The Puzzle Tutorial - make your own puzzles! Part 1

[Bird Eater 7]

Hey everyone, I'm planning on making a series of tutorials on how to make puzzles. It's pretty much the only thing I'm a little good at in RPG Maker, and I love to help people. So without further ado, here's the first tutorial!

 

 

Puzzles, puzzles, puzzles.

 

There are infinite possibilities. They are either annoying, a waste of time or 'good'.

You are the one who has the ability to create one such puzzle. And you'll want to make a good one, right?

 

With puzzle, I don't mean something like this:

"There is a red button in the middle of the room, and once you step on it, the door to the next room opens, no strings attached."

Sure, it's not that boring, and you ask of the player to do something specifically. But that's not something I call a puzzle. You're not letting the player really think.

 

This is, however, where we will start. Because making a simple button is cool and yields some cool eventing knowledge we're going to use later on.

 

 

Step 1: Create a room, you can always make it bigger if you want to. I like to start small. I recommend making the room fit in the editor without needing to scroll to view everything.

 

Step 2: Think! What do you want to create? And how are you going to do it? For button pressing, you could use the 'Action Button' trigger on the button event, making the player press c, enter or the spacebar for anything to happen. We're going to make it slightly complex for us, though, making the button be activated merely by stepping on it.

 

Step 3: Let's create it! This should be pretty simple, creating some variables and set them to the X and Y coordinates of both the player and the button, and checking if they match.

 

Step 4: TEST IT! Test every once in a while, this is a must. If there is something wrong, you can fix it right away. If you make lots of events and don't test until the end, you're gonna have some trouble finding exactly what's wrong (I can tell you, that's not cool).

 

Step 5: You're getting a message as you step on the button? Good. Now let's spice this up a little bit by adding a boulder to the map, which can be pushed on the button. To do this, we'll have to make a boulder, and edit the button to record the boulder's coordinates.

 

Step 6: Test to see if it works.

 

Step 7: So it actually did something different, huh? We can also create a door, which will open when something is on the button, whether it's the player or the boulder, but close again when nothing is on it. To do that, we'll have to add some event commands to the button and add a door. First create the door, which'll only go open when a certain switch is on. 'Left-click > New Quick Event > Door' is great to use as a base. Edit it like this (note that there's two pages):

 

Step 8: Edit the button. Pay close attention to the lines I've used in this event, and make sure to copy them in this order.

 

That's it. You've done it. You have created a 'Push the boulder on the button' system, and even made possible for the player to stand on the button, with another effect.

 

If there's something you did wrong, or if you simply want the project file, download it here: http://www.mediafire...k769gfrs8gi59c3

If there's anything you don't understand, you're free to ask any questions here!

 

The next tutorial will be about making your life (and this simple system) easier.

[Dorian Tokici 6]

Uhhh ... if you set the button to parallel process before eventing the door sequence, when the player steps on it, it will continuously display the message ... ? Or were you aware of that? The player will then get stuck in that location.

[Bird Eater 7]

Yes, I am very aware of this. The messages are only here to assure everything up till then works.

Thanks for wondering and reading through it!

[Velvela Jade 8]

Thanks for the tutorial! I am patiently waiting for your next tutorial, as my game will have lots of puzzles in them, as they are my favorite thing to do.

[Vox 1]

Just a tip to save space in your variables: the button on the floor is static and does not move, therefor you do not need to store the location in a variable, simply check the boulders stored variable on the static position of the button.

Edited May 13, 2012 by Vox

[Bird Eater 7]

@Velvela Jade: Thanks, I'll see if I can find some time to make it (HAHA FIRST EXAM OF MY FINALS IN ABOUT 12 HOURS OH GOD).

 

Just a tip to save space in your variables: the button on the floor is static and does not move, therefor you do not need to store the location in a variable, simply check the boulders stored variable on the static position of the button.

 

Very true, but then you wouldn't be able to move your button as that simple.

Unless you did it with a script call, of course, which is exactly what I'll be going over in tutorial 2.

Thanks for reading through it and giving me a tip!

[Lola Poe 2]

Sorry, I can not find part 2. Can you give me a link of it?