IGM Tutorial: Camera with a Course

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Using what we’ve learned so far I’ve started up a very simple, easy to re-create Shooting Game. We’ll use this shooting game to create a Camera gadget on a Canvas and give the camera a course to follow. You can either start from the provided GPD or you can try to recreate this on your own using the files provided.

If you want to start from the GPD you can skip this next bit. Still, I highly recommend giving this a shot as practicing and working on your projects in every aspect is the best way to learn.

All I’ve done so far is create a ship that explodes when it hits a wall or its health drops to zero. I’ve set up a menu that displays an item set to read the “Player Health” memory which I’ve set to 3. I’ve created tiles for the ship to fly over. The grass tiles are walls so you have something to crash into.

Set your first canvas to have around 4 horizontal screens for now and don’t forget to assign your HUD to the canvas. There isn’t really a need to set up collision detection for the explosion, but here is how I’ve set up the collision detection for the ship:

Collision Detection with Other Gadgets
Horizontal Positioning % (top left box) = 3
Horizontal Size % (top right box) = 94
Vertical Positioning % (bottom left box) = 31
Vertical Size % (bottom right box) = 38

Collision Detection with Walls (Tiles)
Horizontal Position % = 0
Horizontal Size % = 100
Vertical POsitioning % = 28
Vertical Size % = 44

For the ship I used three frames of animation, 20 frames per second, with infinite looping. For the explosion I went with 30 frames per second, no looping. It isn’t really necessary in this game to use the “Set The Origin At The Character’s Feet” checkbox.

After my ship explodes I have it go to an invisible state for one second and then come back right where it left off. This is a temporary measure until we cover adding extra lives and how that whole thing works. Instead of using Layer 3 as the layer for gadget interactions I went with Layer 2.

This will allow me to put more things behind the ship as it flies (and because you can adjust each layer’s individual speed in the “Per Canvas Settings” sub-sub-tab you can have some really nifty depth effects going on).

My Layer 2′s speed is set at 150. Going with Layer 2 also leaves you an extra layer in front of the ship incase you want it to fly behind something. My “Basic Tile Size” under the “Per Plug-in Settings” sub-tab is set at 64×64.

GPD USERS CONTINUE HERE
So when you try out the game you’re going to notice that your ship moves really awkwardly as it passes through the screens on our canvas. We’re going to fix that by setting up a camera on a course that goes from one end of the map to the other.

It is important to note that when you use a camera and a course like this your Player Gadget WILL shake (this does not happen when exporting to SWF but other glitches can occur like tiles and gadgets disappearing). This is especially noticeable if your course travels in anything other than a straight line. I am not sure how to resolve this issue, but this technique still has valid uses with other gadgets and other features in IG Maker.

Courses are especially important for most enemy gadgets and a number of other things like moving platforms or various flying gadgets. The Camera gadget is a powerful tool for directing how you want your game to be presented.

With that out of the way head to your Canvas and the “Gadgets” sub-sub-tab. We’re going to set up a course first so select the Course gadget and put it in the middle of the first screen on the canvas. The positioning on mine was 320×192. Turn off the option for “Infinite Looping” to keep this from starting over when you get to the end. With 4 horizontal screens I set the Offset for Points002 to 1918×0.

This keeps it traveling in a straight line all the way over to the middle of the last screen. I also changed the “Time To Next Point” for Points001 to 15 seconds. This will give you a nice smooth transition across the map.

Now select the Camera gadget and throw it anywhere on the map. It’ll get moved automatically in a second. Pull up the “Cameras” tab in the “Parts Placed On The Layout” section. Set the “Display Layer” to the same layer your player gadget is on. Set the Course to the one we just created, and the Starting Point to the first point on that course. At the bottom of this window is the “Effective Range (Full-Screen Rectangle Section)”. This needs to be set to cover all of the squares that the camera is going to pass through.

So set the first to options to 0 and 4, and the second two to 0 and 1. This is equivalent to setting up a four-screen-long, one-screen-tall camera range. After this is done take a look at where your camera is on the canvas. It will probably be a bit too high up, so you’ll need to make an adjustment to your course to get it right where you want it.

The positioning on your course is the easiest thing to change to get this in the right spot. I changed mine from 320×192 to 320×240. This places the Camera perfectly on the screen which is not necessarily important for a canvas with only 1 verticle line of screens, but if you get into more advanced camera courses it is definitely an important thing to keep in mind.

There is only one more thing we need to change. Head to the “Gadgets” sub-tab, select the Player gadget, and then go to the “Emergence Settings” sub-sub-tab. Over on the right side you’ll see “Movement Range (Shooting Game)”. This allows you to designate the maximum range of movement based on the camera for your gadgets. I suggest going with the following:

Designate Movement Range In The Screen
Horizontal Positioning % (top left box) = 5
Vertical Positioning % (top right box) = 0
Horizontal Size % (bottom left box) = 80
Vertical Size % (bottom right box) = 80

Now give it a shot. Within around fifteen seconds your ship will fly from one end of your canvas to the other while the camera directs you along properly.

Ready to start your own game in IGM? Purchase IGM at a 10% discount using the coupon code “igmakerohyeah“. Any questions, comments? Ask them in the comment section below.

VX Ace: Make Your Own Game Bonus 3 1/2: Script Use and Notetags

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Lunge and Shield Strike

If you tried to recreate the characters I made in Tutorial III exactly, its obvious that something wasn’t right.

I know exactly what you are thinking. “Wait, how am I supposed to create a the Lunge and Shield Strike skills? How could I possibly create a skill that does damage, while applying a bonus or penalty to the character’s defense?”

Well in this case, the plan is to use a script created by a member of the RPG Maker Web Forums, Jet10985 (usually just referred to as Jet).

This script will allow us to create a skill and then mark certain effects that will affect the user of the skill instead of the target. The way we are going to mark those effects is with notetags.

Because it is so popular, learning to use notetags is important to implementing most scripts currently being made.

You can download the script I am using in this tutorial here.

Adding a Script in the Script Editor

The first thing we need to do is add the script into the game scripts. This is relatively simple. First open up the script editor under the Tools menu.

Next scroll down the script list until we get to the name ( Insert Here ). At this point, right click on that and select insert.
Next click on it and insert the name of the script you are adding into your game.

Now that you have the spot for your script, open up the text file containing the script you will be using, and select all the text and copy it.

Now paste it into the Script Editor in the spot you just created.

At this time, you can read through all the text highlighted green. This denotes comments and explains who created the script and how to use it.

Creating a Lunge Effect State

The first thing we need to do is create a state that will lower the character’s defense by 25%. To do this, give the state a Feature that multiplies the characters DEF by 75%.

Now why not just use a debuff? I prefer a states in this case because it gives me better control of duration. In this case we want it to end at the end of the characters next turn. The removal conditions are configured for this.

Creating the Lunge Skill

Now we can create the Lunge Skill itself. I started by copying the Attack skill. After that I changed the damage formula so that it will do 25% more damage than a standard attack.

After assiging it to the Spear Skill category and giving it a TP cost of 20, and giving it a descrition and Using Message, all that is left is to implement the state.

First lets have the skill add the state 100% of the time it is used in the Skill Effects.

Now we can go back to the script instructions on how to have this effect apply to the user rather than the skill target.

Since we only want the single effect in slot 1 of the skill effects to apply to the user, all we have to do is type <self effect: 1> into the Notes box. Now when the skill is used, our script will read this and know to apply it to the user.

With this simple script and notetag knowledge, we have created an entire new dimension to the skills we can create. Why don’t you try and create the Shield Strike skill now on your own?

IGM Tutorial: Adding a Boss HP Display

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Want to check out a PDF of this tutorial? Right click save as HERE.

Last time we created a boss and gave it three hit points. Now we’re going to cover how to display those hit points on the screen with numbers. Open up your file from the last tutorial and we’ll get started! The first thing we need to do is to create a switch. Head to the “Materials” tab and the “Switches” sub-tab and hit “Create”. This switch is going to be used to turn on and off the health display so name it “Boss HP” and leave its initial value off.

Next head to the “Menus” tab and the “Items” sub-tab. Hit “Create” and we’ll make a new item called “Boss HP Display”. Just like with animations you’ll need to set a graphic for this, even though at the moment we’re only displaying text. So use the transparent graphic included with this tutorial (you’ll have to set it as a graphic under the “Material” tab and allow it to be used as an item first, but you should know how to do that already). Continue reading →

IGM Tutorial: Adding Health

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Want to check out a PDF of this tutorial? Right click save as HERE.

If you’ve been following along with the tutorials this far you can load up the platforming game we’ve been working on and we’ll get started.

Let’s start by creating a boss penguin from our regular penguins. That way we can have a boss’s health displayed on the screen while we fight him. Head over to the “Animations” sub-tab and create a copy of our Penguin animations. Rename the copy Boss Penguin so it’s a little easier to keep track. Under the “Per Frame Settings” sub-sub-tab change both of the Scale options to 2. This will double the size of our penguin. Now adjust your hit detection accordingly.

Collision Detection with Other Gadgets
Horizontal Positioning % (top left box) = 75
Horizontal Size % (top right box) = 50
Vertical Positioning % (bottom left box) = 50
Vertical Size % (bottom right box) = 12

Collision Detection with Walls (Tiles)
Horizontal Position % = 75
Horizontal Size % = 50
Vertical POsitioning % = 175
Vertical Size % = 25

Next up, we need to make it so our Player can do some damage to this boss. Head to the Player’s Jumping animation. Turn the “Collision Detection For Attacks” on and use these settings for both directions of jumping.

Collision Detection For Attacks
Horizontal Positioning % (top left box) = 12
Horizontal Size % (top right box) = 75
Vertical Positioning % (bottom left box) = 100
Vertical Size % (bottom right box) = 12

This will give you a small line of damage underneath your Player so that he can only hurt things when he jumps on them. Now head to the “Gadgets” sub-tab and create a copy of our Penguin gadget. Go ahead and rename this Boss Penguin too. Under the “Emergence Settings” sub-sub-tab you can change the “Assigned Animations” to Boss Penguin. While you’re here go ahead and change this gadget’s health from 1 to 3.

Switch back to the “Registering Actions” sub-sub-tab. When you get here you’ll want to fix all of the drop-down menus under “Action To Be Assigned” because when we changed the assigned animation for this copied gadget it blanked out all of the fields regarding the used animations. Now create copies of the Walking Left and Right “Action Programs”. Rename them to Attacked Left and Right. Set these both up so that they use the memory for forcing the player to jump, just like we did with the regular penguins. Now set Attacked Left and Right so that they go back to their respective walking directions with an Apply Ratio of 100%. They should not go to any other actions. Now set Walking Left and Right to go to Attacked Left and Right when stepped on, and Dying Left and Right when Gadget’s Health Reaches Zero.

Now switch to the Penguin Gadget and head to the “Emergence Settings” sub-sub-tab and check the box for “Don’t Flash On Taking Damage”. Put your penguin boss on a canvas somewhere (mind your layers, I put mine on Layer 3 on the new canvas we created in the last tutorial). When you attack the other penguins they respond exactly as they did before regardless of your new attacking collision detection, and when you encounter your boss penguin he can be defeated with three jumps on the head. You should bounce off of him each time, and you should only be able to damage him by jumping on him.

Ready to start your own game in IGM? Purchase IGM at a 10% discount using the coupon code “igmakerohyeah“. Any questions, comments? Ask them in the comment section below.

RPG Maker 3 Music Pack

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Hi Everyone,
We’re excited to announce the first official Music Pack Add-On.
We’ve snagged 40 tracks from RPG Maker 3 (on PS2),  touched them up,
converted them to .ogg’s and sorted and labelled them.

Here’s a sample for your listening pleasure.

If you’d like to get more info or purchase (only 20 bucks) this Add-On then head on over to the RPG Maker 3 Music Pack Page.

Happy Listening!

The RPG Maker Team

VX Ace: Make Your Own Game Tutorial IV: Equipment, Items, and Features

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Back again with a new VX Ace Make Your Own Game Tutorial. This week we focus on Equipment and Items. This blog post is just a preview, as the actual tutorial is much to big for a post! For the full version, right-click save as the full PDF tutorial HERE.

Tutorial Preview: Continue reading →

VX Ace: Make Your Own Game Tutorial III: Creating Characters

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New week, new VX Ace Make Your Own Game Tutorial. This week we focus on creating characters. Once again, the tutorial is much too large to hold in a blog post, so we will be providing just a preview here. For the full version, right-click save as the full PDF tutorial HERE.

Tutorial Preview: Continue reading →

IGM Tutorial: Adding Features

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Want to check out a PDF of this tutorial? Right click save as HERE.

Let’s take the jumping action game we’ve made in the last two tutorials and add a couple of features to it. The first we’ll add is the ability to double jump. Load up your project and head to the Gadgets sub-tab.

Start by copying the Jumping(2) “Action Program” and paste it to create Jumping(3). On Jumping(3), go ahead and check the box to make this a jump. Under “The Next Action Program” Standby and Running should both already be red so select Jumping(2), scroll down, and check the box for “The Gadget Played All Animations”. Now select the Jumping “Action Program” and select Jumping(2) as “The Next Action Program”. Scroll down and uncheck the box for “The Gadget Played All Animations”.

Then, select Jumping(3) as “The Next Action Program” and set it up for B – Upon Pressing. That’s all there is to it. Now you can test out your double jump, or add more and link them together to create triple or quadruple jumps! You can also set it up so that Jumping only goes to Jumping(3) after a switch has been turned on or off to ‘unlock’ the ability, or set it up for memories so that you can only double jump a limited number of times or in correlation to an amount of some kind.

Next we’ll create a new canvas and link it to our first canvas. Start by heading to the “Canvases” sub-tab, and hit “Create”. I’ve been over how to create a canvas before, so set this one up just like the first one for now. Feel free to use a different tile layout and change the first canvas to set up where you want the transition to take place. I created a hole in the wall and lined it up with an opening in the second canvas.

Now head to the “Links” sub-tab and hit “Create”. Take note of the fact that each link you create will have a Link A and Link B. Make sure to set your “Placement Layer” for both links to the layer your Player gadget will be on (Layer 3 if you’ve been following along with me). Now on Link A select your first canvas, and on Link B select your new canvas. Now using the images of the canvases scroll to where you want your links to be and select the area. Because I made the holes in my walls twice as high as a normal tile I need to change the size of the links.

Now, we can change how our links are displayed on the screen by selecting the “Effects & Settings For Linking From…” sub-sub-tabs. You can have links alter your music, play sound effects, change your Player gadget’s “Action Program”, change two memories, make the links only work when a switch has been turned on or upon entering a command. For now let’s set up a fade to and from black under “Display Effects”. You’ll have to select “Black” for Link A AND B in order for it to work properly. Otherwise your screen could fade to black and then come back without any kind of effect, or could jump to black and then fade in on the second canvas. Make sure to do this for both sub-sub-tabs so that going from B-to-A is the same as A-to-B. Go ahead and hit the check box for “Upon Entering The Following Command.” and select A from the menu. This will keep you from getting caught in a link-loop. If you export this to Flash then using a command to trigger the link won’t work properly (the link will activate by touch instead), but links seem to respond significantly better in Flash which keeps you from getting caught in a link-loop and eliminates the need for the command trigger.

That’s the simple way of creating links from one canvas to another. This way avoids using the “Flow” tab though, which is the more proper way to link canvases together. The “Flow” method of linking will be covered in a future tutorial.

IG Maker looking more promising with every tutorial? Don’t hesitate to purchase it using the discount code “igmakerohyeah” at check out to get 10% off your purchase of IGM. Have questions? Ask them in the comments below or visit the IG Maker section of our new forums.

VX Ace: Make Your Own Game Tutorial II: Intro to Mapping

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Our second RPG Maker VX Ace detailed tutorial is up. We are going to cover a bunch of mapping theory, as well as create the first map in our example game: A Mountain Village. This one is huge guys! Much too large to put into a blog post. This blog post will include the first 3 pages of the full 16 page tutorial that can be download in pdf here. Its incredibly hefty in size, so I would suggest right click save as rather than opening it in your browser.

Now on to the tutorial preview: Continue reading →