GermanyXItaly1000

I'm totally for it. I may not be a good or efficient game maker, but I'd like to participate or at least see what other people have got up their sleeves!

That might be a good idea. I'll have a go at it. How would one set a picture as an event?

After ages of inactivity, I'm back to working on my game. Only to run into more problems. I want to be able to use the Screen Shake function to make the picture I showed shake back and forth, but it doesn't appear to work. Is there a script that can make the picture shake like the screen does, or do I have to do it manually using the "Move Picture" event? I'd like to be able to mimic the shaking movements of the Screen Shake event--that's my main goal. Thanks in advance.

Since we're going to stay away from RPG Maker this time (it's going to be a pain :P the engine is beyond useful), let's say we take the route of using C++. We'd have to learn the language first, of course. :P Then where to go from there? We're aiming to have at least a decent game plan before we set out to make anything, so if we hit some roadblocks we can at least be prepared to counter them. I've never even touched the scripts in RMXP (except for noob edits), so this would be a pretty big step.

After spending a few weeks browsing dating sims and playing DRAMAtical Murder (don't ask), a friend who's working on an RMXP project with me decided he wanted to try something new. By "something new", he means that he wants to leave RPG Maker and traverse the daunting lands of visual novel-making. He wants to attempt making it from scratch. Somehow, he's gotten me in on his attempt to make a visual novel. We've got the concept. We've got the script. We've even outlined all the characters and their backstory, minor details, etc. And now all we need is the how. Screwing around with a few visual novel engines in the past, I've learnt the basic functions of ready-made programs like Ren'py and Novelty. They're not extremely capable, but they've got every fundamental factor of a visual novel. My friend is looking for something he can mess around with freely. I can only assume that he means that he wants something that allows him to make everything from scratch and be able to control each aspect of the game to his liking. Graphics, movement, music, timing, etc. He wants it all perfect. Since I have no idea about visual novels, I figure it requires programming knowledge, or some incredible clandestine knowledge that developers like Team GrisGris or Nitro+Chiral seem to possess. But I'm not sure about it at all. What we're looking to make is something along the lines of DRAMAtical Murder. Definitely not in the same genre, but with the same level of functionality. I figured it would be very possible to make something like that in RMXP, but then again he wants to leave RMXP. Maybe Unity would have some good features we can exploit. What does it take to make something like DRAMAtical Murder? Corpse Party is also a pretty prime example, but it doesn't feature much of what the first does. Would making a visual novel from scratch be as good as one made in Flash, or Unity, or whatever people use to make highly function VNs? What does making a visual novel from scratch entail? Otherwise, what program would give us that similar functionality and what does the program require? Any help is highly appreciated!

This is an extremely late reply, but I think that's exactly what I'll do. Thanks!

Thanks to everyone who left an answer! Combining Heretic86 and Polraudio's answers, I managed to get my menu how I want it to look! Also, thank you, Zahraa, but I don't need to display the map. I've already put an image of my choosing behind the menu. ;D Now that I've changed the opacity, I think this is about right: Should I change the opacity anymore, or does it look fine this way? Thanks, everyone! You were all helpful!

This is probably super easy, if it weren't for the fact that I know nothing about Ruby even after two years of using RMXP. (I win at life.) But I just want to have the opacity of the windowskin set to my preferences for the entire game, and I can do that, with Ccoa's UMS. All except for the menu, which will be set at a very low opacity. I'm assuming this is something script-related. What would I have to change or add? Any help is welcomed. I would be grateful. (Then again, this is probably simple :P but Ruby is too difficult for my simple mind.)

Holy-- Dude, this post. It's a long-ass post, but I read all of it, and let me just say that's some pretty damn good advice. Dear God, that's a lot of time into writing this. Everything a writer/director/game maker needs to know. I will be rereading this over and over and archiving it into my mind. This is useful for pretty much anything writing-related. Now I know how to make my games not suck. :P

Definitely not. I feel the best time to make a cutscene is when I feel emotionally involved in the relationships of the characters, or in the situation. Cutscenes that are made just for the sake of it tend to be boring, and rarely thought out as well as the rest of the game's cutscenes are. Like a dreaded filler that no one cares about watching--just get back to the show and main story already. I did mean this question specifically for the RPG Maker engines. :) I'd really like to experiment a little, and reach the point where I'm able to make a cutscene that's maybe five minutes long... while still engaging the player in the dialogue and text. Sometimes I found it was possible when you set the atmosphere better--with lighting, music, graphics, etc. Just to draw the player in and keep them there long enough for them to get the information they need and not get too turned off by the length of the scene. Even though some cutscenes are relatively short in a few games I've played, at those times I was wholly uninterested in the story (and even the gameplay) and just clicked through without care for reading properly. Granted, those are just for the occasional RPG Maker anime fangames I find on deviantART, and very few of those have a lot of good effort invested in them. But at times when there was a good setting and mood, I found myself immersed in even ten minute long scenes. So for me, the map and the atmosphere have a huge effect on whether I'm willing enough to go through those long cutscenes.

This is in general, for any RPG Maker engine. I love using the autorun function to run a cutscene, whether to show a scene developing a relationship between characters or to further push the story of the game along, or just to enhance it. In a horror RPG like Corpse Party: Blood Covered - Repeated Fear, many of the cutscenes are there to enhance the gaming experience and bond you with the characters, let you get to know them, to showcase gore and horror, etc. But my question is, how many cutscenes should there be? And what's the point when the player decides there are too many to be anything but troublesome?

Blackmage already solved this problem, but seriously. Use that link I left in your last question. You really can't use RMXP efficiently when you have no idea how to use switches and conditional branches. If you learn how to use those, you'll have a whole lot less questions, and there will be a lot less limits to your game. srsly.

Wow, you're right D: Yeah, looking back at the past comment, it does seem as if they're talking about scripts. I'm afraid I can't help you there. You might want to ask another user on this forum who knows how to handle RGSS (won't be too hard finding them). Only problem is, I don't know if it requires a rewrite of the script or just a few changes, an added section or something. My system was very inconvenient when I started out, but that's because I was learning, and I didn't know how to the basic things in RMXP :D Now that I think about it, it's still inconvenient, seeing how many variables you have to set up for it. Hopefully you have a better time with my weird variable system than I did, though.

Looks like this thread hasn't been updated in a while D: Because I'm a guy who doesn't bother with outside maps and cool stuff, I'm going to post a screenshot of a bar. I'm not the only one involved in the game this screenshot is from, so I made the map and someone made the lighting. Ignore the floating envelope and the white line behind the cupboard, this is an old screenshot. :P Eventually we deleted the envelope and made the white line transparent.

I wouldn't say this is a project that's "early in development", as it's based off a failure of a game project I started over two years ago. But after that first game was abandoned, we set a new one into place, and for many months planning has gone into the game. It's a lot of effort for just a fangame (and one based off of an anime, too), but since we started we can't stop. And if we can't stop, we might as well invest our efforts into it while we can. And now we have a demo to show for it. My partner and I work on setting up events and mapping, while the rest of the team provides facesets, CGs, and feedback. We have a musician, several faceset artists, a collaborating pair of CG artists, and even a person to work on lighting for the maps. Because it's a fangame, the quality might be considered low, and we take a lot of resources straight from the engine. And none of you will understand the conversations going on in-game. Or maybe you will. I don't know. It's mainly a story game--meaning battles are kept to a minimum, gameplay (when it comes to progressing anywhere) is merely "search and explore for an item" or "solve a puzzle". Cutscenes and choices that affect the relationships of players with other players dominate the "gameplay". At this rate, it'll turn into a visual novel. Information on Hetalia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hetalia:_Axis_Powers Youtube Video, without commentary: If you prefer to watch a Let's Play: We're not particularly looking to feedback on how in-character the characters are, or how the cutscenes drag on (as this is a story/puzzle game). What we're mainly looking for is feedback on the maps, the eventing, the art, how the game works, etc. Thank you to anyone who leaves feedback! (It's going to be hard if you're not particularly a fan of Hetalia... or anime altogether.)

What blackmage said. Whenever you want an event to not run until it's triggered by a switch or a variable, always look to the side of the event screen and set your condition. Switches are useful. You can't really make a game without knowing them inside and outside, and if you could, it'd be hella inconvenient. Since it looks like you're new to this site and to RMXP altogether, I'll leave you with a link that has helped many an RPG game-maker: http://www.rmxp.tigerseye.uk.com/tutorial_event0.shtml You'll thank me later.

Apologies, but in the demo I couldn't find anything particularly wrong. :P Maybe it's because I haven't taken the script out and tested it myself. I will go and try to do so. In the demo I used, the payer had to be standing directly on the teleporter event, which then used a conditional branch to check for the item. If you want to stand in front of an object--I guess you want to do that?--I'd used a conditional branch checking to see if the player is facing the event, than use another branch that checks for the item, if the first branch is fulfilled. But otherwise, it shouldn't work in the way you said, since you need to be standing right in front of the event or it won't happen since the conditional branch hasn't been met... Maybe you could upload what you made with the potion? :P But I don't see how there should be a problem, after looking at the code in the demo. I couldn't use the teleporter anywhere else.

Looking at the note about setting the conditional branches... I think that's scripting, which is far out of my league. I downloaded the demo for the script you named, though, and it doesn't seem to give me any problems, as long as you set the item ID properly in a conditional branch. If you could explain what exactly is the problem, I might be able to think of something. But in the demo I played, I can select the item far away from the player, and it doesn't appear to still affect the player. Unless I'm getting confused again. :P

Did you think of using conditional branches? You can set up a common event in the menu and trigger it when you click the event, along with the position that the player should be facing. That's a little difficult when using events, so I made it so that the player should be in a specific spot, facing one direction, when they use their item--and if the coordinates fit, it triggers the event. It was for an old project, but I'll look through my screenshots and see if I can find the one that I used. Unless, of course, you want something less complicated? Like in a script? The Witch's House is a very good example of what I think you're trying to do--selecting an item from the menu and using it only in a specific place, right? Not sure if double posting is against the rules here, but anywho I'm adding this as an edited post: I attached some files below that might be helpful. Simply use the common events, set up a lot of control variables (that's a little complicated), and then set a couple of branches that make sure that the player is fulfilling those conditions. If the player is NOT, then just write in Else: "You can't use this item" or something like that. The red circle in the Item window, in Database, shows where you connect the item with the common event. When you set it and click on the item, whatever is in that common event will play. If you need a little detail, I could go into it, but I'd have to refresh myself with the concept of it first. Hope this is something along the lines of what you hoped for!

Let me know if the scripts worked for you. :) If not, you can always search for another one. Hopefully it suits your needs.

Ace? This is the XP Support forum. You need to post in Ace for that kind of thing in the future. But anyway, I looked through some posts and found a couple of scripts (even though Ace really isn't my forte): http://yanflychannel.wordpress.com/rmvxa/core-scripts/party-system/ http://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?/topic/3060-switch-party/ Again, if you want to ask for VX Ace, go and use the Ace Support forum next time => http://www.gdunlimited.net/forums/forum/197-rpg-maker-vx-ace-support/

You want to open up a menu that will let the player pick his party? There are quite a few party switching scripts out there. Blizzard's Easy Party Switcher => http://forum.chaos-project.com/index.php?topic=116.0 I also recently tried out Dargor's Party Changer 3.3 Version => http://save-point.org/thread-2424.html Party Changer will add an option at the bottom of your menu selection (after end game) that says "Party Arrange". This is where you arrange your party for battle. The Easy party switcher will open up a separate menu that will let you pick and choose your four party members. But do you mean that you want a script with more than four members for battle?

Wow, I actually wasn't aware of that... Then again, I never studied the make up of a windowskin. :P I need to pay more attention to things like this. Thanks, zahraa! Problem solved.

Right... What I'm looking for is something more like this: http://www.siliconera.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/image_thumb26.png Which actually highlights the text, but stands out more--not like the rectangular selection cursor that I've gotten a bit tired of. :P I'm currently using this script: http://forum.chaos-project.com/index.php?topic=7141.0 And really, that's the only thing I want it changed for. :) Not for the normal choices, since the choices that I'm making show up with the script are a little more important than normal choices.