Annnnd never mind! I set an automatic save status to the current layout on the player pressing X to go to inventory. Then when the player presses X to return to that specific layout, I set it to load that save. It seems to work perfectly. Thank you all for letting for allowing me to work through my insanity in a public forum, hahahaha.

UPDATE:

I created individual event sheets, so that at the start of each of those layouts, the "Last_Layout" variable could be changed to the name of the specific layout. I purposely left that command off of my inventory and save screen layouts. So then, I went into my inventory event sheet and put in

Keyboard - on X pressed go to layout "LayoutName"

Last_Layout = "LayoutName"

so when I'm in LayoutName and press X, it takes me to inventory layout, no problem. But once I get to the inventory layout and press X, it doesn't do anything at all. I've even tried changing it to a different input key to see if that's the issue.

Heyyyyy it's me again! :D

So I found this amazing advice on the forums that was almost perfect for what I needed- set a global variable and name it "Last_Layout", and then on the start of every layout, have the system update that layout to be "Last_Layout" so that when the player hits the button that's supposed to take them back to where they were, it will. Here's the problem:

It's a global variable.

So. If I've got a separate layout for a save screen and an inventory, which I do, and they are working perfectly otherwise, which they are, is there a way to use separate event sheets for those that are still included with the main event sheet but that override the command to update those to layouts to "Last_Layout"?

Does that even make sense?

I just finished trying dop2000 's advice to use global variables - I have one event sheet for all the different worlds and then one event sheet for the "inventory," and on the "inventory" event sheet, I have it set to run a check for the global variable changes and then make the necessary items visible. It worked like a freaking charm!

Excellent! I will give that a try. Thank you!

FWIW It isn’t a “real” inventory. The player won’t be able to select the items to use them. It’s basically just a screen that allows them to keep up with how many of the hidden items they have found.

Hi thanks,

I have seen all of those, but they are too difficult for me to understand and I can’t get them to work. Thank you though!

This is an INCREDIBLY CLUNKY example, but basically I used an animated sprite for the background and an animated sprite I found quickly online for the player. I believe if I do animated sprites going in each direction for the map plus confirm that my character has drawings allowing her to go different directions, this will work. Also the reason I stop and go in the video is because I was trying to show her stopping within various rings as foreground/background.

I'll give that a shot. Thank you!!

Ok yeah so we're getting close to what I'm trying to ask! So let's say it's front-facing platformer, and the player is watching the character from behind- The player can move forward into the area, to the sides, and return back (facing the player) to explore. How would I position the platforms to allow the character to walk if I did that?