RPG MAKER TUTORIAL GAME BOOK

We will use the Switch we created on Page 2 as the condition for Page 3. Check the “Switch” box in the
Condition pane and click on the ellipse on the right.

*Completed Event Page 3
That’s all that is needed for Event Page 3. There is no need to set a graphic or any Event Commands.
This page is to prevent one-time Events (like opening a door with a key) from recurring. This completes
the locked door Event.

Step 30: Placing the Key in a Treasure Chest

Lastly, and most importantly, we must create the Event where the player receives the Cave of Demons
key. For without the key, the player cannot continue on in the game. As we have many times before, we
will use the Quick Event Creation function here.

Adjusting Treasure Chest Settings

*Calling the Quick Event Creation function.
Select an appropriate location on you map (we’ve chosen 010,009) and right-click to display the pop-up
menu. Select “Quick Event Creation” and then “Treasure Chest”.

*Creating the Treasure Chest Event.

Feel free to choose whatever graphic suits you. In the Content pane, select “Item” and click on the
“▼” to access the list of available items. From there, select “021:Cave of Demons Key”.

Checking with a Playtest

Finally, let’s check all our hard work with a playtest. Be sure to check these four points:
 Does the locked door message appear when you don’t have the key?
 Does the Cave of Demons door open when you have the key?
 Does the door disappear after you open it?
 Is the treasure box containing the Cave of Demons key set up on Level 1?

If any of these points don’t go as planned, head back to the game and check the Event Conditions and
Switches. The problem will most likely be resolved there.

Congratulations! You’ve cleared Level 12. In the next Level, we’ll add some interactivity with Yes / No
player options.

Return to Table of Contents

Level 13: Creating Yes / No Player Options

Welcome to Level 13 of the RPG Maker VX Introductory Course. In Level 12 we created a locked door
Event.

In this Level, we’ll create a Event that requests the player to select Yes or No in order to receive the
airship.

Step 31: Constructing the Airship Event

Before we go ahead and make the airship Event, let’s plan the flow of the Event.
 The player speaks with a wise-man in the room with the locked door.
 An airship appears outside the Cave of Demons.

Creating the Wise-man Event

Since this is an Event where a vehicle will appear in the Field map after the player speaks with someone,
the process is very similar to what we did with the ship in Level 9. The “Set Vehicle Location” command
will execute after the player speaks with the wise-man and the airship will appear in the Field map.

*Creating a new Event.
The wise-man will be waiting behind the locked door in the Cave of Demons Level 2. Right-click on
where you’d like to set him (We’ve selected coordinates 003,004) and select “New Event...” from the
pop-up menu.

*Selecting the Event graphic.

Double-click on the Graphic box to set the graphic for the wise-man. We’ve chosen the old man found in
Actor2, second from the right on the bottom.

*Setting the options.
The remaining settings may be left at their defaults.

Inputting the Wise-man’s Lines

*The Show Text Event Command
Double-click on the “@” mark in the Event Editor and select the “Show Text” command. Click once in the
Text box and input what you’d like the wise-man to say. We’ve also selected the matching face graphic
from the Actor2 list (second from the right, bottom row).

Creating the Vehicle with the Set Vehicle Location Command

*The Set Vehicle Location Command.
The Set Vehicle Location will allow us to put any vehicle we like on any map we like at the coordinates of
our choosing. You can find it on page 2 of the Event Command List. Under Vehicle, select “Airship”. In
the Location pane, check “Direct Designation” and click on the ellipse to the right.

*Setting the vehicle’s location.

In the window that appears, you can set the exact map and coordinates for the vehicle. Select the Field
map from the map tree to the left, and in the preview pane on the right, select a location somewhere
near the entrance to the Cave of Demons. You can put the airship right next to the cave entrance, but
we’ve chosen a spot that is a little further away (coordinates 008,022).

Setting the Switch

*The Control Switches dialogue.
Let’s make sure the same event doesn’t recur by setting a Switch. Double-click on the bottom-most “@”
mark in the Event Editor and select “Control Switches” from page 1 of the Event Command List. We’ll
create a Switch to record the fact that the player received the airship. Make sure that “Single” is
selected in the Switch pane and click on the ellipse on the right.

*Switches dialogue.

Here we’ll use Switch number 0005. Choose an easy to understand name for the Switch. We’ve gone
with “Got the airship”. Click “OK”.

*Event Page 1 completed.

Step 32: Creating a Yes / No Player Option

After speaking with the wise-man, the player could walk all the way back up to the Field map, but why
not create an option here for the wise-man to magically transfer the player up to the Field map instead?
To do this, we’ll use a new Event Command called “Show Choices”. The player option will execute on a
new Event Page.

*Creating a new Event Page.

Click on the “New Event Page” button and create a new Event Page.

*Setting the Event conditions.
Now we’ll set the conditions that need to occur before page 2 of this Event can execute. Click “Switch”
in the Conditions pane and click on the ellipse to the right. From the menu select “0005:Got the airship”.

*Event graphic and option settings.
Select the same graphic for the Event as on page 1 and leave the other settings as they are.

Presenting the Player with an Option

*Asking the player if he wants to transfer up to the Field map.
Instead of just zooming the player up to the top unexpectedly, we’ll present the player with an option.
Use the “Show Text” command to input the wise-man’s question.

Point: Using Choices

In RPG Maker VX, you can create Events where the player can choose from 2 to a total of 4 options.
For example, in a Yes / No situation, you can set one Event to execute if the player selects Yes, and set a
different Event to execute if the player selects No. In a similar way, you can set 4 separate Events to
execute depending on the player’s input.

Setting the Show Choices Command

*Event Command List page 1.
Double-click on the bottom-most “@” mark in the Event Editor to bring up the Event Command List and
select the “Show Choices” command.

*The Show Choices Event Command.

The initial settings already have Yes and No entered into Choice 1 and Choice 2. Text entered into the
Choice boxes are the options that the player will choose from in the game. There will be times when
there are more than 2 possible answers, or the question is not a Yes / No style question. In those cases,
feel free to add the appropriate text in the appropriate box. For our purposes, we will leave the settings
as they are.
The When Cancel pane is for deciding what happens when the player cancels the selection process
before making a selection. The default is “Choice 2”. This means that if the player cancels (say, by
pressing the escape key), then Choice 2 will automatically be selected. “Disallow” means that no
cancelling is allowed. “Branch” is for executing an Event outside of the possible selections. For our
purposes, let’s leave this setting at “Choice 2”.

*The completed Show Choices dialogue.
If your dialogue matches the one above, then click OK”. Next, we’ll create the separate Events that take
place when either Yes or No is selected.

Creating the Yes Event

This is the Event for magically transferring the player up to the Field map. We could just use “Transfer”
here, but that would be a bit boring for a magical transfer. Instead, we’re going to use the Flash Screen
command to add a little excitement!

*Event Command List page 2.
Double-click on the “@” mark directly under “Yes” in the Event Editor. Then select “Flash Screen...” from
page 2 of the Event Command list.

*The Flash Screen Event Command.

The Flash Screen pane is where you can adjust the color and the impact of the flash. Time is for setting
the length of the flash. If the “Wait for Completion” box is checked, then the game will wait until the
flash is over before executing the next command. Leave everything here at the initial settings and click
“OK”.
After the flash, we want the player to appear up on the Field map. We’ll do this with the “Transfer
Player” command this time.

*Event Command List page 2.
The “Transfer Player” command is located on page 2 of the Event Command List.

*Setting the destination map and coordinates.
Setting the destination is the same as with the Quick Event Creation method. Make sure “Direct
Designation” is checked and click on the ellipse on the right. Choose the Field map as the destination
and in the map preview pane, select coordinates 015,020 and double-click. Direction can be left as is.

Creating the No Event

We’ll need to input the wise-man’s response to the player’s refusal of his offer. Double-click on the “@”
mark under “No” in the Event Editor and use the Show Text command. This completes the wise-man
Event

*Completed Event Page 2

Checking with a Playtest

Finally, check everything with a playtest. Here are the major points to check:
*Does the wise-man offer you an airship when you first speak with him?
*Does the airship appear in the correct location afterwards?
*Does the wise-man offer you the option to magically transfer up to the Field map?
*Is the transfer successful if you choose yes?
*Do the correct lines appear when you select no?

*Does the airship appear?

* Do the correct lines appear?
Congratuations! You’ve cleared Level 13. Next, we’ll create the final dungeon, the Devil King’s Lair.

Return to Table of Contents

Level 14: Creating a Dungeon 2

Welcome to Level 14 of the RPG Maker VX Introductory Course. In the previous Level, we created a
simple Yes / No player option.

In this Level we will create the Devil King’s Lair.

Step 33: Planning the Lair

Now that we have finished creating the Cave of Demons, we can focus on the dungeon in the Devil
King’s Lair. Once we’ve done that, we’ll populate both dungeons with monsters.
The Devil King’s Lair is the final stop on the player’s journey. Here, the player will fight the boss (Devil
King) and the story will conclude. Let’s make this a worthy ending and add some puzzles and traps to the
stage.
Here’s a simple outline of the Devil King’s Lair:

 The dungeon will have 2 levels.
 There will be traps that cause damage.
 The player will have to overcome a puzzle before being able to fight the boss.

So, if the dungeon is 2 levels, we’ll set the Devil King on the second level. On the way, the player will
encounter traps that incur damage if they are not navigated properly and there will be a puzzle on the
way that the player must solve.

Step 34: Drawing the Dungeon Map
Creating the Devil King’s Lair Map

*Creating a new map.
First, we need to draw the Devil King’s Lair map. Since there will be 2 levels, we’ll need 2 maps. Right-
click on “VXQuest” in the map tree and select “New Map...” from the pop-up menu

*Setting the properties of the new map.

Create a new map entitled “Devil King’s Lair Level 1”. Let’s make this one a bit bigger than the Cave of
Demons and set the size to 60 by 60. For BGM, we’ve gone with “Dungeon6”. Be sure to set the BGS to
“(None)”. Leave the “Steps Average” setting as is for now.
*The BGM we’ve selected is only available in the full version of RPG Maker VX.

Generating the Dungeon

*Calling the Generate Dungeon function.
We’ll use the Generate Dungeon function to draw the map. Select the Devil King’s Lair Level 1 map and
right-click on it. From the pop-up menu that appears, select “Generate Dungeon”.

*The Generate Dungeon dialogue.
From the dialogue that appears, select the tiles you would like to use for the walls, floor and ceiling.
We’ve selected for each the tiles in the middle row, 3rd from the left.

*The automatically generated dungeon.
**Dungeons generated with the Generate Dungeon function are random. You’re dungeon will more
than likely not look like the one displayed here.

Smoothing Out the Map

There’s nothing wrong with using the automatically generated map as is, but it can be fun to add a little
originality to it yourself.

*We’ve added pathways and large halls.
There are many possible patterns to connect the various rooms with narrow passageways, so feel free
to spend some time making the map interesting. Adding longer pathways and large halls gives a distinct
impression to the entire map.

*Fixing up room corners.
The automatically generated dungeon has rooms with very square and sharp corners. But using the
same tiles you selected before generation, you can smooth out the corners and give the rooms a more
natural feel.

Decorating the Map

*Tileset C
Tiles for castles are located mostly in tileset C. Using additional tiles from tilesets B and D, decorate the
map.

*The decorated Level 1.

Placing Stairs

*Stairs connecting the dungeon with the Field map.
Next, let’s place a stairway to connect the Lair with the Field map. We’ve set our stairs at coordinates
048,050. The tile for a stairway can be found in tileset C. Don’t forget to add the Transfer Event!
Switch to Event mode.

*Calling the Quick Event Creation function.
Right-click on the stairway tile you’ve just set and select “Quick Event Creation” and then “Transfer”
from the pop-up menu.

*Setting the destination map and coordinates.

Select the Field map from the map tree on the left. Next, select the destination coordinates on the
preview pane on the right. We’ve chosen 021,008. Double-click, leave the Direction setting as it is and
click “OK”. Don7t forget to create the Transfer Event for the opposite direction!

*Calling the Quick Event Creation Function.
Right-click on the entrance to the Devil King’s Lair (we’re using coordinates 021,008) and call the
Transfer Event from the Quick Event Creation menu.

*Setting the destination map and coordinates.

Select the Devil King’s Lair Level 1 map from the map tree on the left. Next, select the destination
coordinates on the preview pane on the right. We’ve chosen 048,050. The player should now be able to
freely enter and exit the new map.

Creating Level 2 of the Devil King’s Lair

*Creating a new map.
Let’s create Level 2. Since this map is connected to Level 1, right-click on Level 1 and select “New Map...”
from the pop-up menu.

*New Map settings.

We’ll name the new map “Level 2” and make it a little smaller than Level 2, say 50 by 50. Since this is
the floor we’ll do battle with the Devil King on, let’s set the BGM to something appropriate like
“Scene10”. Leave the “Steps Average” setting as it is for now.

*The BGM “Scene10” is only available in the full version of RPG Maker VX.

Generating the Dungeon

We’ll use the “Generate Dungeon” function again here. Right-click on the Level 2 map in the map tree
and select “Generate Dungeon”.

*Generate Dungeon dialogue.

We’ll use the same tiles as on Level 1.

*Automatically generated dungeon.
**Dungeons generated with the Generate Dungeon function are random. You’re dungeon will more
than likely not look like the one displayed here.

Smoothing Out the Map

Since we need a big hall in which to meet the Devil King, we’ll make some adjustments to the
automatically generated map.

*Ensure you have all the rooms you will need.

We’ve used the large space at the left to create a large hall. The other spaces look fine to us, so we’ve
just smoothed out a few corners and pretty much left the map alone.

Decorating the Map

*Tileset C
Tilesets for decorating castles can be found mainly in tileset C. We’ve also made use of tiles in tilesets B
and D to decorate our map.

*The decorated Level 2.

Placing the Stairs

*Stairs connecting Level 1 with Level 2.
We’ve set the connecting stairway between Levels 1 and 2 at coordinates 010,008 and 025,040
respectively. Don’t forget to add the Transfer Events.

Switch to Event mode.

*Calling the Quick Event Creation function.
Right-click on the stairs on the first floor and select “Transfer” from the “Quick Event Creation” menu.

*Setting the destination map and coordinates.

Select Level 2 from the map tree on the left and the coordinates on the preview pane on the right.
Double-click on the selected coordinates to complete the setting. Next, create the Transfer Event for the
opposite direction.

*Calling the Quick Event Creation function.
Right-click on the stairs on Level 2 and select “Transfer” from the “Quick Event Creation” menu.

*Setting the destination map and coordinates.

Select Devil King’s Lair Level 1 from the map tree on the left and double-click on the stairs in the
preview pane on the left. The player should now be able to move freely between the two levels.

Step 35: Setting Traps
Creating Traps with the HP Change Command

On Level 1of the Devil King’s Lair, let’s set some spiked-floor traps for the player. These are quite simple
to set up. First, we’ll place some spiked-floor tiles in appropriate places and if the player steps on them,
the HP Change command will execute and reduce the player’s HP.

*Creating a New Event.
We’ll set our trap at coordinates 038,037. Right-click on the appropriate coordinates and select “Create
New Event”.

*Setting the graphic and options.
The spiked-floor graphic can be found in the “!other1” list. This graphic can be used to create an
animation of the spikes shooting up from the floor, but for this game we’ll avoid that setting. You can
leave the Autonomous Movement settings as they are. To prevent the graphic from changing as a result
of the player’s direction, check the “Direction Fixed” box in the Option pane. Make sure that Priority is
set to “Below Characters” and that Trigger is set to “Player Touch”.
*The graphic we have selected is available only in the full version of RPG Maker VX.

*Event Command List page 1

Next, we’ll set up the Event to inflict damage. Double-click on the “@” mark in the Event Editor and
choose the Change HP command from page 1 of the Event Command List.

*The Change HP Command.
The Actor setting refers to who will receive the damage. The Operation panel allows us to choose
whether HP will go up or down. Since this is a damage-incurring Event, we’ll set it to “Decrease”. In the
Operand pane, we can set the number of HP to change. With the number set to 1, the Actor will receive
1 point of HP damage. The Allow Knockout in Battle setting, if checked, will cause the game to end if the
damage incurred brings everyone in your party down to zero HP. Unchecked, your party will always
retain at least 1 HP no matter how many times the Event executes.

*The Show Text Event Command.

Since nothing changes on the screen when the player touches the spiked floor, we’ll use the Show Text
Command to alert the player to the damage incurred.

*Completed Event.

Replicating Events with Copy

After going through all the trouble to create this trap, let’s put several of them around the room. We can
do this easily using copy and paste.

*Copying an Event.
Right-click on the trap we just created and select “Copy” from the pop-up menu.

*Pasting an Event.
Next, choose where you’d like to set the next trap, right-click and select “Paste” from the pop-up menu.
This places a copy of the Event in a different location.

*Several spiked-floor traps all over the room.
Paste as many Events as you like, but don’t place too many. It will make the room too difficult to
navigate and might anger the player.

*Testing with a playtest.
Next, test the traps with a playtest.

Congratulations! You’ve cleared Level 14. Next, we’ll create the puzzle in the Devil King’s Lair.
Return to Table of Contents

Level 15: Creating a Puzzle

Welcome to Level 15 of the RPG Maker VX Introductory Course. In Level 14 we drew the map for the
Good King’s Lair and then set some traps.

In this level we will create a puzzle that the player must solve in order to advance to the next level of the
Devil King’s Lair.

Step 36: Outlining the Puzzle

You may be wondering how you can prevent the player from reaching the destination too easily? We’ve
looked at one way already in the Cave of Demons and it involved a locked door. There is a more
elaborate variation of this locked door puzzle, and we’ll explore it next.
Puzzle for the Devil King’s Lair Level 1:

 A locked door with no keyhole prevents the player from reaching level 2.
 In order to open the door, the player must destroy 3 tablets.
First, we’ll place a locked door with no keyhole in front of the stairs leading to level 2. Then we’ll place 3
tablets (Events) around level 1. Once these tablets have been destroyed by the player the door blocking
the stairway will disappear. The important point here is how to link the door’s disappearance to the
destruction of the 3 tablets.

Step 37: Using Variables

Before we dive into using Variables, lets talk a little bit about what they are.

Point: Creating Variables

In Level 4 we described Switches as devices that record the state of certain Events in the game. Variables
do much the same thing. But where Switches can only record an “ON” or “OFF” state, Variables can
record numeric values.

It’s perhaps easiest to think of Variables as containers. We can use them to hold numbers for us to use
at certain points in the game. Variables in their default state are always empty; they contain nothing, or
“0”. Later on the game, we can assign numbers to Variables. This is how we put numbers inside of them,
by assigning a number. So through an Event Command, we can assign the number 5 to Variable 0001.
That Variable now contains the number 5 and will hold on to it until we need it again. We can also
change the number inside the Variable by assigning a new number. We do this through Event
Commands as well. So, if the next Event Command says to assign the number 7 to Variable 0001, that
Variable no longer holds 5, but 7.

Variables can also be treated as numbers. So we can add, subtract, multiply and divide them just as we
would with regular numbers. For example, Variable 0001 is currently holding the number 7. If we add 1
to Variable 0001, then the number it holds will now be 8. Similarly, if we add another 1 to Variable 0001,
the number inside increases to 9. It is perhaps useful to think of variables as “Switches that can
remember numbers”.

Using Variables to Count the Number of Broken Tablets

So, if a Variable is a Switch that can remember numbers, then we can use them to count the number of
special items a player has, or the number of certain actions a player has taken. Is it starting to make
sense now? For each tablet that the player breaks, we can add 1 to a Variable. When the Variable
reaches 3, we can set the locked door to disappear.

Creating the Tablet Events

Let’s create the 3 tablets to be broken.
Switch to Event mode.

*Creating a new Event
We’ll set our first tablet at coordinates 045,035 in the Devil King’s Lair Level 1 map. Right-click on an
appropriate location and select “New Event” from the pop-up menu.

*Setting the graphic and optional settings.
The tile can be found in “Tileset-C”. Change the Priority to “Same as Character”. The other settings can
be left as they are.

*The Show Text Command.
Once the player breaks the tablet, let’s have a text message confirm the Event. Double-click on the “@”
mark and select the “Show Text” command.

Setting the “Control Variables” Command

*List of Event Commands page 1.
Double-click on the “@” at the bottom of the List of Event Commands and select “Control Variables from
the Event Command List.

*The Control Variables Command.
The dialogue may seem a bit confusing at first, but we only need to set 3 items here.

*Variable setting.
First is the Variable pane. Here we select which Variable we want to use, just like when controlling
Switches. Make sure Single is selected and click on the ellipse on the right to select Variable 0001.

*Variable dialogue.
Just as with Switches, we can name our Variables, We’ve named this one “# of broken tablets”.
*Operation setting.
The Operation pane lets you choose what you want to do with the Variable (add, subtract, divide...etc).
Here we’ll select Add

*Operand setting.