RPG MAKER – Lesson 1Map Design and Properties

By Matthew Kiel

Objective and Requirements:

You will learn how to create maps in RPG Maker and manipulate the properties to create worlds and levels.

The requirements for this lesson is the program RPG Maker VX Ace.

Step 1

The first thing you are going to want to do is open the program after installation.

Once you do this you will see a blank blue screen.

Next you will want to start a new project by going to File -> New Project.

Once you have created a new project, you’ll see a screen like this:

Step 2 - Tiles

In the center of the screen, your current map is shown with the default water tiles.

These tiles can be changed by clicking on a different tile from the selection on the left, and then clicking on the tiles for the current map.

Things to Know

Whenever you are working with the tiles, there are different tabs for tiles depending on your map properties.

If you look at the tool bar, you can see tools such as the draw square tool for placing tiles easier. A & B

default tabs for tiles

Once you have created maps using tiles, you can start editing the properties of your map to your liking.

Step 3 – Map properties

To start messing with your map properties, right click on the name of your map under the tiles. Then choose map properties.

Then you will see a screen like this:

Changing the Properties

From this screen, you can change various properties of your map such as the name, size, and the tile sets you want for different tiles.

You can also change the automatic background and battle music that will play when the player is on that map

Changing the Properties

Another important feature in the map properties are the encounters.

From the encounters menu, you can set what monsters will appear on your map, and how many steps it will take to encounter them.

Summary:

From using these tools that I just taught you, try the following:

Start messing with RPG Maker and the tiles Make a custom map (Village or Town) Change the properties of the map including the

name, background music, and encounters if you so choose