Ah, Labels. I honestly never used them before when I made my first two RPGs with RPG Maker XP and it wasn't until later someone helped me when I was trying to setup a "Would You To Repeat What I Said?" event and I didn't know how to do it and that person pointed out to use Labels and Jump to Label to help that out to "restart" to the beginning of the event. I was so blown away at the time! So, that's how you do it! Sadly, never used it again at that but it was good to know. Never figured out how to setup a "Time Limit" mini-games like certain games do like Zelda. This little video really shows how amazing Labels are. I kinda use the Official RPG Makers made tutorials and showcase what each feature in the Maker does and how to use them.
For my games, as there are lots of menus and selections involved as typical for strategy games, I use labels and jump to label almost as frequently as message boxes :D Actually, I think what is a very cool feature if you know how to work with it, but really few devs use it at all, is the Select Key Item functionality.
i love labels for when you need to cycle through dialogue choices. like a guy is like ill sell ya this, how much ya offerin? and if you dont have enough money he turns you away and allows you to offer again. or! if i need to ask at the beginning if something is skipped or not. if the opening cutscene is skipped it immediately jumps to the label that starts the game
I built a weapon generator that had an insane amount of labels and "if" and random number cases. Was actually pretty cool and once you mess around with all those commands, you can do so much with no real skill.
The first example is already less readable than it needs to be. As long as member can only hold one value you would rather use: if ... end if ... end if ... end Instead of creating an if in an else branch and cascading it. The other branches would be ignored by the program cause they doesn't match the condition. I will watch the rest of the video now. I was just wondering. 😊 Edit: It has potential to be more refactored, like using additional labels like a "repeat" label after processing one member. But it is a great example to show the usages of labels and you have a great speaking tone and speed, which is great for a tutorial. 👍
True, the cascading conditional branches aren't as readable. One of the unfortunate quirks of VX's event based language, there is no "elsif" statement, so you get these weird cascades. If I was just doing straight code, I'd be more inclined to use a "case, when" block. You make a good point though!
Dam wish I could think as clear and fast as you do!! Holy Crap. I'm 50 and slow as molasses! I got bad OCD and Neurological Brain Disease though...that's my excuse!! lol
As do I, I've just found that most devs don't. It's very powerful and very useful, but there isn't much that it does that can't be done with loops and conditional branches, and it does take some intuitive thinking. Since a lot of devs using RPG Maker are fairly new to game development, it tends to get overlooked. Not saying it doesn't get used, but in my experience it gets used less than just about any other eventing option. If you have a different opinion, then what would you personally consider to be the least used feature in RPG Maker?
@@StrakBlue Well, on the main list of event commands I'd guess that stuff like "Change Defeat ME", "Change Profile", "Change Enemy TP", and possibly even a couple of the sound effects... "Stop SE", might be even less commonly used by the community than "Label" or "Jump to Label". Many things can be handled in more than one way so even if some of these features were removed there would be a way to functionally perform the same action. At the very least, people who use labels will use them frequently, while some of these other misc commands that feel like they would be needed at some point might not be used even by people whose game would otherwise appear to make use of the given feature. There are so many ways to just play a sound effect at a given time that you can control it in a variety of other more direct, intuitive ways. Like if you showed me a hundred RPG Maker devs, my guess is that several of them would use labels, most of them would know how to use labels, and almost none of them would use "Change Defeat ME" for their game, just because it isn't something that they'll need. Not that they wouldn't use it if they had to, though, which might be your entire point.
17:30 You eliminated a lot of repetition using labels but then copy & pasted a bunch of "Would you like to learn another skill?" instead of putting it under another Label and jumping to it. 😂 Useful stuff, though. Don't think that I ever utilized Labels in RPG Maker. I think that I worked around duplicating functionality by using generic, reusable variables to store information into and then using IF statements later on to check for values I set in the same way that you're using Labels. I like your way better. It's cleaner.
It's a "GOTO" statement, basically. I'm not really a programmer, but I've heard it's use is discouraged. Not sure why. I've used it on occasion, and it can be useful.
I think in most engines and systems, that's very true. But since rpg maker doesn't really have method calls, this is the closest you can get with evented systems.
Goto is discouraged in procedural programming because it lets you hop from one function to another, and this is utterly confusing. RPG Maker event language is not procedural, it is a BASIC-like algorithm, so using goto is entirely OK in it.
Any programmer that discourages it use in this type of language really isn't a programmer at all. Labels in this kind of programming are effectively "poor man's function calls" and are very much needed to optimize coding. If you are repeating a section of code twice, you should be using a label to go to that code.
Label are kinda of useless and sometimes can get confusing to use. Unless they improve the feature like jump to (select (show label list) I think most people would not use this feature. The only time to use this feature when there is a repeatable use case.
T think it's pointless to tell that. The reason RPG maker exist is to allow newbies to create games without knowing programmation... and then you realize that people don't use a feature htat is essentially the fundamental of programmation. It's ironic. If you want people to make use of that feature then you might as well tell them to stop using RPG maker and learn to code. but considering that low level programming is dying that wouls also be a mistake. Very strange situation.
Thing is, RPG Maker isn't a beginner tool. It's just beginner friendly. Pros can use it too, quite effectively I might add. Labels probably aren't a beginner tool, but can be very effective when they're understood.
That's because even RM devs know that if you use goto, you goto hell.
I actually had to use this a lot for my game. I created a visual novel/RPG hybrid game involving ghosts.
Ah, Labels. I honestly never used them before when I made my first two RPGs with RPG Maker XP and it wasn't until later someone helped me when I was trying to setup a "Would You To Repeat What I Said?" event and I didn't know how to do it and that person pointed out to use Labels and Jump to Label to help that out to "restart" to the beginning of the event.
I was so blown away at the time! So, that's how you do it! Sadly, never used it again at that but it was good to know.
Never figured out how to setup a "Time Limit" mini-games like certain games do like Zelda.
This little video really shows how amazing Labels are. I kinda use the Official RPG Makers made tutorials and showcase what each feature in the Maker does and how to use them.
indeed I use labels quite a bit in a few projects I am working on. its very fun taking a feature and seeing how I can run with it.
For my games, as there are lots of menus and selections involved as typical for strategy games, I use labels and jump to label almost as frequently as message boxes :D Actually, I think what is a very cool feature if you know how to work with it, but really few devs use it at all, is the Select Key Item functionality.
Nice video, always like to see RPG Maker content on UA-cam. Cheers!
I’m surprised about this fact. It feels essential for creating flow.
i love labels for when you need to cycle through dialogue choices. like a guy is like ill sell ya this, how much ya offerin? and if you dont have enough money he turns you away and allows you to offer again. or! if i need to ask at the beginning if something is skipped or not. if the opening cutscene is skipped it immediately jumps to the label that starts the game
bleppquest guy
I built a weapon generator that had an insane amount of labels and "if" and random number cases. Was actually pretty cool and once you mess around with all those commands, you can do so much with no real skill.
I use that a lot. It's good for a lot of things!
The first example is already less readable than it needs to be. As long as member can only hold one value you would rather use:
if ... end
if ... end
if ... end
Instead of creating an if in an else branch and cascading it. The other branches would be ignored by the program cause they doesn't match the condition.
I will watch the rest of the video now. I was just wondering. 😊
Edit: It has potential to be more refactored, like using additional labels like a "repeat" label after processing one member.
But it is a great example to show the usages of labels and you have a great speaking tone and speed, which is great for a tutorial. 👍
True, the cascading conditional branches aren't as readable. One of the unfortunate quirks of VX's event based language, there is no "elsif" statement, so you get these weird cascades. If I was just doing straight code, I'd be more inclined to use a "case, when" block. You make a good point though!
Dam wish I could think as clear and fast as you do!! Holy Crap. I'm 50 and slow as molasses! I got bad OCD and Neurological Brain Disease though...that's my excuse!! lol
Great vid. It would be awesome to see a blackjack tutorial
I could see about doing that. It's a bit complex, but not too bad. I'll plan for that.
Labels least used? You must be kidding... I use it A LOT.
As do I, I've just found that most devs don't. It's very powerful and very useful, but there isn't much that it does that can't be done with loops and conditional branches, and it does take some intuitive thinking. Since a lot of devs using RPG Maker are fairly new to game development, it tends to get overlooked. Not saying it doesn't get used, but in my experience it gets used less than just about any other eventing option. If you have a different opinion, then what would you personally consider to be the least used feature in RPG Maker?
@@StrakBlue Well, on the main list of event commands I'd guess that stuff like "Change Defeat ME", "Change Profile", "Change Enemy TP", and possibly even a couple of the sound effects... "Stop SE", might be even less commonly used by the community than "Label" or "Jump to Label". Many things can be handled in more than one way so even if some of these features were removed there would be a way to functionally perform the same action. At the very least, people who use labels will use them frequently, while some of these other misc commands that feel like they would be needed at some point might not be used even by people whose game would otherwise appear to make use of the given feature. There are so many ways to just play a sound effect at a given time that you can control it in a variety of other more direct, intuitive ways.
Like if you showed me a hundred RPG Maker devs, my guess is that several of them would use labels, most of them would know how to use labels, and almost none of them would use "Change Defeat ME" for their game, just because it isn't something that they'll need. Not that they wouldn't use it if they had to, though, which might be your entire point.
nice tutorial
great video
17:30 You eliminated a lot of repetition using labels but then copy & pasted a bunch of "Would you like to learn another skill?" instead of putting it under another Label and jumping to it. 😂
Useful stuff, though. Don't think that I ever utilized Labels in RPG Maker. I think that I worked around duplicating functionality by using generic, reusable variables to store information into and then using IF statements later on to check for values I set in the same way that you're using Labels. I like your way better. It's cleaner.
It's a "GOTO" statement, basically. I'm not really a programmer, but I've heard it's use is discouraged. Not sure why. I've used it on occasion, and it can be useful.
I think in most engines and systems, that's very true. But since rpg maker doesn't really have method calls, this is the closest you can get with evented systems.
Goto is discouraged in procedural programming because it lets you hop from one function to another, and this is utterly confusing. RPG Maker event language is not procedural, it is a BASIC-like algorithm, so using goto is entirely OK in it.
Any programmer that discourages it use in this type of language really isn't a programmer at all. Labels in this kind of programming are effectively "poor man's function calls" and are very much needed to optimize coding. If you are repeating a section of code twice, you should be using a label to go to that code.
Only thing it is missing is Return for even more power to the Goto function.
Label are kinda of useless and sometimes can get confusing to use. Unless they improve the feature like jump to (select (show label list) I think most people would not use this feature. The only time to use this feature when there is a repeatable use case.
BLUE LABEL un ELISIR xd
T think it's pointless to tell that. The reason RPG maker exist is to allow newbies to create games without knowing programmation... and then you realize that people don't use a feature htat is essentially the fundamental of programmation. It's ironic. If you want people to make use of that feature then you might as well tell them to stop using RPG maker and learn to code. but considering that low level programming is dying that wouls also be a mistake. Very strange situation.
Thing is, RPG Maker isn't a beginner tool. It's just beginner friendly. Pros can use it too, quite effectively I might add. Labels probably aren't a beginner tool, but can be very effective when they're understood.