How To Animate Tentacles Rpg Maker Vx Ace

Ludum Dare 37 was the first time I'd really, truly congenital a finished product in RPG Maker rather than tinkering, and I learned a lot. Given that RPG Maker scripting doesn't seem to be a well-known topic among more coincidental users, it seems like a good idea to endeavor to summarize a lot of what I picked up.

Credit where it's due: I would probably never take gone this deep if I hadn't teamed up with John, who suggested it; I'd probably take simply made the aforementioned quondam 2D Unity game I usually make and learned very niggling.

I'll admit, I'grand a bit of a lawmaking snob. I've done no-lawmaking-programming before (SharePoint workflows), with questionable results. And data that I can't directly write code confronting isn't really really real. So my general attitude towards RPG Maker has been that it's great for learning, but it probably isn't my thing.

Well, turns out I was wrong. Y'all tin write real lawmaking in RPG Maker. Lots of information technology. In fact, information technology looks similar you can customize nearly everything in the game through code, if you're willing to dig into the default project library.

Bones concepts

RPG Maker VX Ace uses Ruby for its scripting language. If yous've ever written Python, like me, it'southward easy to pick upwards (when you go stuck, but Google to encounter what the difference is). Every bit an aside: RPG Maker MV uses JavaScript, which might exist a more recognizable linguistic communication, and I assume the game structure like.

Before you do annihilation in RPG Maker itself, I'd recommend playing with a few Ruby tutorials to get a experience for things. You'll need to know some basic programming concepts, like classes, methods, and arrays/dictionaries.

Getting a feel for Ruby syntax is rather important, as VX Ace doesn't take prissy features similar Intellisense. You sometimes won't figure out you made a typo until you build and the game doesn't run.

I'd as well suggest installing Ruddy for Windows aslope RPG Maker so you tin attempt out your code in irb (an interactive command-line utility that allows you to write and run Ruby code a line at a time). I found this helpful when trying to work out non-obvious syntax errors.

I would strongly suggest making a fill-in of your game before yous do any tinkering. (Y'all might even consider a source control solution similar Git or Mercurial, which tin can make snapshots of your project.) One typo and your game could very well become unplayable (unless you tin can effigy out what you did).

I also institute it helpful to create a "prototype" project–I could write code for the specific feature I wanted, test it in isolation until I got it right, and and so copy-and-paste it into my real project. If I screwed anything upwards, it was easy to restart from scratch.

Lawmaking structure

At that place are 3 ways you lot tin can utilise code to collaborate with your game:

New/modified classes

Most game concepts, windows, and scenes are represented past classes (for non-coders: a template that defines a matter in the game globe or on-screen; specifically, what data it tracks and how it tin can collaborate with itself or other things).

You tin can modify existing classes to "hook" in new functionality to the existing flow of the game, and create new classes that add new windows or game logic.

Methods

Events in RPG Maker tin can call Ruby methods to gear up a variable or as part of a general script cake. (For non-coders: a method is a set of steps; typically, they accept a set of parameters to customize how they conduct and/or output a value.)

Instead of building out your process in RPG Maker'south signal-and-click interface, you tin simply write a method that performs yet steps. This can exist harder if you're trying to do something complex or not well-documented.

It can be easier if you want to build a process that is reusable or tin can vary greatly based on the current land of the game.

Switches and variables

Whether you alter classes or call new methods from Events, you'll commonly demand some way of getting data generated by those changes back out of your Ruby code. The easiest style to do this is set switches ($game_switches[n], where due north = the switch number) or variables ($game_variables[n], where n = the variable number).

This is especially useful when y'all're trying to affect enemy behavior in code; you might have a Troop Event call Ruby code which sets a switch, and and so employ that switch to determine what actions the enemy might accept.

Which approch(es) should I use?

If you're just doing visual or UI tweaks, you lot'll probably stick to modifying existing classes–for example, you might add together a new command to an existing window. When RPG Maker goes to run that function, it'll find your code, including the new definition for the window.

If you're actually using code to perform game logic, then yous might write new methods that become fired in Events and ready Switches to modify bones game functionality. You'll still need to know nearly the classes that define game data, so that you lot can bank check or set that data equally necessary.

RPG Maker's library of classes

Most of the game functionality in RPG Maker really exists as (or at to the lowest degree is defined in) Ruby code. And at that place'due south a lot of it.

Fortunately, it's organized in such a manner you tin find what you desire. In that location are five main groupings of classes:

Modules, which define global variables, means of interacting with game assets and files, and major systems (like scene direction and battle management)
Game Objects, which define game mechanics and stats for characters, and reusable commands and visual elements
Sprites, which define how graphics are displayed
Windows, which define menus and text displays
Scenes, which define game phases and screens (east.g., menu, gainsay, etc.)

Most classes are named in the format "(TypeOfObject)_(PurposeOfObject)," and so it'southward easy to get a full general thought of what they do.

For example, Game_Actor defines the game object (mechanics, sprites, etc.) that represents an actor (a character in the party). It extends Game_Battler, the game object which represents a character involved in combat.

Window_BattleStatus defines the window that shows the political party's condition in battle.

One time you go a feel for the naming conventions, it's relatively easy to find a starting point for the part y'all want to modify. Then, yous just work your fashion up to the code that creates that object, or downwardly to the code that the form relies on.

Two worlds

While you lot can do a lot of the aforementioned things in Ruby scripting and Events, it's important to recall that you'll need both of them to make a working game.

Here's my mental model of what'southward going on:

An RPG Maker game isn't a blank slate; there'due south a lot of pre-written logic in in that location for characters, combat, and inventory/skill management. In that sense, the Events and Database is the "existent" game. Information technology'south going to be the starting signal for most of the code yous write in Ruby, and it'due south going to be what uses the results of your (non-UI) lawmaking.

Switches, variables, actors, troops, etc.

Just near every bit of data that exists in Events or the Database is accessible in Cerise lawmaking. You tin use this to determine the current country of the game, or to change the existing state of the game. Essentially, information technology's the manner that the two worlds "talk" to each other.

For case, allow's say we desire to create an enemy that detects when a character casts Shield, and retaliates past casting its own Shield Pause ability to dispel it. You lot might use the following logic:

In Database > Troops, you create an event that runs at the end of the plough.
This outcome calls a Scarlet method that checks each member of the current political party ($game_party.all_members.each do |character| …)
If a member has a item Land ID (that is, if character.country?(17) is true), and then set a switch (e.m., $game_switches[5] = true)
In Database > Enemies, you lot give an Enemy the shield intermission Skill, merely only permit it if the Switch (in the example higher up, switch 5) is true.

Scripts in variables and weather condition

A more direct manner of interacting with code is with the Ready Variable and Provisional Branch Outcome actions, which can call a method so utilize the outcome.

For example, permit's say we wanted to create an upshot that tests whether the political party knows a detail Skill. Nosotros might add a Conditional Co-operative that calls a Crimson method to bank check each graphic symbol's skills, and then return true (the main condition) or false (the else condition).

Information technology might be easier to use this approach rather than setting switches and variables directly in code if you're just going to be setting one switch or variable at a time.

Script deportment

Events also have a full general "Script" activeness that tin run free-form Ruby code. Note that this doesn't return any data back to the Consequence in the manner that Set Variable or Condtional Branch does. Information technology's a good manner to kick off code that sets multiple switches or variables, or that executes processes that are easier to code than build in the signal-and-click interface.

UI Elements

As stated higher up, every window that'due south shown in the game is defined somewhere in code. (Note that the code isn't really creating the window on the screen–you won't discover bodily graphics lawmaking–it's merely defining how that window is laid out and behaves.)

If you want to add new menus, remove visual elements, or add new commands or displays, odds are y'all're modifying a Scene_ or Window_ grade. Because you tin can modify commands on the screen and what those commands do, you can too significantly alter the flow of the game by changing this code.

Most of this functionality isn't exposed through Events and Database settings.

Saving data

One important consideration is that Save Games don't relieve the state of the Ruby "earth."

For instance, you create a new variable in code (not "Variables" as defined in Events, just rather: $number_of_wins = 0) that tracks the number of times the player has won a battle. A actor wins 10 battles, and your code works flawlessly. But then the role player saves the game, stops playing, and loads that game one-time subsequently. Now, the game shows they've won 0 battles.

The unproblematic fix is to brand certain you salve any important, permanent state to $game_switches and $game_variables, which are properly saved.

More than (?)

This is a brief overview of the general concepts–really making it work will require some practice, especially if yous haven't written code before. Hopefully, I'll actually write some more blog posts on what I learned. I've likewise submitted an "RPG Maker Scripting Crash Grade" panel to several cons this twelvemonth that covers some of what I outlined here in a scrap more depth.

While you might not be interested in writing your own RPG Maker lawmaking, or might not even experience confident if you haven't coded earlier, information technology'south helpful to know what your options are, and to be able to skim code snippets you find online.

Source: https://www.dylanwolf.com/2017/01/09/rpg-maker-vx-ace-ruby-scripting-crash-course/

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