Here's what took me most of the day typing up.

Any questions or comments, I'll be glad to respond to.

3. Time system- Start from Scratch

Okay, let's say that most of the mumbo jumbo in section two flew over your head. No big deal.
After all, nobody said this was gonna be easy. This section of the readme will take you from the
very beginning, starting with booting up the RPGMaker disk to coding every page to finishing up.

Alright, let's start. Pop in the RPG Maker 1 disk into your Playstation. Then, go to RPG MAKER and start editing data. First, I always go to configuration and set the cursor to 1 and the music off, but you can do what you'd like. You'll also want to make a basic character to control when we get to playtesting.

The first important thing to do is go into items. Here, we'll make our time items. It's important to label them as you'd like, since you'll be used to seeing them as you make your game. Make as many as you'd like for your system. In this example, I'm going from 7 am to 11 pm. So my item inventory looks like this:

1. 7:00 AM Other
2. 8:00 AM Other
3. 9:00 AM Other
4. 10:00 AM Other
5. 11:00 AM Other
6. 12:00 PM Other
7. 1:00 PM Other
8. 2:00 PM Other
9. 3:00 PM Other
10. 4:00 PM Other
11. 5:00 PM Other
12. 6:00 PM Other
13. 7:00 PM Other
14. 8:00 PM Other
15. 9:00 PM Other
16. 10:00 PM Other
17. 11:00 PM Other


The important thing to remember when making these items is to set them to Other, and make sure the items can't be broken or sold. Hide simply shows whether there's an item description, so they will show up in the inventory. This is useful for figuring out what time it is, or if there's a broken event, you can pull up the inventory and figure out what it's doing.

Next, we move on to events. But first, you must make a basic dungeon that's big enough to walk around in. Something small would be fine.

Now we can move to the events and make the magic happen. Select your level.

You can put the time event anywhere you'd like, but for my example I like putting time events on different grounds, so I have the time events on a small dirt spot when the rest of the map is grass.

The first thing we have to do is give the player the items. If the items aren't in the player's inventory, this whole time system won't work. Thankfully it's simple to do. You can easily use the intro event (press X on any empty space, the fourth option down) to add these items. Or, you can make an event that gives the player items if you're just playtesting. It's up to you. You can also give them as many items as you want, depending on how long you walk each hour to last. For playtesting purposes, I give the player two of each time item.

Now, we start making the time event itself. You'll be making one time event, and then using the duplicate feature to copy it to other spaces. We do this for many reasons; it reduces the amount of bugs our system can have, it's more memory efficent, and it's far quicker and easier to do things this way.

So, press X to bring up the menu, and select Create Event. Your event should start out something like this:

Page 1/1

Event Contents-None

No Graphic

Move Type-Don't Move

Start-From All
Touch

Page Conditions
-
-
-
-
-
-

Now, This first page is rather useless for our time system, but it has to be there. So, press triangle and Add Page (Back).

And here's our starting point. The first thing we're going to do is remove the first time item, in this case 7:00 am. If we only code the game to take away 7:00 am in the event code, the rpgmaker will take away the item whether the player has the item or not (don't ask my why the game acts this way), so we need to put a page condition that requires the game to check to see if the item is in the players inventory. So our second page will look something like this:


Page 2/2

Event Contents-Yes

No Graphic

Move Type-Don't Move

Start-From All
Touch

Page Conditions
Item No. 1 7:00 AM Yes
-
-
-
-
-

----------

Page 2/2

00-Remove Item:No 1 7:00 AM
01-
02-
03-
04-
05-
06-

There. Perfect. As the player walks around, the item 7:00 am is being taken away, and until that happens, we can say it's 7:00 am.

Now for the second part of the plan. We need to make an event for what happens after all the 7:00 am items run out. After making another page behind 2, we make a page condition to see if there are no 7:00 am items, so when they do run out, the event will activate. It looks something like this:

Page 3/3

Event Contents-Yes

No Graphic

Move Type-Don't Move

Start-From All
Touch

Page Conditions
Item No. 1 7:00 AM No
-
-
-
-
-

----------

Page 3/3

00-Switch On: 001
01-
02-
03-
04-
05-
06-

So, what have we done here? We've basically run out of an item, and a switch has been flicked on that starts the next chain of events. The system works in a cycle after this; one page event will look for an item and remove it, while the second page event sees there aren't any items anymore and turns on a switch (and turns one switch off, which I'll explain later), to start the cycle all over again.

THAT'S IT. THAT'S THE SECRET OF THE TIME SYSTEM. We start a chain of events where we remove items and keep removing items to track the progress of the time items. Once you understand this, everything will fall into place.

Let's continue, and you'll start to see what I mean. Make another behind 3, and it's going to look similiar to event 2, except for one key difference.


Page 4/4

Event Contents-Yes

No Graphic

Move Type-Don't Move

Start-From All
Touch

Page Conditions
Item No. 2 8:00 AM Yes
Switch 001 On
-
-
-
-

----------

Page 4/4

00-Remove Item:No 2 8:00 AM
01-
02-
03-
04-
05-
06-


See the difference? We require the rpgmaker to look for that first switch. This way we can keep the time system going forward. If that switch wasn't there, it would continue to go to the 3rd page, where switch 001 would get turned on all the time. Switches help keep the time system in order, so don't underestimate their usefulness. And the other big change is we start removing 8:00 am from the players inventory. So as long as the player has one 8:00 am item, we can consider it to be 8:00 am.

Now, let's make another page, number 5.

Page 5/5

Event Contents-Yes

No Graphic

Move Type-Don't Move

Start-From All
Touch

Page Conditions
Item No. 2 8:00 AM No
Switch 001 On
-
-
-
-

----------

Page 5/5

00-Switch On: 002
01-Switch Off: 001
02-
03-
04-
05-
06-

Now that we're out of the 8:00 am item, we turn on switch number 2 to continue the chain of events to begin taking away 9:00 am. Since we no longer need switch 1, we can turn it off.

From here, you basically continue with the same process. You check for the item in the players inventory, and with the right switch turned on, you remove that item you checked for. Then, on the second page, you see if you've run out of that item with the right switch turned on. You turn off the old switch, and turn on a new one.

If it's still confusing, I'll provide the rest of the time system below of my example. Even if all of this makes sense, I would still recommend looking at the entire event code below to get a feel for how it looks overall.

Page 6/6

Event Contents-Yes

No Graphic

Move Type-Don't Move

Start-From All
Touch

Page Conditions
Item No. 3 9:00 AM Yes
Switch 002 On
-
-
-
-

----------

Page 6/6

00-Remove Item:No 3 9:00 AM
01-
02-
03-
04-
05-
06-

----------

Page 7/7

Event Contents-Yes

No Graphic

Move Type-Don't Move

Start-From All
Touch

Page Conditions
Item No. 3 9:00 AM No
Switch 002 On
-
-
-
-

---------

Page 7/7

00-Switch On: 003
01-Switch Off: 002
02-
03-
04-
05-
06-

-----------

Page 8/8

Event Contents-Yes

No Graphic

Move Type-Don't Move

Start-From All
Touch

Page Conditions
Item No. 4 10:00 AM Yes
Switch 003 On
-
-
-
-

----------

Page 8/8

00-Remove Item:No 4 10:00 AM
01-
02-
03-
04-
05-
06-

----------

Page 9/9

Event Contents-Yes

No Graphic

Move Type-Don't Move

Start-From All
Touch

Page Conditions
Item No. 4 10:00 AM No
Switch 003 On
-
-
-
-

----------

Page 9/9

00-Switch On: 004
01-Switch Off: 003
02-
03-
04-
05-
06-

----------

Page 10/10

Event Contents-Yes

No Graphic

Move Type-Don't Move

Start-From All
Touch

Page Conditions
Item No. 5 11:00 AM Yes
Switch 004 On
-
-
-
-

----------

Page 10/10

00-Remove Item:No 5 11:00 AM
01-
02-
03-
04-
05-
06-

----------

Page 11/11

Event Contents-Yes

No Graphic

Move Type-Don't Move

Start-From All
Touch

Page Conditions
Item No. 5 11:00 AM No
Switch 004 On
-
-
-
-

----------

Page 11/11

00-Switch On: 005
01-Switch Off: 004
02-
03-
04-
05-
06-

----------

Page 12/12

Event Contents-Yes

No Graphic

Move Type-Don't Move

Start-From All
Touch

Page Conditions
Item No. 6 12:00 PM Yes
Switch 005 On
-
-
-
-

----------

Page 12/12

00-Remove Item:No 6 11:00 AM
01-
02-
03-
04-
05-
06-

----------

Page 13/13

Event Contents-Yes

No Graphic

Move Type-Don't Move

Start-From All
Touch

Page Conditions
Item No. 6 12:00 PM No
Switch 005 On
-
-
-
-

----------

Page 13/13

00-Switch On: 006
01-Switch Off: 005
02-
03-
04-
05-
06-

----------

Page 14/14

Event Contents-Yes

No Graphic

Move Type-Don't Move

Start-From All
Touch

Page Conditions
Item No. 7 1:00 PM Yes
Switch 006 On
-
-
-
-

----------

Page 14/14

00-Remove Item:No 7 1:00 PM
01-
02-
03-
04-
05-
06-
----------

Page 15/15

Event Contents-Yes

No Graphic

Move Type-Don't Move

Start-From All
Touch

Page Conditions
Item No. 7 1:00 PM No
Switch 006 On
-
-
-
-

----------

Page 15/15

00-Switch On: 007
01-Switch Off: 006
02-
03-
04-
05-
06-

----------

Page 16/16

Event Contents-Yes

No Graphic

Move Type-Don't Move

Start-From All
Touch

Page Conditions
Item No. 8 2:00 PM Yes
Switch 007 On
-
-
-
-

----------

Page 16/16

00-Remove Item:No 8 2:00 PM
01-
02-
03-
04-
05-
06-

----------

Page 17/17

Event Contents-Yes

No Graphic

Move Type-Don't Move

Start-From All
Touch

Page Conditions
Item No. 8 2:00 PM No
Switch 007 On
-
-
-
-

----------

Page 17/17

00-Switch On: 008
01-Switch Off: 007
02-
03-
04-
05-
06-

----------

Page 18/18

Event Contents-Yes

No Graphic

Move Type-Don't Move

Start-From All
Touch

Page Conditions
Item No. 9 3:00 PM Yes
Switch 008 On
-
-
-
-

----------

Page 18/18

00-Remove Item:No 9 3:00 PM
01-
02-
03-
04-
05-
06-

---------

Page 19/19

Event Contents-Yes

No Graphic

Move Type-Don't Move

Start-From All
Touch

Page Conditions
Item No. 9 3:00 PM No
Switch 008 On
-
-
-
-

----------

Page 19/19

00-Switch On: 009
01-Switch Off: 008
02-
03-
04-
05-
06-

----------

Page 20/20

Event Contents-Yes

No Graphic

Move Type-Don't Move

Start-From All
Touch

Page Conditions
Item No. 10 4:00 PM Yes
Switch 009 On
-
-
-
-

----------

Page 20/20

00-Remove Item:No 10 4:00 PM
01-
02-
03-
04-
05-
06-

---------

Page 21/21

Event Contents-Yes

No Graphic

Move Type-Don't Move

Start-From All
Touch

Page Conditions
Item No. 10 4:00 PM No
Switch 009 On
-
-
-
-

----------

Page 21/21

00-Switch On: 010
01-Switch Off: 009
02-
03-
04-
05-
06-

----------

Page 22/22

Event Contents-Yes

No Graphic

Move Type-Don't Move

Start-From All
Touch

Page Conditions
Item No. 11 5:00 PM Yes
Switch 010 On
-
-
-
-

----------

Page 22/22

00-Remove Item:No 11 5:00 PM
01-
02-
03-
04-
05-
06-

---------

Page 23/23

Event Contents-Yes

No Graphic

Move Type-Don't Move

Start-From All
Touch

Page Conditions
Item No. 11 5:00 PM No
Switch 010 On
-
-
-
-

----------

Page 23/23

00-Switch On: 011
01-Switch Off: 010
02-
03-
04-
05-
06-

----------

Page 24/24

Event Contents-Yes

No Graphic

Move Type-Don't Move

Start-From All
Touch

Page Conditions
Item No. 12 6:00 PM Yes
Switch 011 On
-
-
-
-

----------

Page 24/24

00-Remove Item:No 12 6:00 PM
01-
02-
03-
04-
05-
06-

---------

Page 25/25

Event Contents-Yes

No Graphic

Move Type-Don't Move

Start-From All
Touch

Page Conditions
Item No. 12 6:00 PM No
Switch 011 On
-
-
-
-

----------

Page 25/25

00-Switch On: 012
01-Switch Off: 011
02-
03-
04-
05-
06-

----------

Page 26/26

Event Contents-Yes

No Graphic

Move Type-Don't Move

Start-From All
Touch

Page Conditions
Item No. 13 7:00 PM Yes
Switch 012 On
-
-
-
-

----------

Page 26/26

00-Remove Item:No 13 7:00 PM
01-
02-
03-
04-
05-
06-

---------

Page 27/27

Event Contents-Yes

No Graphic

Move Type-Don't Move

Start-From All
Touch

Page Conditions
Item No. 13 7:00 PM No
Switch 012 On
-
-
-
-

----------

Page 27/27

00-Switch On: 013
01-Switch Off: 012
02-
03-
04-
05-
06-

----------

Page 28/28

Event Contents-Yes

No Graphic

Move Type-Don't Move

Start-From All
Touch

Page Conditions
Item No. 14 8:00 PM Yes
Switch 013 On
-
-
-
-

----------

Page 28/28

00-Remove Item:No 14 8:00 PM
01-
02-
03-
04-
05-
06-

---------

Page 29/29

Event Contents-Yes

No Graphic

Move Type-Don't Move

Start-From All
Touch

Page Conditions
Item No. 14 8:00 PM No
Switch 013 On
-
-
-
-

----------

Page 29/29

00-Switch On: 014
01-Switch Off: 013
02-
03-
04-
05-
06-

----------

Page 30/30

Event Contents-Yes

No Graphic

Move Type-Don't Move

Start-From All
Touch

Page Conditions
Item No. 15 9:00 PM Yes
Switch 014 On
-
-
-
-

----------

Page 30/30

00-Remove Item:No 15 9:00 PM
01-
02-
03-
04-
05-
06-

---------

Page 31/31

Event Contents-Yes

No Graphic

Move Type-Don't Move

Start-From All
Touch

Page Conditions
Item No. 15 9:00 PM No
Switch 014 On
-
-
-
-

----------

Page 31/31

00-Switch On: 015
01-Switch Off: 014
02-
03-
04-
05-
06-

----------

Page 32/32

Event Contents-Yes

No Graphic

Move Type-Don't Move

Start-From All
Touch

Page Conditions
Item No. 16 10:00 PM Yes
Switch 015 On
-
-
-
-

----------

Page 32/32

00-Remove Item:No 16 10:00 PM
01-
02-
03-
04-
05-
06-

---------

Page 33/33

Event Contents-Yes

No Graphic

Move Type-Don't Move

Start-From All
Touch

Page Conditions
Item No. 16 10:00 PM No
Switch 015 On
-
-
-
-

----------

Page 33/33

00-Switch On: 016
01-Switch Off: 015
02-
03-
04-
05-
06-

----------

Page 34/34

Event Contents-Yes

No Graphic

Move Type-Don't Move

Start-From All
Touch

Page Conditions
Item No. 17 11:00 PM Yes
Switch 016 On
-
-
-
-

----------

Page 34/34

00-Remove Item:No 17 11:00 PM
01-
02-
03-
04-
05-
06-

---------

Page 35/35

Event Contents-Yes

No Graphic

Move Type-Don't Move

Start-From All
Touch

Page Conditions
Item No. 17 11:00 PM No
Switch 016 On
-
-
-
-

----------

Page 35/35

00-Message: Ugh, I'm tired. Time to go to bed...
01-Move Location: Bed / Take Over: Bed
02-
03-
04-
05-
06-

You can end it in numerous ways, but I find this one to be the easiest. After you run out of time items, you basically stop time at 11 pm unless you do something. I either have the character automatically walk or warp to a bed event (covered in the next section), and have that event remove all items and restock the player with new ones. We'll cover this in the next section.

Once you finished, duplicate this event to every space you wish time to pass, and don't forget to playtest it!

I hope this example time system helped you better learn the in's and out's of the time system I've made. Feel free to copy this onto your own game and see how it works. If you mess around with it, you'll eventually understand how it works, so don't be afraid to mess around and make mistakes. The only way to learn the right way is to do it the wrong way.

I've oticed lately there's more studio activity lately. This is good! I like to see this!

Anyway, I have gotten a lot done yesterday on the readme file. It should be finished fairly soon, and the game itself is nearing completion as well.

So with that said, let's talk about what you're getting when you download the game come August 30th.

You'll get a very lengthy readme file, and the Time System Tech Demo itself. It will be on rpgm1 on one card, in dexdrive form, with no plans for a PS3 format at this time.

In the game you'll have the basic time system demo level, and two varieties of time system tweaks. You'll also get two examples of item-switches and regular switches. There's a readme and a hubworld in-game to explain how everything works.

The readme.txt will go in-depth on how the time system works, and goes over the time system in text form. This readme.txt will be in the game download, and will also be available online in it's own dedicated topic.


This game has been developed with the idea that I'm scratching the surface of what can be done on rpgmaker1, and leave the player to modify, polish, and perfect it. For that reason, this is not the only release of the time system tech demo we'll see. As I get more ideas and as people submit new ideas for the time system or some variant of it, the file will be updated to reflect new ideas from other users, and use their input to refine it.

I'm looking forward to this, and hopefully you are too

I'm happy to report that the readme is now complete, sporting 7 sections of writing.

And with that, the game and readme file are basically complete. I'll just playtest and spellcheck, and the game will be set to hit it's August 30th release date.

And now the game has been playtested for the final time, and the readme is spellchecked for the final time. The game is complete, 100%.

You'll download the zip file Time3.1. From there you'll get two files; one gme, TimeSystemTechDemoV3.1, and one txt, named README2.

A couple things to note:

The file names end in Version 3.1. This is the first final version out. I'm putting it in versions, because I don't plan on being done with the game just yet. When (and if) I find people with new ways to use the time system, or develop them on my own, I will update the readme and game to add them. So this may not be the last of the time system we'll see.

I'm also going to upload the entirety of the readme here, for those of you who either have no dexdrive or can't play the game. The readme topic will be stickied on this forum and will be up on the 29th, a day before the game file becomes available.

Until the 30th, be cool.

Having technical problems with the technical demo.

For some odd reason, the site won't register the file I have as a zip file. This in itself wouldn't be such a big deal, but I've used the exact same zip program for FtNitH and Donkey Kong without any problems. So, I have no ****ing clue. I have no such problems uploading it to the Pavilion. I've used PKReader for my zipping needs.

I'm going to play around with this and see if I can figure out what's causing the problem. I'm uploading the file here, maybe it's a problem on my end, I don't know. Maybe someone can help me out here?

The game will be released when it can.

The problem are the periods in the filename. Remove them and it'll work fine.

The script determines anything with more than one to be erroneous.

That was the trick that made it not work.

The game is now offically released to the public! Rejoice, and play!

Let's not mince words here: the results are not that good.

I'm not a party pooper kinda guy, but I can't help but be somewhat disappointed with the results I've seen so far. A week and a half after the game's release, we have three downloads on both the mag and the pav, and oly 6 views on the dedicated readme topic. That's not so hot, considering that Find the Needle in the Haystack pulled better numbers than that in the same time period. A garbage game got more downloads than a tech demo. Doesn't that seem odd to you?

This doesn't change any plans I have for RPGMaker, nor does it dwindle my fire for creating new games, but it is a little depressing.

Wow, you really spent a lot of time on this. If I had my Dex I'd totally download this. Props though.

I think part of the problem is that it's a tech demo for RPGM1, which has been around for so long that much of your userbase has already got the tool halfway mastered. Along with that, it's not a complete game, whereas Find A Needle was.

It is complete, technically, just open for updates. But I see where you're going with that, and I agree that may be part of the problem. I suppose tech demos aren't in high demand nowanddays.