RPG Maker

Game development is easier than it's ever been. Engines like Unity and GameMaker Studio have dramatically changed the face of development by offering powerful tools that minimize the level of coding you need to know to make your vision for a game a reality, but RPG Maker has been providing amateurs with the means to create their own games for a quarter of a century. The latest version, RPG Maker MV, builds off of the company's years of experience to create an engine that's streamlined even by modern game development standards. You can create a game in RPG Maker in under an hour, and you don't even need to learn a single line of code. The simplicity at the heart of RPG Maker MV is facilitated significantly by the narrowness of the engine's focus. This is a piece of software designed explicitly for making roleplaying games and more explicitly for making games in the particular JRPG sub-genre. The well worn tropes of the genre and the lack of need for issues like collision detection or the other complications that come from more action oriented games make for a consistent if limited engine. Rather than rely on a traditional coding language, everything in RPG Maker MV can be handled through a simple system of events and triggers. The fundamentals are basic, but there's a lot of range to create impressively sophisticated loops. If this sounds similar to the if-then loops that make up the core logic of most languages, that's because it's fundamentally the same, making RPG Maker MV a great way for people interested in programming to get a grip on some of the core logic of the craft without having to worry about syntax. More advanced users can achieve more complicated systems by coding via JavaScript directly into the engine. The maps, meanwhile, make use of a tile set interface. While this may limit what developers can do to some degree, it fits the JRPG mold and provides a level of consistency to the experience. Tiles work as effectively as you might expect, and the ability to create layers allow a greater amount of artistic and design freedom. An in-engine graphical editor allows you to create art assets on the fly, but it can be somewhat limiting, and if you intend to get serious with your design, you'll probably want to lean heavily on a dedicated art design platform. That said, you can do a lot with the tools that are available right out of the box. RPG Maker MV comes packed with a huge number of assets that include map sets, character designs (covering battle and over world animations), and monsters. At the very least, there's enough there to mock up a pretty working prototype, and the inclusion of countless downloadable asset packs mean you can create pretty sophisticated games even if you don't have any artistic talents.