Help a newbie out?

[Shishkebab]

Hey, I'm new to RPG Maker VX Ace, and I barely even know what I'm doing. Well, not barely, I know pretty much know what everything in the Event editor does. But I want to know a little bit more.

I'm looking on making my own RPG Maker game that will loom somewhat or hopefully very professional. I'm still at a pretty young age so Its gonna be hard and I'm already Kind Of running into problems. 

I've got my idea for my game, I know what I want it to act and look like.

What I need help with is where to start with these things.

- Scripting - I never really knew how to script or code very well since I never actually got into it. I'm just wondering if there are any places for me to start with simple scripting. Im MAINLY looking for scripting visual effects like having a trippy looking room by making it look wavy, or a zoom in and zoom out effect that teleports you somewhere, or maybe like pixelating effects, pretty much just lots of distortions. Thats kind of what I need help mostly on. I also might need some other handy tools with scripting also, so if you might have any tutorials with what I'm asking for, that would be really awesome.

- Graphics - I'm looking forward to reskin all of the HUD, and Sprites in my game. Everything. So I might need some tips and tricks on how to do so, and maybe some recommendations for Software to use, and also tutorials to reskin things. 

Also quick questions if you can answer.

I've played some RPG Maker VX games and seen that you can go behind objects or like trees and such, heres an example I made for my question, it kind of summarizes it visually...

http://i.imgur.com/1f7jAyz.png

This is really about all I need help with. Just a newbie that needs some help.

If you can give me any tutorials on stuff like this that would be awesome. BD

 

[naccap6464]

Scripting does take time especially creating your own events so does coding but with mathematics

How ever I recommend reading this if you wnat to create your way of game design

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=131363913

 

[CrazyCrab]

For the cactus its really simple.

Go to database - Tilesets, then find the tile that you want to edit. Lets say that you want to make the bookshelf on the standard interior B passable.

See the cross in the bottom part of the bookshelf? It means that you cannot pass through. To let the player walk behind the top part of the bookshelf keep clicking on it until it changes to a star, this means that it will be drawn in front of the player but can be passed though. (The circle means that it will be drawn BEHIND the player and can be passed though)

When it comes to scripts you should really look at some ruby programming guides, its definitely more complicated. At the same time you may just use the scripts other people made (as long as you credit them. of course) and there are many, many scripts out there. Yanfly and Victor Sant for example have huge libraries of scripts that are free to use in non-commercial projects, while Yanfly even lets you use them if commercial ones. (You can buy the ones that were made by Victor)

-http://yanflychannel.wordpress.com/

-http://victorscripts.wordpress.com/

Even if you only want to make your own scripts it may still be worth it to have a look at them as they can help you why things work how they do.

When it comes to graphics I recommend doing the game with the standard rpg maker resources 1st and see if you get anything done - its a shame if you do all the resources, then have a great idea and have to start all over again. If you don't have the resources already its better to see if your game works out both story and mechanics wise and afterwards there is a quick way to export the basic resources, edit/replace them, import them back and have all of your maps automatically become the new ones using your custom resources.

If you have any other problems there are many great tutorials on youtube that cover most of the stuff you'll ever need, I spend my 1st weekend with rpg maker just watching them and Its been working out just fine since then. Jujitsu Don (https://www.youtube.com/user/JujitsuDon/playlists) covers most of the stuff you may want to use but aren't usually covered in basic tutorials while Redweaver (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC50wqZI4RRaBlwgWz4-ZWRQ) has a series that is devoted to making a game step by step, showing how to do a lot of things such as a choosing a class and showing enemies on the map.

Good luck with your project! 

 

[Kes]

Also Andar has a wonderful collection of stuff that is invaluable for new people.  You will find it here: http://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?/topic/14727-a-starting-point-for-new-users-v08/?hl=+starting%20+point%20+users

Taking the time to go through this now will save you a ton of time and frustration in the future.  It's time well spent.

 

[Celianna]

I've moved this thread to general discussion. Please be sure to post your threads in the correct forum next time. Thank you.


This is not a support question, so please keep it in general discussion.


Also you can't change any of the menu without scripting (they're not image based).

 

[Mouser]

I don't know what you mean by "pretty young age" (for some of us here, that means anyone under 45 or so), but you should decide whether you simply want to make some simple scripts for RPG Maker, or if you really want to learn how to code, so you can create your own scripts and take what you've learned with you if you change to some other game maker or anything else you come across.

If all you want to do is make some RGSS scripts, there are plenty of tutorials and help available on the forums here.

People have already given you links to some good ones.

If you want to learn to code, read further
:

Spoiler

Ruby (which is what RGSS basically is) is NOT a good first language to learn. They way it (doesn't) types variables, handles data structures, and overloads methods all combine to give you skills that don't really translate well to anything else, and allow for some sloppy coding that other languages are much less forgiving of. I'm not saying don't learn it - you need to do things that you enjoy doing, but learning a 'lower level' language first, or even at the same time if you can manage it, will pay off dividends down the road.
C is a very good first choice. C/C++ isn't bad either (C++ adds Object Oriented data structures and classes, but truthfully, anything you can do in C++, you can do in C). If you really want to start off with something a bit more higher level, Java isn't bad. I can't recommend a good 'first book', since all the ones I know are long out of print [still have my 1st edition K&R], but if you look around you'll find plenty of good information. Much of which is now freely available on the web.

The problem is finding one whose author really knows what he's talking about and presents the material in a logical structured way (this applies to dead tree books as much as it does to webpages). I will say in general, anything published by O'Reilly is going to be worth your time (assuming you want to learn what the book is about - you don't need a book on Emacs or the Bash shell). If you point me to one I'll gladly take a look and give my opinion.

Anything on algorithms never goes out of date: the books Knuth wrote decades ago are still required reading if you really want to go deep into computer science. Same with design patterns: which is why the 'gang of four' book is still so popular after all these years - you can check them both out on Amazon. Data structures is another good concept to have under your belt: there's a lot more out there than arrays and hash maps, and hash maps aren't the 'ultimate' solution many seem to think they are.

So that's my completely unsolicited advice: it's the longer road that will take you farther, but only you know if you have any interest in going that far. If you don't, then there's nothing wrong with taking the 'short' road and just getting where you want to go faster.

That goes for many things in life - we don't need to become experts in every hobby or interest that we have.

Oh, whichever way you go, download and use notepad++ (a free program, speech and beer - find it here) or a similar text editor. NEVER write code in Word, Wordpad, Libre Office, or any other word processor - they add data to the text you can't see that screws things up. You also have no need for fonts; bold, italic or underlining; or any of the other 'features' a word processor provides.

 

[Shishkebab]

For the cactus its really simple.

Go to database - Tilesets, then find the tile that you want to edit. Lets say that you want to make the bookshelf on the standard interior B passable.

See the cross in the bottom part of the bookshelf? It means that you cannot pass through. To let the player walk behind the top part of the bookshelf keep clicking on it until it changes to a star, this means that it will be drawn in front of the player but can be passed though. (The circle means that it will be drawn BEHIND the player and can be passed though)

When it comes to scripts you should really look at some ruby programming guides, its definitely more complicated. At the same time you may just use the scripts other people made (as long as you credit them. of course) and there are many, many scripts out there. Yanfly and Victor Sant for example have huge libraries of scripts that are free to use in non-commercial projects, while Yanfly even lets you use them if commercial ones. (You can buy the ones that were made by Victor)

-http://yanflychannel.wordpress.com/

-http://victorscripts.wordpress.com/

Even if you only want to make your own scripts it may still be worth it to have a look at them as they can help you why things work how they do.

When it comes to graphics I recommend doing the game with the standard rpg maker resources 1st and see if you get anything done - its a shame if you do all the resources, then have a great idea and have to start all over again. If you don't have the resources already its better to see if your game works out both story and mechanics wise and afterwards there is a quick way to export the basic resources, edit/replace them, import them back and have all of your maps automatically become the new ones using your custom resources.

If you have any other problems there are many great tutorials on youtube that cover most of the stuff you'll ever need, I spend my 1st weekend with rpg maker just watching them and Its been working out just fine since then. Jujitsu Don (https://www.youtube.com/user/JujitsuDon/playlists) covers most of the stuff you may want to use but aren't usually covered in basic tutorials while Redweaver (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC50wqZI4RRaBlwgWz4-ZWRQ) has a series that is devoted to making a game step by step, showing how to do a lot of things such as a choosing a class and showing enemies on the map.

Good luck with your project! 

I don't know what you mean by "pretty young age" (for some of us here, that means anyone under 45 or so), but you should decide whether you simply want to make some simple scripts for RPG Maker, or if you really want to learn how to code, so you can create your own scripts and take what you've learned with you if you change to some other game maker or anything else you come across.

If all you want to do is make some RGSS scripts, there are plenty of tutorials and help available on the forums here.

People have already given you links to some good ones.

If you want to learn to code, read further

:

Spoiler

Ruby (which is what RGSS basically is) is NOT a good first language to learn. They way it (doesn't) types variables, handles data structures, and overloads methods all combine to give you skills that don't really translate well to anything else, and allow for some sloppy coding that other languages are much less forgiving of. I'm not saying don't learn it - you need to do things that you enjoy doing, but learning a 'lower level' language first, or even at the same time if you can manage it, will pay off dividends down the road.
C is a very good first choice. C/C++ isn't bad either (C++ adds Object Oriented data structures and classes, but truthfully, anything you can do in C++, you can do in C). If you really want to start off with something a bit more higher level, Java isn't bad. I can't recommend a good 'first book', since all the ones I know are long out of print [still have my 1st edition K&R], but if you look around you'll find plenty of good information. Much of which is now freely available on the web.

The problem is finding one whose author really knows what he's talking about and presents the material in a logical structured way (this applies to dead tree books as much as it does to webpages). I will say in general, anything published by O'Reilly is going to be worth your time (assuming you want to learn what the book is about - you don't need a book on Emacs or the Bash shell). If you point me to one I'll gladly take a look and give my opinion.

Anything on algorithms never goes out of date: the books Knuth wrote decades ago are still required reading if you really want to go deep into computer science. Same with design patterns: which is why the 'gang of four' book is still so popular after all these years - you can check them both out on Amazon. Data structures is another good concept to have under your belt: there's a lot more out there than arrays and hash maps, and hash maps aren't the 'ultimate' solution many seem to think they are.

So that's my completely unsolicited advice: it's the longer road that will take you farther, but only you know if you have any interest in going that far. If you don't, then there's nothing wrong with taking the 'short' road and just getting where you want to go faster.

That goes for many things in life - we don't need to become experts in every hobby or interest that we have.

Spoiler

Oh, whichever way you go, download and use notepad++ (a free program, speech and beer - find it here) or a similar text editor. NEVER write code in Word, Wordpad, Libre Office, or any other word processor - they add data to the text you can't see that screws things up. You also have no need for fonts; bold, italic or underlining; or any of the other 'features' a word processor provides.

Also Andar has a wonderful collection of stuff that is invaluable for new people.  You will find it here: http://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?/topic/14727-a-starting-point-for-new-users-v08/?hl=+starting%20+point%20+users

Taking the time to go through this now will save you a ton of time and frustration in the future.  It's time well spent.

Thanks for the Support, I really appreciate it.