Zelaron Gaming Forum - A quickie...

I know I haven't been on in a while...so I am here to leave a quick little help type of thing...nothing too dramatic.

Name your variables, swithches, events, and anything that has a name bar. It will be a bajillion times easier when you go to move event, and you can choose between little boy, old lady, or bum from your list of 60+ events. Or if you are having problems with a switch, you can look down your list and go, "Oh, look. I used switch 68[slay mantis] and I meant to use switch 72[jemas orders]." Same with variables. "Oh, that's why my scripted thief stole 150 gold from the party and gives back 10." Debugging will be your friend.

Use comments. Don't expect your beta code readers know what you are trying to do. Everytime you change a variable or flip a switch, leave a comment explaining why. Even for things like having drawers open and close, because it helps get you into practice.

Spell Check If you know you aren't a good speller, don't make your beta testers correct words like sword because you thought it was sordw. Have Microsoft Word open if you have it. Or whatever Mac uses as a word processor.

That's all for ways to make your game making smoother. Now for some tips to make your game locations more identifiable. Do you have players go into a tower? Maybe 2 towers? Do they email you asking about how to get past the 3rd floor on the tower? Well with this simple little trick you can help your players and yourself out. Instead of just using a simple teleport to the next map, use a blank screen. Usually when you are going into dungeons. Kinda something like this:

> Hide Screen (whichever style you want)
> Teleport to Alpha Tower blank (3, 4)

On the Alpha Tower Blank Map, make an autostart event, so there is no player movement. Then do the following:

> Display Message: Alpha Tower
> Show Screen (whichever style you want)
> Wait (either key press or time limit)
> Hide Screen (whichever style you want)
> Teleport to Alpha Tower (6, 6)
> Show Screen (whichever style you want)

If you have any questions, just post and I, Lenny or Bluecube will help to the best of our knowledge. If Bluecube doesn't have an answer, chances are you're screwed.