• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Hey GAF, let's make an RPG Maker Game Competition!

esterk

Member
GIMP would be the best method to spriting, I will mention. It can easily do transparency and better brush tools than most other free art programs.
I've got Photoshop - that should be fine as well, right? Or does GIMP have a leg up on it in the sprite-making area for some reason?
 

Dusk Golem

A 21st Century Rockefeller
I've got Photoshop - that should be fine as well, right? Or does GIMP have a leg up on it in the sprite-making area for some reason?

Yes, if you have Photoshop then that's perfect. GIMP is Photoshop Lite, but it's free to use so easier to recommend.
 

Mentallyerect

Neo Member
Thanks everyone for your input. I think I'll just go with XP as it already has the look I'm going for. Getting VX Ace modified to look like XP will just be too time consuming as I'll be learning everything from scratch. Given I'm looking to make a basic JRPG with no real special gameplay modes that'll require scripts and the like, I'll just go with the old reliable.

I'm not sure I'll get done by the deadline but thanks for the thread and all the info (OP and user responses). This all has relit the flame inside me to finally get around to making the old school rpg of my dreams :) lol.
 
Bought. Might give it a whirl but I am going in with no experience. Although I used to tinker around with fighter maker and MUGEN (Sort of)
 

Modsushi

Member
Pumping myself up for this. I have absolutely zero programming experience (aside from Visual Basic in high school, but I don't think that even counts hah), but that's not going to hold me back. It's my understanding that VX uses something called scripts that are written using the language Ruby, so I'm going to spend my downtown fiddling with Codeacademy's introduction to Ruby.

Does anybody have a good introduction to Ruby bookmarked by chance?
 

Servbot24

Banned
I'm an artist interested in participating. I can also make music. However I've never used the program, so I'd be interested in teaming up with someone familiar with it. I'd prefer to create a concept together rather than work on someone else's existing idea (although I'll certainly hear them out and I have ideas of my own to share too - just need someone flexible). PM me if you're interested!
 

gblues

Banned
I'm in.

Are there any rules with regards to sourcing assets, e.g. sprite ripping or copyrighted/non-original music?
 

Ludovico

Member
Can't wait to see and play all the creations from this.

Started my character on an island (VXA), I've created an event that triggers a text box when he enters the square, and an event that triggers when he's on said square and hits the interact button.

Now, to figure out how to get him to trigger different events based on which way he's facing...hopefully without getting into scripts!
 

Dusk Golem

A 21st Century Rockefeller
I'm in.

Are there any rules with regards to sourcing assets, e.g. sprite ripping or copyrighted/non-original music?

I'll add an extra clause to the OP, but don't use sprites that are officially from games I would say. There are a lot of resources for sprites online, and fan-made sprites based off of something are free-game. But all online resources must be credited.

On music, using .midi recreations of songs is okay, but don't use the game's original compositions. However, there are a number of GAF people (myself included) who don't mind making music for people, and many free music resources for RPG Maker and beyond.

Can't wait to see and play all the creations from this.

Started my character on an island (VXA), I've created an event that triggers a text box when he enters the square, and an event that triggers when he's on said square and hits the interact button.

Now, to figure out how to get him to trigger different events based on which way he's facing...hopefully without getting into scripts!

To do this, you don't need scripts. In an event, choose, "Conditional Branch" under the flow part of an events commands. Then look for a section that says 'Actor' (think its under the third tab' I believe) and then label which direction the actor should be facing when pressing the action button. This will make a conditional branch so that if the character presses the action button when facing this direction on this tile, ____ will happen, and if not, then _____ will happen.
 

Ludovico

Member

Thanks, got it!

Welp, time to get cracking...

edit: OMG, steam trading cards for this are awesome!

"Unlimited Item Works"
Ever wondered why your chest won't stop giving items, or when an event doesn't ever stop? Don't worry! This is a common mistake among newbies in RM.

Simply put, you just need to learn about the magic of switches! Here's our beginner index to help you out~ http://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?showtopic=14727

"No Transparency"
Ever had issues where your characters or any image files really, having some kind of colored border around them? Make sure to import them using the Resource Manager or edit them in an image program to give them transparency! And most important of all, don't replace your RTP files!

Here's our beginner index to help you out on more problems~ http://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?showtopic=14727
 

Dusk Golem

A 21st Century Rockefeller
I'll definitely still be around to answer questions, but I should probably start thinking about what game I want to make.

I mean, being me it's obviously going to be a horror game.

...Actually, that didn't take very long at all. I think I'll make something like Clock Tower or Haunting Ground. Let me sort my thoughts around this one for a bit, but that sounds good to me.

My girlfriend just took over my project's story because my idea was "bum".

I'mma go and pixel art in the corner now.

Oh dear, well it's okay to not be the pants on the project. Make sure to sneak in your personal details, however~
 
I'll try making something but I'm mostly just looking forward to playing games others come up with. Just to make sure, are we required to make a game in order to partcipate in the rating of others?
 

Dusk Golem

A 21st Century Rockefeller
I'll try making something but I'm mostly just looking forward to playing games others come up with. Just to make sure, are we required to make a game in order to partcipate in the rating of others?

Nope, anyone with a GAF account can play and rate the games, not just those that entered the competition.
 

BGBW

Maturity, bitches.
I'll try to give this a shot, now that I purchased the bundle. Let's see if being a php programmer helps
Well knowing how variables, loops and what not work from proper programming certainly helped me do more with even the basic RPGM2k compared to what I was doing as a kid. Knowing how to read code will allow you to edit the backend ruby scripts since you need to do that for things like the words shown on the title screen.
 

Einherjar

Member
Sounds fun, I would like to form or join a team of 3-4 for something like this though.

Main strengths are definitely in game design / balance / writing. I have some coding background but not in Ruby.
 

Stuart444

Member
Well gotten started with learning Ace. Using this guide mostly: http://www.scribd.com/doc/88474618/Beginner-s-Guide-to-RPG-Maker-VX-Ace - from the op.

I have two projects, one I can use to test out random things and one I am using to follow the tutorial (though the maps look a little different, I try to include everything that they plan on interacting with, ie inn/shops)

On my test project, I used the guide to make a random cutscene though it's quite janky. I'll explain what I did below so it's open for comments before I try any more random cutscenes:

Since you need a starting position for the player, I put the starting position next to the water with a boat cutscene event 2 steps to the right (in the water). Made the starting position/player transparent in database -> system so he wouldn't be seen until I wanted him to be.

Start of cutscene transfer the player to the same position as the boat sprite that the event is using. I move both the player + the boat to the left, boat twice (to get to the water next to the island) and the character 4 times, so they are two steps on the island.

The issue with this approach though is the camera starts with the player starting position in the center so it sort of yanks itself to where I transfer the player to (aka to the boat event). You can't seem to put two events in the same title and I couldn't see an option to make the event also the starting position while editing the event so the camera looks janky at the start alright. The player and his one follower (who is behind him) also look like they are coming off of water directly behind him and the boat disappears instead of staying like I'd want it to.

Then there is some text and even choice dialogue just for fun. That works perfectly though.

So yeah, not exactly perfect but it works and is a good first attempt at a cutscene I think. I would take a video but too much trouble to record and upload a 10 - 20s clip of this. Any cutscene advice is welcome though.
 

Dusk Golem

A 21st Century Rockefeller
Sounds fun, I would like to form or join a team of 3-4 for something like this though.

Main strengths are definitely in game design / balance / writing. I have some coding background but not in Ruby.

Added you to the list of people in the second post. I also suggest to look at it as a few others looking to hop on a team.

Well gotten started with learning Ace. Using this guide mostly: http://www.scribd.com/doc/88474618/Beginner-s-Guide-to-RPG-Maker-VX-Ace - from the op.

I have two projects, one I can use to test out random things and one I am using to follow the tutorial (though the maps look a little different, I try to include everything that they plan on interacting with, ie inn/shops)

On my test project, I used the guide to make a random cutscene though it's quite janky. I'll explain what I did below so it's open for comments before I try any more random cutscenes:

Since you need a starting position for the player, I put the starting position next to the water with a boat cutscene event 2 steps to the right (in the water). Made the starting position/player transparent in database -> system so he wouldn't be seen until I wanted him to be.

Start of cutscene transfer the player to the same position as the boat sprite that the event is using. I move both the player + the boat to the left, boat twice (to get to the water next to the island) and the character 4 times, so they are two steps on the island.

The issue with this approach though is the camera starts with the player starting position in the center so it sort of yanks itself to where I transfer the player to (aka to the boat event). You can't seem to put two events in the same title and I couldn't see an option to make the event also the starting position while editing the event so the camera looks janky at the start alright. The player and his one follower (who is behind him) also look like they are coming off of water directly behind him and the boat disappears instead of staying like I'd want it to.

Then there is some text and even choice dialogue just for fun. That works perfectly though.

So yeah, not exactly perfect but it works and is a good first attempt at a cutscene I think. I would take a video but too much trouble to record and upload a 10 - 20s clip of this. Any cutscene advice is welcome though.

Here's a bit of advice:

You can put two events on a same tile, but there will only be one event tile. To do this, at the top of the event editor choose, "Add new Event Page", which will add a second tab to the event. This event runs separately of the first event page, and can even be a different sort of event (auto-run, action trigger, player touch, etc.). Unless I misunderstood and you meant making an event stand on-top of an event, in which case, make the event you want to walk over the event have priority above characters, and the event you want the other event to walk over have a priority below characters.

The camera can be controlled with a few different events as well.
 

Dusk Golem

A 21st Century Rockefeller
On my side, I've now decided my game idea. I am taking some heavy inspirations from the Belgium film, Calvaire, and the game Haunting Ground.

I want it to be a Clock Tower-esque type of game where you deal with deranged and twisted stalkers, hiding from them, while solving puzzles and trying to escape a nightmare you've woken up in.

Main character is a guy forcibly dressed in drag, and he awakens to find himself the center of attention to some rather delusional and twisted keepers of an odd house.

Should be a fun ride to work on~ I'll be posting progress as I go (I'll be submitting the game and posting it here and for voting, but even if I win I will not be accepting the prizes and pass it onto the next person. I just want to enter for fun).
 

ZServ

Member
Hm. Anyone know of any scripts to get basic resolution changing and 360 controller support? I don't want to force people to go full keyboard, even for 2-4 hours.
 

CheesecakeRecipe

Stormy Grey
Hm. Anyone know of any scripts to get basic resolution changing and 360 controller support? I don't want to force people to go full keyboard, even for 2-4 hours.

640x480 is as high as the engine can go. You can use this script to get that resolution, but the limitation is hard coded to not go beyond that. Yanfly's Ace Core Engine automates and bugfixes some of the issues that come with extending to 640x480 as well as letting you change the res from within the script, so it may be better to go with that.

As for 360 controller support, I haven't a clue since I never assed with it.
 

ZenaxPure

Member
Hm. Anyone know of any scripts to get basic resolution changing and 360 controller support? I don't want to force people to go full keyboard, even for 2-4 hours.

If you're using VX it has controller support by default, just plug it in and go. As for changing the buttons and what they do not entirely sure, haven't messed with it enough since I just got it from the humble bundle and am still new to it (messed with other versions in the past but never VX).
 
We stayed up way past an acceptable time, but the story draft is done!
It'll be a 1-2 hour "adventure" more than an RPG, but it seems like a neat story so far.
I'm so glad she jumped in to fix everything. lol

...now back to the corner to be quiet and pixel art. >.>
 

ZServ

Member
640x480 is as high as the engine can go. You can use this script to get that resolution, but the limitation is hard coded to not go beyond that. Yanfly's Ace Core Engine automates and bugfixes some of the issues that come with extending to 640x480 as well as letting you change the res from within the script, so it may be better to go with that.

As for 360 controller support, I haven't a clue since I never assed with it.
Ouch. 640x480 max and they want to charge $70? If I hadn't paid a mere 6 bucks I'd probably be really tweaked right now.
 

Dusk Golem

A 21st Century Rockefeller
Hm. Anyone know of any scripts to get basic resolution changing and 360 controller support? I don't want to force people to go full keyboard, even for 2-4 hours.

Controller support is in the game by default, and some scripting can change buttons. 640x480 is the max game resolution (can make it smaller than that though), but you can change the window resolution to anything with this script: http://www.rpgmakervxace.net/topic/3894-basic-window-resizer/

anyone know where i can get any duck sprites?

http://cocousagi.web.fc2.com/new/material/s/duck.html

Quack!

And this one, but if you use give credit to Cr Mack and LuneDeLaCruor.

duckscrMackandLuneDeLaCruor_zps2f4662bf.png
 
Had a look at this for an hour or two today and the thing that stumped me was where to find Doors to attach to a building I'm trying to make!

:lol

Managed to import the futuristic tileset but can't seem to find what I want. Jeez.
 

Dusk Golem

A 21st Century Rockefeller
Had a look at this for an hour or two today and the thing that stumped me was where to find Doors to attach to a building I'm trying to make!

:lol

Managed to import the futuristic tileset but can't seem to find what I want. Jeez.

This topic may be relevant to you: http://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?/topic/15478-doors-are-driving-me-crazy/


For a better explanation, to make an opening door animation, you make an event and choose a door graphic for it. The graphic needs to go to a different graphics folder than tileset though, as the door is an animated event. A video guide on it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEQwjNuHUFU <---- This video guide is specifically about doors, so I'll recommend it.

And here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9goSUoKZr2c
 

KiraXD

Member
well i guess ill try my hand at this finally... as an artist, ive been wanting to make something so desperately...

as a story teller... LOL!
 
I wasn't even trying for an animation! I mean I literally couldn't find the tile that is supposed to be "the door", the visual part that looks doorish. I would even accept "empty open looking thing" to be frank.
 

Stuart444

Member
I wasn't even trying for an animation! I mean I literally couldn't find the tile that is supposed to be "the door", the visual part that looks doorish. I would even accept "empty open looking thing" to be frank.

Exterior tile-set. One of the tabs has open door looking stuff like archs and the like.

Then create a door opening event/animation to get the actual door. (you can even make it a locked door if you don't want people opening it but still want the door there)

edit: http://www.scribd.com/doc/88474618/Beginner-s-Guide-to-RPG-Maker-VX-Ace - use that, it's near the start of the guide when designing the village. (and just after that when doing events)
 

Dusk Golem

A 21st Century Rockefeller
I wasn't even trying for an animation! I mean I literally couldn't find the tile that is supposed to be "the door", the visual part that looks doorish. I would even accept "empty open looking thing" to be frank.

The doors are made to be animated, I think for the Futuristic Tileset looking at it now they made each door to be openable, so for that graphic set they have it where you'd put the Door into the Character Graphic (or another graphic, but character is easiest in my opinion). The reasoning is that you could make an event tile, and the doors would be selectable and be able to play an animation.

I admit in that set a bit unorthodox, usually tilesheets have doors that are just... Well, motionless doors, but it seems the creator of the Future tile pack went animated. Can still be motionless, but they have it unless you alter the sheet manually, put the door graphic you want in the character folder, make an event where you want the door, and choose the graphic to be the door.
 

ZServ

Member
I've got a VERY rough outline of the story I want to tell. Now it's just a matter of hammering out the details and doing it. Anyone know if playing voices is possible in RPG Maker? If so, we might be able to get some fully voiced shorties out of this.
 

Dusk Golem

A 21st Century Rockefeller
I've got a VERY rough outline of the story I want to tell. Now it's just a matter of hammering out the details and doing it. Anyone know if playing voices is possible in RPG Maker? If so, we might be able to get some fully voiced shorties out of this.

Voices can be done, and its fairly simple too. Make the voice files either .ogg or .wav (I suggest .ogg as its higher quality with smaller file sizes), put it in the SE folder, and then play the sound right before a text pop-up, but when the player goes to the next message first stop the sound file before playing the next one (RPG Maker events go in order of how you call them up, not all at once).

Uploaded a short game I did for Ludum Dare where I voiced a radio show host guy, I added some effects to my voice but to show across that voices do work with RPG Maker VX Ace:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dmoy25p8wCA

You do it simply in an event, it's a sound effect call, essentially.
 

Relix

he's Virgin Tight™
Got very excited last night and worked like 5 hours. Forgot i have to work today haha. WIP picture:

uJAkakd.png
 
i've had a quick play with vx ace and must say i'm pretty impressed so far. never used ruby before but it's all much of a muchness, no problems there. started putting in the kinds of weapons i want, adjusting the damage calculations and trying out making different skills. all super easy! i've been doing a bit of work in my spare time already coming up with a set of classes, skills and damage formula for a game i had in mind so i'm going to adapt all that to this i think.

Make the voice files either .ogg or .wav (I suggest .ogg as its higher quality with smaller file sizes

err ogg is not higher quality than wav.
ogg = compressed
wav = uncompressed

but i would say use ogg too, as the quality is great and waves will result in a huge file size.
 

esterk

Member
By the way, anyone looking to use VX ace ahold totally check out the tutorial video series in the OP. Just watched the whole series and it breaks everything down really simplistically. Good starting point for those like me that haven't touched the program before.
 
Pumping myself up for this. I have absolutely zero programming experience (aside from Visual Basic in high school, but I don't think that even counts hah), but that's not going to hold me back. It's my understanding that VX uses something called scripts that are written using the language Ruby, so I'm going to spend my downtown fiddling with Codeacademy's introduction to Ruby.

Does anybody have a good introduction to Ruby bookmarked by chance?

I've had this weird little guide bookmarked for a while because someone on Codecademy recommended it, although I haven't actually gone through it yet. Codecademy itself is nicely done and their Ruby course was really fun to go through. The discussion forums for each individual lesson were very helpful when I didn't understand an aspect of the code or what I was doing wrong.

(Not sure if I want to officially throw my hat in the ring just yet. I prooobably will, but I need to at least sit down with the program and play around a little first.)
 

Ruruja

Member
By the way, anyone looking to use VX ace ahold totally check out the tutorial video series in the OP. Just watched the whole series and it breaks everything down really simplistically. Good starting point for those like me that haven't touched the program before.

Think I'll watch that now. When I joined I felt optimistic I could learn a bit and make an okay entry, but now there's 20-man teams and industry veterans making games and I don't want to embarrass myself! :p
 

esterk

Member
Think I'll watch that now. When I joined I felt optimistic I could learn a bit and make an okay entry, but now there's 20-man teams and industry veterans making games and I don't want to embarrass myself! :p
Haha I know. I feel pretty outclassed, so I'm gonna have to try and step it up!
 

Kimppis

Member
This topic reminded me that I paid €60 for VX like a year ago, but I never really used it. Now you can get it for €1/$1? Fuck, goddammit... Oh well, I might give this one a shot. (Probably not, though. It's not like I really know how to use the program or anything, except that I tried to learn RPG Maker 2000/2003 years ago.)

But yeah, subscribed. Atleast I'll try out some of the games.
 

BGBW

Maturity, bitches.
You really don't need to know programming if you just stick to the command tools. Scripting is really only if you want to expand your options but you should be able to make a short but sweet game with just the basic tools.
 

L Thammy

Member
Cool idea. If anyone wants a writer, I don't mind helping out. Might be able to help a bit with coding, but I don't have the time or experience to be the main scripter.
 
Top Bottom