Event-Driven Rock Pushing in RPG Maker

Just wanted to interject before the tutorial and let you know that this way has been improved upon and you can read a quicker, more effective method here:

How to push an object in RPG Maker in less than 60 seconds

All my tutorials are done in RPG Maker MV, but this is a mostly agnostic solution, applicable in all the makers. If you need help in a particular software package, let me know!

All too often we find ourselves stuck behind a perfectly spherical rock that our skinny human arms refuse to allow us to push out of the way. Why do we have to allow our puny game characters that same burden?

In this short RPG Maker tutorial, we’re going to remedy that solution in one simple event. Here’s the outcome you will be able to create:

What we’re aiming for

Step 1: Create the Rock Event

It’s not just a boulder…it’s a rock!

To get started, we need to create the rock event.

Give it a name, assign it an obvious movable rock graphic.

We need to verify that the priority is set to “Same as Character” and that the trigger is set to player touch.

Setting the image, name, priority and trigger of our rock event.

Now let’s move on to create the logic which moves the rock.

Step 2: Determine Player Direction & Button Press

Logically, it makes sense that when the player is looking at the rock and walking into the rock, the rock should move in that direction. To set that up, we have to have two nested conditional branches — one to determine player direction, the other to check which button is being pressed.

These branches look like the following:

Nested Conditional Branches — Is the player facing down and the button down is being pressed?

Next up we’re going to use our might to move our rock.

Step 3: Moving the Rock

Moving the rock is simple enough. Create a Set Movement Route command, making sure that the scope is set to This Event. Also remember to check Skip if Cannot Move. This is important as we don’t want to freeze the game if the rock gets pushed when its up against a wall.

Then add in a simple Move Down command.

For our down check, set the move to also be down. Add in the SE and make sure we skip if cannot move.

This would also be the time to add in a sound effect to play when the rock is pushed.

Step 4: Repeat for remaining directions

Finally, repeat this process for each of the other cardinal directions, we currently have a “down” check, so duplicate the event and set it up for “up”, “left” and “right”.

This is what our final rock should look like:

What the final event looks like.

Step 5: Playtest

Give the rock a quick playtest and make sure it performs exactly as intended.

It works!

I hope you found this helpful! I write articles and publish articles here on Medium. Additionally, I publish further articles and long-form video tutorials on my Patreon @ThePixelCrow. Finally, I create short-form video tutorials (about 1–2minutes) on Reels, YouTube and TikTok @ThePixelCrow.