Event preview

[Aminabi]

Hi!
Well.. I'm spending a lot of time creating a project.

But... I'm wondering if there's any way to PREVIEW an event, without playing the game, just preview the full event.

Thank you!

 

[Bloodmorphed]

I don't think this is possible without a script. But my question is... why would you want to show the full event and its commands inside the game anyways?

 

[Aminabi]

Because well... my project is becoming pretty long, around 20 hours of gameplay atm, and I really need to check if every event works as I want :c

 

[Bloodmorphed]

You just play test it like crazy. That is the most time consuming part to be honest. You have to play that 20 hours of gameplay several times over and over again to make sure the bugs are kinked out and things are working correctly.

So, either I'm not exactly sure what you mean, or what you mean is pointless.

What I think you mean: You want to show the event pages on the event itself in a scene. Or do you mean you you want to be able to test certain parts of your events that need a variable set to certain things or etc. etc.?

 

[Andar]

unfortunately, that is not possible - not even with scripts.


The problem is that the events are connected to the general variables and general switches, and those can be changed by other events. Testing an event therefore requires the game running, because those those interactions between events and variables cannot be tested in the editor.


There is no way around playtesting for problems like that, and that is the reason why playtesting takes so long or requires so many playtesters...

 

[Zoltor]

There is a easy solution to your problem.

Make a temp NPC, who can turn on the switches you need or whatever. Now you can test the events you need to, without playing the entire game.

That's what I always do when I want to test a specific event, and It's really fast to do. Just don't forget after you're done testing, remember to remove the temp npc or whatnot.

 

[amerk]

@Andar - I actually understand where the OP is coming from. I don't see why there couldn't be a preview mode that only shows events that aren't switch driven. Primarily, I'd like an in-game preview for asethetic purposes, to see if my map and the mapping event layers, is the way I want them to be (since they tend to look different in game than on the editor) without having to first save.

@However, to the OP - an event preview (even if it were possible) would in no way remove the need for playtesting, and playtesting would show you whether the event works or not anyways.

The way I've been handling my current game is:

1. Remove all battles (random, touch encounters, evented battles, boss fights), and make the purchase price of every item and equipment 0. These will get added in later and tested separately. I still include the events for certain fights (like the boss fights) and the scenes within, but I remove the actual battle).

2. After I've mapped and evented a segment of the game, I load up my current save file and test the new area out. By segment I mean every few maps, a village, a dungeon, etc. What I'm testing is usually the cut scenes within, the various events that you can interact with (NPCs, shops, fetch quests, chests), the switches, variables, and so forth. Not having to worry about battles makes this much easier to do. Sometimes I will have to make multiple save files to test different branches of the game, especially when you have multiple events that can trigger the same scene.

3. Once I have play tested through the whole game (minus battles) and have verified all the non-battle content and am satisfied with how the game plays out, it's time to work on battles and balancing. Balancing includes price points for your items and equipment, amount of drops (gold, items, EXP) from each enemy, amount of XP necessary to level up, and how many enemies is necessary for each area (without overdoing it) so that you can be prepared for the boss fights that are sure to come. At this point, you'll need to also add fights to the events you previously had but left out the actual battle. This I find can take a long time, but it's a lot easier to do when you don't have to divide your attention with all the non-battle content (mapping, eventing, questing, etc).

4. At minimum, plan to fully test your game from start to end at least three times. The first time is the stop and go as you build your world and add your non-battle events. The second time is the stop and go as you build your battles and balance everything out. And then one last time when everything is done. Then, get yourself one if not two beta testers (more is cetainly merrier) to play the game as well and note any difficulties or problems they are having.

5. Finally, even with perfect planning, don't believe that three is the max times you'll need to go through your game; it's merely the minimum that I believe will be required for most people, especially if they don't have the experience behind game design. Whenever you have to drastically change the balance of the game play, you'll probably find yourself having to replay the game in whole or in parts just to make sure it works. In my own 8+ hour game, I wound up playing it through from beginning to end 5 or 6 times (do to contantly updating and changing some things) and I still found things I missed.

6. Bonus, I typically do most of my planning in multiple spreadsheets. I write down my switches and variables and what they do, and what number they are at, so I can find them quite easily. I also have to write down which events need to be updated down the road (with battles, etc), and I write a fairly thorough to-do list as I come across areas of game design that I'll have hold off until later.

 

[Aminabi]

Thanks to everyone

I'll try to delete all the battles, etc... then putting that NPC to switch things ^^

Btw @Amerk, thanks for your great help, this is going to save me weeks testing everything!

 

[amerk]

Yep, I figure it's much easier to get the game maps, story, and events all laid out and done before worrying about balancing with battles and everything else. Balancing takes so much concentration, I don't want to have to worry about cut scenes and everything else while doing it.

 

[Diretooth]

The way I usually do things is play as I make. I focus on the first area, the player's house, then expand on the town, then the world map. After I have these three key areas situated, I then plan the path that the player makes, creating each town as I develop the plot.

Once I get the base plot and areas fleshed out (Read as: The main quest), I shift my focus onto side quests that lend themselves to the characters' backstories, at least eight for four characters, (These quests typically will net them, for the easier side quests, the Infinity -1 sword and the Infinity +1 sword [search TvTropes.org for more details referring to those tropes.]. These quests are useful in making the main characters more relate-able as people and can add a bit of history to the setting.)

After I get all of that done, I set up the enemies, as well as the battles, and play it to balance the gameplay and create a difficulty curve. Once I get all of that done, I first get friends and family to try it out, because if your family wouldn't play it, who would? After you have them find all the little glitches and bugs, you have people you don't know as well, plus people you dislike/dislike you test it. After all of this testing, (You can optionally wait for a week or two before) you play the game in the mindset of a new player who just wants to have fun.

After all of this, hope people like it. (I do hope people like your games.)

 

[amerk]

The way I usually do things is play as I make. I focus on the first area, the player's house, then expand on the town, then the world map. After I have these three key areas situated, I then plan the path that the player makes, creating each town as I develop the plot.

Once I get the base plot and areas fleshed out (Read as: The main quest), I shift my focus onto side quests that lend themselves to the characters' backstories, at least eight for four characters, (These quests typically will net them, for the easier side quests, the Infinity -1 sword and the Infinity +1 sword [search TvTropes.org for more details referring to those tropes.]. These quests are useful in making the main characters more relate-able as people and can add a bit of history to the setting.)

After I get all of that done, I set up the enemies, as well as the battles, and play it to balance the gameplay and create a difficulty curve. Once I get all of that done, I first get friends and family to try it out, because if your family wouldn't play it, who would? After you have them find all the little glitches and bugs, you have people you don't know as well, plus people you dislike/dislike you test it. After all of this testing, (You can optionally wait for a week or two before) you play the game in the mindset of a new player who just wants to have fun.

After all of this, hope people like it. (I do hope people like your games.)

That's a much more concise way than the long-winded post I made. I still wait until the end to do all the balancing and monsters, but play as make everything else.

Also:

After all of this testing, (You can optionally wait for a week or two before) you play the game in the mindset of a new player who just wants to have fun.

^This.

Speaking from experience, the first thing people are likely to want to do is throw the game up on a community site right away. I recommend holding off, give it about a week or two, and then replay the game at least one more time.

Take that time to create the game topic if you haven't yet, get some beta testers, and include a demo (if you want), but don't rush to put the game up right away. One of the things that hurt my last game was I rushed to put it up, and while all the bugs were fixed, the game wasn't very well balanced.

Since this has gotten completely off topic from what the OP initially asked, I'll state:

It would be nice to get a map preview that shows only the map and events that aren't triggered with a condition, however, there really is no substitute to actually testing, and re-testing, and testing again, your game. Outside of the time to actually build your game, expect that the hours it will take to playtest the game will be about 4x the hours it takes for a normal person to run through the game once.