Probably not what you'd expect huh?

Over the last couple of years I've been learning the in's and out's of RPGM1. One particular concept I really wanted to make was a day/night system. Now, I had no real clue how to go about doing this, since no game has ever implemented a system like this. Thankfully, I have learned enough to be able to make a system like this work.

I'm going to upload a tech demo of a game using this time system, and also try my best to explain in detail how it works. The zip file will contain the game and a readme for instructions, and the game will have similiar helpful notes.

So why am I uploading this? It's one of my proudest moments of my time with RPGM1, and one of the coolest and complicated systems I've managed to create. With my new focus on smaller games, I've come to realize something like this would be better taught to the community, as I'll be unlikely to ever find any use for this. So, why not put it out there for someone else to use?

I'll devulge new details later. I just got off work and I'm too tired to keep awake.

I dug into my memory cards and found the old archive save file that has the information I was looking for. Thankfully it's all mostly intact. There are many pieces that I never finished on the first go-around, so that will have to be taken care of.

The problem I have is...I have no idea how to structure the game. I've never made a tech demo before, and I usually have a hard time explaining things to people. So what I plan to do is download some other tech demos ( like some featured on the mag), and see if I can learn anything about how to create this demo.

So, at least I browsed the game today, seeing as how I haven't touched rpgmaker since I finished Donkey Kong. That's good progress in my mind.

This sounds really cool 1ce. Would you include a guide in text format too, like in MS Word or something?

It may get more people motivated to make more RPG Maker 1 games. Since we don't have a fourth installment coming out, we've got to get the most out of what we do have, right?

Yep, makes sense to work with what we have.

That's a good idea to do, I plan on making the game demo and a Word document, and possibly a topic on the forum if you'd prefer to just read the explaination.

I browsed the mag for any tech demos, and I'm surprised to find there are very few. I could only find the Super Metroid Trailing Image Effect, and a Custom World map. I downloaded both of these yesterday and plan to play them soon.

And I figure since the tech demo will require both use of switches and item switches, I may have a tutorial explaining how they work as well. It certainly wouldn't hurt, and may help the upstart rookie (although the day/night system is too advanced for new players. Doesn't hurt to cover my bases).

I want to talk a bit more about this game today.

First, let's talk about the release date of this baby. I'd ideally want to have this game churned out in four weeks (three for development, one for playtesting), but I may have to stretch that out to 5 depending on how playtesting goes. I've also realized I'll need to find somebody to help me playtest the near-final code. Bug-catching is going to be incredibly important in this particular game, since nobody can learn from a messed up source code.

So, optimistically, I'd like to get this game done by the end of August. Worst case scenario it could drag into September.

I've recently played and explored two other demos to get an idea on how to organize and do this, but I didn't play them enough to get an accurate feel for them, so I'm planning on digging back into them.

As I mentioned before, I will need a playtester to help me debug the system. They will not only need the skill to know what's going on, but also have patience enough to figure things out and know when something's not working.

And that's it for now. I plan to start working on this title soon.

I got a little bit of work done on the game today.

The tech demos I played left me a little unhappy. Not that they didn't teach you what they wanted you to learn. But the process of figuring out exactly what's going on is a little complicated. You have to dig into the levels, find the code and figure out what's going on. And given all the page conditions, extra pages and take overs, and one can see why this is confusing.

So the first thing I decided to do is create specific example rooms. These are really small, very simple uses of what I'm trying to teach the player. For example, I set a switch in a room with a door, and activating the switch opens the door using switch coding. That way if someone is trying to figure out how switches work, it's readily available in a special area where a player won't get confused by the other events in a crowded room. I also had to switch around levels and events to make these examples appear right at the top of the event list.

That's it for now.

Wow. I think I may have grossly overestimated the development time I posted.

I just got done with several simple examples, one for switches, one for items and three for the day/night system. Personally I think this is a great idea, since it's easily there for you to access. This took only a couple hours to finish. The basic time system was pretty easy to make, since the original source code was already made from the source file I made about a year ago. I ran into problems when I had to create new code for a day/night variation. It was a system where a bubble popped up to tell you the time, but the source code was incomplete. It was pretty quick and easy to devise a way to make it work, but I had to add a lot of new pages to make it work, and it was a little tedious. Still, it's all playtested and working right now. Next is making the tutorial section, the part you actually play through. Hopefully this goes fairly smoothly.

And if you're still curious as to how this particular system works, I'll explain it in full on my next post.

So, the moment you've all been waiting for....here's how the time system works.

Before that though (I'm such a bastard, making you wait like this ), I'd recommend you be well versed in using both switches and items as switches before going into this. Otherwise this will be fairly confusing.

First off, you go into the item creation menu and make time items, such as 7:00 AM, 8:00 AM, 1:00 PM, etc. Use as much as you'd like to implement. For this example, we'll be using items with hour differences, so we make 17 items; 7am-11pm. We also want to set aside some switches; in this case we're using 16 switches, roughly one per hour.

Don't worry if this doesn't make sense yet, I'll explain.

Now let's say, for example's sake, that we're in an outdoor area. Now, the first thing to do is give the player the time items. Depending on how long you want the character to move before time passes, you can give the player a little bit or a lot. For this example I'm giving the player 2 of every time item. Now keep in mind the first step in an event won't activate it until they walk into another, so 2 items will take 3 steps before time passes.

Now, let's create the event that will make the magic happen. Make an event, no graphic, set to touch. We'll make a back page so we can use the page conditions (very important) and leave the first page blank.

Here's what you do. On page 2, you set a page condition that the player must have the first time item (7:00 AM in this example), and then in the event contents you have the event remove one 7:00 AM. That way the game will be able to keep track of how many items are going through.

Then you make another page, number 3. You set the condition to 7:00 AM No item, and then you have a switch turn on (number 1 in this example).

We then make another page, number 4, and set the page conditions to the next item event (8:00 AM) and more importantly, we add the page condition of switch 1 being on.

Make another page, 5. We have page conditions Switch 1 on and Item 8:00 AM No items (notice the bold? This is very important). In the Event contents we'll turn off switch 1 and turn on switch 2.

From the we continue in a similiar cycle. One page will have the the requirement of having an item and taking it away, while the next page will require the item not to be there, turning off a previous switch and starting a new one to continue the cycle.

So what have you accomplished? You've given the player an inventory that runs out, and when it does, a switch is activated that starts the next depletion of the next item.

You see, in RPGM1 there is no code to check how many of an item you have. If you have 1 7:00 AM item, the system treats it the same as if you have 100 7:00 AM items. The only way to have the system recognize a change is to work backward, giving the player items and taking them away. Then, when the item has run out, the system can recognize that change and make a new code out of it. This is why having an item page condition is so important. You have to have the system check to see if an item is there or not, because it won't otherwise.

Then what about switches? What are they good for? Switches keep everything running in a smooth order. Without switches all items would be removed, and keeping some form of control would be fairly difficult. Switches also have a useful advantage; since each switch is unique to each time item, you can use switches as a way to keep track of what time it is. Suppose I only want a store to open at 5:00 PM. If I simply made the page condition that the player have 5:00 PM, it would be open every hour earlier than 5, since the player will have 5:00 PM in their inventory until after 6. So instead I could code the guy to open his store to the switch corresponding to 5 PM, and I would get the exact result I wanted.

Once you get the hang of this system, there are many possibilities for you to use it. If you're looking to use this for more than one time (or make a full-blown calendar system), you'll need something to reset all the items and switches. I usually like making a bed, and in that bed I code it something like this:

First, I remove all items and turn off every switch. Then, I add all the time items to exactly how many I want and you are good to go.

You might be asking why I do a complete purge of all items and switches. Two reasons really: 1. It saves time, and 2. It reduces the chances for bugs to pop up. Yes, I could in theory make a bed with lots of page conditions to say something like "it's noon, ready to go to bed?', but really, a one page bed event is a lot easier to code, and there are far less chances of something going wrong.

Another item to add when you get the hang of it is a clock. After all, you're dealing with time, so being able to see what time it is is really needed, right? Clocks are actually fairly simple. You simply set a page condition for the switch that the hour that's on, and tell the player that in a message (the first time item won't have a switch corrosponding to it, so you simply use the first page of the clock event for that. Page 1 is 7, Page 2 is 8 with a switch 1 page condition, etc.)

Once you really get good at it, you can add events to transition between times. I've added a changing color screen to the No item pages, and the game looks dark in the morning, bright at noon, and back to dark for night. You can also have a portable watch or some similiar item. On the second page with the No item page, I made another page and added a requirement for a stopwatch item. If the conditions are met, the player is told the time the exact moment it happens. This might annoy some players, so I leave an option to remove the stopwatch, and the game still works without it.


With this time system you're really only limited to your imagination and file constraints. You can use switches for every day and have a full-blown calendar system. You can set items for one minute for timing events like races. Make Shenmue III, or a port of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, or a new Harvest Moon. There are a lot of possibilities for what you can do if you master this.

Having said all that though, there are some drawbacks. First and foremost are space complaints. With 500 switches and 250 items, you're going to be hard pressed to find a balance between story and time events. Although it all depends on how you balance that. You could make a game follow the events of one year, and even in my example that takes 381 switches, which only leaves you with 119 switches for story events, and that may not be enough. The other big problem comes from the limit of events in a given field. As I remember, there are only 128 events in one given dungeon (can't remember the exact number, but it's something close to this). Even if we use only 100 spaces for time events, that means for a fully covered map area, there can only have 100 spaces you can step on that produce a time effect. Your game is going to feel very small. One drawback that's unavoidable is the jerky walking you'll encounter when walking over these events. While some can put up with this, there is no way around it.

Hopefully this will help inspire new games with more features to come out, and give players new ideas to break the boundaries of RPGM1, and other makers as well. This guide is not the bottomless pit of knowledge; rather, this is a new spin on how to use different coding to achieve impressive effects. What I'd love to see is not only players use this system in their games, but also mold it and expand it into something even better. I've only opened the floodgates; it's up to you to use this knowledge and perfect it, expand on the ideas here and create something even better.

I worked on the demo just a little bit today. Considering I didn't want to touch it earlier, I feel a bit better for doing something with it today.

I coded in some text and...that's about it really. There's a readme event that helps explain just how the levels are set up, and there's some contact info if somebody needed to reach me. The hubworld is laid out and has all of it's events in place. Now it's time to get my hands dirty, making tutorials for the systems I plan to cover and explanations in the example levels.

I currently have finished several example levels; one for switches, one for item switches, and three for the time system. I feel this is too few, however. Here's what I want to do....I'm going to expanding switches from one example to three, and item switches will go from one to three as well. I can't think of any time system examples I missed or want to implement, so the final product will have three examples of switches, item switches, and the time system in place.

I'm currently shooting for a release at the end of August, on the 30th. Mark your calendars.

Well, let's do a little recap.

I haven't touched the game in a solid 4 days. This isn't terrible considering some projects by other people doesn't seem to see progress for over some months, but considering I was working on this a little each day, this is troubling.

Part of the problem....isn't a problem at all! I now have a full time job, and benefits to boot! Life is looking really good. I mean, when you go from unemployed for a year and severly depressed, to having a good job with full benefits, the whole world has a different outlook. So overall, my life is doing better than ever. Unfortunately, working five days a week, this leaves little time for RPGMaker, when working takes half my day and fun activities takes my other half (along with much-needed friend time).

So here's what I'm looking at. The game was originally planned to have two seperate sections, one that you played through (similiar to other tech demos, like Lantis's World Map), and another, more innovative section which gave simple examples of what happens, and explains in text formats how it works.

I have every intention to make the set release date of August 30th. So that means I'll need to make cuts, and I feel the tutorial section will get the cut. This is for several reasons; one, it's slighty unneeded. The example levels do an adequate job of teaching what's going on. Two, I have problems with large amounts of text in-game. I don't mind typing thousands of words in the computer, but when the game text comes, I like to slim it down to whatever I need, and cut the fat. Third, this cut will allow me to make the release date. And finally, I haven't created any of the tutorial levels, so I don't need to remove anything that I didn't make

I did work on the title a little bit. I made a new example showing how switches work. Although, I'm starting to question this part too....how many newbies are going to actually pick this up? Anyone with a working knowledge will more than likely know about switches and how to make item-switches.

There's still a lot on the cutting board, and many revisions before the final game is released. Hope you're looking forward to it.

I've put in more progress today.

Even though the tutorial is getting cut, there's still an awful lot to do. Right now I have cut down the hubworld level so that less walking is needed to reach portals. And portals are getting put up right now, to link the levels together, which wasn't in the original plan. And I'd also like to move around the levels so that when you open the editor, the time event levels are on top, not the switches.

So yeah, I still have a bit of work ahead of me.

I'd also like to put up a request for a playtester. The game is getting closer to a playtesting state, and I need someone to double-check my work. Having a person check your work is invaluable. And since this is just a tech demo, it shouldn't take that long.

Just wanted to put that out there. I may send a few PMs around to get somebody, because I'd hate to release this without someone looking over it.

And some more progress today.

I finally linked up all the levels, and just started my first wave of debugging. Despite a few rough spots, most everything is working very smoothly. Now that move location events are woking great, it's time to write up more tutorials to explain more of the system.

So, I don't think I've really talked much about what you're getting in the package. Well, since most of the major revisions are finished, I'll spill the beans.

The first level is a hubworld, which has links to every level. The first area is your basic time system, the big standard. There are two other rooms that have a variation of some sort on the system, one adds color screen changes to make the envoriment change colors to represent the passage of time, and the other has a clock pop up and tell you the time exactly as it happens.

The next area has an example of using a basic item as a switch event, where you give an old man a coin. The other item example has you with a lot of items that runs out as you walk around. This'll give a good example of what the time system is like.

And if you don't know about switches, there are two of those. One is simply pulling a switch to open a door, and the other has you beating a dragon, and seeing the reaction of the king to this news.

In every level will be a person explaining in detail how the events in the area work. I also plan to type up a .txt of how the time system works in greater detail (I may also consider making a Word or Works document). There's also a readme in the game itself explaining the basic premise of the game.

And that's about it. No custom sprites, no title screens or fancy graphics, or wonderful gameplay. Hopefully it will be able to adequately teach you how to use this system, but it'll be up to you to make it work.

Yesterday evening I worked on the game some more. Every level now has a guy in a tux that will explain the basic premise of what you can learn in a particular level, and a star underneath him so when you go into the editor, you can easily check which one is him.

So I basically typed up most of the explainations in the game, and the last big thing to type up is the txt document that ships with the game.

Having completed most of the game, I may look at adding some additions to the game, but that depends on how much extra time I have.

I'm happy to announce the game is 100% complete!

Of course the cut from the tutorial made a big difference, and I think the game is actually much better thanks to it. It makes the game much more streamlined and easy to access.

I finished up today by playtesting some events I didn't check yesterday, and I also added a new feature; if in the example levels you can't find the source code, look for the event on the red pot. A way to help players get through the madness of levels and get straight to the point. That's the goal of this game, and I love it!

So, other than the txt document, I'm finished? HELL NO! I've actually had some flashes of brilliance working with the system, so I plan to expand the game to add more time system examples, that have some more creative flair to them, and help show some nifty stuff that you can use the system for. Some new levels include; a room with a lot of shops that open and close at certain times, a room that uses the time system as a stopwatch for a race, and a day system to go with the night system.

I'm also still looking for a playtester! I'll put up an ad somewhere on the site soon to see if I can get any volunteers.

There's plenty more information and expansion to this hot game, so stay tuned for more updates!

I've been typing up the txt readme recently, and taking a few days off. Hey, can't work on it everyday, right?

A notable new development is moving the readme file from a computer to the laptop. This will make typing things out much eaier and more leisurely. It also let's me take the laptop into the PS2 room to type and check the game code at the same time, which will prove very helpful in the next couple of days.

The file, named README2 (the 2 at the end means it's based on the second version of the game) has a bit of typing into it. It has an introduction, a finished time system explanation, and I'll be working on a detailed description here soon. The intro is all original, and the time system explanation was pulled from what I wrote here in the studio. That may sound like a cheap solution, and to some extent it is, unless you consider the time it took to re-format the text into something more managable.


In any case, I wanted to share a bit of text I typed for the readme that may get cut. Unless I can find somewhere to put it.

"I set out to create this game with several goals in mind. Setting goals for games you
create helps you focus on what your game should be, and help cut out unneeded elements.
Often I looked back at my goals for the project and they helped guide me when I didn't
know what to do next.

Here's the goals I set for myself:
1. Create a technical demo that is easy to access and user-friendly
2. Clearly explain and make the player understand how the time system works.
3. Spark imagination for new ideas from the player.


These goals have helped define exactly how the game ended up in it's final form. For example,
many events are set on top of set graphics for easy access during event edit mode. To
spark imagination from players, I have added many levekls that use a creative form of the
time system to create interesting situations. And finally, I lay out clear instructions
on how events are made. In fact, the very reason this readme exists is to help you understand
the time system, a goal I have set out for myself to accomplish."

Use that information as you see fit.

I haven't made any progress lately, but here's an update nonetheless.

I'm thinking of pushing the release date back from August 30th to sometime in September, maybe the 15th. The reason for the pushback is a flurry of new ideas I had to make the experience better. I'm not sure if I'll be able to make the release date. I'm certainly going to try! So look forward to August 30, but it may get pushed back. I need to get my rear in gear.

The other troubling news is I haven't found anyone to playtest this baby. Makes me wonder if anyone is actually reading...


.....

IS ANYONE OUT THERE??

In any case, this worries me because playtesters can often spot many flaws which you yourself can't see, which is oftentimes numerous. So sticking it out there without anyone looking over it could have the nasty side effect of having bugs, which I've been trying my very best to eliminate all of them. If you've seen the Donkey Kong topic, you would already know how completely consumed I am with destroying all living bugs.

And finally, I'll be working on the title today. The readme2 is going well, and I'm adding a large section of text to the readme soon.

I really hope someone out there is looking forward to this.

I'm here but I can't play RPGM1 (nor do I presently have time to play it). Release it with the bugs. THEN you'll be sure to hear people speak up.

Oh yeah, I've already been there. It'd work like this:

Release it.
People point out mistakes.
People never stop complaining about mistakes.

Which is why I'd prefer to get it right the first time. Especially with a game so complex like this, there's bound to be something I can't forsee.

Yeah, but in this case, you are talking about a system demo rather than a completed game. In a sense, a game should have the bugs removed, but a system demo is more like a premise for an argument. You put it out there the best you can at first and let the feedback process be the refinement so that when you use it in an actual game, then you can worry about clearing the bugs.

Perhaps I'll try that. Thanks Bo.