Eventing the title-screen!

[Pou-chan 8]

Well haven't seen this tutorial around so, since I solved my problem with this event, I thought I'd share this tutorial for anyone who wants the same thing as me.This is my first time making a tutorial though so any question that arises from this topic feel free to ask me !

 

What I'll cover in this tutorial is how you can make the title-screen with events so you can change it throughout the game with a global variable! Also, I know that there are several scripts out there that can help you do that, so I'm directing this tutorial to the guys who can't get it down with scripts and to anyone who doesn't mind toying around with events .

 

 

First things first, what we'll need for this tutorial is: 4 events, 2 scripts (they are plug and play nothing to confusing XD ), time ( obviously ) a lot of conditional branches and some patience XD . Okay let's get down to it.

 

 

1.  Create a blank map 17 x 13 and set the player start wherever you want. Go to the database and from the system check the Transparent On at the start of the game.

2. Make your options with any image manipulation program that you know the best. In this example we'll use GIMP and the options New Game, Continue and Shut Down. I'll use a cursor too XD (the cursor is optional)

3. Go into your resource manager and import the images you just created (in .png format) to Graphics/Pictures

 

 

4. Make an autorun event in the blank map with a conditional branch which will check a global variable that we'll set afterwards. I'm just gonna name it bosses defeated,don't forget to put the menu acess to disable at the start and erase event in the end of the conditional branches so it won't loop, leave it like this for now. (I will go more in-depth to that later)

 

 

 

 

5. Make a parrallel process next to your autorun event which is going to wait for 60 frames (so it will let the autorun event check the conditional branch) and then you need to put your title and your commands in place. This is the easiest part.

Here is how to do this !

 

i. start with show picture 1 (which is going to be your title background) and set it to 0 opacity

ii. do the same thing for your title heading but this time make the picture number 2

iii. make a new variable. Let's name it menu commands

iv. create a conditional branch. go to the 4th tab and check the script command from there. Next on the box write down this code (keep the set handling):

DataManger.save_file_exists?

 

 

this will check if a save file exists in the game folder and will do  the following commands

 

If the save file exists then it will set the variable menu commands to 1 (which is our continue command)

else it will set it to 0 ( New Game command )

 

 

v. now you need to set the position of the options. To do that go to your map and

press on the tile you want your New Game option to appear. For me it will be on the middle.

 

 

notice the numbers on the bottom right corner without the brackets

 

 

for me it's 008,007 that's where my New Game option will be presented.

now  you need to open the calculator and do some maths. Multiply your coordinates by 32

 

Firstly multiply 8 * 32 = 256

and 7 * 32 = 224

 

these are the dimension numbers we are going to use

 

vi. go back to your parallel process event and after the cond. branch do a move picture 1 to opacity 255 for 15 frames without wait

and the same for picture 2 but this time use wait. Then choose a bgm you want to play. I chose theme 5. Next thing you need to do is to

show a picture, again, number 3 this time to the dimension numbers we found, so you will set to upper left X: 256 and Y: 224 and the opacity to 80.

 

vii. do the same thing for the other options as well.( I like them to have a tiny space between them so I'll click one position down from my previous coordinates. So if I have 008,007 before now I'll have 008,009

multiplying again and it gives me 9 * 32 = 288 . I'll show a picture again number 4 this time with X: 256 and Y: 288 and opacity 80 this will represent the Continue option.

 

viii. same for Shut Down option picture number 5 and fir the coordinates 008,011 we have

11 * 32 = 352

X:256 Y:352 opacity 80

 

ix. now for the cursor position. Show a picture 6 opacity 0 and don't touch anything else.

 

x. use erase event in the end so it will stop it from looping.

 

Your event page should look like this:

 

 

 

 

6. Now we need another parallel process event! Set wait 60 frames at the start and the control self switch A = on.

On the 2nd tab of the event page make a parallel process event and check in the conditions self switch A = on of course. We gonna need 13 conditional branches for this one. No, no, no don't worry for the number, you'll see that it's the same commands but in different branches so they'll check different things each time .

 

Let's go! Try to follow me really close in this one cause it's case sensitive.

 

i. Make the 1st conditional branch. On the 4th tab you'll see The Button___ is being pressed. Select it and select Down. So it'll be The Button Down is being pressed, do not set handling when conditions don't apply! Inside it We will wait for 4 frames (just to make a smooth animation), play a sound effect (to make the player understand that the option changed. It's up to you if you want to use a sound effect) and last but not least change the variable menu commands to add 1

It should look like this:

 

 

ii. make a new conditional branch and go again to the fourth tab but this time check the Script command. In the box next to it write down this code:

 

Input.trigger?(:DOWN)

 

don't set handling in this one too!

 

when it's created copy the previous commands we made and paste them into the new conditional branch we made!  !

 

It looks like this picture:

 

 

 iii.    and   iv.

do the same thing as before but now change the Button is being pressed to Up and the Input.trigger?(:UP). FInally change the variable menu commands substract 1

 

v. make a conditional branch now which checks how much the variable "menu commands" number is ( It'll expand from 0 to 2 since we have 3 options [0 counts as a number])

 

you move the cursor to the same location of the options but right now you need to change the coordinates from the first command New Game. So instead of having 008,007 you'll have 006,007

and then for Continue from 008,009 to 006,009 and for Shut Down from 008,011 to 006,011

6 * 32 = 192

 

so we make the following conditional branch

 

@>if 0

@>Make a new label and name it NewGame

@>Move picture 6 (cursor) to 192,224 at 255 opacity and for 1 frame wait for completion.

@>Move picture 3 (New Game) to the same coordinates as before 224,224 but now change the opacity to 255 and for 1 frame wait for completion

@>else

@>Move picture 3 (New Game) to 224,224 changing the opacity to 80 for 1 frame wait for completion

:Branch End

 

This is all when the variable is 0, now we need the branches when the variable is 1 and 2

so copy and paste the branch we made 2 times below it.

Now change the number of the branch equal to the variable to 1 and 2 respectively!

Also you need to change the move picture commands.

So change the numbers of the move picture and their coordinates. Don't forget to remove the label NewGame when the var is equal to 1 and change the label to ShutDown when the var is equal to 2 When it's all done it should be something like this:

 

(yellow represents what pictures you need to move, red represents their coordinates, green represents their opacity and blue represents the frames you wait with wait for completion)

 

Only 6 branches remain! Stay with me, we are almost done XD !

 

 

vi. Now 2 more conditional branches. The one we'll set it when the var "menu commands" is less than or equal to 0 and the other one when is greater than or equal to 2

(this will prevent the variable to store other numbers except 0,1,2)

on the less than or equal to 0

we make 2 more conditonal branches. One is when button Up is being pressed and the other when Input.trigger?(:UP) don't set handling to them.

the commands inside them go like this.

 

@>Play a sound effect (It's up to you again)

@> Control Variables "menu commands" = 2 

@>  Jump To Label:ShutDown  
@>Wait 4 frames

That's all! Now copy and paste them to the cond. branch Input.trigger?(:UP)

 

off to the next conditional branch where it's greater than or equal to 2

we'll make the same branches as shown above but now changing everything from Up to Down and changing the commands a little:

 

 

@>Play a sound effect (It's up to you again)

@>Control Variables "menu commands" = 0

@>Jump To Label:NewGame
@>Wait 4 frames

( notice the differences? XDD )

When you are done it'll look like this:

 

(red represents the var number and the cond. branches commands, yellow/mustard color represents the labels and the blue represents the var numbers changing)

 

 

That's all for this event. Yahoooo!!

 

You think we are done right? Think again! Without the options doing something when the player presses them, he'll be stuck there forever, so we have some more stuff to look into! .

 

7. Again in the 1st tab of the new event we'll set it to parallel process and wait for 60 frames and then open our self switch A = on on the 2nd tab go ahead and make a parallel process and at the very top make it wait for 1 frame.

 

Now what we need to do is to make.... Yes you guessed it! Another conditional branch!

Go to the 4th tab and go to script. Instead of typing what we typed before you will type

 

Input.trigger?(:C)

 

(C trigger is actually the action trigger by deafault it's the Z key on the keyboard.)

 

Inside it we'll make the cond. branches based on our "menu commands" variable:

when the var is equal to 0

when the var is equal to 1

when the var is equal to 2

 

So let's get started!

 

@>Conditional Branch: when it's equal to 0 (New Game)

@>Play SE (optional)

@>Fadeout Screen

@>Erase picture 1

@>Erase picture 2

@>Erase picture 3

@>Erase picture 4

@>Erase picture 5

@>Erase picture 6

@>Transfer Player to our original map (where the game starts)

@>Change Transparency : Off (it can be found on the 2nd tab of event commands)

@>Fadein Screen

@>Branch End

 

beneath that

 

@>Conditional Branch: DataManger.save_file_exists? (set handling when conditions don't apply in this one)

@>Conditional Branch: when it's equal to 1 (Continue)

@>Play SE (optional again)

[go to the 3rd tab of event commands and locate Script under Adavanced and type in]

@>SceneManager.call(Scene_Load) [this will bring up the loading screen]

under else of the cond. branch DataManger.save_file_exists?

we gonna need to play and SE to make the player understand that there aren't any savefiles in the game folder!

@>Branch End

 

last cond. branch for now don't worry we are almost done!

 

@>Conditional Branch: when it's equal to 2 (Shut Down)

@>Play SE (optional)

@>SceneManager.exit (this will close the game)

@>Branch End

 

when you are done check to see if it's like the picture:

 

 

 

Soooo, we are done with the eventing!!!!!!! Cheeers!! Now we need the 2 scripts I mentioned earlier!

 

The first script is to allow you bypassing the original title-screen and you can find it here:

 

http://www.rpgmakervxace.net/topic/271-skip-title-screen/

 

Credits to JV Master .

 

and the other one is to store global variables! And what is a global variable you ask? So let's take it from the beginning. When the player closes the game and re-opens it all switches/variables are set to off/0 by default. A global variable can be stored so when you re-open the game that variable will have the same value as before it was closed. This script can be found in this topic:

 

http://www.rpgmakervxace.net/topic/19916-variable-store-script/

 

search around and find TheoAllen's reply it has the script in it.

 

Credits to TheoAllen .

 

you need to set the number of the global variable you want to store from the script for me is number 1:

 

 

 

So at last we made it to the final point. About the title screen that changes which I mentioned earlier. Let's say that the player defeated a monster and you want to show the battler of that monster in the title-screen after s/he defeats it. How to do that is go back to your image manipulation program find the battler of the monster and place it wherever you want on the screen (remember the screen is 544 x 416)

After the player defeats that monster change the variable to 1 and go back to the very first event we made!

 

Inside the conditional branch we let without commands you'll make it show a picture if the variable meets the number.

 

 

So it'll look like this:

 

 

 

 

Here are the photos of the final title screen!

 

New Game Opt.

 

Continue Opt.

 

Shut Down Opt.

 

with monster defeated

 

 

Remember you can add more things to the title screen but rember to make one more conditional branch on the very first event for each thing you'd like to add and that's all !

 

 

So this is it. I hope I helped. Although is a big tutorial! Again if you have any questions feel free to ask me !

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[THEAQIB 59]

Nice..

Same as this I think..

http://www.rpgmakervxace.net/topic/24787-title-screen-with-events/

But I felt more clear detail here..

[Halfmoon Media 2]

I just want to point out, your attachments are empty.

[Pou-chan 8]

@Halfmoon Media

Yeah I just noticed...I have to redo the whole thing because I changed my pc and lost everything from my projects. If I do this again I'll update the attachments.

Edited April 13, 2015 by Pou-chan