[MZ] SkillGrid — A Sphere Grid Skill System for Your Characters (FFX-style, Icon-based, Pan/Zoom)

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[MZ] SkillGrid — A Sphere Grid Skill System for Your Characters (FFX-style, Icon-based, Pan/Zoom)

Hey everyone!

I just released SkillGrid, a plugin for RPG Maker MZ that adds a Final Fantasy X style Sphere Grid — a connected node map where each character spends earned points to unlock stat bonuses and skills, node by node, along paths you design.

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What it does

Instead of skills just appearing on level up, actors earn grid points and spend them unlocking nodes on a visual grid — each node either boosts a stat or teaches a skill, and can only be unlocked once it’s connected to a node you’ve already opened. The grid can be as large as you want; there’s a pan/zoom camera built in, and it works with keyboard, gamepad or mouse.

  • Full grid scene: icon-based nodes, colored rings, connecting lines that light up once unlocked, pan & zoom camera.
  • Real integration, not cosmetic: stat bonuses apply through the engine’s own paramPlus hook and skills are granted through the native learnSkill — both show up immediately in Status/Equip/battle, not just inside the grid screen.
  • Multi-actor support: switch between party members with Page Up/Page Down without leaving the scene, each actor tracking their own points and unlocked nodes independently.
  • 3 ready-to-use sample grids included (branching, radial hex-ring, and a converging dual-path grid), so you can see it working before building your own.
  • No hand-written JSON: grids, nodes and connections are built entirely through RPG Maker MZ’s Plugin Manager (struct editor, dropdowns, built-in skill picker).
  • Optional WindowEffects integration: if you also use WindowEffects, SkillGrid’s windows get animated entrances and unlock feedback automatically.

Why I made it

I wanted a skill tree system that felt like an actual grid to explore rather than a static list of unlockable rows, and one that didn’t require editing JSON by hand to design. So it’s built entirely around RPG Maker’s own Plugin Manager for authoring, with the actual game-facing bonuses wired through the engine’s real stat/skill hooks — so it behaves exactly like a normal level-up bonus or learned skill everywhere else in your game.

Get it here

SkillGrid - Sphere Grid Skill System (RPG Maker MZ Plugin) by Takki

Full documentation, grid schema and setup steps are on the page. Happy to answer questions here or help with specific grid layouts — let me know what you think!

— Takki

2 Likes
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This is a good shape for MZ and the Plugin Manager authoring choice is the right call for adoption. Most people will never touch a JSON file and asking them to is where this genre of plugin usually loses its audience.

One thing worth checking before people build long grids on it. Plugin Manager struct arrays have no stable identity. They are ordered lists and position is the only thing identifying an entry. If a node is saved as unlocked by its index in that array then everything works perfectly until the day you insert a node in the middle or drag one up the list. Every existing save then reads a different node as unlocked. The connection checks shift with it so the graph rewires as well. The player sees nodes they never bought and paths that no longer join up.

The fix is cheap now and expensive later. Give every node an explicit id field that the developer fills in and never reuses. Persist the unlocked set as those ids rather than as indices. Resolve id to position once at boot. A mid list insert is then harmless and you can also retire a node in a patch without corrupting existing saves. If you already do this then ignore all of the above and it’s worth saying so in the docs because it’s the first question anyone shipping a long campaign will have.

The related case is a node that teaches a skill and is later removed or moved. Worth deciding early whether the skill stays with the actor or is revoked on load. Both are defensible but the save format has to record which one you chose.

How are you handling respec or refunds? That’s the other place grid systems tend to leak because the stat bonus and the skill grant come off different hooks and they have to be unwound in the right order.

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Ok, this is completely amazing!

Congratulations for this amazing project!
I wish someday I will create an RPG and I will use this!