If the player is in a location with no music or sound or different music or sound from what we choose here, they will change. “Autoplay BGM” and “Autoplay BGS” allow us to choose a background music (BGM) file or background sound (BGS) to loop in the background while the player is in this location. Steps” is the average number of steps a player will take before being thrown into a random battle. This is useful for labyrinths or world maps that simulate being on a globe. “Scroll Type” allows you to loop your map in either the X or Y axes, or both. Think Zelda 1 as opposed to Final Fantasy. The default size of 17 by 13 is equal to the default game window size, meaning that the map won’t scroll at all, and the player character will instead move around the window. “Width” and “Height” are expressed as the number of tiles in each direction. Your other options by default are “Outside”, “Inside” and “Dungeon”, all of which are fairly self-explanatory, though note that there’s a fair amount of crossover between “Inside” and “Dungeon” so you may find yourself using either or both for different rooms in your locations depending on your exact needs. Currently, it’s set to “Overworld”, which is intended for Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest-style world maps, providing an abstract depiction of travelling long distances. “Tileset” is an extremely important setting because it controls the overall look of the map: the tiles that are used to create it. It doesn’t have to match “Name”, and if you leave it blank, the location display won’t appear at all. By contrast, “Display Name” is simply a short string of text that briefly appears in the top-left corner of the game screen when the player enters the map. This is what it will be referred to as in the editor, as well as what appears in the player’s save game file if they save their game in this location. There are all sorts of interesting things we can do in here, but let’s look at the settings that have the most immediately obvious effect, which are the General Settings in the top-left panel. That will bring up the properties page for the current map, which looks like this: To do this, look over to the panel in the lower-left corner of the screen and right-click the entry that says MAP001. We’ll stick with these for the moment, but we will make that initial map a bit bigger, because at present it’s rather tiny. RPG Maker has created a basic map for us, put down the Player Start location automatically and given us some basic resources to work with. When it’s done, your screen should look something like this: RPG Maker MV will then spend a moment copying the basic assets - known in previous versions of RPG Maker as the “run-time package” or “RTP” - into your project folder. Make sure the Location is somewhere you can find easily - the default location of just off your My Documents folder is ideal - because when you come to do more advanced bits and pieces such as importing assets, you’ll want to have easy access to your game’s file system. So in the example above, my new project will be created in C:\Users\Pete\Documents\Games\MoeGamer. “Location”, meanwhile, is the folder where the subfolder specified in “Name” will be created. “Game Title” is the long name your game will be referred to by - this is what will appear on the window title bar and installed icons when you distribute the game, for example, as well as appearing on the title screen. “Name” is the name of the subfolder your project will be kept in. To get started, fire up RPG Maker MV and choose “New Project…” from the File menu, or just click the New icon on the toolbar, which is the first button. If your screens look different, check you are running the latest version. Note: This article is based on the latest version of RPG Maker MV at the time of writing, which is 1.3.0.
#RPG MAKER MV MAPS TRIAL#
If you’re ready, then, let’s get going! If you want to follow along but don’t have a copy of MV, you can download a trial version from the official website. In the next article, we’ll add some life to these locations with Events.
#RPG MAKER MV MAPS HOW TO#
Not the most ambitious or sprawling game, sure, but more than enough to give you a look at how to create both maps. The aim for today is to make a small town and the beginning of a dungeon beneath it. Learn to walk before you run before you fly, and all that. Like any creative tool, if you don’t master this essential first, there’s little point in going further. Today we’re going to take a look at the most basic skill you will need to get an RPG Maker MV game up and running: mapping. Over the course of the next three articles, I’ll introduce you to how RPG Maker MV does business: how you create maps, fill them with things to do and, in the final part, how to go beyond the constraints of the basic engine. This article is one chapter of a multi-part Cover Game feature!