Tutorials

Using Plugins in MZ

In some of our recent Resource Spotlights, we’ve looked at some of the amazing plugins creators have shared with all of us to use to improve our games. It’s great to know about all these options, but let’s take a closer look at plugins for those new users who aren't familiar with how to use them.

Hiddenone

October 13, 2020

Improving Key Items with Common Events

Key Items are a major part of many games, from keys that unlock dungeon doors to crystals that you need to find and return to a magical kingdom. But sometimes we want our items to be more than just a two-line description in the item menu. That’s where common events come into play, giving us the freedom to make our items as detailed as we want.

hiddenone

October 6, 2020

Animating Tiles: Opening Animations

When it comes to adding some extra “life” to your game, small animations for interactable objects are usually a good thing to go for. Today we will cover three base techniques of how to open things, and many of them can be used on other object types as well.

Avery

September 29, 2020

Basic Anatomy of a Cutscene

Cutscenes are a vital part of most games, drawing the players into the game’s story and giving them a break from the action of battles. But sometimes it’s difficult for new developers to get the ideas from their heads into the game itself, so let’s take a look at a few things to keep in mind while eventing cutscenes.

hiddenone

September 22, 2020

Charsets: Structure and Avoiding Traps!

Today we are going to have a closer look at characters – or charsets, sprites or character sets, as some people call them. There are some common misconceptions about how they work and some traps people run into, so we will use this chance to make sure they don‘t happen to you anymore!

Avery

September 22, 2020

September 15, 2020

Creating Behaviors from the Damage Poses

MZ gives us the choice between three different damaged frames for our sprites, which is great for some variety on a battlefield! But there’s so much more we can do with them if we just edit the sprites a little bit. So let’s take a look at how we can make a few new behaviors out of the damaged sprites.

hiddenone

September 8, 2020

Mapping: Towns

After my last tutorial on Mapping Interiors, many people asked for help with the exterior of a town. So that is what we are going to do today. Let’s make a starting town for our hero!

Avery

September 1, 2020

Randomness in NPC Dialogue

“Welcome to our village.” “Welcome to our village.” “Welcome to our village.” “Welcome to our village.” Sometimes hearing an NPC say the same thing over and over can be boring. For players who are looking for some world-building or little lore bits, these one-phrase NPCs can be disappointing and cause them to even ignore all but the important NPCs. If you’ve spent hours creating these characters from nothing then you want your players to spend some time with them. That’s where adding in some extra dialogue can help. Instead of having an NPC say just one thing repeatedly, let’s look at a few ways to improve their comments.

hiddenone

August 25, 2020

You've Downloaded MZ... Now What?

Congratulations, you’ve gotten your hands on the newest RPG Maker, MZ! With all its new features it’s tempting to just dive right in and start working on your dream game, but do your best to hold off on that right now. Whether you’re brand new to RPG Maker or a user who’s been around since the old days of 2k3 and XP, taking some time to explore MZ will improve your time playing with it. Here are a few things to do before starting your first big project.

hiddenone

April 6, 2021

August 18, 2020

Tutorial - Mapping: Interior

Lately, there was a status post on our forums about how difficult it can be to find a good mapper for your project. That is interesting, as good mapping is the most essential graphic skill needed for using RPG Maker, as you can go far with just the default graphics. So, why don’t we make sure your maps are the best you can make?

Avery

August 18, 2020

August 11, 2020