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Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
Red_Nova
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Making games is hard, there's no doubt about that. Hell, that's a tagline on this very site! Thankfully though, there are many things we can do to make the developing process less tedious. For example:
Create a base project
Have you ever noticed that you use some of the same scripts between many different projects? For example, maybe you like that lightning engine a lot, and want to integrate that into your future projects? Or maybe you hate some of the default sound effects that come with a new project? Well, instead of creating a vanilla project each time you want to start a new game, try creating a project with all your preferred assets, scripts, sound effects, etc. already imported. Now, when you're ready to start a new project, all you have to do is make a copy of your own personal base project, and you'll be one step ahead of others who have to integrate a bunch of assets already!
Don't make sprites from scratch
This is kinda the same thing as the previous bullet, but because the process is a little different, it's in it's own category. Some people like to make their own sprites. It's fantastic, and it gives your game it's own identity, especially if you're going to make a character-focused story. However, it could be very tedious to create a new sprite from scratch every time you want to make a new NPC. So instead, you create your own sprite base and a bunch of premade clothing and hair items! Now, when you want to create a sprite, you just have you add those items to the base, edit the outfits a little bit to make them more unique, recolor them if necessary, and voila! A sprite is done!
For a more visual representation, this is Loose Leaf, a sprite generator that allows you to create your own Mack style sprites from a handful of bases and premade clothes. What I'm suggesting is you replicate this process using your own created base and clothes.
Of course, you'll have to do a lot more work in the beginning of the process, but you don't have to do it all at once. As soon as you make a new clothing item, just add it to the collecting of premade items and you can draw on it any time you want to. As you continue development, you can take the time to draw up more clothes to use, so it's a constant process that you can do whenever the need arises, as opposed to getting it all out of the way at the beginning.
Have a lot of events you like to copy/paste? Create an event dump map that just houses all your events
Again, similar to the previous two, there are some events that you like to use constantly. Maybe some events change the screen effects, or maybe you have a script command that can accessed via event (for example, if you have an event that allows your character to jump forward a certain number of tiles), instead of taking the time to event out that process over and over again, just have one event placed in the dump map that you can just copy from and paste into the desired location.
To take it a step further, you can delegate that event logic to Common Events. Don't be shy about using a lot of Common Events, as they can make your life so much easier!
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What do you do to make life easier for you as a dev? What sort of shortcuts do you take to expedite your processes? If you learned something, or if you have your own ideas, share them here!
This is a good topic idea! :D There are soooo many ways to save time when making games! I already do the Event Dump Map one ^_^ Here are some of my suggestions.
There are a lot of other ones, but that's all I can think of at the moment.
- Use the Comment function in events to write what you're using them for, especially if it's something you're not sure you will remember in the future! I haven't been doing this until lately, but I wish I had earlier.
- Use Common Events to save yourself time and/or copying and pasting if your game has processes that it needs to do over and over. An obvious one but a good one.
- Write down any ideas for later parts of the game that you can't implement yet. I use Google Drive for this ^_^
- In VX Ace, there's not a "wait until completed" function for the "Scroll Map" command like there is in older makers, so guessing the exact time to pause an event while scrolling activates can be troublesome and time-eating. You can, however, get an exact wait for the time when the screen is scrolling by making an event with no graphic and the Through option checked. Set this event's movement speed to the same as the scroll speed and then Set Move Route for it for the same amount of steps that the scrolling moves. Check "Wait for Completion" and then BAM! You've generated a perfect scroll wait command! Just make sure not to delete the moving event; I label mine with a big "SCROLLER- DO NOT DELETE" comment XD
- If your game is entirely linear, you can use a single variable for events dealing with plot progression rather than a bunch of switches. Just remember to keep track of the variable's latest number and never reduce that number.
There are a lot of other ones, but that's all I can think of at the moment.
author=unity
- Use Common Events to save yourself time and/or copying and pasting if your game has processes that it needs to do over and over. An obvious one but a good one.
Darigaaz, this. So. Much. This. Myriad Cypher is chock full of Common Events. Planets are handled by, essentially, Common Events, and the fact that planet-unlock events can be triggered in literally any unlocked system was totally a call to make those Common Events.
To say nothing of Common Event use in, say, Okiku, Star Apprentice (Wand of Blasting and evolutions).
I place all of my parallel processes that don't change, such as certain events giving off specific animations, like lightning, in one event so I don't have to open multiple events to change these processes. Comments to label which is which, of course.
@unity & Marrend Common events are king.
Speaking of this, is there a rule of hand that you guys use to make text fit within message boxes? I use a script called "ATS Formatting" which automatically puts text on the next line if it exceeds the window length. That's probably the easiest way to deal with edge overflow but if you guys have some rule of thumb for that, it might prove useful... to others? I'm just curious how you guys deal with it. Cheers.
Speaking of this, is there a rule of hand that you guys use to make text fit within message boxes? I use a script called "ATS Formatting" which automatically puts text on the next line if it exceeds the window length. That's probably the easiest way to deal with edge overflow but if you guys have some rule of thumb for that, it might prove useful... to others? I'm just curious how you guys deal with it. Cheers.
author=CashmereCat
@unity & MarrendCommon events are king.
Speaking of this, is there a rule of hand that you guys use to make text fit within message boxes? I use a script called "ATS Formatting" which automatically puts text on the next line if it exceeds the window length. That's probably the easiest way to deal with edge overflow but if you guys have some rule of thumb for that, it might prove useful... to others? I'm just curious how you guys deal with it. Cheers.
I honestly just eyeball it, especially when using special fonts. After time, I kinda get a "feeling" about how much I can get away with before words get cut off. That feeling isn't 100% accurate, tho XD
Otherwise, if I'm using the standard font, the lines in the message box are decent for estimation (or at least they were in 2k3, I don't remember how perfectly they work in Ace). Though that script sounds awesome. Maybe I'll use it in my next project to prevent that headache :D
Quite sure both VX/Ace has those little 'arrows' when you edit text. That actually
indicates when you should go to the next line of your dialogue. But I use an ATS script myself for text-formatting and always use 'paragraph format'. Keeps everything nice and tidy.
I also divide up my characters skills in the Database tab. Allows me to easily track/modify them, and I allow enough space before adding enemy skills under a small sub-heading.
Like Nova mentioned, I also make a 'sprite generator' for all my custom sprites inside my graphics editor. Once I've started with the basics, it becomes extremely easy to modify things to my liking.
And yes, Common events do rule. I use them for formatting character busts for dialogue and the opening/closing of gates and doors. Or I use them to store variables. Or to level up certain skills. ^^
Afraid I can't give any pointers for 'speed-mapping', but start small, then expand. Never, ever ever ever start off with a ginormous 60x60 map for your town and work from there, because it will just end up looking dull and uninteresting. Visualise want you want for your maps too. Helps out a lot, because then you won' think, "Oh, should I put a tree here, or here? Oh, this bridge can go.. there. No, that won't look right" sort of thing. XD
indicates when you should go to the next line of your dialogue. But I use an ATS script myself for text-formatting and always use 'paragraph format'. Keeps everything nice and tidy.
I also divide up my characters skills in the Database tab. Allows me to easily track/modify them, and I allow enough space before adding enemy skills under a small sub-heading.
Like Nova mentioned, I also make a 'sprite generator' for all my custom sprites inside my graphics editor. Once I've started with the basics, it becomes extremely easy to modify things to my liking.
And yes, Common events do rule. I use them for formatting character busts for dialogue and the opening/closing of gates and doors. Or I use them to store variables. Or to level up certain skills. ^^
Afraid I can't give any pointers for 'speed-mapping', but start small, then expand. Never, ever ever ever start off with a ginormous 60x60 map for your town and work from there, because it will just end up looking dull and uninteresting. Visualise want you want for your maps too. Helps out a lot, because then you won' think, "Oh, should I put a tree here, or here? Oh, this bridge can go.. there. No, that won't look right" sort of thing. XD
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
Luchino, the end-of-box markers in the text box field only work A) if your game's dialogue uses the same font as the RPG Maker editor, and also B) your game window and dialogue boxes are both the default width.
Not having to test each cut scene twelve times for text width would definitely help. I think it looks way nicer to put the line breaks in manually though, and actually change the wording sometimes to make the lines be better lengths and end in better spots, because my inner typographist kicks in. So I end up spending way too much time doing things that you can't even automate in Adobe Publisher, much less in RPG Maker, so I don't know of a good solution.
What I really need is a way to preview text boxes, not automate them. Watching a 3 minute cut scene over and over to see the text boxes is the real problem.
Not having to test each cut scene twelve times for text width would definitely help. I think it looks way nicer to put the line breaks in manually though, and actually change the wording sometimes to make the lines be better lengths and end in better spots, because my inner typographist kicks in. So I end up spending way too much time doing things that you can't even automate in Adobe Publisher, much less in RPG Maker, so I don't know of a good solution.
What I really need is a way to preview text boxes, not automate them. Watching a 3 minute cut scene over and over to see the text boxes is the real problem.
I like making a "debug room" for testing test as well as storing stuff for later use. (Yes, I used to mess around with gameshark on FF7 and 8, mostly 8 for ps1 just thought debug room was so cool).
author=Zeigfried_McBacon
I like making a "debug room" for testing test as well as storing stuff for later use. (Yes, I used to mess around with gameshark on FF7 and 8, mostly 8 for ps1 just thought debug room was so cool).
This and the premade sprites suggested earlier are two techniques I've been using, and now I'm going to start using that base project idea.
Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
Hey, sorry I didn't reply to this sooner. There are some really good ideas here!
You also have the added bonus of being able to edit just that event and have every other call to that event reflect that change. Otherwise, you'd have to go back to every instance of that event and edit it to the new, correct instance. It's very tedious.
I have a Word document for this. I may be a tin hat-wearing conspiracy theorist, but I can't bring myself to trust any company with my data. Not because I'm afraid they'll look at my stuff, but because companies can go down the drain at any time, and that data could be lost without me knowing. Plus, if you happen to go somewhere with no internet, you're up the creek if you wanted to access that data. I just keep an external hard drive to keep all my data in.
Good tip!
....... Woah.
I think I might restructure the entirety of my current project to fit this. Because this is gold right here.
That's a thing? That's an actual thing that exists?! Woah! I had no idea! I need to track down that kind of script, because that would work WONDERS for a text-heavy game.
I tried that for Soul Sunder, and the characters ended up getting more skills than slots I partitioned for them. How many blank spaces do you leave, Luchino?
That's... actually pretty helpful. I usually create a bigger canvas for my maps, and they all seem to end up feeling empty. I need to try that trick.
Oh yeah, that was one thing I forgot to mention in my first post. Debug rooms are a must for any dev. That's how you can test stuff out! That's how I test battles as well, since I have it set up that a certain Common event is supposed to run before every battle, and Battle Test doesn't allow that to happen.
There's already a preview text box in Ace, but it's really unreliable, especially if you use scripts that create new text effects. I'd want to see that improved. Hey! Suggestion for the next RPG Maker! Have better textbox preview functionality!
author=unity
- Use Common Events to save yourself time and/or copying and pasting if your game has processes that it needs to do over and over. An obvious one but a good one.
You also have the added bonus of being able to edit just that event and have every other call to that event reflect that change. Otherwise, you'd have to go back to every instance of that event and edit it to the new, correct instance. It's very tedious.
- Write down any ideas for later parts of the game that you can't implement yet. I use Google Drive for this ^_^
I have a Word document for this. I may be a tin hat-wearing conspiracy theorist, but I can't bring myself to trust any company with my data. Not because I'm afraid they'll look at my stuff, but because companies can go down the drain at any time, and that data could be lost without me knowing. Plus, if you happen to go somewhere with no internet, you're up the creek if you wanted to access that data. I just keep an external hard drive to keep all my data in.
- In VX Ace, there's not a "wait until completed" function for the "Scroll Map" command like there is in older makers, so guessing the exact time to pause an event while scrolling activates can be troublesome and time-eating. You can, however, get an exact wait for the time when the screen is scrolling by making an event with no graphic and the Through option checked. Set this event's movement speed to the same as the scroll speed and then Set Move Route for it for the same amount of steps that the scrolling moves. Check "Wait for Completion" and then BAM! You've generated a perfect scroll wait command! Just make sure not to delete the moving event; I label mine with a big "SCROLLER- DO NOT DELETE" comment XD
Good tip!
- If your game is entirely linear, you can use a single variable for events dealing with plot progression rather than a bunch of switches. Just remember to keep track of the variable's latest number and never reduce that number.
....... Woah.
I think I might restructure the entirety of my current project to fit this. Because this is gold right here.
author=CashmereCat
Speaking of this, is there a rule of hand that you guys use to make text fit within message boxes? I use a script called "ATS Formatting" which automatically puts text on the next line if it exceeds the window length. That's probably the easiest way to deal with edge overflow but if you guys have some rule of thumb for that, it might prove useful... to others? I'm just curious how you guys deal with it. Cheers.
That's a thing? That's an actual thing that exists?! Woah! I had no idea! I need to track down that kind of script, because that would work WONDERS for a text-heavy game.
author=Luchino
I also divide up my characters skills in the Database tab. Allows me to easily track/modify them, and I allow enough space before adding enemy skills under a small sub-heading.
I tried that for Soul Sunder, and the characters ended up getting more skills than slots I partitioned for them. How many blank spaces do you leave, Luchino?
Afraid I can't give any pointers for 'speed-mapping', but start small, then expand. Never, ever ever ever start off with a ginormous 60x60 map for your town and work from there, because it will just end up looking dull and uninteresting. Visualise want you want for your maps too. Helps out a lot, because then you won' think, "Oh, should I put a tree here, or here? Oh, this bridge can go.. there. No, that won't look right" sort of thing. XD
That's... actually pretty helpful. I usually create a bigger canvas for my maps, and they all seem to end up feeling empty. I need to try that trick.
author=Zeigfried_McBacon
I like making a "debug room" for testing test as well as storing stuff for later use. (Yes, I used to mess around with gameshark on FF7 and 8, mostly 8 for ps1 just thought debug room was so cool).
Oh yeah, that was one thing I forgot to mention in my first post. Debug rooms are a must for any dev. That's how you can test stuff out! That's how I test battles as well, since I have it set up that a certain Common event is supposed to run before every battle, and Battle Test doesn't allow that to happen.
author=LockeZ
What I really need is a way to preview text boxes, not automate them. Watching a 3 minute cut scene over and over to see the text boxes is the real problem.
There's already a preview text box in Ace, but it's really unreliable, especially if you use scripts that create new text effects. I'd want to see that improved. Hey! Suggestion for the next RPG Maker! Have better textbox preview functionality!
author=CashmereCat
ATS Formatting
author=Red_Nova
That's a thing?
Yes, here you go (ATS: Formatting). You might also want ATS: Message Options for smoothly scrolling through multiple pages of message, controlling position and size of message window (although there are other ways to do this), playing letter-by-letter SEs, and using codes to play SEs along the message if you want to be a fancy fruit.
Other addons available in the ATS Series, like face options, formatting, and special message codes, although I've never used that.
author=Red_Nova
I have a Word document for this. I may be a tin hat-wearing conspiracy theorist, but I can't bring myself to trust any company with my data. Not because I'm afraid they'll look at my stuff, but because companies can go down the drain at any time, and that data could be lost without me knowing. Plus, if you happen to go somewhere with no internet, you're up the creek if you wanted to access that data. I just keep an external hard drive to keep all my data in.
Oh my goodness, I have a legitimate suggestion! Absolutely everything you use in life has the potential to crap out, so never rely on a single program or storage device. Copy your important relevant info to as many retrievable devices as can because if anything ever goes out, you have backups to go to and you don't have to worry about losing valuable work. Of course, if you're worried about security, make sure nobody else has access it.
Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
That is amazing, Cash! Thanks so much for the link!
pianotm, I guess don't really have a legitimate reason to avoid Google Drive or similar systems. It's just my preference. Though your comment did remind me I have a couple of extra externals that I need to get back to using. Man, I'm bad at this.
pianotm, I guess don't really have a legitimate reason to avoid Google Drive or similar systems. It's just my preference. Though your comment did remind me I have a couple of extra externals that I need to get back to using. Man, I'm bad at this.
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
author=Red_NovaUgh, now if only VX Ace had RMXP's vastly superior mapping and significantly more massive script library. And had been released at the time when I started my game.
There's already a preview text box in Ace, but it's really unreliable, especially if you use scripts that create new text effects. I'd want to see that improved. Hey! Suggestion for the next RPG Maker! Have better textbox preview functionality!
@Nova: I usually leave about 20 open slots per character for skills. No more than that. I can't really see my characters needing that many by end-game. Especially since Tristy has a system where you can get additional skills through weapons/other equips. =)
author=Satedauthor=CashmereCatAssuming you're using a mono-space font (which you should) then you can do this:
@unity & MarrendCommon events are king.
Speaking of this, is there a rule of hand that you guys use to make text fit within message boxes? I use a script called "ATS Formatting" which automatically puts text on the next line if it exceeds the window length. That's probably the easiest way to deal with edge overflow but if you guys have some rule of thumb for that, it might prove useful... to others? I'm just curious how you guys deal with it. Cheers.
1) Open RPGMaker
2) Make an event and put 1234567890 repeatedly into a message dialogue.
3) Open the game and speak to that event.
4) Make note of how many numbers are visible before they get cut off.
5) Put that many numbers into a Notepad/Word file.
6) Repeat with a Faceset visible if you're also using Facesets.
7) Write all dialogue in the Notepad/Word file and copy/paste it into RPGMaker.
As long as your sentences don't run longer than the string of numbers, they'll never get cut off. If you use a Word document then obviously make sure you're using the Courier font (or another mono-space font). I personally use Notepad, but the advantage of using Word is that it will also spell-check your dialogue as you're writing it.
Holy crap! That's brilliant!
author=unityThere's an even simpler way to do this (which I'm pretty sure works in Ace as well): Successive Scroll Map commands always wait for the previous one to finish. So if you want the rest of the event to only continue once the scrolling is done, just put a Scroll Map command that scrolls a distance of 0 right after the first one. It will have no effect, but cause the list of Event commands to wait until the first Scrolling command is done.
- In VX Ace, there's not a "wait until completed" function for the "Scroll Map" command like there is in older makers, so guessing the exact time to pause an event while scrolling activates can be troublesome and time-eating. You can, however, get an exact wait for the time when the screen is scrolling by making an event with no graphic and the Through option checked. Set this event's movement speed to the same as the scroll speed and then Set Move Route for it for the same amount of steps that the scrolling moves. Check "Wait for Completion" and then BAM! You've generated a perfect scroll wait command! Just make sure not to delete the moving event; I label mine with a big "SCROLLER- DO NOT DELETE" comment XD
An alternative is also to just turn the Player sprite transparent and set it on Through, and have that move around instead. That has the special advantage that you can even scroll diagonally this way.
author=NeverSilentauthor=unityThere's an even simpler way to do this (which I'm pretty sure works in Ace as well): Successive Scroll Map commands always wait for the previous one to finish. So if you want the rest of the event to only continue once the scrolling is done, just put a Scroll Map command that scrolls a distance of 0 right after the first one. It will have no effect, but cause the list of Event commands to wait until the first Scrolling command is done.
- In VX Ace, there's not a "wait until completed" function for the "Scroll Map" command like there is in older makers, so guessing the exact time to pause an event while scrolling activates can be troublesome and time-eating. You can, however, get an exact wait for the time when the screen is scrolling by making an event with no graphic and the Through option checked. Set this event's movement speed to the same as the scroll speed and then Set Move Route for it for the same amount of steps that the scrolling moves. Check "Wait for Completion" and then BAM! You've generated a perfect scroll wait command! Just make sure not to delete the moving event; I label mine with a big "SCROLLER- DO NOT DELETE" comment XD
An alternative is also to just turn the Player sprite transparent and set it on Through, and have that move around instead. That has the special advantage that you can even scroll diagonally this way.
WHOA. Awesome! That's way better! Now I don't even have to worry about deleting invisible scroller-events! Thanks, NS! :DDDDD
