How to debug a story?

[mikenlanggio]

I'm creating a RPG with a long story and plot.
I have no idea to debug a story or plot is correct what I want or not.
For example:
When I run my game, I have to go to a place A, meet some one, tell something, go to place B, bla bla, make her love me.
After that, I have to do many thing to come to the plot I want to debug.
Any solution for that?

 

[Andar]

It's basically planning - working out your entire story before you even open up the editor to make your first map.

There are tools that can help you with that, from free to professional (200$), and in all cases you get what you pay for.

One of the more important things you'll need are flowcharts to map your story flow - either per hand with pen and paper or with a program.
The second most important part are lists where you can check which switch is used where in the story - again either by making a table with pen and paper and write the details down there, or with a program like Excel or Calc.

And the last (but very important) thing is experience with using those tools.
You WILL fail if you start your first game as a 80-hour-epos with thousands of switches, because you'll need experience to handle that data without messing up, no matter what tools you use.

Start with a scrap project - a project that you will intentionally scrap after a month of experimenting. Use that to get a feel for the engine and the tools you're using. The fact that you know to scrap it after exp0erimenting is very important because it will prevent you from stressing out over the many mistakes you make there.

Then make a small game of 1 hour max, just to get the entire process finished with a lot number of data points to get some easy experience with your tools.

Only after that you can consider making bigger games - and your experience at that point of time will help you decide whether you try for a 5-hour-game or a 50-hour game.

 

[ATT_Turan]

I'm very confused by your use of the word "debug".

Are you asking how to debug, make sure there aren't mechanical mistakes in your game? e.g. once you talk to a person for a quest, they don't have the same conversation anymore?

Or are you asking how to write a plot?

 

[Andar]

OK, if you're having problems with writing the plot instead of organising it, then look for books on writing instead.
for example (only two days left)

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We’ve teamed up with New World Library for our newest bundle. Get books like Step Out of Your Story & Author's Checklist. Plus, pay what you want & support charity!

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[mikenlanggio]

I'm very confused by your use of the word "debug".

Are you asking how to debug, make sure there aren't mechanical mistakes in your game? e.g. once you talk to a person for a quest, they don't have the same conversation anymore?

Or are you asking how to write a plot?

OK, if you're having problems with writing the plot instead of organising it, then look for books on writing instead.
for example (only two days left)

Humble Book Bundle: Start Writing Today by New World Library

We’ve teamed up with New World Library for our newest bundle. Get books like Step Out of Your Story & Author's Checklist. Plus, pay what you want & support charity!

www.humblebundle.com

Thank you for your all.
I'm not asking about "how to write a story".
In RPG maker, when I edit something.
I run my game to test and I have to do a lot of "previous" stuff before I reach a case I want to test

In my example, I have to make a NPC love main character before I can test the next plot.
"NPC love main character" does not mean its just a variable or a switch variable, it's a path and a lot of condition.
Hope you understand what I mean

 

[mikenlanggio]

It's basically planning - working out your entire story before you even open up the editor to make your first map.

There are tools that can help you with that, from free to professional (200$), and in all cases you get what you pay for.

One of the more important things you'll need are flowcharts to map your story flow - either per hand with pen and paper or with a program.
The second most important part are lists where you can check which switch is used where in the story - again either by making a table with pen and paper and write the details down there, or with a program like Excel or Calc.

And the last (but very important) thing is experience with using those tools.
You WILL fail if you start your first game as a 80-hour-epos with thousands of switches, because you'll need experience to handle that data without messing up, no matter what tools you use.

Start with a scrap project - a project that you will intentionally scrap after a month of experimenting. Use that to get a feel for the engine and the tools you're using. The fact that you know to scrap it after exp0erimenting is very important because it will prevent you from stressing out over the many mistakes you make there.

Then make a small game of 1 hour max, just to get the entire process finished with a lot number of data points to get some easy experience with your tools.

Only after that you can consider making bigger games - and your experience at that point of time will help you decide whether you try for a 5-hour-game or a 50-hour game.

Thank you for your detail answer.
Can you name tools you mentions?

 

[ATT_Turan]

I run my game to test and I have to do a lot of "previous" stuff before I reach a case I want to test

So you just give yourself ways to skip.

I dropped an NPC event in the first room of the game, I talk to her and choose which part of the story I want to jump to, it sets all of the story variables and party members to what there should be.

I think Andar likes to set it up like a room, each door or object is a point in the game you jump to.

 

[Ms Littlefish]

@mikenlanggio , please avoid double posting, as it is against the forum rules. You can use the "Edit" function on your posts to add additional information you've forgotten or respond to multiple people. You can review our forum rules here. Thank you.

 

[mikenlanggio]

So you just give yourself ways to skip.

I dropped an NPC event in the first room of the game, I talk to her and choose which part of the story I want to jump to, it sets all of the story variables and party members to what there should be.

I think Andar likes to set it up like a room, each door or object is a point in the game you jump to.

Yeah. I've already think about this solution.
But I think maybe any better solution.. Maybe not

@mikenlanggio , please avoid double posting, as it is against the forum rules. You can use the "Edit" function on your posts to add additional information you've forgotten or respond to multiple people. You can review our forum rules here. Thank you.

Sorry for that. I'll pay attention!

 

[Ms Littlefish]

@mikenlanggio Not a big stink. Ya Gucci. Welcome to the forums!

 

[ATT_Turan]

Yeah. I've already think about this solution.
But I think maybe any better solution.. Maybe not

I'm not sure what you're looking for in terms of a "better" solution. What's wrong with that solution?

As a side note, if English is not your first language, you can put that in your profile and people will work with it when replying to you.

 

[mikenlanggio]

I'm not sure what you're looking for in terms of a "better" solution. What's wrong with that solution?

As a side note, if English is not your first language, you can put that in your profile and people will work with it when replying to you.

The "better solution" here I am thinking is there is a tool to help me visualize, help me more intuitive in developing my story. That tool helps me manage the flow of the story, being able to turn in another direction if I need to. I do not know. The way you mentioned is probably the best. Thank you for your help

 

[ATT_Turan]

The "better solution" here I am thinking is that there is a tool that helps me visualize, helps me be more intuitive in developing my story.

You can just make a Word document or a spreadsheet. Say at this point in the story, these variables should have these values and such.

 

[TheAM-Dol]

You can press f9 during a play test to open a list of every switch and variable and you can change the values there to skip or bypass portions of your game.
Or, if you are absolutely crazy like me, you can use a button common event plugin and a text input plugin to create a debug console within your game, so you can create typed commands that will execute multiple things and/or reduce the amount of navigating the f9 menu.
Just don't forget what your commands are. (it also takes awhile to set it up, so it's a trade off: spending a lot of time now to reduce the amount of time spent debugging later, or continue to just spend a little bit of time each debug session navigating menus/activating debug events)

Edit: whoops, didn't notice this is VXAce. Not sure if the f9 switch/variable list is available in VXAce. Also it would be scripts and not plugins, so I used the wrong terminology.

 

[gstv87]

I have to do many thing to come to the plot I want to debug.

what defines the "start" of that plot in question?
like, you know where it is... you can identify it... what is the event in game that marks it?
if it's behind a long dialogue, move that block somewhere else to another map, play that map alone, and debug that block separately.
the sequence will work by itself regardless of where it is, provided that it has all the variables and objects it requires.

if it's behind a condition, you can view all variables with F9.

if there's a lot of these long sequences in the game, you can use a small dialogue manager: a common event containing all the lines that would be messy to deal with in the events themselves, cut by labels and callbacks to return to the main loop.
that way the main event will just read "call sequence X" and not load the page with 100 messages.

basically: identify where the program is actually processing, and where it's just waiting for something else to finish.

 

[Andar]

Thank you for your detail answer.
Can you name tools you mentions?

 

[CloudTheWolf]

I had a similar issue where I wanted to re-debug part of my game, but didn't want to have to start a new game and play up to that point.

So what I did was create a "Debug" map, and have events there that I can interact with to test specific things.

So, for the "Story Debug" the event does the following

1 - Set all variables and switches to the expected values the player will have at the start of the area I am debugging

2 - Set the party to the minimum levels I would expect for that point in the game.

3 - Give any Key Items the player should have (Weapons, Armour, Skills and consumable items as well, but not needed really)

4 - Set Event Self Switches using a script block "$game_self_switches[[MAP_ID, EVENT_ID, 'A,B,C or D']] = true"

5 - Open the menu, and equip gear, use any items you think are needed to be used (Eg, Power Ups, Luck Ups etc)

6 - Recover All (Entire Party) (Optional)

7 - Transfer player to the location you want to start debugging from.

This is what it might look like:

 

[pawsplay]

I just make little chests that flip switches.