Hello valued game creators! My name is “Shiguren” and continuing on the work of my predecessor MinamiYotuba, I will present to you the latest news and tips regarding RPG Maker Unite. I am mostly a plugin-creator for RPG Maker MV and MZ in the Japan RM community! [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//41957561/df792e9ddae8bb0f4f0b5e86405f63b3d79f9943.png[/img] Last time, we left off by introducing the general workflow of how games are created in RPG Maker Unite. But some of you may be thinking, using a limited amount of pre-defined data, it still sounds difficult to make a proper game, in particular those Event related actions that are arguably the most difficult! This is especially true if you have never tried RPG Maker series before and would like to but are held back by fearing whether you will be overwhelmed by the learning curve or the time-investment. To solve this, we would like to introduce the “Template Game” this time! The Template Game is an option that users can choose to turn on when starting a new project, which will incorporate RPG Maker Unite’s completed sample game as a template for you to get started on! [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//41957561/710cacdc9d629e6e6ed5b27ac0cba07b52ffe3a0.jpg[/img] (Option to incorporate sample game into project, or starting from blank) In addition to the initial data such as items and skill seen in previous RPG Maker titles, RPG Maker Unite’s Template Game contains further elements such as complete, professional-made maps and Event data for users to edit or use as reference. [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//41957561/44e71ef9a5b294eafd92b3e133c9c102f9ae07ff.png[/img] (Map Tree and Map Editor example screenshot - Just a a recap from what we have shown before, Map Data has now been moved into the Database tree too! ) So, let’s dive into the actual Template Game and see what is in it! Using the completed game as a reference to see how Event Commands work is always a great way to learn! The template game contains a good amount of generic and some story events, such as conversation with villagers, treasure boxes, positional changes, etc. Since maps are already pre-connected without further user input, users can focus on their efforts directly on adding more Events or making tweaks to the maps. It should be noted that, since we have made some changes to how Event Command UI looks and its operations, it is recommended that even RPG Maker veterans give the Template Game a look to have a smoother transition experience! [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//41957561/fcbd4578ebbb3f75e6303d7147ca1c1d902577da.png[/img] The screenshot above is an Event example taken from the Template Game. Note that the Map Editor window is below the Map Editor and actually adjustable in size. Since this is a rather long Event with many, this is quite helpful to confirm its entire contents. In case you are wondering, the little brown box above is the map editor now shrunk in size to make room for the Event. The event shown here is a type of fetch quest where the players need to defeat some generic monsters and hand them in to a quest giver NPC. Events like these are very common in RPG games and make use of many switches, conditions, and outcomes such as inventory changes. [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//41957561/d26be00f44e697accf3cb2c521a65a0330830417.jpg[/img] [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//41957561/9d3e9798c857b996dfc225f08c28fcfcd7d44898.jpg[/img] （There are also many treasure boxes or loot-able stashes pre-defined in shops or on the streets!） Being a sample game intended for users to expand on or to learn from, the events in the sample game are intentionally made a little bland in terms of story, but serves the purpose well as a foundation for the user's own projects. The Template Game is a great addition especially to those who ever felt “making a lot of maps is tedious”, “wanting to lessen the workload on elements not critical to the core of my game”! [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//41957561/bf3406d41481cd4945eb8a7c144d3473982da9a4.png[/img] The Template Game also already make use of new features such as the enhanced parallax mapping. Feel free to see how it works and give it a try too! In the in-game editor, it looks like the following: [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//41957561/03b2d7c4f4cd299073e5a02deb63069b300c4c38.jpg[/img] The passability of tiles, or collision, are of course also already determined. Feel free to copy and practice with it! The collision can be set with the 3rd tab “Collision Placement” found around the lower center of the map editor. Here, tiles with number 1 written means characters can pass through it, and blank ones are impassable. Thus, if we use the eraser tool to delete the setting, the tile would be rendered impassable too. [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//41957561/1f26ec2d556aa5a8a55195385b25e687d52383db.png[/img] The collision value can be toggled quickly throw the “Show Layer” checkbox to the right. Use this to check between collision value and the type of tiles you want to edit! [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//41957561/df266ed2756e90393611e147146b63965806d726.png[/img] Last but not least, there also now a new feature to that allows users to export Event data into JSON format! In previous RPG Makers, there were ways to quickly make generic events, but the contents of which were fixed, and custom ones would require the use of plugins. With this new feature, we can expect the community to help make and share many more complex generic events in the near future! This concludes the introduction of the Template Game! Please stay tuned as I bring in further interesting news about RPG Maker Unite to you! [h3][b]8th RPG Maker Unite Q＆A[/b][/h3] [b]Q: Will updates to RPG Maker MZ stop once RPG Maker Unite is released? Are there anymore plans for Standalone RPG Maker or other game tools in the future? [/b] [b]A:[/b] As was announced early in February, RPG Maker Unite is developed by a different team with different resources at hand. It will be more appropriate to think of the two titles as “siblings” that will be sold in parallel to each other, as opposed to a father-son relationship where one succeeds the other. RPG Maker MZ is still quite young in its life cycle. With an enthusiastic community, and a healthy user-base already used to it, there is no reason for us to stop updating RPG Maker MZ anytime soon. As for future tools, while we cannot disclose much at this moment, we currently do not have plans to stop releasing our own standalone solutions.