edge of the autotile, otherwise it wont be passable.
Tutorial Wrapup
Weve covered a lot in this tutorial and have made a

lot of visual progress on our game.
We have gone over creating several map types and
how they are different and how they are similar.
We created three interior maps for buildings in the
mountain village map we made in Tutorial II, two floors for
the village elders house, and a small shack.
We built a world map with varying geography
In my last step, I just polish up what I already have. to connect together our locations, and two connecting
dungeon maps, one a man made ruined temple, the other a
I decided that the area for the boss fight didnt look
natural cave in a volcano.
man-made enough, it was too irregular in shape. I changed
it to be more symmetrical. Next Tutorial Preview
I also cut a lava river all the way down the middle, In the next tutorial we will be creating the random
and cut away more of the outside with lava. encounters that our heroes will come across. We will go
Finally, I added a ton of height differences into the over two important encounter components, balancing
walls. These serve no functional purpose, but breaks up encounters and encounter variety. We will also discuss
repetitive parts of the map. experience and character growth.
Make Your Own Game Tutorial VI: Creating Encounters Part 1
Purpose of Encounters
Encounters in roleplaying games serve several
purposes, and being aware of these purposes is important
to designing your own games. There are two purposes that
are more prominent than the others.
The first is challenge.
Without challenge, a video game would just be a
slightly interactive movie. While there are some works in
that direction, for the most part, games need challenge of
some sort.
In RPGs the two major form of challenges are generally
encounters and puzzles, and in most cases the majority fo
challenges fit into the former. points. The experience the characters receive allows them
The second purpose is progression. to go up in level, while the gold is used to buy better
equipment.
There are two ways encounters promote progression.
The first of which, and what we will focus on in this tutorial The other way it promotes progression is that
is character growth. encounters can progress the story. Boss fights are one
example of this. Another is encounters that drop items that
In a standard RPG, as the characters wins more and you need to complete the current portion of your quest.
more encounters, they accrues more gold and experience
Encounter Areas Now that we have looked at why we have encounters,
we can begin to plan out how we want to lay out those
encounters.
The first thing to do is look at all the maps you have
created that are going to be danger maps where encounters
can occur. I have made three of those maps for the sample
game: The World Map, The Ruins, and The Fire Cave.
So now we need to decide what enemies should be
encountered in each map. But wait, what if we want one
map to have different encounters in different areas? That is
where Region IDs come in, which will be explained after
we determine the individual encounter areas (distinct areas
with their own encounters) we will use.
I decide to divide my world map up by geographical
area, and leave both the other maps as just one encounter
area each.
So I have the following encounter areas: World Map:
Grass, World Map: Hills, World Map: Forest, World Map:
Snow, World Map: Volcanic Island, The Ruins, and The
Fire Cave.
Using the Region ID Layer
With the encounter areas decided, we now need to
divide up our World Map into areas.
We do that by using the Region ID layer. In the Map
Editor switch to the World Map. Once there, switch to the
Region ID layer. The button for this is between the Event
Layer button and your pen tools. Though you cant select the fill tool, you can use the
drag left click to select clusters of the same Region ID. This
Once there your tile palette will be replaced with
layer operates independantly of the others, so you dont
incredibly gaudy colors with numbers on them from 1 to
have to worry about it copying the graphics when copying.
63. Dont worry, they dont show up in game.
After you finish wth the grass, paint the other terrain
Select the number you will be using for grass (in
types in your map with different numbers based on the
my case 1, and paint across all your grass tiles. It operates
encounter areas you set up previously. I used 2 for Forests,
identically to the pen tool.
3 for Hills, and 4 for Snow (Snowy forests included).
Now that weve divided it out, Im going to take one

more step that has more to do with personal preference.
A lot of people dont like world maps very much, and
one of the reasons is that its just filler for encounters. To
help prevent this problem, I decided to make roadways not
have any encounters.
To do this, I just selected the null Region ID (upper
left of the palette) and erase the Region ID off of the road.
To help with people who dont quite follow the road exactly,
I spread the null Region ID out one tile away from it. Ill
set an NPC somewhere to tell the players that roads are safe
for travel.
After I finish up the mainland, Im going to take a

quick jaunt down to the volcanic island and I can paint
that with 5.
Now weve set up all the Region IDs so that we can
use them to seperate encounter areas.
Region IDs, much like Noteboxes, can also have
additional uses added through scripts.
The Experience Curve Milestones and Expected Level
Experience progression is a hard thing to balance and All games have milestones in their progression of
it has a lot of moving parts. To begin with, Im going to plot. These are points in the game where you tend to open
discuss those moving parts, then I will discuss how they up more encounter areas, or when they fight a boss fight.
interact.
Every milestone shoud have an expected level. This
The first part is the experience curve itself. The is the level that the encounters are designed around for
experience curve is the total experience needed to get to each difficulty. Being higher level will make the area easier, and
level. In the example game, Im leaving this at the default. being lower level will make it harder.
Below is the default experience curve in RPG Maker VX
Ace. Your job as a game designer is to make sure that most
players end up as close to expected level for each portion of
the game unless they do some really heavy grinding or skip
a lot of stuff.
The example game has the following milestones with
expected levels listed:
Start: Level 1
Obtain Boat: Level 4
Open Fire Cave: Level 5
Face Final Boss: Level 6
Average Number of Encounters per Area this expect a lot of complaints
This one is much harder to nail down and you will Another option, is to require the player to get a certain
have to playtest to figure it out. number of drops for a quest before progressing.
What you want to discover is the average number of In the example game, there will be a boat sitting at
encounters you will interact with in a certain area, if you the end of the dock on the world map so that players can
go directly for what you need to reach your next milestone. travel to the volcanic island. But what is keeping characters
Since most players arent going to go directly at it, you from walking straight too it and going directly to a higher
should probably add about 20% to that number just to get expected level encounter area?
a better idea of what most players will do. In this case, Im going to add in a short quest of
This is the one variable in character progression that collecting some wood from plant type enemies in order to
is the hardest to adjust. The other variables you can change fix the boat. This requires the player to stick around the area
directly, you can change the experience curve directly, and until he has gone through a certain amount of encounters
you can change your expected level just by balancing around to get those drops. (This will be added in a later tutorial,
a different level. but it is important to know it will be done in this tutorial.)
But it isnt impossible to change this variable. The

most direct way to change it is to add distance between two
points, making it just take longer to travel.
You can also just make encounters more common,
though at a certain point this angers players. No one wants
to fight every three steps, and if you design a game around
Planning Encounters in RMVX Ace Planning Enemies
Well get to putting all those variables together in a The first thing we need to do is create ememies for
minute, but first, we need to learn how to set up encounters each encounter area. The way I find easiest to do this is to
so that we can measure average encounters through create another spreadsheet to match enemies to area.
playtesting.
I start using a combination of the area and my
Encounters are built in two tabs in the Database: available graphics to lay out some monster ideas. Make sure
that it makes sense for the area. For an example, I selected
Enemies Tab: The Enemies Tab is where you build individual
the Plant monster Battler to create my Man-Eating Plant,
enemies
which logically resides in the Forest area. Try to make sure
Trooops Tab: The Troops Tab is where you put groups of you have several differnt monsters for each area.
individual enemies into specific encounters for the player
to encounter. Another thing I add is a Type Column. In this column
I pop down a short description of its gameplay mechanics.
This is an intuitive approach, and will be the same Make sure to makes some variety in how they play. Variety
approach we will take while designing the encounters for is one of the most important things in Encounter Design.
each encounter area.
The first thing I suggest to do is get familiar with all
your available monster graphics. For the example game, I
am going to be using RTP monsters only. Go to the Enemies
tab in the database double click on a monster graphic, and
scroll down through the graphics available to you.
Putting the Enemies into Troops
Now, you can repeat the same process by combining
the individual enemies you created into planned troops.
Make sure you have a variety of different possible encounters
in each area.
I aimed for 5 encounter types in each area, plus 3
special encounters at the bottom that will be used for a The combination of enemies will create very different
item drop collection quests. encounters. Above is one of my encounters. I labeled how
I would approach it as a player, which is influenced by the
amount of threat the enemies pose to me.
Below, even though the Wendigo is a bigger threat,
I would prioritize the two imps as they are quicker to kill.
Variety creates multiple required approaches, which requires
players to think through their actions.
Laying out the Framework: Enemies Tab Instead of trying to put everything in at once and
eyeball the EXP and Gold, we are going to set up encounters
The first action we are going to take is to set up the so that we can easily test areas to get all the variables we
framework in the Database. need so that we reach our milestones at the levels we want.
Go to the Enemy Tab of the database. For this pass
First go through and name all your Enemies based on
through, we will only be concerned with the section shown
what you planned out in your spreadsheets.
below:
Second, set all their stats to 1, this will let us fight
through them quickly during the encounter rate testing.
Third, set the Battler Graphics. Use the Hue slider to
change the Battler color!
Fourth, set any quest drops in to judge how long it

takes to acquire them. Im setting the Man-Eater Plant to
drop a new item: Morph Logs, which will be used to fix the
boat.
Laying out the Framework: Troops Tab From there, you can drag the the monsters around
on to set them how they will appear in the encounter. I
Next, we can set things up in the Troops Tab. Flip personally like to break up the horizontal top and bottom
your spreadsheet over to your encounter groups and start lines created when you added them. Move them around to
filling them in. get a more random look.
All you have to do is select the monster you want on
the right, and click Add to put them in the encounter...
You can name your Troops however you want, but

I prefer just to click the Autoname button to finish our
... and repeat as needed until the encounter is filled. current work in the Troops Tab.
Laying out the Framework: Map Properties On this, there are only three things to pick from:
Save your work in the Database and close it out by 1. Troop. Here just select the troop you want to apply
hitting OK (You should be saving regularly using the Apply to the map.
button, You dont want to lose all that work you are putting
in). Right click on one of your World Map and select Map 2. Weight. This determines how common the
Properties. We are interested in the Encounters section encounter is in its areas. The higher the more common they
shown on the right below. will be. I left it on 10 for all the encounteres except the
Wisp encounters, which I wanted a bit rarer and set to 5.
3. Range. This determines where on the map this
encounter will show up. On the two dungeon maps, we can
just select Whole Map for all of them, but on the World
Map we will need to select by Region ID. You can select up
Double click on the list to open up a new Encounter to 3 Region IDs per Encounter. If you need more Region
for this map. IDs (like the Orcs*2 Encounter) just add it again and add
the other Region IDs there.
The only other thing to adjust here is Steps Average,
which determines the average number of steps between
encounters on the map. It is below the encounter list.
Connecting Maps with Transfer Events
To do our testing, we need to connect together all
our maps with Transfer Events, so that it is easy to test our
encounter areas.
To do this go back to your World Map and switch
On the New Transfer Event Popup, we ony have two
to the Event Layer. In this section I wil build the transfer
options. The direction option will change what direction our
event between the World Map and the Village. You can
character is facing after being transfered. For the moment, I
build the rest of the transfers following the same method.
will leave this on retain.
Right click on your transfer location and select Quick
To change the destination, just click on the ...
Event Creation => Transfer.
and select the map and coordinates you want the player
transfered to. Repeat until all of your exit and entrance
points have transfer events.
Placing Player/Boat Starting Positions Changing Tile Passability
Now, you may wonder how we are going to get from Now we can walk across all our maps at one ti... But
the mainland to the island while playtesting. wait! We cant walk on that dock!
We are going to place the starting position for the I actually made this mistake when I built the original
boat. To do this, while on the event layer, right click the map. I had assumed that the passability of that tile was set
location below and select Set as Starting Position => Boat. to allow us to walk on it, but it wasnt. Luckily this gives me
a great time to talk about changing passability.
Repeat this somewhere in the Village but instead
select Set as Starting Position => Player. Open up the Field Tileset in the Tileset Tab and
switch to Tab B. You will see that the two Dock tiles are
set to X passability.
Just click on them to cycle the passability until it
changes to O.
Testing to a Milestone
Now we have access to everything we need to test the
average number of encounters to each milestone.
To get to the first milestone, the player will need to
collect 3 Morph Logs from Man-Eater Plants. Since we will
tell them when they are looking at the boat they will need
this, we can move directly walking around the forests to
find encounters with them.
I also go on the assumption that the player will do one
of the two available sidequests available to them up to this
point. For this he will need to collect three Lightning Gems
from Lightning Wisps. (I set them to drop a Lightning
Gem on every encounter).
Play through the section several times attempting to Shown above is a table I created while testing to
get these specific items. Record the number of times you the first milestone 3 times. I then calculated the number
run into each encounter group, and then calculate the total of enemies I encountered averaged between those three
number of enemies you fought. playthoughs.
I counted Lightning Wisps as two enemies, as I wanted This may seem tedius, and it is. All great games require
them to give twice as much experience as other enemies. tons of playtesting.
Putting it All Together Tutorial Wrapup
Now that we know this, we can determine how much
In this tutorial, we have learned how to plan out the
experience each enemy should give on average if all other
encounters we will have in our game. We discussed enemy
variables remain the same.
and encounter variety, and how it forces players to think.
The average number we reached was ~64 enemies. I
We then moved on to implementing the framework
would round this up to 70 since we were going directly at
for the encounters in the editor itself and how to use the
the goals and not everyone would do that.
Hue changing function to make Battler Graphics different
Since we need to reach level 4 from level 1, the player colors.
should gain at least 366 experience across 70 enemies. Since
We also made transfer events, set starting positions of
366/70 = 5.23, we can round up to around 6 xp per enemy
vehicles and players, and changed passability of tiles. And
on the mainland.
finally, we worked out how to test using our framework to
We could also do other things if this amount doesnt determine how much XP our enemies should give.
work well for us. We could require less Morph Logs or
Elemental Gems to finish the quests, we could change the Next Tutorial Preview
drop rates of the items, or we could even change the weights
of the enemies that drop them. In the next tutorial, we will continue to work
on Encounters. We will work on balancing individual
One thing I did notice was that 30 steps is way too encounters for our partys expected level, and balancing the
high with such a small world map with safe paths. I changed partys skills to the encounters we are building. We will also
it to 15 for my second and third tests and it worked much build our final boss.
better.
Make Your Own Game Tutorial VII: Creating Encounters Part 2
Aspects of Encounter Balance
Despite what you might think, Encounter Balance
is not all about difficulty. Difficulty is a portion, but there
are many moving parts that you want to take into account
when designing encounters.
So lets look at what I consider the important aspects
Duration: Duration is how long the encounter lasts. In
general, with nonboss encounters, I prefer duration to stay
low. Going into medium length in a nonboss encounter is
ok, but make sure the time to reward (exp/gold) ration still
stays good. No one wants to fight a battle and earn 5 xp and
4 gold when they could fight three in the same amount of
time for 3 xp and 2 gold each.
Danger: Danger is the likelihood of the player losing an Strategy: Strategy is a level of how much good choices on the
encounter. for nonboss encounters, this can range from low part of the player, such as party composition, equipment
to high, depending on how you handle other aspects. choices, and in battle skill use affects the Duration, Danger,
and Toll of the encounter.
Toll: Toll is the amount of resources the battle will tend
to exhuast. This includes HP, MP, potions, or any other Swing: Swing is how much randomness, such as battle
expendable resource the player has. this can range from surprise, enemy skill usage, or enemy evasion, affects the
mid to almost non existant, depending on encounter style. Duration, Danger, and Toll of the encounter.
Aspect Interaction
This works well in games where you can save anywhere.
Now that weve gone over the five major aspects I Both of these playstyles can be reinforced heavily
use to balance encounters, lets talk about how they work by rating what the average encounter in each of the five
together. How they work together can create a cohesive feel encounter aspects.
for your game, as well as add even more variety to your
encounters.
First, lets look at two styles of gameplay that can
illustrate how you can add a cohesive feel through balancing
encounters properly. These two styles are by no means the
only ones, but are a good representative of RPG designs.
The first style I will call attrition encounters. With
attrition encounters, no single encounter is dangerous, but
they instead add up over time.
This works well for games with save points, where the
challenge isnt from any single moment (outside perhaps Attritions requires fairly low ratings all around. But
boss battles), but instead from the extended challenge of with a high enough toll to matter over time.
making it from one save point to the next.
Immediate danger requires high danger and trivially
To compare lets look at another style Ill call low toll. You want to prevent to much swing when doing high
immediate danger encounters. With immediate danger danger encounters as it this can lead to player frustration.
encounters every encounter has a chance to wipe you out. High strategy works well in this style as well.
Establishing a Baseline
lower than a standard character. Why? So that encounter
For the sample game, Im going to be using the duration stays short.
Attrition model, as it is a bit simpler to balance and allows Its important that encounter duration stays short
more leeway. when using the Attrition model, as the idea is the character
Now that weve decided on that, we can start looking to go through many battles, and no one wants to slog
at assigning stats and skills to individual enemies. The best through a ton of long battles. Below is the first set of stats
place to start is with what I would consider the baseline. I set for the Orc.
The baseline is the most average enemy you have. All

other enemies can be created by starting with the base and
then adjusting it for the expected level of the area and their
individual type.
My baseline enemy is the Orc. He appears across
the entire world map and is meant to be a bog standard
encounter filler.
Lets develop the plan of attack for how we will create
the orc. He is baseline, but has no magic, so we can set his
MP and Magic Attack low. He doesnt use them at all.
His Attack and Defense are good to set to slightly
above a level 1 character, but we need to make his HP much
Battle Testing
The tabs allow you to add up to 4 characters into the
Now we can test these orcs out in a battle. battle test. When you have the party set you want, go ahead
and hit OK. I decided to test this fight with only Ryan.
Go to the troops tab, select the Orcx2 encounter and
click on Battle Test. This will pop up a window where we After I played through it about 3 times, I noticed that
can select the characters, shown below. Ryan wasnt really suffering much damage, and he would
start killing them in one shot after a level or two.
At this point, I altered the Orcs stats as follows:
Here you can select characters, and set their level and
equpment.
Adding Skills
Right now, our Orc is somewhat balanced for what
we want (we will do heavier playtesting in game later when
we are polishing), but he is pretty boring.
Just attack after attack and nothing to break it up.
My initial thought was to add guard in, but all that does
is increase the duration of the encounter. Since we want to
keep duration short, this is a bad choice.
Instead, I decided to give it the option to Focus. I
could have created a new skill for the Orcs, but this one
works perfectly. Buffs alter which enemies we see as priority
targets, which is a great way to add variety to encounters.
The first thing we need to do is double click an empty
space in the Action Patterns section. For the moment, leave the conditions on Always. We
will discuss conditions more when creating our boss fight.
Select Focus for the skill you want to add.
The Rating is the likelihood the skill will be performed.
Basically the higher the number, the more likely the AI will
This will bring up the box for a new put in a new select it over other applicable skills. I started with it set to 1.
potential action for the enemy to take.
More Battle Testing! Other Enemies
And now, we go back to battle testing again! Honestly, From here, you can use the Orc as a basis to create
get used to doing this. A lot. There is just no way around it, other enemies.
without testing, your game balance will be awful.
Take the stats the Orc has, raise and lower them based
I play through with the Orc again, and I notice that on the type of enemy (fast vs slow, def vs offense) to create
he is rarely ever using his Focus attack, so there is no real a wide variety. Also, be sure to adjust for the expected level
change from how things were going before I added in the of the party.
skill.
Dont be shy about makin new skills either. I created
With a quick trip back to the enemies tab, I change several elemental attacks for the various wisps. And KEEP
the rating of the skill to 3, and then finally after another TESTING. Constantly test all your battles. Get used to
bout of playtesting, down to 2. seeing the screen below. Also, keep in mind your encounter
style.
At this point, they seem to be performing the action
often, but not too much. Perfect!
There are other things I learned from these battle
tests. Pommel Strike is a great skill for Ryan, as it takes one
of the Orcs out of the fight while I can focus on the other.
This shows that some level of strategy can cut down
on the Danger and Toll of the encounters. Alone he can
take out the two nearly every time, with some damage.
Encounter Aspects and Boss Fights Planning the Boss Fight: Story
Now that weve gotten all the regular encounters out A boss fight, especially the final boss fight, is a really
of the way, lets focus on the boss fight. important concern both from a gameplay perspective and a
story perspective. I want to create a villain who can cause a
Unlike regular encounters, boss fights get to break
lot of damage, but isnt individually a great threat.
the rules of your encounter style completely.
The villain for the sample game
Danger is almost universally high during boss fights,
is known as Morris. Morris is a cultist
Duration ends up longer than the average, Toll is generally
who wants to resurrect an ancient evil.
not a concern as most boss fights are at the end of areas.
While a major player in the cult,
As with most encounters with high Danger, you
he isnt the leader, leaving room for the
want to keep Swing down. No one wants to die due to
sample game to be expanded at a later
randomness. Every time a player loses, they should be
date if I want to.
blaming themselves (If I had chosen to heal then instead of
pressing the attack, I wouldnt have lost!), not your game. He also has a connection with
Winter, allowing some interactions on
Strategy is the one part of an encounter that we can
that front. His plan is to break a magical
vary pretty heavily with boss fights depending on how
seal in the ruins on the volcanic island
casual or hardcore you want the game to be.
that helps hold the ancient evil.
For the example game, Im going to try for around
He is accompanied by his
a 5 on a scale of 1-10 for Strategy. I want the game to be
personal pet, an incredibly aggressive
accessible, while still being interesting.
three headed cerberus.
Planning the Boss Fight: Mechanics I give him Darkness and Distracting Strike, allowing
him to debuff and apply a negative status to the characters.
Mechanicly, creating a boss fight is not much different For the moment I leave them at Rating 3.
from creating a regular encounter. The only real difference is
everything is custom crafted for that encounter specifically, Giving him an ability to heal both himself and
and being longer, you need to create more variety to enemy Cerberus when he is low on HP is also a good idea. That is
actions to keep it interesting. where we will work with Conditions in the Action Patterns.
I decided to do a two enemy encounter for a different Open up a new action and select Aura, the heal-all
dynamic, allowing me to craft two enemies with different skill that we made earlier for our Priestess.
purposes to play off of each other. Give it a high rating and select Conditions HP
Lets look at them one at a time: between 0~25%.
Morris is a cultish fanatic with a knife. He looks and

sounds like a caster type, and Im going to run with that
idea. To keep it from being a slugging match where both
sides just trade blows until one dies, Ill give him a support
role.
He should be able to do damage on his own, but that
shouldnt be his primary way of affecting the encounter. I
decide to draw from some of Winters moves, as I picture
him as having once belonged to the same organization as This keeps it from being used when his HP is high,
she is. while making him use it often when his HP is low.
Planning the Boss Fight: Mechanics, Cont. Playtest! Playtest! Playtest!
Now onto the Cerberus. If Morris is a support enemy,
Now its time to playtest. With this battle I playtested
Cerberus should be the damage dealer.
with the characters at various levels, with various equipment
The first thing I decide to do is give Cerberus a special to see what the character could have done to better prepare.
Feature that will allow him to go twice each round. I changed the stats for the enemies up and down, trying to
find the perfect balance. Its very simiar to the work with
the Orcs, only taken with more care.
Normally this is where I put an overview of what
weve went over, but instead Im going to put a disclaimer.
Encounter balance is time consuming. It takes a lot of
dedicated playtesting, and lots and lots of practice. Never
Combined with a high attack stat, this makes the give up on it though.
Cerberus dangerous on its own. But I decide to go a few
steps further. I give him the Drain skill to use regularly Keep tweaking, keep trying one more small thing. If
when he is below 50% HP. I also build a custom skill for there was one thing that you can do to improve your game
the Cerberus: Fire Breath. Because of his three heads, I the most, this is it.
change the target to 3 Random Targets. Next Tutorial Preview
Remember to set Cerberus and Morriss MHP much Now that weve laid out most of the mechanics, in our
higher than a standard encounter, but not to the point that next tutorial, we are going to start connecting everything
it gets boring. together with story and events.
Make Your Own Game Tutorial VIII: Events Part 1
Opening Thoughts
With this tutorial, I am going to be doing something
slightly different than I did with all the others. We will not
be opening our sample project during this tutorial, instead
we will focus entirely on theory and the basic commands
available to use.
In Events Part 2, we will then apply this theory to
our project, fleshing out, and leaving only polishing up the
sample game between us and being finished.
Events: What do they do?

Events are used for two major purposes in RPG
Maker VX Ace.
The first is to provide objects for the player to interact Simple Event made in Tutorial IV
with. This can be an NPC for the player to talk to, a switch But there is also a second, very important role for
for them to pull, or even just something to move your events is controlling game flow. For instance, how do you
characters from map to map. determine where a character can and cant go, how do you
Weve already made several simple events that fulfill open up new areas for him to explore.
this purpose, such as the Merchant we made in the fourth All of this is done with events.
tutorial shown to the right.
Approaching Event Design Creating the Treasure Chest
Event design is all logic. There are lots of tricks and The first thing to do when planning an event is to
tips you can pick up over time, but the best tool you will think, in plain speak: What does this event do?
ever have is your own brain. What I hope to teach in this
With a treasure chest, this is a pretty simple thing to
tutorial isnt how to create a specific type of event, its how
describe: Player opens it, gets an item. The item given with
to walk yourself through ANY event.
this one is a cloth shirt.
To start with, we are going to be designing the treasure
To illustrate event flow Im going to be drawing each
chest we created in Tutorial IV, except this time, we are
step as a flowchart.
going to do it from scratch, and we are going to go step
through step of the logic it takes to create it. I encourage everyone to use
flowcharts in their event design,
as it will give you an excellent idea
of how to organize your events.
To the right is the simple
plain text explanation of what
our event does. The event starts,
it gives a cloth shirt to the player,
and then it ends.
Do you see the problem
with this flowchart?
Creating the Treasure Chest (Cont.)
Thats right! Every time the player activates this event Flow Charts!
it would give him another shirt. Infinite shirts would be Flowcharts are an excellent resource to use to
useful, but would break the game. The player could sell actuallize events. A lot of the ways I am using them are the
them for infinite money! same as how programmers are taught to begin thinking
So we need to add a branch near the beginning of of programming. There are many flowchart shapes, but
the event that checks if the chest has already been looted. I am only using the three listed below combined with
Lets not worry about how this is one in the editor quite arrows.
yet, instead, in plain language, lets put the branch into our
flowchart.
You can find info on many more shapes if you are

interested by searching the internet.
Also, all of the flowcharts made in this tutorial
were made with the freeware program yEd.
Creating the Treasure Chest (Cont.)
We are nearing the end of our plain text version of
This flowchart works perfectly for us, because we our event. Right now, it will perform the game mechanics
remember that it was looted already. But a computer doesnt portion of what we want it to do, but it doesnt actually
know to remember this unless we tell it to remember it. visually do anything on the screen.
Once again, we wont worry about how this is done in What we need to do is add in the sound effects,
the editor. All we need to know right now is that it has to be treasure chest opening animations, and a message to the
told to store the information about whether it was looted. player that he received something. All of this, of course,
Its easiest just to fill this in as the last thing the branch on needs to be stuck in the No branch.
the No side does before ending the event. You can see this
version of the flowchart below.
Quiz!
1. Recreate the Dragon Quest I But Though Must scene:
As you can see, plain description and flowcharts can The Princess asks to join you, if you say no, she says But
put you in a good position to start plotting out your events Thou Must then asks you again. This will happen as long
in the editor. as you continue to say no. If you say Yes, she joins the party.
(Remember that the Princess shouldnt be able to join
Here, because the main purpose of this tutorial is to twice!) Answer Page 6
teach process rather than how to do a specific thing, Im
going to do something a little different and give a little quiz. 2. Using the treasure chest flow chart we created as a base,
Dont worry, its not going to be graded! create a flow chart for a treasure chest that will only open at
On this page, I will describe several event scenarios the cost of 3 Lightning Gems from your inventory, that will
and ask you to draw your own flowchart (either by hand or give the character a Lightning Blade. Answer Page 6
on a computer) to show how that would be accomplished.
3. Create an event that allows you to do one of the following
Once again, knowing the exact commands is not two trades: 2 Steel Bars for a Katana or 1 Yarn for a Magic
important. What is important is understanding the logic of Sock. Make sure to have it give not enough messages and
how the program runs through events. Use plain English, the option to loop around to the beginning after you are
and dont get hung up on whether I write things slightly done. (Note: These items are not used in our game, they are
different. The main point is to see how well your flowcharts entirely hypothetical) Answer Page 7
match mine, and if they dont, if it would still accomplish
the same thing. 4. Create an event where you can ask an old man a question.
The following pages will show the answers to these He answers 4 times, then refuses to answer the same question
scenario. again, telling you to leave him alone. Answer Page 8
Quiz! Answers
2.
1.
The important thing here is to make sure that we loop First things first, we need to add an additional branch
back ot the initial question every single time the player says to check whether the player has enough Gems. This needs
no. to be after the check to see if youve already looted the chest.
You have two options on preventing it from happening Additional additions are the inclusion of taking 3
again. The first is what I used, just check if the Princess is in lightning gems from the player (otherwise it isnt a cost),
the party. This doesnt work if she is removed later though! and a message giving a hint to the player of how to open
So another option would have been to Store the info that the chest. You could also add in a SFX that plays when you
the event didnt need to happen again. try to open the locked chest if you so choose.
Quiz! Answers (Cont.)
This one is a little more complicated, but it really
3. only takes combining the things weve learned in questions
1 and two.
First, we need to set up a question message and a
player choice, just like we did in the But Thou Must quiz
problem. After that, we have to set up some more branches
to check if we have the proper materials. This is very similar
to checking if we had the Lightning Gems in the Lightning
Blade quiz problem.
When that is checked and shown to be false, tell the
player that he doesnt have enough and scuttle back up to
the starting question. You could loop it to the end from
here as well, but that would make the character have to
start the event again to do the other trade.
Handing out the items is handled the same way as in
the Lightning blade quiz problem. Give the item, tell the
player, take the trade items.
Since the event should happen as many times as the
player wants, there is no reason to put in a condition to end
it immediately after start.
Quiz! Answers (Cont.)
On problem 4, I threw a little bit of a curve ball at
4. you. Its a relatively simple event, but it requires a bit of
information I hadnt covered yet.
Did you intuit the simplest way to accomplish this
event? The key is knowing that we can store more than just
yes or no information.
We can also store numbers. And not only can we
store numbers, we can manipulate them using basic math.
We use this to just add +1 to the Times Asked every time
the Player asks him how old he is.
Quiz! Wrapup
So how did you do on the Quiz? Were you able to

create flowcharts that were similar to the ones I made? If
they didnt look like mine, did they still work?
Dont worry too much if you didnt do well. Eventing
logic just takes practice! Keep charting new event ideas and
you will get the hang of it!
Practice! Practice! Practice! and Moving into Tutorial Wrapup
Scripting
In this tutorial, we spent most of our time going over
With Eventing logic, the key to improving both theory. Even though we didnt touch the editor itself, we
efficiency and how complicated of events you can make is spent a lot of time learning the processes by which events
nothing but practice and pushing your boundaries. flow.
This process of design and charting is the same used We also went over the idea of storing information for
to teach people computer programming. This is because later use. Both Yes/No and numbers.
eventing is basically programming simplified.
We learned how to diagram this flow using flowcharts,
You use a lot of the same concepts: Get input,
an invaluable tool to organize what you are going to put
Store Information, Manipulate Information, Retrieve
down in the editor later.
Information, show output. The difference is that with
eventing, you have a number of defined event commands to You also got the opportunity to try out the knowledge
control your events with, allowing you to worry less about with a fun little quiz.
about language syntax.
The good news though is that all this information
is also applicable to programming. The better you get at In the next tutorial, we will take this theory, and use
eventing, the more you will understand programming logic. it to create events, mapping the plain English descriptions
Good eventers can generally move into scripting with ease. to Event Command. We will also learning about using
Event Pages vs Conditional Branches, as well as Switches
Just remember, KEEP PRACTICING. vs Variables.
Make Your Own Game Tutorial IX: Events Part 2
Introduction
In Tutorial VIII, we covered a lot of theory on how to
organize and structure events.
There are 2 major things that we learned in the last
tutorial that are the most important:
1. The concept of storying information as switches (yes/no
information) or variables (storing a number value).
2. The concept of flow control, the ability to have events do
different things based on stored information by branching
and looping.
Clever applications of these to things will allow you
to make almost any event you can think of. We understand Flow Control with Switches from Tutorial VIII
them in theory, but how do we create these inside the editor? And four types of Flow Control:
In this tutorial, we will translate these two things into 1. Conditional Branch
their counterparts in the event editor .
2. Show Choices
We will go over two types of Information Storage:
3. Loops
1. Switches
4. Label and Jump to Label
2. Variables
Information Storage: Switches Control Switches is incredibly simple, giving you an
option to select the switch, and turn it off or on. (You can
Ok, so remember that Treasure Chest we worked on also select a group of switches using the Batch option).
last tutorial? It uses what is called a Switch.
Standard Switches are global. What this means is
A switch stores boolean data. Boolean is just a fancy that there is one set for the entire game, and those switches
word meaning that it only has two states. These two states can be accessed or changed by an other event in the game.
in the editor are referred to as ON or OFF. You can also
think of it as YES/NO or TRUE/FALSE. Switches are numbered, but you an also label them.
To add a label, when selecting which switch to use during a
To change a switch we use the Control Switch process, type a name into the Name box.
Command, it is on the first page of the event commands
under Game Progression (shown below). There is also a second type of switch. This is called a
Self Switch. Self Switches are local. This means that instead
of being able to be accessed or changed by any event, they
can only be accessed or changed in a local area. The local
area in this case is within that single event.
To change a self switch, you use the Control Self
Switch command in the Game Progression set, also
shown in the image on the left of this page.
Each event has its own set of self switches, labeled A,
B, C, and D. Remember that what you do to a self switch
ONLY applies to that event.
Information Storage: Variables
Variables are the other type of information we can
store in RPG Maker VX Ace. For an example from our
theoretical exercises in Tutorial VIII, you can look at Quiz
Problem 4, where we stored the number of times we asked
the Old Man his age.
Variables, rather than storing Yes/No information
can store a whole integer, negatve or positive. You can
change a variable using the Control Variable command,
located between the Control Switch and Control Self
Shown above is Variable 0004 (labeled as # Times
Switch Commands in the Game Progression set of the
Asked) using the Operation Add and the the Operand of
event commands.
Constant: 1.
Because Variables are numbers rather than just yes/no
What this does is take Variable 0004, and then add
information, we can do more than just set them. We can do
(the operation) 1 to it (the operand). You can add, subtract,
math with them.
multiply, divide, divide and save the remainder, or just set
When doing a Control Variables command, we have the variable to the Operand. You can use all kinds of things
3 parts. The Variable (what variable you want to change), as your Operand, from random numbers, to the numbers
the Operation (what process you are using to change it), stored in another variable to things from the Game Data.
and the Operand (the number used in the Operation to
Unlike Switches, all variables are global. There are no
affect the Variable).
local switches.
Flow Control: Conditional Branch Once you have selected the conditions, you are taken
back to the event. There you will see indented lines, one
The Conditional Branch is one of the simplest forms after the conditional branch command, and one after a line
of Flow Control in RPG Maker VX Ace. A Conditional saying Else. You will also see a Branch End line.
Branch takes a piece of information, either from the Game
Data, Switches, or Variables, and determines whether Anything you want to happen if the conditional
something about it is True or False and makes the event do branch is true, put directly after the conditional branch
different things in each case. command. Anything you want to happen if it is false, you
put directly after the Else line. The Branch End line closes
The Conditinal Branch command is found in the the conditional branch, and anything after that will happen
first tab under the Flow Control set. Inside you will find regardless of whether it is true or false.
all kinds of possible questions you can ask the conditional
branch to check. Below, I have it set to check if we have
asked the Old Man four or more times how old he is.
Above, if the variable is 4 or above, he will say the top

line, if the variable is less than 3, he will say the bottom line
and it will add one to the variable. If you wanted something
to happen afterwords either way, you would add it on the
highlighted line.
Flow Control: Show Choices
This one actually isnt listed in the Flow Control set in
the event commands, but its still very much used to control
the flow of an event, so we will include it here.
Show Choices lets you give the player up to four
choices to select from, and then has the event behave based
on the selection chosen.
It can be found in the Message set at the top of the
fist tab in the Event Commands. Like with the Conditional Branch, you place the
things you want to happen within the indented lines after
the choices lines. In the above, the conditional branch starts
if you ask him his age, and the event does nothing and just
carries to the end if you choose to leave him alone.
As with the Conditional Branch, you can also put
things after the branch end line if you want it to happen
after the rest is processed no matter the choice selected.
On the left, you are given the option of putting in the
choices, while on the right, you can check which option to Notice that you can nest flow control options inside
select if the playre hits the cancel button. If you leave an each other. Always keep an eye on your indentions and the
option name blank, it will not show up to select in game. number of Branch Ends you have to make sure you are
inserting commands on the right line!
Flow Control: Loop The Break Loop command is also found in the Flow
Control set. Placing a Break Loop command will cause
Loops are a different kind of flow control. Rather the event to skip the rest of the commands in that loop
than do something based on a condition, they just repeat and jump directly to the next command after the Repeat
a set of commands inside the loop until something breaks Above line.
the loop.
As you can see on the right, the Princess will continue
The Loop command is in the Flow Control Set. to ask to join your quest as long as you select no. When
There are no options, once you select it you will get a line you select yes, the loop breaks and it will skip to the line
labelled Loop and a line labelled Repeat Above. directly after Repeat Above. In this case, it skips to the line
Everything you put between these two commands that adds the Princess to the party.
will loop. You can break the loop (usually using some other
kind of flow control such as a conditional branch or show
choices) using the Break Loop command.
But I dun wanna!
Flow Control: Label and Jump to Label
Like Loops, Labels and Jump to Label commands do
not by themselves check any information stored.
Labels by themselves do nothing. You place a label in
your event and it just sits there with a name that you gave
it. Pretty boring huh?
But that is where Jump to Label comes in. Whenever
a Jump to Label command comes up, the event jumps and
starts processing back wherever the indicated Label was. At
the most basic level this can be used to create Loops, but it For the example, we will recreate the exact same
can also be used in combination with conditional branches circumstances that our Loop example created, but this time,
to skip parts of an event, to jump back to a specific point we will do it with Labels and Jump to Label commands.
in the event, etc.
Instead of starting with a Loop, I placed a Label
The uses of this might not seem as obvious as some named start at the beginning.
of the others we covered, but at some point you will be
When the player selects Yes, it skips over everything
making an event and suddenly this little feaure will jump
in the No condition, so it goes directly to the end of the
back to you. Technically, everything CAN be done with just
Branch.
loops, conditional branches and show choices, but Label
and Jump to Label commands can create huge shortcuts in But instead, if they select No, it jumps back up to the
your events. Start Label!
Lets Make an Event
So now that we know all the pieces, lets go all the
way through creating an event for our game.
So Ive decided instead of using treasure chests that
unlock with gems, Im going to have the special elemental
weapons in our game provided by a fairie who turns
elemental gems into magic weapons.
Instead of having a flat cost of 3, Im going to have
the first one you buy cost 2, the second one cost 3, and the
fourth one cost 4.
Now, we need to start working on an event that will do
that. Lets start by doing what we did in the last tutorial and The next thing we need to do, is give her some kind of
write it out using a flowchart. Because we are more aware of introduction spiel. This will tell the player how the trading
the options though, we can better structure our flowchart system will work and introduce the character.
using conditional branches, loops and show choices.
Im going to have it play through every time we
The first thing we need is a variable that will control talk to her, so we can place it right after the GemCost<2
the cost! And it needs to start at 2. So lets put a routine at conditional branch.
the beginning that sets it to 2 if the variable GemCost is
equal to less than 2. Because it rises from there, the only From there, we can start the Loop that will be the
time this will be the case is the first time you talk to her. meat of the event.
The Loop Show Choices
Now, lets place a Loop. Inside the Loop, lets have Obviously, show choices is the next step. Add it in
her give the current price in gems of the next weapon. to allow the character to pick which weapon they want.
Add in a Cancel option to break the loop. Lets add in an
Everything else we add will be add on the inside of
abstracted trade process to the others that we will break
this loop.
down in the next step.
Instead of continuing to use the full chart, we will
map the trade process on a separate chart.
Trade Process
Instead of doing this step by step, lets go back to the
one we made in the last tutorial.
We now have the trading process for the Lightning

Blade, which can be directly plugged in to the Show Choices
flow chart above in the Lightning Blade Trade Process
box*.
The only changes that need to be made is changing
the message, changing the 3 to GemCost, and having it The Ice Spear and Fire Edge trade processes are
raise the GemCost by 1 after purchase. identical, just change the Weapon and Gems used.
I am also going to remove the store info for whether it *Note: Its important sometimes to break up huge flow
is looted, as Im instead going to track it based on whether charts into multiple chunks, it lets you think in smaller
the character owns the weapon or not. bits, rather than trying to manhandle the whole thing.
Mapping to Event Commands Tutorial Wrapup
So we know what each of the flow control commands
In this tutorial, we covered two types of Information
are, but lets start mapping some other parts.
Storage. Switches, which hold YES/NO style information
The intro spiel is obviously just a show text command, and Variables, which hold whole integers.
something we have used in a previous event in an early
tutorial. As a note: When you show the cost, you can put We also covered Flow Control such as conditional
\V[n] with the variable number in place of the n to have it branches that branch off events based on game data and
replace it with the value of the variable. show choices, which branches based on player choice.
To change the number of items in a players inventory We also covered Loops and Labels/Jump to Labels,
you use Change Item for the gems (in the Party set of the which give you more power to change how events play out.
first tab), and Change Weapon for the weapons (also in the Finally, we did a single complex event that used most
Party set). of these commands to trade gems for weapons in our sample
One thing we have to work around is the conditional game.
branch cant be set to more than variable items in inventory. Next Tutorial Preview
Instead we have to add in an intermediary step where we
save the number of that item to a variable. In the next tutorial, we will go one step further, and
Attached in the zip file is a demo that has this event, learn about event pages, event triggers, move routes, and
as well as some crystal events to give you the necessary many other methods to make more complex and powerful
gems. Read through the event, play around with it a bit, events.
and remember, keep practicing. Until next time!

RPG Maker Tutorial

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Make Your Own Game Tutorial I: Overview of Program Structure

RPG Maker VX Ace Structure

RGSS3 but the use of scripts made by other people is common.

The Map Editor is where you create the world that

Figure 2-1 shows the Map Editor with the important

Autotiles are a special type of tile that make creating

Figure 2-3: Tile B-E

The B through E tab tiles are all used on a third layer

Figure 2-7: Parallel Projection Perspective

In Figure 2-7, we have the same object shown with

So now we understand the perspective used in RPG

In the next tutorial, we will take a break from creating

So what does this mean for your game? An important

Lets move on to designing characters now. When it

We can go back to the

Since this is a Sword Skill, I decided to make it

Below the general settings is the Invocation settings.

In the Using Message settings, we just fill out what

Tips and Tricks: Default Database

To understand designing equipment, lets first look at

As you can see, every character has a choice when

The first thing to do when adding any feature is decide

Second, is the huge Help file that goes in depth on

That does it for features for now. We will be exploring

Price is the default price it will sell for in shops in

So we have a bunch of items and equipment now, but

Then you can select Quick Event Creation => Treasure

You can let it set it to use the Standard price, or a

Next Tutorial Preview

In the next tutorial, we will be getting back to mapping,

This is a good time to stop and talk about a bit of

Weve covered a lot in this tutorial and have made a

Now that weve divided it out, Im going to take one

After I finish up the mainland, Im going to take a

But it isnt impossible to change this variable. The

Fourth, set any quest drops in to judge how long it

You can name your Troops however you want, but

The baseline is the most average enemy you have. All

Morris is a cultish fanatic with a knife. He looks and

Events: What do they do?

You can find info on many more shapes if you are

So how did you do on the Quiz? Were you able to

Above, if the variable is 4 or above, he will say the top

But I dun wanna!

We now have the trading process for the Lightning

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