Needing Community Input

[CalebW]

Hello there,

After talking with people on discord, the forums, and other locations it has come to my understanding there isn't strong enough in depth MV editor tutorials for those just starting out.

My question to you is, what is something you would like me to cover that could help new people to RPG MV or, what part in the editor do you wish you had a better understanding of?

These videos will be made to help the community grow and understand how they can make the best game possible.

 

[bgillisp]

Actually, there is still Andar's tutorial which works for MV. People just refuse to look at it as it says ACE in the description, but there is only one thing that isn't the same in MV and that is how scripting works.

 

[Heirukichi]

I completely agree with bgillisp. VX Ace and MV have the same event commands, the database layout is the same and everything but the programming language is almost the same (parallax backgrounds act slightly differently in MV, but it is a minor issue). People usually stop at the very first impact with something and, even if everybody points them to the said tutorial saying that it is still a valid tutorial for MV, the fact that it says it is for VX Ace is enough to let people move on to something else.

The same happened with one of my tutorials in a MV thread. The tutorial itself covers the general concept of how the FIFO approach works, and it is definitely the optimal solution for any timed system. That much is true regardless of the programming language you are using. Everything else is just using arrays (and in MV script call list there is a call that shows how to store arrays into variables). The OP of that thread still decided to resort to a sub-optimal solution instead of reading a tutorial where the only difference was already covered somewhere else, even if I mentioned that everything else was still viable for MV.

Now, one thing is taking time writing something to help other people, another thing is taking your time rewriting everything just because somebody does not want to check the only minor difference somewhere else. If somebody does not want to take 5 minutes to do that, why would the one who wrote the tutorial want to take several hours to write a new one just for MV (with MV screenshots etc.)? I hope you realize that a tutorial as thorough as Andar's is not something you can write in just a couple of hours.

In the end if somebody does not want to look for knowledge he or she is still free to do that, that is what freedom is: you are free to do anything, as long as you are prepared to face the consequences of your actions, even when those consequences are negative for yourself.

 

[Andar]

I even added a line at the beginning of the tutorial to tell everyone that it is valid for both Ace and MV...

But the fact that you can find it not only in my own signature, but in many other user signatures should tell you how good it was for a lot of people who did work through it.

 

[Wavelength]

I consider Heartbeast's GMS tutorials to be the gold standard in onboarding new users - particularly the genre-based tutorials he does like "Make an RPG" or "2D Platformer". Notice how he starts from the most basic basics, like how to start a new project and make a map that a player can walk around, and then adds one simple mechanic (or two) in each video, building upon what he's already done to create a working game.

This kind of organization and practicality makes his videos easy to learn and fun to watch, and if you're looking to onboard people to RPG Maker (which would be a gigantic service to our community!), I'd recommend doing something similar - perhaps starting with very simple map-making (perhaps coming back to it later to design/decorate maps), creating the simplest events (Show Message, Play SE) on those maps, moving onto the database one or two tabs at a time, and finally tackling intermediate-level eventing like variables, loops, and picture manipulation. Create a playable game throughout the tutorial so the audience can create it too as they follow along.

 

[CalebW]

I appreciate the feedback. My plan was to go through the MV editor and do everything possible without using scripts or plug-ins or code at all. Taking all editor options to the maximum limit.

 

[bgillisp]

That there might be something for. Maybe a show what you can do in the editor type tutorial?

 

[Andar]

the editor can definately do a lot more than most users think.
For example I've been working on and off on a tutorial about how to create a Battle-AI without any scripts or plugins, but although I know exactly how to do that the tutorial is far from finished (partially because I didn't put much time into it and partially because such a AI is a lot of work as it will require action patterns with several dozen lines on each enemy as well as quite a number of troop events and skills designed for it.

But it is possible, even easy if you know how - just a lot of work. And the results would be better than the Battle-AI-Plugins that exist so far, because those only target a sub-problem of the complex.

 

[CalebW]

Right and if I can help users figure out complex editor set ups then hopefully that will give people better chances to port their games to mobile platforms without compatibility issues.

 

[Kes]

give people better chances to port their games to mobile platforms without compatibility issues.

That would make a compelling "you must see this tutorial" selling point. I'd be inclined to extend it as a secondary point for any user. We see so many threads about compatibility issues for things that are straightforward if done in the editor.