Quick Start Guide
When you first download the RPGToolkit, learning your way around the editor can be an incredibly daunting task. If you have no clue where to begin, that's fine! This section of the guide serves to introduce the new user to most areas of the editor, building a (very, very) small game in the process. When you first open the editor via your start menu, you'll be greeted by a splash screen. After it closes, and you okay the tip of the day, you're thrust into the heart of the toolkit; from here, we begin our guide.
The main toolkit window is a massive, but learnable, world with many, many options. Its title bar will enable you to see the name of the currently loaded project. The first time you open the editor, the demo game will be open. However, you probably don't want to work in the demo game, so let's create a new project. The menu bar, found at the top of the window, houses a suite of commands to navigate the editor. To create a new project, choose File -> New, or just press Ctrl + N.
A screen to create a project now appears. You really only have to enter one thing here: your game's title; don't think too hard about it, as it can always be changed later. For the purposes of this guide, enter "Quick Start". Since we want (and will be using) the default media, leave the resources checkbox checked. Finally, confirm the dialogue by clicking "Setup My Game!" Now you see the Main File Editor—essentially your game's control panel; we aren't interested in any of the many options available here just yet, though, so close the window using the "x" near the top-left, but inside the window—you'll know what this in when actually in the editor.
The centre of every game is its environments—in the toolkit, you construct screens using boards composed of tiles. Since you chose to include the default files, an initial board has already been created for you. You can use it by choosing File -> Open, opening the "Boards" folder, then choosing the sole board—start.brd. Welcome to the board editor. Boards are constructed using 32x32 graphics ("tiles")—optionally laid isometric. The solidity of laid tiles is also set (there are many settings, but only three are commonly used—normal, solid, and under). To change the current solidity ("tile type"), click one of the coloured triangles in the "Tile Type" section at the bottom. The current setting—normal (not solid), is grey—solid is blue, and "under" is purple.
Players can move through the normal type, but not the solid. When moving over an under tile, the sprite (graphic) turns translucent to illustrate that the player is underneath an object, or whatnot. There are two modes in which you can lay tiles. The draw lock and type lock buttons, first and second in the third row on the left tools bar (if you can't see it, choose Windows -> Show/Hide Tools), respectively, allow you to change. When in draw lock, clicking on the board sets the current tile (more on this in a moment) with the current type. Type lock, on the contrary, only sets types, enabling you to quickly change the solidity of whole areas without worrying about overriding the graphics there.
In the RPGToolkit, tiles are stored in sets. This way, logically related tiles can be grouped together to make finding a specific tile a less convoluted task. To open a tile, click the respective button (tools, left in the second row). The default tiles are packaged in default.tst, so choose that to get a tile choosing window. Now you can pick a tile, and, given you are in draw lock mode, begin laying it down. If you need a grid to make this task simpler, click the top-left button on the tools bar to toggle one. When you want to choose another tile, you could open the set and pick again; but this will become tasking very quickly. Two alternatives exist. Pressing the L key will open the tile chooser for the last opened set, or—more convenient—you can click the third button the far right toolbar (a black square) to reveal the current tileset. From here, you can easily select and choose tiles—even load a new set.
After you've laid out a nice scene (remembering to change the tile type logically), you'll probably want to create some linked boards. That is, when you walk off the edge of the board, you'll want to go somewhere—not just walk into a wall. To do this, open the New Editor toolbar (second button—a document—on the far right) and choose Edit Board. Here you can use precisely the same procedure as before to create another scene. Various board settings—including aforementioned linking—are available from the Board Information window. To access this, choose Board Settings -> Board Information. On the Directional Links tab, you can choose where the edges of the boards go. You probably want to link the two (or more) boards you've created together, so do this as you see fit.
Back on your start board; don't forget to set where you would like the player to appear. This can be accomplished by choosing Board Settings -> Set Player Position, then clicking the desired tile. At this point, you may want to test your boards. Make sure everything is saved (File -> Save, or the toolbar—and you should probably save routinely), and click the green play button, last along the top toolbar. After seeing a generic start sequence—which we'll attend to later—you can wander among the two boards you might have created. The session can be ending by closing the window.
Without battling, however, an RPG just isn't an RPG. In the toolkit, enemies (and all sprites) are constructed out of animations. To create a new animation, again open the new toolbar; this time, choose Edit Animation. You can set its size with the option in the bottom-left hand corner (ultimately, this is setting the size of the enemy, in our case), and place a frame by clicking the canvas in the centre. If you don't have an image to use, just pick the message window (mwin.jpg). More frames can be added, and also set, with the next button the on the tools bar, at left. When you're done, save, and close the animation editor.
Once more, using the new toolbar; this time, choose Edit Enemy to access to Enemy Editor. Here, you can set some basic information—like name and statistics, as well as chance of a critical hit. Click graphics to access the sprite editor. The only stance that's really mandatory is rest (when your enemy is waiting), so assign the animation we just created to this slot; okay the window. Be sure to set how much experience players will gain from defeating this enemy under the rewards section. Like a classical RPG, when players gain experience, they level up. Finally, after saving, click Add Enemy to Game. On this screen, double-click a slot in the Enemy Skill Level list and select the enemy just created. Next, assign it a level (you'll use this to decide where it appears later). One will probably suffice. Enter a number in the "chances of getting in a fight" box (50 does well). Finally, okay the window.
In order to set how the main (and, in this "game", only) character reacts to experience, we must visit the Character Editor. Choose File -> Open, pick the "Chrs" folder, and open start.tem. There are many settings here, detailed in another part of the manual, but we're only interested in the experience settings. Click the level button to open a settings window. The only setting you need to set is the max level (99 is typical), indeed do so, but feel free to change any others as you wish.
Fights take place on a backdrop—which can be of any type, but is frequently composed of tiles. If we want to take the latter route, we must create a tile bitmaps. Tile bitmaps are essentially multiple tiles grouped together and can be used anywhere images are used (for animations, backgrounds, etc). Choose File -> New -> Tile Bitmap to display the tile bitmap editor. Within, set the size to 19x11 for a normal sized background. The interface is identical to the board editor, save for lack of tile types. Create your bitmap, and save. To make a background that uses this bitmap, choose Edit Background from the new toolbar. Choose your tile bitmap for image, and adjust the other settings, if you like. Save the file and your background is finished.
Now, to assign your enemy (and all of its skill level) to a board, we must open the one we want. After you're back in the board editor, again open the Board Information window (Board Settings -> Board Information). This time, choose the Battle Options tab. Check "Fighting is permitted on this board", and set the skill level to that of your enemy (one, if you took our suggestion). Next, select the background you just created and finally, okay the dialogue. Feel free to test your work.
Remember that boring start-up sequence you saw when testing your game? In the RPGToolkit, events—and all logic—are handled through a scripting language called RPGCode. The language has multiple levels of complexity—it can be very simply used, or more depth can be obtained. At any rate, large portions of this manual are dedicated to RPGCode; refer to them for more information. To modify our start-up program, choose File -> Open, pick the "Prg" folder and choose start.prg. Here, look for the following lines:
text(1, 1, "Test Game")
You can replace "Test Game" with the name of your game. Just below that line, you can also set an image to be displayed in the background.
mwin("Your story goes here...")
In a real game, sole speaking makes for a boring introduction—but for now, just alter this line to sound a little less generic, if you desire.
After saving, you may want to test in order to confirm the changes were successful.
In RPGs, wandering villagers are a staple. The RPGToolkit provides means for you to create non-playable, often moving, characters (NPCs). These are stored as items (along with things like potions), so open the item editor. Within, click graphics to setup the sprite for an NPC. Unless you feel like creating a suite of images for this test project, simply assign the start_*.anm files (the default character's graphics) to their respective positions. Okay the dialogue. Since this item will be used on a board, check off "Board-driven", and then its Edit button. Within, set the "Program to Run While Item Is On Board" to wander.prg—the generic NPC wander program (you can create your own, more complex ones, at a latter time). Back in the board editor, choose RPGCode -> Set Item. After clicking a tile, select your item in the dialogue, and okay. Save, and test if you want.
Congratulations! You've just put together a basic game! Sure, it isn't much, but it only gets easier from here. If you have questions, don't panic—that's what the remainder of this manual is for. Thank you for choosing the RPGToolkit, Version 3; good luck creating your game!