Creating a RPG Maker Project | RPG Maker MV

Now that we have our story and game engine, we are ready to start making our game in RPG Maker MV.

Creating a new Project

We need to make a new project before we can start making our game. To do so we have to go to the file menu at the top of the screen and press New Project… or CTRL+N.

A dialogue box will ask you for the Project name, Game Title, and the Directory you wish to save it under.

I will call the file MercenaryTutorial so it is easy to find, the game is going to be about a war so the working title will be The Great War (we will change it later), and we will save it where we can easily find it later.

Navigating RPG Maker

RPG Maker MV has a lot of powerful features tucked away in a relatively simple interface. When you open up your new project you will see a window that looks like this:

Menu

At the top of the screen we have a menu bar. Most options should be familiar with you as they appear in other programs so I will only cover RPG Maker specific options.

1. File contains options for opening, creating, and deploying Projects
2. Edit holds copy, cut, paste, and find.
3. Mode lets you select between Event and Map Editing Modes (We will talk about that latter).
4. Draw lets you select your brush when in Map mode.
5. Scale lets you zoom the map display in and out.
6. Tools is where all of RPG Maker’s power lies. Most of the editing features are contained here. The database, plugin manager, sound room, event search, resource manager, character generator, and the options for the editor. We will cover each of these at a later date.
7. Game lets you play test your game or open the directory it is saved in.
8. Help gives you RPG Maker’s Documentation, a basic tutorial, and a simple about dialogue box.

Toolbar

The tool bar has functions similar to the Menu, but these are displayed as icons so you can quickly access common functions. They are separated into groups.

1. New, Open, and Save Project
2. Cut, copy, and paste
3. Undo
4. Map and Event Mode
5. Brushes: Pencil, rectangle, ellipse, flood fill, and shadow pen
6. Zoom options
7. Database, plugins, sound, event search, resources, and character generator
8. Playtest (You will be using this often)

Maps and Tilesets

On the far left corner you will see a sidebar split into two parts. The top is your tileset. This consists of your pallet of tiles to draw your maps with. There are tabs at the bottom labeled A-E and R. Different tilesets will have different tabs, but tab A and R are always available.

We have a list of all maps in your game underneath the tile pallet. You can make, delete, and modify the properties of maps.

Event and Map Editor

The largest section of the window is the map and event editor. This is the section where you design your maps and the things that happen in them. You can only edit the map in map mode and events in event mode. 

If you click on a tile in the tileset pallet and enter map mode you can change the way the map looks. Give it a try.

The Footer

At the bottom of the screen is a bar that tells you what map you are on, that maps dimensions in tiles, and the current tile’s location if you are in event mode.

Wrapping Up

We setup our RPG Maker project, learned about the main window, and even drew our first map. We will learn the basics of events and playtest our game in the next tutorial.

Read the help file in the mean time, it holds a wealth of information on how to use RPG Maker. You should also take a look at the RPG Maker Forums, the community has helpful resources available for anyone interested in making a game.