Learning Together

[Touchfuzzy]

I have a tips and tricks article coming on the blog later today that is for the event that is very meta.

 

[taarna23]

Is it tips and tricks about writing tips and tricks? A tutorial on writing tutorials?


...I'll go post my tutorial now. 

 

[Lunarea]

So, helping out only counts in that specific forum section? Just asking because I don't really go over there, but I do a bit of help in the script sections.

Sorry, Sixth, I did not see your question until now.


Yes, it can count in Script sections as well. But as they're a bit more complicated, I only linked to general support instead.

 

[Touchfuzzy]

Is it tips and tricks about writing tips and tricks? A tutorial on writing tutorials?


...I'll go post my tutorial now. 

You weren't far off! It was tips on teaching, discussion topic for it over here:
 

 

[Little Paw]

I finished up my entry, and submitted it here:




Still says it's pending approval though.

 

[mlogan]

Just FYI, tutorials have to be approved, so if anyone submits one, please be patient and wait for that.

 

[Dr. Delibird]

Ever get stuck with creators block and don't know how you could possible keep working on your project with this evil block in the way? Well have I got the tip for you!

A music buddy of mine told me that when he gets writers block he goes and works on a cover instead as there is not a lot of, if at all, creativity needed for a cover song compared to a original. Now that gave me a great idea on how to circumvent a creative block regardless of the craft! For video game design specifically if you are having trouble with thinking of new skills then re-create some from pre-existing games. An example that I am currently using myself is I looked at the (in)famous pokemon strategy known as SubPunch and thought I would give it a try and making that combo work in my project. Now I never ended up finishing it (yet) because in the midst of creating it my creative juices came flowing back! 


So if you ever need to break down a creative block try and recreate mechanics/songs/story elements from other medias that you like and enjoy.

 

[Lustermx]

Here's a small tip:


A lot of people use blank events for autorun/parallel processes, but when there are so many blank events on the map, it gets confusing to remember what is what without looking up the name of each one. You can give the event a graphic, but make it so that its preset move route is change opacity to 0 at the highest frequency.


 This way, the event has a visual representation which you can easily find!

 

[bgillisp]

To add onto Lustermx idea, if you don't want to use a graphic, just put your parallel process in (0, 0) and your autorun in (1, 0). With good use of variables you shouldn't need any more than that, but if you do, put them near these.

 

[Mr.coolguy32]

Sounds cool! I'm might even make a tutorial.

 

[Chaos17]

Hi,


Here my entry for the event.


- Mare a tutorial:




- answering questions in our support sections




- Take part in conversations and discussions in our discussion area.




- Leave a tip or trick you've learned since you've started using RPG Maker (as a reply to this thread)


1. Play rpg games whatehver their support they are from and if they're not popular who knows which cool ideas you will find ? People focus too much on popular rpgs then think turn based or CTB are out dated which are not if you play the right games.


2. People tend to forget a lot to use tint screen or sounds to give an atmosphere to their game. Your game doesn't need to be dark (horror type) to have a special feeling to it.

 

[jupitersdaughter]

Since I've started using RPG Maker, I've learned to keep the scope of your project in check. It get's out of hand really quickly. Go in with a clear and precise idea of what you want to do.

 

[Vox Novus]

Just a heads up for everybody still interested. Sale ends in 2hrs and 33min at the time of this post.


Definitely a good opportunity to grab stuff.


edit-Strange it seems to be over, there should still be some time left.

 

[Lunarea]

We've added one bonus extra day to the sale, for anyone that missed the last few minutes.

 

[KayZaman]

For game-makers who like to make battle more challenge, here's the video I posted in the spoiler.


This is "Rescue Battle"





To create the battle like this, create an enemy who is a 'hostage' and set an event in the battle where the game is over if the hostage's HP reach 0 point. The enemy also need to create event so if the enemy's HP is 0, you win. Kinda tricky if wanna make more enemies and more hostage, so 'variable' could be useful.


Thanks to Yanfly and MogHunter for the plugins.

 

[LadyBaskerville]

Just finished a tutorial about on-map encounters, to share some things I learnt over the past few weeks.


A trick I picked up from DriftwoodGaming: Create a skill for playtesting that instantly kills all the enemies. That way, you can still test battle processing, but you don't have to waste time fighting the same Slimes over and over again

 

[Oliin]

Some (potentially obvious tips):

• You don't need to create a player coordinate tracking event on every map. Just create a common event to do that, set it as a parallel process activated by a switch that you simply activate on the very first game map.
  
• Where possible try to include something visually unique. There are a lot of RPG maker games out there and even a beautifully written game will suffer if someone's first impression is that it's just the same as all the rest. Which is to say try to include at least some RTP edits or at least some unique icons. Try to create a unique window skin for you game or at the very least install a different font for your game.
  
• If you have a more complex game try installing one of the self variable plugins out there (I know of the ones from yanfly and himeworks). Use the self variables to track the less important things like side-quest progression and different branching dialogue path options (if self switches aren't enough) and save the game variables for important things you're going to be referencing throughout the entire game. It's a lot easier than keeping track of several hundred variables, the majority of which were only useful in act 2.
  
• Using text variables is easy and can be used to add a little more variation to your game. When you create a variable simply click the 'script' radio button and place the text you want inside double quotes.
  

 

[Canini]

I won´t be finished in time to participate in the contest, but in the spirit of this event I am working on a beginners tutorial on the subject of "making the game world seem more alive"!

 

[Andar]

Won't be able to finish my tutorial either - not in time for the contest and not in a sufficient quality.

 

[Mira]

Hi, I have a tip! When you name your weapon/character/event/whatsoever be careful with:


a) Caps and no caps, I highly recomend to not to use caps at all so later you don't confuse yourself and the machine. Sometimes it will think that "main" and "Main" are two different events because it can see the difference between caps and no caps and, chaos!


b ) use simple names like main or "prota" in spanish so its easier to remember the name of the stuff, I also recomend to put "str_name" if its a string, "obj_name" if its an object or "bg_name" if its a background. You may think this is obvious but you would be surprise how many people don't do it and then their library is very chaotic and waste lot of time looking for stuff


c) careful with rare stuff like #~€¬/ etc. this is specially important for people whose mother language includes characters like ï, ö, á, è, etc, that can confuse the machine, a lot! so if character's name is "María" or "René" spell it "maria" and "rene" and help prevent lot of headaches


I hope my advise help you, I'm really just starting with RPG Maker so there is not much that I know but I hope I will change that.