how do you make cutscenes/scolling text

I have just a few questions.
1.) How do you make cutscenes, both movie and scrolling text intos that you always see.(cliche, but still great )
2.) How do you actully make the avi movies (any good programs to use)
3.) What are the uses of varibles?
4.) Is it possible to alter the battle system, and if so to the point it is like a fire emblem/FFT system.
5.) What is the best order to make things in your game. I have got it going by towns and it gets a bit complicated.
If you could answer these questions I would be very thankful.

I'll be real general for now, not much time at the moment. I'll be more detailed if you need it, though:

Movie cutscenes (using the in-game graphics

1. Create an event that triggers at the appropriate time (when you enter a room, when you grab treasure, whatever)
2. Use the Move Event commands within the event to move the main character around the screen, and the message command to have text appear.
3. Repeat until you're finished, then deactivate the event.

Movie Cutscenes (using FMV):

1. Import your movie file.
2. Use the Play Movie command (Page 3), setting the movie to where you need it to appear.

AVI Movies:
Not sure of any programs, probably Windows Movie Maker. I'll check up on it after class.

Battle System:
Yes, you can build your own system, but it's rather complicated. You really can't alter the given one much, however.

Order to make things:
By quests, usually. Sidequests first, then main quest.

Some gif animation programs (such as Jasc's Animation Shop) can save image sequences as AVI. You can get a free demo of it by downloading the latest version of Paint Shop Pro on http://www.jasc.com.

Furthermore, Animation Shop can't deal with sounds and editing very well, so an industry giant such as Adobe Premiere would do the trick. It's what I use for video creation, and I love it. It's mainly an editing program for footage, but nevertheless, it works well even if you'd get the idea to draw all individual images yourself.

Depending on the kind of movies you're after, a lot of 3D applications/renderers such as LightWave, 3D Studio MAX and MAYA can render animated sequences directly to AVI format. Takes some time to learn these programs though.

Thanks, but could you go into a little more detail about "move events" most of mine come out very badly, and about that scrolling text, is there anyway to make a text file and scroll it both for messages and intros? Other then that my questions are pretty much answeared

Scrolling Text:

This is rather complicated, but here goes:

The actual "text" is a PNG graphic file with a clear background. Keep note of the X/Y size - it's rather important. Use 320 width, since that's the screen's width, and makes for easier calculation.

You'll also need 2 variables: One for the X coordinate, and one for the Y coordinate.

Now, here's how you set the X/Y coordinates:

scrX = (1/2 the picture width)
scrY = 240 + (1/2 the picture height)

And while you're at it, you'll want this number as well:

StopNum = Picture height * -1.5

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Put this code in wherever you want:

<>Variable oper: [0081:scrX], Set, 160
<>Variable oper: [0082:scrY], Set, 360
<>Variable oper: [0082:StopNum], Set, -540
<>Show Picture: 1, scrollerpic, (V[0081],V[0082])
<>Move Picture: 1, (V[0081], V[0083]), 20.0 sec (Wait)

Set the delay time to whatever you want.
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As to the Move Event, I can't help much unless you want a specific thing to happen. Move Right and Face Up would move the event right and then make it face upward. Not much else I need to explain, unless you want something more.. complicated.