HOWTO

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Important Note The HowTo is currently undergoing a rewrite and therefore there are currently two versions of it!

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HOW TO USE the O.H.R.RPG.C.E

Be sure to read the following important articles: An Important Note About Passwords and An important Note About Backups.

A number of HOWTO chapters are out of date. You might like to check whether the corresponding article in the new HOWTO has been written.

The first part of this HowTo is designed to be read in order, as you create a game from scratch. Later chapters are independent of each other.

HOWTO: Main Chapters

1. Keyboard Conventions
2. Getting Started
3. Making Maptiles
4. Making Walkabout Graphics
5. Importing BMP graphics
6. Moving on to Map Construction
   1. Using Map Layers
7. Making a Hero
8. Battles
9. How to use NPCs and Tags
10. Adding, Removing, Swapping, Heroes
11. Animating Maptiles
12. Vehicle Use
13. Stun, Regen, Poison, and Mute
14. Sound Effects
15. Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Text Boxes, But Were Afraid To Ask
    1. Portrait Boxes
16. Distributing a Game

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Ah! That is the end of the HOWTO. Do you feel enlightened? Next, see the Extra Tutorials below on specific topics you're interested in.

Anyone who is interested in helping by writing new chapters for the HOWTO can do so by adding a link in the In-progress Chapters section and filling in an article. You can also suggest a new topic by adding a link to the Suggested New Chapters section or leaving a note on the Talk:HOWTO page.

Extra Tutorials

1. Bosses
2. Making Complex Attacks
3. Combat Dialogues
4. Enemies that respond to a certain attack
5. Ways to refer to a hero in a script
6. Creating Dungeons
7. Permanent Stat-Boosters
8. Conditional Door Links
9. Creating Cutscenes
10. Using the Mouse in the Game
11. Making Android games

The new HowTo is a work in progress and most chapters are still blank. In the meantime see the existing HowTo above

Core Tutorials: Making a Game From Start to Finish

1. Chapter 1 - Introduction
2. Chapter 2 - Getting Started
3. Chapter 3 - Artwork
   1. Part 1 - Maptiles
   2. Part 2 - Walkabouts
   3. Part 3 - Hero Sprites
   4. Part 4 - Enemy Sprites
   5. Part 5 - Attacks and Weapons
   6. Part 6 - Importing BMP graphics
4. Chapter 4 - Map Construction
   1. Part 1 - Using Map Layers
   2. Part 2 - Animating Maptiles
   3. Part 3 - Doors
   4. Part 4 - Map Design
   5. Part 5 - Constructing your Map
5. Chapter 5 - NPCs
   1. Part 1 - Using NPCs to Trigger Events
   2. Part 2 - Making interesting NPCs
6. Chapter 6 - Tags
   1. Part 1 - Tags and NPCs
   2. Part 2 - Tags and Maps
   3. Part 3 - Tags and Enemies
7. Chapter 7 - Making a Hero
   1. Part 1 - Hero Stats
   2. Part 2 - Adding, Removing, Swapping, Heroes
   3. Part 3 - Balancing
8. Chapter 8 - Attacks
   1. Part 1 - Special Attacks
   2. Part 2 - Making Your Attacks Interesting
9. Chapter 9 - Items
   1. Part 1 - General Items
   2. Part 2 - Arms and Armor
   3. Part 3 - Healing Items
10. Chapter 10 - Battles
    1. Part 1 - Enemies
    2. Part 2 - Formations
    3. Part 3 - Stun, Regen, Poison, and Mute
    4. Part 4 - Making Interesting Battles
    5. Part 5 - Balancing Battles
    6. Part 6 - Mechanics of Battle
11. Chapter 11 - Vehicle Use
12. Chapter 12 - Sound and Music
    1. Part 1 - Copyright Issues
    2. Part 2 - Composing Music
13. Chapter 13 - Text Boxes
    1. Part 1 - Portrait Boxes
    2. Part 2 - Linking Text Boxes
    3. Part 3 - Using an External Editor
14. Chapter 14 - Custom Menus
15. Chapter 15 - Slices
    1. Part 1 - Introduction to Slices
    2. Part 2 - Collections
    3. Part 3 - Slice Families
    4. Part 4 - Slice Types
16. Chapter 16 - Plotscripting
    1. Part 1 - Introduction
    2. Part 2 - Variables and Strings
    3. Part 3 - Conditionals
    4. Part 4 - Flow control
    5. Part 5 - Working with Slices
    6. Part 6 - Tweaking Maps
    7. Part 7 - Advanced
17. Chapter 17 - Distributing a Game
    1. Appendix A - Keyboard Conventions
    2. Appendix B - Sample Scripts

Pixel-Art Tutorials

1. Gnostic Kathar-sys's Pixel Art Tutorial
2. Spriteart.com Website
3. So You Want To Be A Pixel Artist? Website
4. Pixel Tutorials on Deviantart
5. Moogle1's article in HamsterSpeak issue 6
6. BMR's Beginning Pixels - All About Colors
7. BMR's Beginning Pixels - Color Ramps
8. BMR's Portrait Tutorial
9. BMR's Step-by-Step Cyclops
10. BMR's Step-by-Step Balrog
11. See How do I learn to draw better graphics?

In-progress Chapters

1. Choosing Between Multiple Heroes
2. Items
3. Zones
4. Temporarily Fusing Heros
5. Transforming Heroes In Battles
6. Achievements
7. Creating Chests
8. Interesting Fights and Combat Situations
9. How to make a Class System
10. Turn-based battles compared to Active-time battles

Suggested New Chapters

To suggest a chapter, add a link to it here. It is important to remember that the purpose of HOWTO articles is to explain how to use the standard features, not to explain complicated methods of simulating features that don't exist using plotscripting. Stuff like that probably belongs in Category:Example Scripts

1. Creating Minigames
2. Creating and utilizing music properly
3. Customizing Menus

See Also

• F.A.Q. - Frequently Asked Questions
• Plotscripting - What plotscripting is and how to learn it