Sliding puzzle script thing?

I need a script for like a sliding puzzle thing. Like maybe my character walks on a piece and it moves or something and I need to put them together and find out where I need to go next.

Something like this, and then you talk to a merchant or something and he said you'll know where to go next if you solve the puzzle and you can come back to him to do it again, or you can quit and do it later. When you solve the puzzle it would look like the castle in the picture. So you just control where the pieces go with your character and you can only move one way if another piece is blocking it then you need to move that piece and move another until it's done and then you go to the castle next. And maybe a mission reminder thing like go to the castle and talk with the king? In the menu. Hope someone can help thanks! :)

And maybe at the end it could say COMPLETE!

Are you talking about one of those slider puzzles we used to get with a four by four (or so) grid with one open square? And you had to get all of the pieces into the right spot?


I am thinking you can event this.


Turn the player into a cursor.


Have the cursor which allows the puzzle pieces to move be above character.


When the character is above the piece you want to move, push a button.


There will only be one open spot so it will move into the only open spot.


The "scene" pieces will be just like NPCs except that they will be 32 by 32 tiles.


Could that work?


So your map would be four tiles by four tiles, with fifteen "map" characters on it, and one open square. (all filled in with grass or something.)

So like a player touch when you go on a tile set I'll need to put in in graphics I guess and player touch move some way? I can pick or something? Can you put a demo or something please? Thanks

Well, a demo is a little beyond my time limits right now, sorry - but I have to admit it is tempting =]

Step one - make a map of four by four tiles - I suggest a room with a four by four floor.

By the door to the room have one square with no NPC on it.
On all other squares, have an NPC whose graphic is on part of your whole image.

So to make your NPCs, you would make an image in a file which was 128 by 128. You would want one 32 by 32 square of it to be the part you will "skip" for the open slot. Then, for each 32 by 32 square in the image, make a character. (IOW make a file named $square1.png size 96 wide by 128 high and fill it with the first square in your image.) Then when you have fifteen squares, but the NPCs randomly around on the board. (Perhaps it would be nicer if you put them on the board in order, and moved them around to mix them up just to make sure you had a puzzle which you knew could be solved! But that is a bit more involved.)

Now the tricky part. Each NPC needs to move away from player when the little cursor is on top of it and you use a certain button. So when you enter the room, change actor graphic to some kind of small cursor like a blinking dot or something. Make the player's graphic priority change to "above player" so it will float like a butterfly. I guess now that I am thinking about it you might as well just make all of your NPCs priority "below player" instead.

And the hardest part - which I cannot playtest for you - will be eventing the movement of the NPCs. When the player moves over them, and you use the action button (or whatever) it will need to activate the switch of the NPC who is located in the same square as the player. There are tutorials which explain how to run parallel processes to determine this.

Then the event beneath you has a move route of "move away from player."

And then there will need to be a common event which checks the NPCs after every move to see if they are now in the correct places, using the same method as the parallel process above.

I know this sounds awful to do if you are unfamiliar with eventing, but I have to admit that this is a creative new puzzle idea - one I have not heard anyone discuss before - and I think you should either ask someone to help you get it done by continuing to request a demo here or by learning the steps yourself. 

Keep at it! Good luck with your game!

I have thought of probably 3 different ways to make this puzzle, all without scripting. I'll see if I can make a tutorial for you sometime today :)

Oh, okay thanks Shaz.

lol - So, I did the tutorial, and now I realize you're using VX, not Ace :D


Off again to see how easily it can be modified.


Here is the tutorial for Ace. I will redo it for VX and post a new tutorial in the appropriate place when I'm done. The biggest difference will be replacements to region id and getting an event at that location.


Edit: and here is the VX version.

Thanks Shaz, you or the site moderator people can close the request now thanks! :)