Understanding Tilesets for RPG MAKER VX ACE Extreme Basics

Happy Friday to everyone,

The Shack Keeper is glad to be back inside the Shack after such a long week. I am looking forward to moving forward with U.F.F.

I thought it might be a good idea to share some knowledge about tilesets. The Shack keeper has had no help in learning this program and though I try to search for help in the official forums and online most posts seem to read as a matter of fact and nothing for a noob in the beginning was basic enough when it came to understanding how auto tilesets work. If I had some clear information on day one and not things that looked like guides to putting together a rocket, time could have been saved.  I did find one or two videos with well intentions but in the end they frustrated me and i couldn't even watch to the end. When you explain something in a tutorial you should never stop to teach yourself. But be warned, it does read with the understanding that you have at least opened the program once and messed around with it a little.

So I present to all New Newbies of Newbie Town, that have no clue to what they are doing,

 "Understanding Tilesets for Beginners Basics 1".

RPG maker VX Ace _Understanding tilesets for extreme beginners_.pdf


http://www.docstoc.com/docs/document-preview.aspx?doc_id=166551284

This is not a guide for becoming a great artist or art technique.

The shack keepers wonders he has melons on the brain and learning for him was harder than it should have been. But if the reaction to this is good and helps I can continue with this guide.

Cheers,

The Shack Keeper

BACKGROUND TILESET BUILD UPDATE

Happy weekend to everyone! Luckily got the day off yesterday so this weekend is a good chance to make some decent progress with the game.

Currently the game is entitled, U.F.F. and as we can see in the sample below. I am well on my way to creating finished tiles for walls and floors. I have to admit I currently have a little over 50 working tiles. In testing half of them are looking awesome and can be labeled as complete the other half are either not usable , need tweaking, or are variations of ones that work well. Reasons why tiles won't work in the end vary and can be split between 3 reasons: bad blending, Details are too small, or the tile is too busy.

With that said by the end of today, I will start to make other odds and ends for dressing up sets,: lights, pillers, control panels etc. as long as other melon shack duties don't get the better of me.

A Tip for making tiles that tend to work:
Keep it simple, if you get too busy it either becomes unusable or you'll end up using it as a wall.

Sample info: Here we see our main , "Guy". and some pre-generated (RPG Maker VX Ace) RPGMVXAce characters, standing in a room made with some finished floor and wall designs. It's just a test, and I don't even know if i'll be using this combination of tiles in the finished game, but the feel is right!

Cheers,
The Shack Keeper

3 Weeks In- set creation/Backgrounds

Progress has been slow but constant, when not working though, due to having a full time day job most work gets done on days off when I'm not tending to family responsibilities. You quickly learn responsibility when tending to your, "Melon Shack".

-Main Character Concept designs Check!
-Basic story, Check!
Shack Keeper is here -  Creating Backgrounds/Sets

While RPG Maker Ace offers a large variety of background tiles, which work off a 3 layer system when creating a level it became clear that if I were to pursue the original concept, A large amount almost verging on all would have to be customized due to the Spaceship setting of the story. (RPG Ace maker does not offer much in the modern to future spectrum of Pre-made tiles). With that set my reading of the official tile making section of the tutorials off the website began, and I dove right into the start of creating a world.

Painstaking , Meticulous, slow, (Exactly like Pointillism in this regard) But very satisfying once true results are achieved. It's a small art in it's own right, pun intended. The more detailed the more time it takes a tablet is a requirement, there's a fair amount of trial error and zooming in and out. Currently have 16 working tiles (meaning that they blend smoothly, not that i have set them up in RPGAce's layering system), that can go both ways as walls or floors, below you can take a look at 3 samples. It's made for a spaceship so no surprise here these three are metallic in nature.

Base color, detail (lines), shading and highlights tend to hit a polished look. In fact that's how I set up my layer when working in Manga studio.

Am I lining myself up for a world of hurt creating the world? The answer is no I am already in it, The Shack Keeper wonders if he is a Masochist.

P.S. I was surprised I didn't have an easier time finding free templates online for tilesets. With that said here is one I made set up 512 by 384 with each block being 32 pixels wide - 1 tile. If needed feel free to use it.

Cheers,
The Shack Keeper

32-Bit SPRITES

Spent some time last night and today reading RPG MAKER tutorials and getting accustomed to making 32- bit Sprites.  major points of discovery with practice are:

1 - It is possible to make a sprite too small
2 - Having your colors for your character selected to match all verisons all the way through is a big deal, if needed make a custom palette. (The work will go faster and smoother)
3 - Having a border line around your character WILL make him pop and distinguish him/her from the background

-Here we can see our main character currently named Guy. First attempt was too small and once I tested him it became clear due to size and his light tone it was difficult to see him against most backgrounds. Considering this is my fist attempt I am pretty pleased with the final result.

Currently I am using Manga Studio to create sprites and so far no complaints. Cheers, The Shack Keeper

AN RPG IT WILL BE

I have made the Decision that the game will be made useing RPG Maker VX Ace. I purchase and downloaded a full copy of the program and was very pleased to learn that there are 9+ offical tutorials that guide you through the process of making a simple game as well as getting into the basic concepts of basic game design structure. All tutorials are located right on the website. Price for the full package, being under 100 dollars was a strong determination. The Shack Keeper does have a family to think of a wife and a young 2 1/2 shack keeper in waiting. Currently will use an older version of manga studio combined with gimp for tile work, characters, customization and CG's. I have decided to do my best not to use any cracked software, I gave that up just after my collage days assuming that I could afford all official software's after a job was obtained in the industry, foolish childhood fantasies. Little did I know any future hope would rely on work done here in the Melon Shack, outside of being a responsible adult to my family, thus is the grind of a typical blue collar day job worker. We work to live and provide for the things and people we love! with that said lets end this on a high note saying my hopes for the future of the Melon Shack games currently reside with RPG MAKER VX ACE. Kudos..........

http://www.rpgmakerweb.com/