1

A Guide To Making An RPG With The RPG Toolkit Development System By Keifer Furzland (A.K.A. spitfire)
Table of Contents Introduction -Welcome! -Requirements -The Commitment -Commercial Legalities -Get Going! The Design Stage -Plot Design -Character Design -Enemy Design -Boss Design -Fine Plot Details -Situation Placement The Basics . -Create A New Game -Naming Your Game -Getting Ideas Together -Organization

Graphics . -Tiles -Start Menu Graphics -In-Game Menu -Message Window -Character Profiles -Others Board Design .. -Good Board Design -Proportions -How Big? -Lighting Effects -Creating a City-Aspects of Design World Map Design .. -Good Map Design -What to add -Creating It Coding .. -Start Program -Menu System -Message Window -Shop Program -Battle System -Game Over Sequence -Story Sequences

Creating Special Moves, Magic, Etc. Etc .. -Naming -Designing -Animations -Working Them into Your Battle System and Menu System Item, Weapon, And Accessory Design .. -Items -Weapons -Accessories

Music and Sound Effects . -Creating Them vs. Downloading Them -Creating Them -Downloading Them -Moods, Emotions, and Aura -Working Them into the Game Vehicles .. -Theory -Making Them -Making Them Fit

Mini-Games and Secret Areas . -Why? -Designing Them The Final Steps . -Testing -Debugging -Clean Up Your Folders -BETA Testing Distribution -How to Distribute Your Game -Commercial/Non-Commercial Advertisement . .. -Your Company -Website Design -Getting Hosting -Pushing Your Game

Farwell, and Goodbye -Afterword -Good Luck! -Some Tips of The Trade

Legal Stuff -Credits -Copyright Info -Contact Me

Introduction Welcome!
Welcome to the wonderful world of the RPG Toolkit. In this guide, I will be walking you through the steps of creating an RPG with the RPG Toolkit Developmental System, Version 2.20b (I will refer to this as Toolkit, TK2, or TK from now on) I will NOT tell you how to use TK3, because I do not encourage it. Even with all the changes that are being made to it, TK2 is still more stable to create an RPG with. Anyway, in this guide, I will be teaching you how to create a top-notch game, even if you are a newbie. (That means you are new to the Toolkit.) I will teach you how to code your own menu, shop, battle system, and I will teach you how to make good boards. I will teach you how to create seething ugly monsters, super-cool heroes, and desensitized enemies So, strap yourself in, and get ready for the most nauseating ride of your life!!!! (J/K bout the nauseating part, but it will be fun!!)

Here is the main idea, and outline of how your game will be created: Plot and Character design Graphics Board Design Coding Items/Magic/Special Moves Music and Sound effects Item Placement (on boards and stuff) Conversation Odd Stuff

Requirements
There are a few requirements that I ask you have, to make my job a bit easier. *A computer. I mean *DUH* (Oh, and make sure it has windows on it, 98or higher should be fine.) *The Toolkit Version 2 (www.toolkitzone.com) *Hopefully an internet connection, otherwise ya wont be able to get the TK. *A *small* knowledge of the TK (just read the tutorial, and glance through the help files, you should be fine...) *Lots of time. Dont expect your RPG to be done in a day. *Coffee, Coke, Pepsi, or anything with caffeine in it for those long nights *A good game to go to when everything is getting to your head. (I like Diablo 2...) *Some Tylenol or Aspirin for the headaches you might get.

The Commitment
Yes, my little friend, there is a commitment you have to make in order to create a RPG. That commitment is that you enjoy RPGs, and you enjoy creating RPGs The commitment only is there because throughout the process, there will be many a hardship during the process of making an RPG, during which times you may pull your hair out in stress, kick the cat because you cant figure out how to code something, eat raw eggs because you suck at creating tiles, and the like. Not to worry though, in the end, it will all pay off.

Commercial Legalities
Now, I hope you dont have your hopes set on making a commercial game that you can sell for money. Im not saying that this is impossible, but unless you have bought the registered version of the TK (TK2 Powerhouse Edition), you cannot sell your games. If youre thinking Hey! Ill just go BUY TK2 Powerhouse!!!, then youre still outta luck, for the simple fact that that product is not on the market anymore. The developer decided to take it off, because he was getting too caught up with his life, getting married, and all that jazz So all in all, you can create games that you can freely distribute, or be a jackass and go learn some programming language just so you can sell your game, you greedy little pig J/K (youll find that I like insulting people throughout this tutorialHee Hee!)

Get Going!
Alright, Ive rambled on enough, so get going, make that dream game!!! O, I have to say 2 things before you get started One, before every section, there will be an intro to that section, explaining what will come in that section. And

two, dont flame me if there is something incorrect. Just email me or post a message for me at www.toolkitzone.com/forums/index.php Thats it! Have Fun!!!!!!! ~spitfire

Plot Design has to come before everything else so you have something to work off of. In order to start developing a plot, you will have to have a main idea What is the game about? What is the heros quest? There are no limits to this, except your imagination. There are a few good steps to take, though, to developing a plot. : 1. Think of a basic, general idea. This can be anything from saving the heros girlfriend from getting mono to saving the world from a giant whatever. Dont worry about originality quite yet, we will get to that later.

The Design Stage Plot Design

Character Design
Character Design is one of the more brain numbing parts of RPG Design (next to well, coding of course) because of what goes into it. It is also one of the most important, though, because it helps you so much. So, enough talking, lets get down to business! Materials for this Section: 1. Paper 2. Pencil 3. A Good Imagination OK, first thing you have to do is sit down and design your main character. You do this by taking a piece of paper and naming you character, drawing them, writing

their personality, and all that. Here is a template to get you started. Any other things you would like to add are fine. One thing you must do is write about a half page of their history; who they are, what their past was like, where their parents and siblings are, and all that. This is very useful because it will help you to understand the character, and help with their personality. Now that you have your main character done, you can work on your other main characters This is where you should decide if you want a big party of 9 characters that you can inter-trade and everything, or just a single character that you play with throughout the whole game (Example: FF7(big) or Dark Age 2(one)) I personally like the small party, of one, two or even three characters, but its all up to you. Once you have that decided, start creating the rest of your party.. Use the same template that I sent you to earlier. After you have the good guys done, its time to start on the bad guys. Only worry about the REALLY bad guys, or the main baddies Well worry bout other smaller bad guys later. You can actually use the same template for the main villains, all you have to add is why they are evil You cant have something that is evil for no reason, it has to have a reason to be evil, like his parents were killed when he was a child, or even that he is deformed, so he needs revenge for the people who laughed at him. Or something like that.