Part I: The Basics of RM2K(3)
(RM2K3 is the same as RM2K, but with more features. I will talk about
the new features of RM2K3 at the end.)
Maps
To edit the map properties, right click on the map and click on
Map Properties. Then you can name the map, have background music, make
a background for the map, make the map's background move in a direction
at different speeds, change the size of the map, and other map properties.
On the bar at the top, there are three different colored squares.
The left one calls the lower level editor. The lower level editor lets
you add ground stuff, like grass, to the map. To add ground level stuff,
click in the box on the left that has the grass, water, snow, etc. Then,
click in one of the tiles in the box to the right. Pink will show up black
while playing the game, but some graphics will have a different color for
black.
Tiles are squares on the map. Events can be placed on tiles,
and the hero walks vertically and horizontally along the tiles. I will
talk more about events up ahead. You can't place anything in between tiles.
The middle square calls the upper level editor. This allows you
to put objects, such as trees, tables, rocks, etc. on the lower level.
When you click on the middle square, the box to the left will change to
objects. The pink for the upper level will just be clear.
The right square is the event viewer. When you click on the right
square, the box on the left will have objects in it. Events can be time
controllers, people, and objects. Without events, all you could do was
walk around on only one map, and NOTHING would ever happen. To make a new
event, double click on a tile when you are in the event viewer. It will
load the event editor.
If you right click on a tile while in the event viewer, you can
set the party's start position and set a vehicle there. I will get more
detailed about vehicles later
Events
Events can have different pages. Each page can store different
information. On each page, on the left, you can choose what switches that
need to be on, what variables need to be set to certain numbers, what items
you need to have, where the timer is currently at, and what heroes need
to be in your party in order for that page to work. Here's an example:
The event is a guy walking around randomly. On the first page,
he says, "Hi" if you press enter. The second page needs a key to be activated.
If you press enter when you have a key, it will activate the second page
and he will say, "Oh! You have a key! Can I have it?"
You can copy, paste, cut, and make new pages at the top of the
event editor. In the bottom right corner of the event editor, you can change
the graphic of the page you are in, edit the movements of the page, and
choose how the page is activated.
Pages can be activated in several different ways. "Push Key"
means that you need to push the enter key to activate the page. "On Hero
Touch" means when YOU run into the event. "On Event Touch Hero" means when
THE EVENT touches you or YOU touch the event. "Auto Start" means it will
start that event when you appear on that map, but when you have it wait,
you will not be able to control the hero. "Parallel Process" is just like
Auto Start, except you will be able to control the hero while the event
is waiting.
"Over Hero", "Same Level as Hero", and "Below Hero" can be a
little hard to understand at first. Over Hero means that this event is
above the hero and will be activated if the hero is below the event. Same
Level as Hero means that the event is not passable by the hero, and will
be activated if the hero is facing the event. Below Hero means the hero
can walk on the event and must be standing on top of it to activate it.
The Event Command List
In the event command list, the big white box in the event editor,
you can tell the page of the event what to do. Simply double click. That
will call up the Event Command List Commands. There are three pages to
choose from.
You can edit the messages' style. You can make the background
of them transparent. You can have them come up on the top, middle, or bottom.
You can make them allow other events to continue movements and have parallel
process events continue while the message is on the screen.
Messages are probably the most used commands. I will tell you
some of the cool things you can do with messages later. For now, just use
text in your messages.
You can make faces appear on the message, but you will not be
able to put as much text in the message. Faces do not have to be faces.
They can also be items, so when you receive an item, it will have a picture
of the item. But you need to make the graphics.
You can also have different weather effects. In RM2K, you can
have rain and snow. In RM2K3, you can have more.
Teleporting teleports your hero to a different place. It could
be a different map or just a different place on the map. The hero won't
be able to walk into a house or cave without teleporting. The only problem
about teleporting is that if you have something happen right after teleporting,
it will teleport you, but it will not do anything else. So, you have to
wait 0.1 of a second before doing anything else.
"Set Event Place" is just like teleporting, except it teleports
an event. You can't teleport an event onto a different map. If you teleport
the hero to a different map, and right after that you say "Set Event Place",
it will come up with the list of events on the map the hero was on before
he teleported. If you have one of the events teleport, (Or move, but I
haven't gotten to that yet) then, when you are playing the game, it will
yell at you saying that it is an invalid event. That's why you have switches,
but I'll get to that later.
The "Move Event" command allows you to move an event. You can
tell it to go in a direction, face in a direction, jump around, spin, and
some more complicated stuff, like being able to move through anything,
or getting stuck facing in a direction. Move Event will never wait before
going to the next command. If you want it to wait, then you will have to
make it wait after the Move Event. If you don't want to keep guessing and
testing to see if you've told it to wait long enough, just go to the "Move
All" command. It will wait until all Move Events are done. "Stop All" will
stop all of the Move Events. If you want it to wait for a fraction of the
move event, you will have to make it wait, instead of a Move All.
There's one word that describes the "Fork Conditions" command.
If. You can say, "If this event was activated by pressing enter" or "If
this switch is on" or "If this variable is 18 or lower" or "If the background
music has played at least once" and other stuff like that. It comes in
very handy.
Pictures are very fun to use. They make your game a lot better.
Pictures are just pictures of something. "Show Picture" will show a picture
on the screen. You can choose the size, transparency, coloration, and some
really cool special effects, like the wavy effect. You can also choose
the position of the picture and make it move along with the map as the
hero walks. "Move Picture" will move a picture into a different place,
and you can have it change all of the settings that I mentioned earlier
as it moves. You can also choose how long the movement will take. "Erase
Picture" will erase a picture from the screen.
Variables and switches are very helpful. Variables store numbers,
and switches can either be on or off. In the upper left corner of the event
editor, you can choose what switches need to be on for that page to be
activated. You can also choose a number that a variable needs to be greater
than or equal to for that page to be activated. There are event commands
for variables and switches in the command list. "Switch Operations" will
turn a switch on or off. "Variable Operations" will allow you to edit what
a variable stores. You can set the variable to divide itself by another
variable. You can set the variable to the number 3. You can do lots of
different things with variables.
The "Memorize Hero Position" command will ask you what variables
the hero's position will be stored in: the map's ID number, the hero's
Y position, and the hero's X position. The "Go To Memorized Position" will
ask you what variables you want it to load so it can teleport the hero
to that position. You don't have to memorize the hero's position to have
a Go To Memorized Position. You use variables of your choice. If you want
the hero to teleport to a random spot on a map, you set a variable to the
ID of the map you want to teleport to, set a variable to a random number
between 1 and the number of tiles in a row of tiles on the map, then set
a variable to a random number between 1 and the number of tiles in a column
of tiles on the map. Then have a Go To Memorized Position and choose the
map ID variable for the map ID variable you just made, etc.
Sometimes you'll notice it gives you a choice between choosing
something or choosing a variable. What it means is it will use that variable
to choose. Like when you're adding or subtracting an item, you can choose
what item, or you can choose a variable. If you choose a variable, it will
then use the number stored in the variable to choose the item. If the variable
is 8, for example, it will choose the 8th item on the list of items.
The rest of the commands are easy to figure out. Like playing
background music, playing sound effects, tinting the screen, panning the
screen, having a game over, etc.
Part II: The Database
The database is the sheet of paper on the top bar. The database
controls everything. You can make different heroes with different stats
and weapons. You can make different items and special attacks. You can
make different monsters and monster parties. You can make different battle
animations and terrains. The database controls all of the main parts of
the game.
Heroes can have different names, degrees, stats, weapons, and
some more detailed information like what battle animation plays when that
hero does not have any weapons equipped. I will talk about battle animations
later in this section. Heroes don't have to be heroes. Heroes are just
people that can go into your party.
Items can be anything that you collect. They can be weapons,
objects, medicine, shields, etc. You can choose what goes where on the
item list. "Common Items" are items that appear gray in you're inventory,
because you can't do anything with them while you are still in your inventory.
If you want something to happen with that item, you will have to program
into the game, probably using Fork Conditions, what will happen if you
have that item. "Switch Items" will turn a switch on or off when you activate
them in your inventory. Switch Items are good for running "Common Events."
I will talk about those later in this section. Most of the other types
of items are pretty easy to use.
Attacks/Tech Skills are types of attacks in battles. You can
choose if it will heal you, your party, or attack the enemy. You can choose
the battle animations for that Attack/Tech Skill. You can name the Attacks/Tech
Skills whatever you want and edit what it says when you use it in battle,
like, "NAMEOFATTACKER attacks the enemy," or "NAMEOFATTACKER sings a song
and dances."
Monsters are enemies that you fight in battles. You can choose
their stats, graphics, and you can even change the colors of the monster.
So you could make a red fish and a blue fish using the same graphics. You
can choose how much gold and experience you'll get from defeating that
monster, and what item you might get. You can also choose what skills the
monster knows, and how often it'll do those moves. One of the monster's
skills is transforming. It can transform into a different monster with
different stats, and that's kind of fun.
You can't make a monster and just go fight it. You need to make
a "Monster's Party" for that monster. With Monster's Parties, you can more
than one monster per party. But you have to create a Monster's Party if
you actually want to be able to fight that monster. Monster's Parties allow
you to have commands happen at a certain point in battle, like a message
saying, "The enemy charges up a strong attack!" and then the next turn
it says, "The enemies attack is charged!" and then a battle animation appears
and you take 100 damage.
The battles in RM2K show the monster in front of you. You can't
see yourself, and there aren't any battle animations when the monster attacks
you. You can run away, attack, defend, use an item, use a special skill,
or use AI to choose your move for you.
"Conditions" are conditions that you or the enemy can get in
battle, like paralization. "Attributes" are the types of attacks, like
fire or water. If you want to make an Attribute or Condition, don't delete
any of them, because some of them need to be in the game in order for battles
to work correctly, like the "Dead" Condition.
"Terrains" are the different types of tiles. If you get into
a battle while on a tile, it will load the battle's background picture
depending on what type of tile you are standing on. You can choose what
Terrain each tile has when choosing the "Chipset" options, which I will
get to later. A cool feature with Terrains is making the hero translucent
when the hero steps on a tile set to that terrain.
"Battle Animations" are animations of attacks, like if you use
a fire attack, the battle animation will probably be firey. You can make
your own Battle Animations, and you can choose when the enemy flashes,
what color the enemy flashes, when a sound effect plays, when the screen
flashes, and, obviously, choose graphics and make them move around. Battle
Animations have frames, which makes them easier to use. You can use Battle
Animations any time you want, even out of battles.
"Chipsets", or "Tilesets", are the graphics of tiles. You can
edit which tiles are walkable and which aren't, and you can edit what terrain
the tiles are. You can name a chipset and choose what graphics it has.
So, you could make two chipsets that have the same graphics, but the second
chipset has the water tile as a different terrain, and that terrain is
walkable, and when the hero steps on it, the bottom 1/3 of the hero becomes
translucent. Then, you could use the first chipset in the beginning of
the game, but once you get the "power to swim in water", then you change
the chipset to the second one.
"Vocabulary" lets you edit what the game says, like the three
choices on the title screen, the "money" in this game, or what it says
when you win a battle. Almost everything in there you will want to change,
because things are never quite worded the way you want them to be.
The System is the main options of the entire game. You can change
music of battles, game overs, the title screen, etc. and the sound effects
of going into a battle, selecting a choice, an enemy's death cry, etc.
You can also choose the graphics of vehicles, messages, the background
of the title screen, the background of the game overs, etc. You can edit
how you teleport into battles, how you teleport normally in the game, and
what heroes you start the game with.
"Common Events" are events that can work on any map. They can
either be parallel process, auto start, or they have to be "called" during
the game. If you choose parallel process or auto start, you can choose
if you want a switch that needs to be on for that common event to start.
If you want an item to do something when you select it in your inventory,
you set that item to a switch item, choose what switch that item will turn
on, and then make a parallel process or auto start common event that needs
that switch to turn on. Just make sure you turn the switch off at the end
of the common event, or it'll keep repeating itself. I usually use common
events for big parallel process or auto start events so that it doesn't
need to load that event when loading the map. The map will load faster,
then.
RM2K3 has more features in the database, like "System 2", "Animation
2", and "Battle Layout." I will explain more of this at the end.
Part III: Getting Fancy with Message
Slashes
Type in \| in a message and it will pause for about one second
at that part of the message. Type in \. and it will pause for about 1/3
of a second at that part of the message. You can also form them together,
like this:
\|\|\|
That will wait about 3 seconds. If you want the message to end without
having to press enter, \^ will close the message. You will probably want
the reader to be able to read the message before it closes. \|\|\^ will
easily fix that. \$ will bring up how much money you have in the upper
right corner of the game. You have to make sure you type exactly what I
tell you or it won't work, so you have to use these exact slashes. I will
make the next paragraph have pause marks in it to make you get used to
seeing and reading them.
Between the Slashes
Getting in between the slashes gets a little more advanced.\|
You will start these with a slash.\| You will have a capital letter after
the first slash.\| Then,\. you will have [ with a number after it,\. and
then ].\| Next,\. you will have a final slash.\| Finally,\. you will have
a space.\| If you do not have a space,\. it will yell at you and close
out while you are playing the game.\| That space will not show up in the
message.\|
A C after the first slash means color. An S means speed. A V
means variable. An N means hero's name. For colors, you can choose a number
from 1-20. It will use that color for that message's text color only. For
names, you choose a number, and it will put the name of the hero that is
that number on the list of heroes into the message. For speed, the higher
the number, the slower the text will come on. I'm not sure how far you
can go for speeds, but I think it's only 25. For variables, you enter a
number, and it will put the number stored in the variable that has the
ID number of the number you entered into the message. This can be confusing
at first, but it will be a lot easier after a while. There are probably
a lot of other ones, but I don't know any of them.
Adding Symbols
In your messages, you can add funny symbols, like a smiley face. Just type a letter after the money symbol. The entire alphabet will work for this. There is a way to get more symbols in your messages, but I'm still trying to figure it out.
Part IV: Finishing Your Game
The Annoying Uploads
If you want your game to run on other computers, you need to upload.
Uploading is really annoying and will take another few days. You just use
RM2K to take all of the RTP that you use in your game and copy them from
RM2K's RTP folder to your games RTP folder. RTP means the graphics, sound
effects, music, etc. To do this, you must click on the button next to the
database's button. When you upload a file using RM2K, and the file you
are uploading is graphics, then you can choose a background color for it.
Sometimes, if you make a file, you will need to upload it to have a background
color. The really annoying part of uploading is having to go through every
single event, looking for what RTP you will need to upload.
If you don't want to upload every single file that you use in
your game, you can use RM2K to turn your game into an install file. When
you do this, you have the choice to include all of the the RTP in RM2K's
RTP folder in your game's RTP folder.
Fixing Glitches
It can get really annoying having to fix every glitch in your game. You have to play it a few times, trying every possible way of doing things. Once every glitch is fixed, your game is great (hopefully) and you are ready to give it to me so I can put it on my site.
Part V: The New Features of RM2K3
In RM2K3, there are a lot more features in the database. In System
2, you can edit some more system features, like when goes on the pause
menu. You can also make "frames", which is a picture that stays on the
screen the entire game. The only problem is frames go over everything,
even messages. One thing in System 2 that you want to do no matter what,
is to check the checkbox saying, "Reverse battle animations when caught
from behind." Being caught from behind in RM2K3 will turn where the heroes
and monsters are completely around. So, you don't want battle animations
flying at yourself when you attack, but then the enemy getting hurt.
Let me explain the battles in RM2K3. You can see yourself and
the monster. You can throw items in a circle, like boomerangs. The heroes
have graphics for walking left, walking right, using an item, using a skill,
punching, standing, winning, dead, getting hit, and under a condition.
With the punching graphics, you can add an item in the hero's hand and
it will look like he is swinging or throwing that item. You don't take
turns attacking anymore. Now, you wait until you can attack by watching
the bar go up. Enemies can attack you at any time. Once the bar is full
for a hero, you can do what the hero is set to do.
On the hero list, you can now edit what "class" the heroes are.
You can make different classes a new area in the database, the "Set Class."
You can choose what moves the hero can do, what skills the hero knows,
what battle graphics the hero has, and stats. To set a hero to a class,
choose a class and hit Apply. You can edit the hero after applying to a
class. You don't even need to apply a class to a hero.
In Animations 2, you can make the graphics for the heroes in
battle. That pretty much explains it.
In Battle Layout, you can change the battle layout. The cool
part is if you set the messages to be translucent for battle, it will make
the messages out of battle translucent, too.
There are many new features out of RM2K3 that are out of the
database. Like the random map generator. You can set it to create maps
in many different ways. Also, there are some new features in the event
command list. Like the weather. Now you can make fogs and sandstorms.
RM2K3 has everything translated differently, so it may take a while to find things.