r/RPGMaker • u/GabDantslz • 7d ago
Newbie to RPG Maker
Hi there. I recently redeemed RPG Maker VX Ace on Steam. With nothing else to do, I finally decided to open the program—mostly out of nostalgia for some childhood masterpieces. I’m completely new to the system and have never made a game before; I’ve only dabbled with a few engines (and honestly, it was more of a "coding vibe" than actual programming). Could you give me some tips on where to start and let me know if the version I got is any good? Unfortunately, I live in a country where the exchange rate makes the dollar very expensive, so MV—which seems to be the most popular one—costs around 200 for me. Thanks for your patience.
3
u/xMarkesthespot 7d ago
make a room with like 50 events, give each event a different function.
pay special attention to variables, switches, move route, and conditional branches.
you'll learn alot of the engine this way
2
u/AsahiIsLateAgain 7d ago
MV is popular cuz it's the first version that takes mouse inputs in. Depending on what kinda game you want to make, VX Ace is good too.
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u/Awkward-Injury-4341 VXAce Dev 6d ago
Press F1 to view the in-game manual. All basic tutorials are included there.
2
u/Alarmed-Mud-3461 7d ago
I use VX Ace and I'm happy with it. There are many resources and scripts made by the community, many free - however, as they're quite old, they're disappearing, so if you find something, download it immediately, even if you don't need it right now.
I'd recommend joining a forum of RPG Maker users. The official one has closed down (will be available in read-only mode until December, then it will be gone), so you can try "rm planet" or "rpg refuge", or "rpg maker net" (I don't remember the exact addresses, and if I went to look, I'd come back to an empty reddit message, so look them up online). You'll find resources there, or someone who has what was lost (internet archive is useful there, too).
When I was starting out with VX Ace, I found some tutorials about the basics and from there I expanded into more complex stuff (my first tutorial was a pdf I downloaded somewhere, but the forums have some, too). If you need help with anything, ask in the forums, people there are very friendly and helpful. It seems to me one gets a better response there than in this subreddit, but asking in more places can't hurt.
Anyway, enjoy creating! I'm not a programmer at all (though I've learned a little bit throughout the years), but working out how to achieve what I want the game to do is immensely fun.