Create a Game in RPG Maker XP

This guide will outline the general steps you should be taking if you are interested in creating an RPG (Role-playing Game), specifically in RPG Maker XP, also known as RMXP, a program from the Japanese company Enterbrain.

The software is located here: http://www.rpgmakerweb.com/product/rpg-maker-xp

It’s free to download as a trial version for 30 days, or $29.99 USD to purchase. You may notice that the download will come with two items: The RPG maker itself and the RTP (Run-time package) file. The RTP is basically a collection of game materials that the RPG maker needs to run.

Two final notes: First, this guide will not help you get good at the individual steps outlined below. For example, there will be no map-making tips. This guide simply describes the general steps you should take if you’re new to the game-making process. There are many tutorials on the official site as well as many forums devoted to everything RPG Maker that do a far better job than this article would. Links to some of those resources will be found at the bottom.

Second, much of the learning process involves figuring things out on your own. There are far too many small intricacies with this program for me to detail here. You will learn quite a bit just by poking around and see what things do, and since it’s quite a simple program relatively speaking, you shouldn’t feel too overwhelmed.

NOTE: The screenshots shown below are from RPG Maker VX Ace, not RPG Maker XP. The are just there to illustrate the points. The interfaces and are similar enough that it's roughly the same.

Steps

  1. Come up with an idea, then flesh it out: Idea creation should always be the first step to any creative endeavor, because you can’t reasonably start on it without at least some basis. This also is a step you will probably have the most fun with, considering you likely already have multiple ideas bumping around your head. However, they’re probably just small, cool things you want to implement. Flesh these out considerably. Come up with all your characters, environments, enemies, items, weapons, abilities, and anything else you can think of. It will make the actual implementation process far easier if you’re working off of a solid outline rather than coming up with things on the fly as you go.
  2. Write a script. How much detail you put in is up to you, but having a script, which in this case is both the dialogue that occurs as well as a description of the events, is vital to a well made game. Much like the first step above, getting everything out on paper will give you not only a much better idea of how you’re going to go about making the rest of your game, but also make the process far easier, because you’ll just be copying and pasting from the script into the dialogue boxes. The script and the document you created in step one will be your most important resources.
  3. Make the map first. The reason for doing map making as your next step is that it will help you to better visualize your world. Doing this will allow you to potentially change your mind about, and fine tune every other aspect of your game. To start creating a map, right click on the first initial map in the map pane, right below the tileset, and click "New Map". You make maps using “tilesets”, which are picture files that have a large variety of different objects and environments within them that are separated by the game maker into a grid. This is because everything you create visually in your game is done as a grid. Each square represents one step a character can take. In these squares, you can place one square of your selected tileset. You can also create events, which will be discussed later. It’s also worth mentioning that you can utilize three layers with which to make your map, especially useful for making walls, ceilings, and just anything that you want to be above ground.

    You can also edit each square in a tileset to have different characteristics such as the ability to be walked through, and/or from which directions. This is done in the Tilesets tab in the Database, discussed later.
    • If you are creating sub-maps that are meant to exist within other maps, for example, a small cave in a forest, make it a sub-map of the forest by right clicking the bigger map and creating the smaller map from that, rather than from the world map. It will make visualizing where maps are that much easier.
  4. Create your game objects. This next section will require much time and fine-tuning as you create your game. Everything here is done in the Database. The tabs at the top are essentially your to-do list. For the most part, you want to go through each, ensuring that they are filled out with everything your game will contain, from your primary characters, all the weapons, character abilities, item, status effects, monsters, the experience they give, items they drop, and of course, the groups those enemies will be in when they attack your party, as well as editing the different tilesets you have. In other words, create the entire underlay of the game. You also don't have to worry about the "Common Events" or "System" tab just yet. You will be coming back to the Database over and over again as you play through everything you create, but for now, just create the “preliminary draft”.
  5. Create your events. Here is where the meat of your game creation process lies. To create an event, select the “events” layer. Double click a tile on the map. The options here are immense, but common things you might do are place an NPC (non-playable character, such as a generic village inhabitant) to speak to, cause a conversation to occur between characters, or initiate a battle. You can also cause these events to trigger in multiple ways including upon touch, on clicking the space bar (the default “select” button”) next to the tile, or automatically upon entering the map.There is an extremely large variety of customization possible while creating event tiles, and discovering them is part of the fun.
  6. Place monsters on the map. You’ve already created your monster groups, now you have to put them on their respective maps. You can do this in the map menu by right clicking on it in the menu pane, and clicking "Map Properties". There, you’ll be able to select which monster groups you want to appear in that map and how common that group will appear.
  7. Choose your music: What would a great RPG be without its music? The music in your game provides the “atmospheric backbone”, if you will, to your game. The music you choose will be part of the memories those who play your game will associate with it. You can choose any music you want, from the included tracks or an MP3 file of your choosing, for maps, battles, boss battles, cinematics, everything. They essentially create the mood, so be sure to take the tone of the current in-game situation into account when choosing. Map music is chosen on the map menu you set your monster groups in, battle music is set in the Database, as is music for common things in every game like the title screen and game over screen. You can also set a certain song to play whenever you want using an event.
  8. Add side-quests. This step is technically optional, but is heavily recommended. Sure, the main storyline is the important part, but everyone loves some good sidequests. They go a long way into making your game less linear. Some ideas might be killing an optional monster to get a sweet weapon, completing a special dungeon with a large sum of money at the end, or anything really that you can think of.
  9. Playtest, playtest, playtest. You should not only be testing sections and battles repeatedly, but also the entire game, because maintaining a good balance (i.e. difficulty level) and engaging experience is vital. A good thing to do is have a main save file that you’re going through the game with, and then you can adjust battles for what a normal party would be at for that stage in the game. Make sure to go through everything with a fine-toothed comb because bugs are everywhere, and very easy to miss. Not only that, but they can be potentially game-breaking, such as a door you are unable to go through to advance the plot. So make sure you play through your game multiple times until it’s perfect. Congratulations, you’re done your game! However, you want people to play it don’t you?
  10. Distribution. When you finally finish your game and want others to play it, you have several options. The first and easiest way, assuming one of these people is a friend of yours, if to just get them to play on the computer you made the game on and just play through it in the RMXP program itself. However, if you want to actually be able to put the file onto a disk to give it to someone to play, it’s an easy process.
    • Compress the game data: Go to “File” and then click “Compress game data”. It will ask for a destination folder (or disk). This compressed data has all the information the game needs to run except for the audio files and graphics. This comes back to what I mentioned at the beginning regarding the RTP. If the person using your game has installed the RTP file on their own computer, then they can simply run the game off of this compressed game file. Having RMXP installed is not needed for them.
    • To download the RTP file separately, go here: http://www.rpgmakerweb.com/download/run-time-package
    • If they don’t have it installed, you will need to include the audio and graphics folders along with the compressed data, which will make the file you’re sending much bigger.When your recipient wants to run the game, they just need to double-click the “Game” file.

Tips

  • First and foremost, make sure to have fun!
  • If you're looking for some advanced options, there's also a fully featured Ruby language script editor, where, if you've got the know-how (or the ability to search on Google for ones already made), you can customize every aspect of the game far beyond what the presets currently allow, from a side view battle screen, to special weather and lighting effects and more!
  • Explore everything. There's a gigantic wealth of possibilities and options, and finding them is part of the experience.

Warnings

  • Just one warning, a common occurrence involves people losing interest and giving up, due to the sheer amount of work involved. If you want to make a game of reasonable length, A LOT of work is involved. Be prepared to devote a significant amount of time to this.

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

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