RPG Maker VX Ace Beginner Guide 1.0

This guide is meant to remove a lot of the guesswork from learning the basics of RPG Maker VX Ace.

Part 1 - The Toolbar

A - New Project (Ctrl + N) - Start creating a new RPG. Only one project can be opened at a time.
B - Open Project (Ctrl + O) - Load a previously saved RPG.
C - Save Project (Ctrl + S) - Save the RPG you are working on.
D - Cut (Ctrl + X) - Remove the selected event with the option to paste elsewhere.
E - Copy (Ctrl + C) - Copy the selected event and have the option to paste elsewhere.
F - Paste (Ctrl + V) - Place a cut or copied event at the currently chose square in event grid.
G - Delete (Del) - Delete the currently selected event.
H - Undo (Ctrl + Z) - Undo your previous action. Beware there is no redo option.
I - Map (F5) - Enter the mode that allows you to place tileset pieces.
J - Event (F6) - Enter the mode that allows you to create events.
K - Region (F7) - Enter the mode that allows you to define regions.
L - Pencil Tool - Place tiles a single square at a time with this tool.
M - Rectangle/Square Tool - Draw multiple squares of tiles at a time by clicking down and dragging.
N - Ellipse - Draw groups of tiles that represent circular shapes by clicking down and dragging. (Great for creating tower floor shapes)
O - Flood Fill Tool - Click a tile to change it and all adjacent tiles of the same type to your currently chosen tile.
P - Shadow Pen Tool - Place quarter-tile sized shadows (16x16 pixels)
Q/R/S/T - View tiles at full/half/quarter/eigth size (32x32 / 16x16 / 8x8 / 4x4 pixels per tile)
Smaller views are useful for creating large areas before you need to pay close attention to details.
U - Database (F9) - This is where you go to create and modify:

• actors. Actors are characters that can be in your party.
  
• classes. Classes determine which skills characters learn at what levels, how fast they level, what stats go up when they level, etc. etc.
  
• skills. This is where damage calculations, animations, names, descriptions, and anything else relating to skills are defined.
  
• items/weapons/armor. This is where you define all the changes these things do to you and create more for your game.
  
• new enemies to encounter.
  
• new troops to encounter. Troops are groups of 1-8 enemies.
  
• states. States are status ailments and buffs.
  
• animations. These are the animations that play when you run them with events or use a skills linked to an animation in battle.
  
• tilesets. Everything that makes up the art in the world outside of battle is made with a tileset. This is where you go to setup imported tilesets or setup new combinations of the tilesets that come with the program.
  
• common events. Common events are events that you plan on using very often and define them here so you can refer to them easily without copying and pasting the same events dozens of times in your game elsewhere.
  
• You can also change many default settings in the "System" tab as well as default terminology/text in the "Terms" tab.

V - Resource Manager (F10) - Import, Export, and Preview images and movies. Import and Export audio files. Supported filetypes are:

• PNG/JPG for images. (JPG doesn't support transparency/alpha channels)
  
• OGG/WMA/MP3/WAV for all audio types as well as MID for Music (BGM/ME)
  
• OGV is the only movie filetype supported. Without custom script, movies above 544x416 will be larger than the game window and not be fully visible.

W - Script Editor (F11) - The most advanced and complex feature of the RPG Maker which allows you modify and create new RGSS3 scripts.
X - Sound Test - Preview audio files at different volumes and pitches.
Y - Character Generator - Allows you to create fully customized 2D out-of-battle art for characters.
Z - Playtest (F12) - Launch your RPG to verify it works as intended and find bugs.

Part 2 - Events Page 1

MESSAGE

• Show Text... - Ever talked to a character before? This is what you use to display text on-screen.
  
• Show Choices... - Display up to 4 textual choices for the player to choose one of.
  
• Input Number... - Display a window where the player chooses a number between 0 and 99.
  
• Select Key Item... - Display a window where the player chooses a key item from his inventory to use.
  
• Show Scrolling Text... - Display text that scrolls from the bottom of the screen to the top similar to how credits scroll, except left justified. Good for narration. Scrolls at chosen speed.

GAME PROGRESSION

• Control Switches... - Turn data in the background "on" or "off".
  
• Control Variables... - Set values for numerical data in the background.
  
• Control Self Switch... - An alternate type of switch that can be turned "on" or "off".
  
• Control Timer... - Start a timer for a specified amount of time or stop a timer.

FLOW CONTROL

• Conditional Branch... - Create an "If ___ Then ____ Else ____" section in your events.
  
• Loop - Choose this and then place events inside your loop to repeat them forever unless a break loop is used to stop it.
  
• Break Loop - See Loop
  
• Exit Event Processing - Any events currently running will be stopped if this is used.
  
• Call Common Event... - Common events are defined in the Database under the "Common Event" tab. This links to a common event to run it. This allows you to not have to copy and paste events over and over again if you know that you're going to use something a lot ahead of time.
  
• Label... - This event is a name and location that you can jump back to with the event "Jump to Label..." described immediately below.
  
• Jump to Label... - This event jumps to the name of the label you specify.
  
• Comment... - No in-game effect. This allows you to enter notes in between your events.

PARTY

• Change Gold.. - Allows you to specify an amount to increase or decrease your gold by.
  
• Change Items.. - Allows you to increase or decrease the amount of an item you are carrying by the specified number.
  
• Change Weapons.. - Allows you to increase or decrease how many of a specific weapon you are carrying.
  
• Change Armor... - Same as above, just for armor.
  
• Change Party Member... - Allows you to add or remove a party member. If "initialize" is checked, then they will start at their level defined in the database and not a previously attained level.

ACTOR

• Change HP... - Increase or decrease the HP of a single character, or the whole party. Checkmark "Allow Knockout" to allow decreasing HP with this to kill characters.
  
• Change MP... - Same as above, just for MP, and doesn't include the option to kill characters.
  
• Change State... - Use this to add or remove states such as status effects or death from party members or the entire party.
  
• Recover All... - Use this to replenish a single character or the whole party's HP and MP and status ailments.
  
• Change EXP... - Use this to increase or decrease the experience points of a single character or the whole party.
  
• Change Level... - Use this to increase or decrease a single character or whole party's level by the specified amount.
  
• Change Parameters... - Use this to increase or decrease Max HP/MP or stats such as Attack (ATK) for a single character.
  
• Change Skills... - Use this to learn or forget the specified skill for the specified character.
  
• Change Equipment... - Use this to change the currently equipped item of the chosen item type to the specified item. (The item must exist in the player's inventory for this to work.)
  
• Change Name... - Change the name of the specified player to the name you define here. (Not to be confused with Event Page 3's "Name Input Processing...")
  
• Change Class... - Change the class of the specified character to the specified class.
  
• Change Nickname... - Change the nickname of the specified character to the specified nickname. By default this only appears in the status screen.

Part 3 - Events Page 2

MOVEMENT

• Transfer Player... - Define another map and location to move your party to.
  
• Set Vehicle Location... - Move the specified vehicle to another map and location.
  
• Set Event Location... - Move the specified event to another location or exchange location with another event.
  
• Scroll Map... - Pan the view of the player up/down/left/right at the specified speed for the specified distance.
  
• Set Move Route... - Define what path an event should take. Includes a variety of options including jumping, changing event opacity and graphic, frequency, overriding tileset blockers, as well as the option to implement custom script on top of all movement and facing directions.
  
• Get on/off Vehicle - Use this to place the player inside of our outside of a vehicle.

CHARACTER

• Change Transparency... - A better name for this would be "Player Visibility" as the only thing this changes is whether the player is visible or invisible.
  
• Change Player Followers... - Determines whether additional party members are displayed following the leader or not.
  
• Gather Followers - Moves characters following the player to the player's location.
  
• Show Animation - Define an animation to display at the specified player or event location.
  
• Show Balloon Icon... - Displays a balloon icon above the player or specified event.
  
• Erase Event - Removes the event this command exists in from the map until the player leaves the map and comes back.

SCREEN EFFECTS

• Fadeout Screen - Gradually fade the screen out to black.
  
• Fadein Screen - Gradually fade the screen back in after being faded out.
  
• Tint Screen... - Tint the screen and battle to the specified color. Doesn't affect the menus.
  
• Flash Screen... - Blink a color on the screen over the specified amount of time. Good for intensifying things.
  
• Shake Screen... - Horizintally shake the screen at the power and speed you choose over the specified amount of time.

TIMING

• Wait... - Wait for the specified amount of frames. 60 frames = 1 second.

PICTURE AND WEATHER

• Show Picture... - Display an imported picture on the screen at the specified size location and opacity. The add option will brighten pixels the picture is displayed on and "sub"tracting will darken pixels.
  
• Move Picture... - Move a previously displayed imported picture with the same options as "Show Picture" described above.
  
• Rotate Picture... - Spin an imported picture. This will continue forever until you tell it to stop.
  
• Tint Picture... - Tint the specified imported picture over time.
  
• Erase Picture... - Erase the specified imported picture.
  
• Set Weather Effects... - Display or end rain, snow, or a storm over the specified amount of time at the intensity of your choice.

MUSIC AND SOUNDS

• Play BGM... - Choose background music to play.
  
• Fadeout BGM... - Stop playing the background music over the specified amount of time.
  
• Save BGM... - Save the current location of the background music.
  
• Replay BGM - Play background music starting from the saved location of the music. Hard to use for looping, mostly meant for playing music from where it left off when you enter a battle instead of starting over again after a battle.
  
• Play BGS... - Play a background ambient sound such as rain, wind, or water dripping.
  
• Fadeout BGS... - Fadeout background ambient sounds over the specified amount of time.
  
• Play ME... - Play a Musical Effect such as victory music or inn sleepytime music.
  
• Play SE... - Choose a sound effect to play at the specified volume and pitch.
  
• Stop SE - Stop any sound effect that is currently being played.

Part 4 - Events Page 3

SCENE CONTROL

• Battle Processing... - Begin a battle with the specified enemies. Check "Can Escape" to allow running and check "Continue Even When Loser" to prevent the game over screen from appearing upon losing the battle.
  
• Shop Processing... - Show the shop screen with the specified merchandise.
  
• Name Input Processing... - Show a window that allows the player to change the specified actor's (aka: character's) name.
  
• Open Menu Screen - This shows the player's menu windows just as if you had pressed the menu button.
  
• Open Save Screen - This displays the save game window.
  
• Game Over - This ends the game in failure.
  
• Return to Title Screen - This returns the player to the title screen without showing the game over screen.

SYSTEM SETTING

• Change Battle BGM... - This changes the music during battles.
  
• Change Battle End ME... - This changes the victory music at the end of battle.
  
• Change Save Access... - This allows you to enable and disable access to the save game window via the player menus.
  
• Change Menu Access... - This allows you to enable and disable access to the player's menu.
  
• Change Encounter... - Enable and disable random encounters with this.
  
• Change Formation Access... - Enable and disable the formation choice from the player's menu.
  
• Change Window Color... - Change the tint of the menus that appear throughout the game.
  
• Change Actor Graphic... - Change the conversation window face and character images used for a player's character. (aka actor)
  
• Change Vehicle Graphic... - Change the images used to display a vehicle.

MOVIE

• Play Movie... - Use this to display an ogv video. This is the only video format supported.

MAP

• Change Map Name Display... - Define whether the map name should display in the top left hand corner of the screen when you enter that map. Note: This is defined in a map's properties by right clicking on a map and entering a "Display Name".
  
• Change TIelset... - Change the tileset of the current map to another.
  
• Change Battle Back... - Change the background images used for battle.
  
• Change Parallax Back... - Change the parallax background used in the current map.
  
• Get Location Info... - Obtain numerical information and plop it into a variable for later use.

BATTLE

• Change Enemy HP... - Increase or decrease an enemy's health with the option to allow or disallow this command to kill the unit.
  
• Change Enemy MP... - Increase or decrease the enemy MP by the specified amount.
  
• Change Enemy State... - Add or remove a status ailment/death (aka state) to the specified enemy.
  
• Enemy Recover All... - Fully restore the specified enemy or entire enemy troop.
  
• Enemy Appear... - Spawn the specified enemy.
  
• Enemy Transform... - Transform the specified enemy to a different image while retaining current HP and MP.
  
• Show Battle Animation... - Display the specified animation on the specified enemy.
  
• Force Action... - Force a skill to be used on an ally or enemy from an ally or enemy when this command is run.
  
• Abort Battle - Force the battle to end.

ADVANCED

• Script... - This is by far the most advanced feature in RPG Maker VX Ace and uses the RGSS3 programming language syntax. This is more appropriate to cover in an advanced user guide.

[Sleeves]

i am only familiar with RPGmaker XP, which has layers when making maps, i cannot find the ability to change layers in this version, and this guide doesnt mention them, does ACE not have layers?

[Açúcaradão BR]

I not know where's the eraser in RPG Maker....

[Julius X5]

I'll give it a try, soon enough I'll be back with updates

[★Ballistic break dancing bunny]

Movies?

[Twiztid_Juggalo1988]

i cant get the sprites thing to work i wanted to make a zelda and sonic rpg but i cant use link or sonic sprites what am i doing wrong ?

[MurderosCrotch(戒游戏中)]

Thanks for u guide, it helps me overcome my difficulties.

[雏灵]

I cannot see the material I bought, where can I find them? Does anyone know?

[pressgang]

This is incredibly useful, thank you so much!

[ToxicityRyuk]

I cant get my dude to walk, he can look up but that is it. HELP!

[motionb]

hey can you make a guaide on only making party members?