Cleril
12-11-2009, 06:06 PM
RPG Maker VX (VX from now on) is a program for hobbyist game makers. The program consists of many resources to allow anyone to make a game and even add content to the program, like sprites, or scripts to change how the engine functions. It was made for all types of users. I myself am a writer/developer knowing nothing and caring little for programming knowledge. VX has auto scripts for me to use in order to make most anything happen. But let's break things down.
http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u291/otimista/rmvx11.gif
What does the program come with by itself? Four tile sets full of medieval style graphics, the first of which being an autotile which means it adapts based on where it's placed. Autotiles are primarily used to make buildings, for example. While the others are used to decorate the world as you see fit. In order to place tiles in your game you just click which tile you want then click where on your map you want to place it. This is how you'll create the world for your game, if it's medieval. The tile sets have one or two modern/future tiles to use but not enough to make an entire game off of them without it looking like a copy/paste effort.
You can alter how these tiles work such as which ones the player can walk on, what they can walk behind, and which tiles they cannot walk on at all. The fifth tile set is blank and is used solely for any tiles you make to use in your game. Using an art program like Gimp you can make new graphics which can be used for your game. Everything in VX can be exported to any program you'd like enabling to make your game entirely original looking, if you have a thing for pixels that is.
You can even make a game without any tiles. You may import pictures to use as your world, such as what I'm doing with one of my games, Grey, an entirely hand-drawn game. But making a world is just one part of making a game in VX, you need gameplay and there's near limitless ways to craft gameplay.
There's a fully customizable combat system that comes with VX. It's basically like the old Final Fantasy games except the turn based action takes place in a first person perspective. You can easily make new items, weapons, etc. for the player to use in combat. You can even adjust the leveling requirements and skills acquired by the player if you'd like, making new skills with different effects. Or, if you're like me and find combat to not be mandatory is games then you can just avoid the system all together and instead make map based puzzles, by making events.
Events are things that activate when a play interacts in someway with something, like how one reads a sign in a game or talks to an NPC (Non-Player Character). Events can be used to make everything and anything happen. If you're making a horror game and want the lights to flicker just make a parallel process event (one that runs while other events can happen) that makes the screen tint from solid black to full color. Or if you want an event to only happen when a player has the great staff of eventing then you can set requirements for certain events to activate. Events have pages which you can use to make many events on just one tile. Events allow for you to make your own script or use the auto scripts which do most anything you might want to do.
http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/245/greytitlescreen.jpg (http://img31.imageshack.us/i/greytitlescreen.jpg/)
The title screen of Grey, drawn by hand using a # 2 pencil, scanned into my computer, and placed right into VX to use as the title screen graphic in my game, Grey.
Auto scripts are simple click and edit functions. Want to show text on the screen? Well, just click "Show Text" in the event box and then a text window pops up prompting you to input what it is the text should show. You can even put codes in the text to make it stop, pause, or speed up when it reaches certain areas, making reading all the more interesting.
But what if you don't want players to read? Well, you can import sounds too, in most any sound format. VX supports .wav, .ogg, .midi, .mp3, etc. Any sounds you'd like can be added and used in your game, including voice acting, if you'd like. While VX comes with music and sound effects you can make your own music or download midis (if you want to do things legally) and then import them. VX even goes the extra mile and allows you to edit the volume and pitch of any sounds you put into the game, essentially being a makeshift remixer.
A song which was originally a midi, converted to a .wav, remixed by me, and then placed in VX to use in my other game Haven Insomnia. remix - made in Aviary - music editor
(http://aviary.com/artists/Cleril/creations/insomnia_)
The engine can me modified if you're the programming sort and would like to or have already learned RGSS2 or "Ruby" which is the language VX uses. You can make scripts to make the engine change drastically. Some people have made games using only scripts for say, a racing game, but you can just make minor modifications like having the game prompt the user if they want the game in windowed or fullscreen mode before the title screen opens up.
http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/5476/havenislescreenshot.png (http://img228.imageshack.us/i/havenislescreenshot.png/)
A screenshot of Haven, the first isle you visit in Haven, the game, as seen from the editor, zoomed out.
With all of the above you can make most any type of game you want with VX. FPS, puzzle, horror, racing, or even simulation can be made via VX. Even if you want to try making copies of games you know you can try to make say, Harvest Moon in VX. Although I can tell you from trying that without any programming knowledge making a game like Harvest Moon is near impossible.
Okay, so do I get it?
If you want to make a game for the sake of experience then yes. I doubt you can possibly make someone pay for a game made with VX since it is a hobbyist made program and most people would rather make their own game, which would be free for them. You can also use it to make games to use in your portfolio later on when trying to break into the industry as an indie developer or work in a big company.
While the program does cost $30 there are many keygens out there to get passed the 30 day trial version, which most people probably do. You can likely find these just by using google or even on youtube. If you're feeling cheap.
But VX certainly is a versatile program that most anybody can learn to use easily. It's very user-friendly and again requires no programming knowledge if you don't want to learn programming, like me.
Cleril is currently making two games with VX, one of which is playable (Haven, 50+ hours total from a players word), the other will be in a few weeks. If you'd like to check them out feel free to, both are free:
Haven, a Non-Combat RPG, V 0.4.2, updated weekly: Gamers Forum (http://www.gamers-forum.com/showthread.php?goto=newpost&t=128658)
Grey, a Visual Novel game, being entirely hand-drawn pictures, a few weeks until a playable version is going to be reading but check it out here: Help Me Grey, A Visual Novel Indie Game In Development - Gamers Forum (http://www.gamers-forum.com/showthread.php?t=12920)
http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u291/otimista/rmvx11.gif
What does the program come with by itself? Four tile sets full of medieval style graphics, the first of which being an autotile which means it adapts based on where it's placed. Autotiles are primarily used to make buildings, for example. While the others are used to decorate the world as you see fit. In order to place tiles in your game you just click which tile you want then click where on your map you want to place it. This is how you'll create the world for your game, if it's medieval. The tile sets have one or two modern/future tiles to use but not enough to make an entire game off of them without it looking like a copy/paste effort.
You can alter how these tiles work such as which ones the player can walk on, what they can walk behind, and which tiles they cannot walk on at all. The fifth tile set is blank and is used solely for any tiles you make to use in your game. Using an art program like Gimp you can make new graphics which can be used for your game. Everything in VX can be exported to any program you'd like enabling to make your game entirely original looking, if you have a thing for pixels that is.
You can even make a game without any tiles. You may import pictures to use as your world, such as what I'm doing with one of my games, Grey, an entirely hand-drawn game. But making a world is just one part of making a game in VX, you need gameplay and there's near limitless ways to craft gameplay.
There's a fully customizable combat system that comes with VX. It's basically like the old Final Fantasy games except the turn based action takes place in a first person perspective. You can easily make new items, weapons, etc. for the player to use in combat. You can even adjust the leveling requirements and skills acquired by the player if you'd like, making new skills with different effects. Or, if you're like me and find combat to not be mandatory is games then you can just avoid the system all together and instead make map based puzzles, by making events.
Events are things that activate when a play interacts in someway with something, like how one reads a sign in a game or talks to an NPC (Non-Player Character). Events can be used to make everything and anything happen. If you're making a horror game and want the lights to flicker just make a parallel process event (one that runs while other events can happen) that makes the screen tint from solid black to full color. Or if you want an event to only happen when a player has the great staff of eventing then you can set requirements for certain events to activate. Events have pages which you can use to make many events on just one tile. Events allow for you to make your own script or use the auto scripts which do most anything you might want to do.
http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/245/greytitlescreen.jpg (http://img31.imageshack.us/i/greytitlescreen.jpg/)
The title screen of Grey, drawn by hand using a # 2 pencil, scanned into my computer, and placed right into VX to use as the title screen graphic in my game, Grey.
Auto scripts are simple click and edit functions. Want to show text on the screen? Well, just click "Show Text" in the event box and then a text window pops up prompting you to input what it is the text should show. You can even put codes in the text to make it stop, pause, or speed up when it reaches certain areas, making reading all the more interesting.
But what if you don't want players to read? Well, you can import sounds too, in most any sound format. VX supports .wav, .ogg, .midi, .mp3, etc. Any sounds you'd like can be added and used in your game, including voice acting, if you'd like. While VX comes with music and sound effects you can make your own music or download midis (if you want to do things legally) and then import them. VX even goes the extra mile and allows you to edit the volume and pitch of any sounds you put into the game, essentially being a makeshift remixer.
A song which was originally a midi, converted to a .wav, remixed by me, and then placed in VX to use in my other game Haven Insomnia. remix - made in Aviary - music editor
(http://aviary.com/artists/Cleril/creations/insomnia_)
The engine can me modified if you're the programming sort and would like to or have already learned RGSS2 or "Ruby" which is the language VX uses. You can make scripts to make the engine change drastically. Some people have made games using only scripts for say, a racing game, but you can just make minor modifications like having the game prompt the user if they want the game in windowed or fullscreen mode before the title screen opens up.
http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/5476/havenislescreenshot.png (http://img228.imageshack.us/i/havenislescreenshot.png/)
A screenshot of Haven, the first isle you visit in Haven, the game, as seen from the editor, zoomed out.
With all of the above you can make most any type of game you want with VX. FPS, puzzle, horror, racing, or even simulation can be made via VX. Even if you want to try making copies of games you know you can try to make say, Harvest Moon in VX. Although I can tell you from trying that without any programming knowledge making a game like Harvest Moon is near impossible.
Okay, so do I get it?
If you want to make a game for the sake of experience then yes. I doubt you can possibly make someone pay for a game made with VX since it is a hobbyist made program and most people would rather make their own game, which would be free for them. You can also use it to make games to use in your portfolio later on when trying to break into the industry as an indie developer or work in a big company.
While the program does cost $30 there are many keygens out there to get passed the 30 day trial version, which most people probably do. You can likely find these just by using google or even on youtube. If you're feeling cheap.
But VX certainly is a versatile program that most anybody can learn to use easily. It's very user-friendly and again requires no programming knowledge if you don't want to learn programming, like me.
Cleril is currently making two games with VX, one of which is playable (Haven, 50+ hours total from a players word), the other will be in a few weeks. If you'd like to check them out feel free to, both are free:
Haven, a Non-Combat RPG, V 0.4.2, updated weekly: Gamers Forum (http://www.gamers-forum.com/showthread.php?goto=newpost&t=128658)
Grey, a Visual Novel game, being entirely hand-drawn pictures, a few weeks until a playable version is going to be reading but check it out here: Help Me Grey, A Visual Novel Indie Game In Development - Gamers Forum (http://www.gamers-forum.com/showthread.php?t=12920)