RPG MAKER 2003 HARVEST MOON (HELP)

I wrote a few tutorials, and I hope to find the time to write more in the future.

Just glance through this one - http://rpgmaker.net/tutorials/842/ You might learn something useful. The next one I write would be about using variables.

Then there's this one - http://rpgmaker.net/tutorials/705/ I used this to create a basic growing event(that isn't in the tutorial).

You don't need to use dynrpg to create flowing time. A simple common event on parallel process can do that. It only needs 2 pieces of code.

1 - a wait of 1.0 sec
2 - +1 to a variable called seconds

Every 1 second the variable counts up by 1, creating time that is stored in a variable. You can put branches that makes the variable go up by 2 or 4, to simulate time going faster.

Essentially to make something grow you need variables that tracks a few different things. What is it? When did it start growing? When should it grow to the next stage? When should it be complete? How much should you get from harvesting?

Let's say that you plant something. You save the current time in a variable. Let's say it's 1000 seconds. Let's say it takes 500 seconds to grow. Once you write that 1000 seconds into that variable, you don't want to alter it. It needs to remember that it was planted at 1000 seconds. So you need to make a copy of that variable and add 500 seconds. Now you have 2 variables, one with the start grow time and the end grow time. Then you would use a conditional branch to compare the end grow time with the current time. When current time is equal to or greater than the end growing time, a switch is triggered which causes the plant event to change.

That's basically how I did it. You can do a few more things to make it in depth. Perhaps after the first 500 seconds, all it does is increase a variable "Plant growth stage" by 1. The event that represents the plant on the map would have different pages with different graphics. Each page using that variable as it's precondition. After it hits the first 500 seconds, you would add more time to the end growing time, which sets the bar for when it will reach the next stage of growth.

To go even further, you can use a 'plant type' variable to growth different things. Let's say you plant apple seeds. Plant type would be equal to 1. That tells the event which page to display. If you plant tomato seeds, plant type would be equal to 2. So that event will use different pages, different graphics, with a different end result. That would give an event lots of pages, but its the simplest way to do it. A more advanced way would be to have only 1 page, but a long list of conditional branches that use 'set event graphic' to make it look like whatever you planted.

Coming up with a way to determine the harvest amount would be up to you. I allowed the player to put multiple seeds and 1 kind of fertilizer. Then conditional branches determine the output. If you put 1 seed, you get 1 plant. If you put 2 seeds, you get 1 plant. If you put fertilizer, it might add 5 plants to whatever the harvest would have been.

It's fairly easy to make a few events like this. It gets complicated when you figure out the best way to mass produce them. Then there's the issue of placing the event in the spot on the map that the player chose. It means using tons of events and even more tons of variables which can easily spin out of control. I would suggest that you do a test first. If/when you manage to figure that out, think of ways to simplify it as much as possible. Reusing variables and events is always helpful. Then start building a game around it. Don't try and make the game while at the same time trying to figure out the best way to do it. You'll end up with a mess that you'll just want to scrap.

If you want to add weather, watering, tools, and all that jazz on top if...good luck xD Start small and basic first. Master that, then try to go for more depth.