It's understandable that not one everyone is at the same level with RPG Maker. Some have all the events memorized and can improvise to create their own events. Others struggle with simple events like Teleporting or creating a simple cutscene. Well, this guide will cover the most basic of questions. If anyone wants me to add a question/solution, then just tell me.

Table of Contents
1. How to make a Teleport Event
2. How to make a Cutscene.
3. Types of Movement
4. How to make a Treasure Chest
5. Make a character appear during a cutscene and then leave.
6. How to change your Title Screen or Icon Set.
7. How to change your battle backgrounds.
8. Quick Events
9. Priority
10. Changing your initial party members.
11. Letting the Player choose a character's name.

1. Teleport
I'll start with this one because it is - hands down - the easiest thing to event.

Make sure you are currently on Event mode in the editor, and right click wherever you want the teleport to occur. You will notice a small window with some options comes up. Look for 'Quick Event Creation' and go over to 'Transfer'. Take note the 'Ctrl+1' command to the right.

The box labeled 'Destination' is where you choose where you get teleported to. The box labeled 'Direction' allows you to pick which way you will be facing after the teleport.

Now, the Ctrl+1 provides an even faster way to make these teleport events. Instead of right clicking on the tile, you just press Ctrl+1. Try it out for yourself.

2. Creating a cutscene that doesn't loop.

This has been a frequent question, too. My event keeps looping! What do I do? Well, it's simple.

It's repeating itself because it's set to 'Autorun' and there's no switch to stop the cycle.

Here's a screenshot:




Circle #1 shows the Conditions in which an event will occur. If left alone, the event can activate anytime, depending on the Trigger (Circle #2).

Circle #2 decides how an event starts. The options are:
1. Action Button: Event starts when you press space at/on the event.
2. Player Touch: Event starts as soon as the player steps on or tries to move on the event.
3. Event Touch: Event starts as soon as the player touches the event.
4. Autorun: Event starts right away. Keep in mind that the event will continuously loop until there's a 'switch' to cancel the actions.
5. Parallel Process: Event starts right away but player can move around during the event.

If you want the event to start right away but not loop, you have to insert a switch at the end(or whenever the looping stops) of the event. A switch is created by going to Page1 of the events list, and clicking on 'Control Switches', which is found under Game Progression. Name your switch, then create a second page to the event. Just click the big 'New Page' button found at the top of the screenshot. With this 2nd page, you can set the Conditions in Circle #1 to the switch you just created. In doing so, the event plays, and when it's done, it flips a switch, which triggers the events on Page2. But we leave Page2 blank, and keep Circle #2 set to 'Action Button' so that nothing happens and the event finishes.

3. Types of Movement

***Now, let's take a break and take advantage of this visual screenshot to explain some other things.
Under the heading Options, you'll see checkboxes for Walking Anim., Stepping Anim., Direction Fix, and Through.
Walking Animation: If this is checked, that means it will display the walking animation whenever that sprite moves. If it's unchecked, the sprite will seemingly float around, without moving it's legs or arms.
Stepping Animation: If this is checked, the sprite will appear to be moving without actually travelling anywhere. Even though the event is sitting idly, it's still swaying its arms and moving its legs. Think of it like the sprite is on a treadmill.
Direction Fix: If this is checked, the sprite won't turn to face you when you talk to it. This is useful if you want to approach two NPCs having a conversation, ignoring you while talking. Keep in mind that this will affect the event when you try to move it around with the 'Set Move Route' command. You will have to go to Set Move Route, and on the third column, click on 'Direction Fix OFF' if you want that event to start moving or changing directions.
Through: If this is checked, the sprite can move through objects and won't get stuck. Good for ghostly characters or spirits, etc.

Now, to actually move a character, you have to know the name of that character's event. At the top left of each event, they'll have a default name of EV# (the # is the number of the event on that map). This makes it hard to remember which event is which, so we can rename it something better. Like, in my scenario above, name the Mother event 'Mom' or 'Mother'. Once you know which event is which, you can move them by going to Page2 of the events list, clicking on 'Set Move Route' under Movement and in the drop down box on the upper left, choose which event to move. Then just select the different commands through the three columns as you see fit.

4. How to make a Treasure Chest.

This is just as simple as the teleport event. You can do the whole right click --> 'Quick Event Creation' --> Treasure Chest method or you can simply press Ctrl+3. Select the contents from the drop down boxes and the program does the rest for you.

5. Make a character appear during a cutscene and then leave.

So you want a character to appear part way through a cutscene and either leave partway or at the end. Well, here's some screenshots to aid in the explanation.


Alright. So you want the game to start out in your room, sleeping/thinking/getting dressed, etc and then your mom comes in and tells you it's breakfast and then leaves. Well, here's how to pull this off. The mommy will appear right where her event is placed. Just to clarify. The blank event is where we place the cutscene's content. So now let's take a look at the cutscene event.


OK, so Ralph starts off talking to himself. Then his mom appears. Her appearance is triggered by a switch. In this case, I've named the switch "MomAppears". Now after this switch is turned ON, mom will be on screen. She tells Ralph to come eat breakfast and then do his chores. After some dialog, she leaves. There's 2 methods you can make her leave.
1. Simply turn OFF the switch that triggered her appearance. So in this case, we turn off the 'MomAppears' switch.
2. You can also turn ON a different switch, and on the second page of Mother's event, you can set the Condition to that new switch. Make sure that there's no graphic selected on the second page. With this new switch ON, she will disappear.

Now let's check out Mom's event to see how she's affected.


Oh wow, this event is empty, isn't it? All that's needed is her graphic, and her condition for appearance. Notice that the switch 'MomAppears' is selected as the 'Condition' for her to appear. If it's OFF, this event won't occur and she won't appear. So we turn it ON to make her appear, and turn it OFF to make her disappear.

6. How to change your Title Screen or change an Icon Set

You want to put in your own Title to get away from that boring town screen, right? This is incredibly simple. So you have the image that you're going to use as your Title screen. All you do is rename that image, 'Title', and import it under 'System'. Voila, your title screen has been changed.

Changing your icon set to a more updated one is just as simple. Take your image, rename it 'IconSet', and import it under 'System'.

7. How to get battle backgrounds instead of the 'wavy' default ones.
The only way to get some actual battle backgrounds is with a script. Here's a link to a script by Synthesize that allows battle backgrounds. Please note I haven't tested it so any questions should be posted in the appropriate thread.
Synthesize's Battle Backgrounds

8. Quick Events

There are four events that Enterbrain decided were used so often they would just turn them into Quick Events. The four Quick Events are: Teleport, Door, Treasure Chest, and Inn. You create them by either right clicking a tile and going down to 'Quick Event Creation' and clicking on whatever event you want. Or you can do the shortcut and press Ctrl+#.
Ctrl+1 = Teleport
Ctrl+2 = Door
Ctrl+3 = Treasure Chest
Ctrl+4 = Inn
Simply pick where to teleport, what the chest contains, or how much the Inn costs and the program does the rest for you.

9. Priority

What is priority? Priority is which plane an event occurs on. More accurately, whether the event is beneath the characters (ie. must be stepped on), same level (NPCs), or above the characters (birds or butterflies). Circle #3 back in the reference screenshot at the beginning of this post shows where you set the Priority of events.

If you've ever made a sign in a village before that says something, you most likely have the sign as a tile, while the event just as the message. By default, this message event is set at 'Below Characters', which means you'd have to be ON the sign to be able to read it. To people who can never get their signs to be readable, it's because you forgot to set the Priority to 'Same as Characters'.

Here is a rundown of how each Priority can affect the triggering of an event. Props to Alibi for the explanation:

You see, events have three priority settings: "Below Characters", "Same as Characters", and "Above Characters."
-When an event is assigned any (IIRC) graphic, it automatically becomes "Same as Characters." That's why you can't walk over/under events after you assign them a "person" graphic. So it changes the "passable" nature of the event... for one thing.
-It also effects the visibility of the event. Something "above" the character will have a higher priority in visibility.. and will cover up your character.
-'CONTACT'** with events also change in accordance to the three settings. While being in an adjacent tile counts as "contact" when the character and event (or event and event with the "Event Touch" trigger...) are the same priority... the player won't be in contact with the event if its priority is set to "Below Characters" or "Above Characters".

This will probably be explained better by some pictures...
(Shown in "elevation")






Thank you Alibi for this. As for the rest of you, please remember that if you want a question to be added, PM me or say so in this topic.

10. How to change your starting party

To change which party members you start the game with, enter the Database, and go to the 'System' tab. It's the second last tab in between 'Common Events' and 'Terms'. Once in the System tab, look at the top left for Initial Party. Edit the actors in that field as you see fit.

11. Letting the Player choose a character's name.

If you want the players to be able to name the characters, then go to Page3 of the events list. Look for 'Name Input Processing' under Scene Control. Choose the letter limit for the character's name, and you're done.

To have that character's name said in messages no matter what the player names him, use \n[id] and it will use that characters name. Replace 'id' with the Actor number of the character in the Database. So the first character in the Database would use the command \n[1].


This is it for now. If you have any further questions that should be included, then inform me and I'll try to get them up sometime soon.

Awesome, stickied Harmill, thanks a lot man! Please keep on updating this thing

Hmmm....I'm actually wondering whether this is better suited for the VX Help and Support forum. Sure this is considered a tutorial, but it might catch more attention if this was in the forum people would go to to ask their question. Y'know?

Anyways, I'm doing a quick update. Realized I didn't include the famous "How do I change titlescreen?" question.

Ok, you want me to move it? Just say the magical words and I will. It seems more suited there to me as well

Sure, move it.

Harmill.. He said "Just say the magical words and I will"..

And you say "Sure, move it",, no no no.. it's Sure, move it PLEASE ..


No just jokin.. but need to say, this "Guide" looks nice.!! thanks men

I have a suggestion Harmill, do a small tut on quick events

Harmill, you are kicking! Keep up the good work man, it will surely help lots of newbie.

SBS

sweet tutorial. thanks alot ... .je.

Alibi's Priority explanation has been added. Keep telling me things to add so this can be as complete as possible. Hopefully this guide will be able to reduce the amount of repeated threads.

I think lots of people will thank you for this tutorial.
Thank You, Harmill.

i get events i work with them alot and having fun while doing so
but 1 thing is bothering me when i play the game everything works my events are good and the graphics are vx'ish
but i made a boss with text and so when that's over the event is erased as usual but if i then walk away into another map and back the event is also back how can i stop that from happening
please help me then i can get back to my game which has
500x500 world map
already 23 maps
areas to stop creatures from getting on roads
and a good story nice characters and good battles

A question about choosing the player character name: I set mine to autorun as I want the player to choose the name at the very beginning. But after inputting the name and submitting, the event will run again and ask to enter a name again as it is autorun. Is there any way I can make it run once only at the start of the game? Thanks.

Do a "find" command for "Creating a cutscene that doesn't loop", and you'll find your answer in Harmill's first post.

Short version (or if you're too lazy to scroll up, heh)
1-At the end of your event commands, turn on Self-Switch A or a Specific Switch.
2-Create a new page to that event.
3-Set the Condition on that page that corresponds to whatever switch you used in step 1.

Much appreciation, just got VX a few days back and have enjoyed it alot so far. And this has really helped me understand a few things I didn't before. (Like the titlescreen thing ^^;; ) So yeah big props and much apprciation. :: Goes back to lurking to see what else he can figure out by way of this place.::

I still have a bit of a problem with the Character entering then leaving, Say i wanted the character to move around in the room a bit before leaving. (Trying to do this with the mains sister, but she refuses to move when she enters the room. Not sure if its my coding i'm doing wrong, but when i set it for her to jump to the side or somthing, She does that fine, but she just won't move (walk) anywhere.

Thanks! I never thought about all that stuff.

You're a genius.

Post a screenshot. I'd think the passability on whatever tile you're using might be set to "x".

Thanks I've been tampering with my copy of VX since I got it and i worked out somethings that are here but i was really struggling with others so thanks

I have to say that I don't really get the loop thing, at all x.x
When I tested the "5. Make a character appear during a cutscene and then leave."
and made a scene exactly like it, it still looped. It was the same commands and stuff..

how about making a common event called changing scrolls you you can change character and class in game, but keep the same name.

I'm confused.... very on 5. to make a cutscene, I did the exact commands on rpg vx but mine loops over and over and over, somebody please help me...

lmao!! Nevermind I figured it out

Can someone explain to me why it is better (or preferred by some folks, anyway) to separate the event from the graphic sometimes?
What I mean is that in Harmill's example, he has "Mom" (a wonderful character, I'm sure! )
as an event with a graphic only. It's almost like he's defining the term.

But couldn't he just make the graphic appear on the page when the event is triggered?

Is this a "don't rely on paged events too much" practise?

Thx in advance. (have a cookie!)

Thx, ZBD, enjoy the cookie!

Ok, I'll try to explain the simple reason behind the putting the mom graphic as a seperate event, and not have any events attetched to it. (Right, this is what your asking?)

The simple reason is that it keeps the number of of Autorun events and pages at a minimum. Basiccaly, if you were to run the entire event with the mom event, you would have 3 pages of auto run events, and a fourth of nothing. It just keeps things a whole heck of a lot more simple.

So, your first page would be a blank page with the kids diolouge. The second page would be mom appears, the secon would be after she leaves, and the fourth would be the blank page. Although this could save on switches, meaning you could use self switches, it just can get complicated.

Also, in events that move 1+ character at a time, it is really nice to be able to see the character, instead of a dark square. It can be hard to coordinate a lot ov movement, and then to also control that from one of the moving event, it justs get really confusing, really quickly.

I think those are the biggest reasons why we just use a single event on autorun, to move and run everything. It really is preference though, and the way you were describing is just as correct, but may be more confising. I don't really know though.

Click to view attachment
Thanks, everyone. I have a few more simple questions...

I know my characters float a little above the edge of the tiles, and I understand why the game does that.
But every time I go through a one-tile-high door, I can see Ralph's spikey hair sticking through the doorway from behind the door! Do I have to make all my doors two tiles high? Or am I missing something in how to arrange movement through doors?

Also, I am getting what seems to be lag time as my character just walks around in my main map.
His movements are jerky, I think. (It isn't because of the knee-high grass he walks in is it?)
I am nowheres near 100 events!
<< Edit - Well, maybe somewhere near...
I have 32 door events, 22 character events, 15, scenery events, and I am definitely adding more... >>
I only have one autorun - for a fountain which is running.
Everything else is event triggered.
Are there other drags I should look for? (animated waterfalls, etc.?)

Again, thanks in advance!

Well, to answer your first question, just teleport the person on the tile infront of the door. I'm assuming, alhough I could be wrong, that you're teleporting the Ralph on the door tile, and then walk outside. I suggest that you just teleport the actor infront of the door, because then you dont have the hair sticking up, and you don't look like you're walking through or under a door.

As for the second, no matter the mount of events, the map will alwasy refresh itself, and you'll get a couple of lines and a slight jump, but nothing major. Its when the game looks like it actually frezzes is when you really get lag. Also, just to mke sure, in testplay mode, press F1 to make sure you don't have the reduce screen flickering cheaked, because that will cut FPS. You really shouldn't have much lag at all with a map like that.

Umm...what concerns me is the fountain thing. How is that on an autorun, or did you mean parallel process. In either case, if all your trying to do is get that walking in place movement, all you have to do is click stepping animation.

Hope this helps.

Z.B.

Thx, ZBD, you're right; I meant the fountain was on walking animation.
Appreciate the help!

Another poster left me with this question in my mind...

If you change the passibility option on a tile, is it changed for the entire game?


<<Yikes! Thanks, BigED!>>

Yes. Passablility is pulled from the database for every map that uses that tileset. Each tile can only have one value. Adding a duplicate tileset would solve that though.

Ok, just one question? Where is page 3 of the event list? I R click to get events, and there is no name input processing. Please help.

If you are in a new event, on the right hand side is a window called "list of event commands."

If you right-click and choose insert, or double-click the "@>" symbol, a window opens up with
"event commands."

At the top of that window are TABS. That's what you're looking for!

Deb

can i make more input name situations. like, what if i want them to name several characters.. or can i only do one?
also.. i'm having trouble having an event face my character, longer than 1 frame, while i want him to face me the whole time he's talking, then go back to doing what he was doing.. i'm sure this is answered somewhere else, but it seems like a common event question people would have, and would appear on this list :]

Why does the IconSet changing is not working?
i followed your instruction master.


Edited:

sorry i was referring to the game icon. not the iconset sorry my bad.

This is a great post! Eventing seems daunting, though I'm sure it's just a beginner's feeling. This was well organized and had pictures to boot, I'll definitely benefit having this guide

And we love people like you who actually read this before asking "how do I use rpg maker DER?" Glad to have ya look.

One question how do you excatly create switch events or what ever. Like for example; I made this puzzle that requires you to push this cube onto a switch, which in turn causes the gate to open. Now you need the block to sit on the switch in order to proceed through the gate. Only problem is, I don't know how to excatly approach it. What would be some of the steps or methods I could possibly use.

thx this is a lot of help

This was briefly touched apon and is probably rediculously easy to answer: If something (i.e a bird) was flying above the character, and so had a higher priority, would the character have to be directly underneath it to engage with it or can it not engage with it at all?

Thank you, by the way, a very informative and clear guide! Very Helpful

Let's think for a second, for explaining purposes that you have 3 layers in event. The player is always in 2nd and the bird is on 3rd. They can interact with each other when in the same place using either player touch or event touch

EDIT: nvm just found it
( delete if you wish)

No no, inside RPG Maker VX there is a thing called Resource Manager, you import your image using that feature, which opens at F10 I think, or F9

hmmm... now the original picture is deleted and i cant import any other picture and when i start the game there comes a script error

Well, I can guarantee that it was not caused by using the resource manager. what is the error?

I've got one more question, how do you change the sound in the opening screen?

It's in System Tab in the Database

how do you make one autorun event follow another without having them both played at the same time?

For that you'd have to use switches, activate one at the end of the first one

I got the change of initial party and party names, but how would you "choose" a party/character to start off with. Thanks for your help

-EDIT-
Nvm, I got it.

Harmill good job on the Tutorial, but one quick question I followed all of you steps on STEP 5. but my scene keeps looping, am I leaving out a switch that would stop the cutscene or what?

EDITI found a way to make it stop looping but when I enter the room again the cutscene starts up again. Is there a way to make a cutscene no longer appear after you finish it?

Yes, use self switches....

At the end of the scene put Self Switch A=ON command and then create a new event page that's empty with the condition Self Switch A=ON

Thanks for the help Pine Now I don't have to railroad so much at the beginning