How did you find out about RPG Maker?

[IRHP]

I heard of RPGM on PlayStation through gaming magazines way back. I wish a real RPGM would hit PS4/Vita.

 

[amerk]

I actually started with PS1's version; didn't care for how cumbersome it was since I didn't have a keyboard, and I never got into the other console versions. But one day I was thinking how cool it'd be to remake the very first Final Fantasy (NES) game by adding a detailed story to it, and I started researching RPG Maker again, and that's when I discovered all the PC versions.

So now I'm here. Although I'm still sitting on the FF1 remake idea.

 

[Tai_MT]

I'd be interested in playing an FF1 remake in RPG Maker.  Color me weird, but I think it might be interesting to see how faithful to the original it was and how improved it was.

Yes, I'm the same kind of guy who buys remakes of those games on Gameboy...  Yes, I own Dawn of Souls (FF1&FF2) on the GBA, Final Fantasy 2 (four, actually...), and Final Fantasy 3 (six... actually...).

Heck, I'd be interested in seeing a Final Fantasy 5 remake with RPG Maker.  It's one of my favorites of the series (and the best implementation of a job system I've ever seen in any RPG) and it would be interesting to see what people do with it.

 

[bandkanon]

You know what's funny?

I'm actually racking my brains trying to remember how the hell I learned about RPG Maker in the first place.

I know that my first RPG Maker was RM2k, because I was all excited when 2k3 came out, and my first reaction to it was "WOW! Sideview battle system! I've always wanted this!"

But my memory of exactly when and how I discovered it is... probably forever lost. Even when I try to remember what I was doing back in the early 2000's, I draw a blank slate. I know that I was either in late Middle School or early High School. I did have a lot of free time back then, so my only assumption is that I had absolutely nothing to do and I was going around playing emulated fan-translated rpgs and free indie games. Eventually I stumbled across RM2k at some point, and I gradually began playing with it more and more.

At some point I joined a forum called Blade2k (*checks* WHOA HOLY CRAP IT STILL EXISTS) as LunaticPandora, their then-local-riddle-teller. I started an ongoing game-thread called 'Riddles in the Dark', I remember.

I spent most of my time there testing & reviewing games, helping with moderation, using tips & tricks to play with RPG Maker's interface and make custom menu systems with events, and helping newbies in the Support forum.

As I've said in another topic, I never really produced any finished products with RPG Maker. But the whole 'RPG Maker' spirit continually lingers with me, and my time in Blade2k as an adolescent remains a precious memory. Even if I don't recall how I discovered rpg maker altogether.

 

[HalcyanStudio]

Waaay, waaaaay back. More than 10 years ago now. It was a rainy sunday afternoon and I wanted to find some entertainement on my brand new XP computer. I think i search for "free rpg games" on the internet and it let me to a pirated version of RPG Maker 2000. Needless to say i spent about 10 hours behind the pc that day. I always had a thing for creating world, when i was a kid i made an entire ecnyclopedia of an imagined world for example, this new tool was all I dreamed of. A few years later I bought RPG Maker XP.  I started creating a huge rpg for several years (i never really cared for releasing really, just enjoyed creating it). 2 years ago i was finishing up college and i realized i should either drop the hobby or make something that i'm planning to release commercially. The latter is what i'm doing now.

 

[Shin Kitsune]

I found out about RPG Maker in a Castlevania-dedicated website, where they had two homebrew games made with RPG Maker 2000. I have used every version of the program since, but there was a time I got away from it. It was until the Humble Bundle came out, then I took the opportunity to get at least two of the programs legally: XP and VX Ace.

Since I got the bundle, I started fiddling, mostly with RPG Maker VX Ace, 'remaking' an old game from RPG Maker 2000 just to get a hold of it once again.

Plus, I have ideas for possible games in the future.

 

[Blinn]

A friend of mine gifted me RPG Maker VX on Steam and I liked it so much, I got VX Ace on the main website.

 

[kaukusaki]

I got into game dev waaay back when 17 years ago. After the crappy ending in Hexplore i was pissed and thought i could write one better. I played a lot of dnd so i used that as my base to write crpgs. At first i learned directx programming (hexplore ran in 4? 6? Cant recall but i know it was on win98). Then later c, java and actionscript. The games i wrote were similar to the dnd gold box games, though i played a crapload of rpgs on psx as well as pc. I suscribed to EGM to keep track of trends and what was new (i could only go to mall once a month and had to be choosy. I only had 20$ and was mercy to the bargain bin). Once I got rpg maker for psx 2 years later when it came out and i was like holy crap!! I gotta emulate this. I was straight serious, doing my own sprites (image composer), music (ms music producer) etc on my own. I made a ton of games and fiddled with level editors and such for ideas...

later went to college and picked up basic and reinforced c i learned on my own, eventually investing in dark basic, but my cheap computers kept putting all that hours of coding on the back burner. (I have currently 18 hds rotting as externals both 2.5 & 3.5...)

I ended up getting all the maker games for all consoles and pc as well, importing the ones that didnt come out here (after messing with the translated versions, i'd hunt legal copies and cry over import costs. 50$ per unit plus 25$ international shipping is a LOT when you are a poor programmer in the hood).

In 10 years i have written over 30 rpgs that i'm currently translating into vxa. Though i used & bought other game makers (klik n play/games factory, gamemaker 2-7 and of course the dark basic products 3dgm,fpsc,seuk, xquad editor), i enjoy rpg maker the best (i liked xp and made quite a bit but once vxa came out on disk 2 years ago i hurriedly donated plasma. It was time to get serious). Im used to its quirks and i can make a 12hr game in 3 months. A lot of folks who tested my games suggessted i release all those hours i wasted crafting complex awesomeness for cash... So wth not?

EDITS - cracked screen on phone hating

 

[RomVHS]

A little over a week ago, I spent some time watching a horror video gaming Youtuber. I found myself specifically enjoying his playthroughs of short RPGs, and upon him playing a game called Veronikka's To-Do, I felt incredibly inspired to create an RPG of my own due to how simple yet entertaining the game was.

I looked through the various RPG Maker versions on Steam and decided that it wouldn't hurt to look through RPG Maker 2003 tutorials and reviews before getting it. I was surprised at how simple the interface was and how easy it was to use. I ended up buying it a few days later, during the beginning of week-long game jam. I took a bit of time to think on it before purchasing. I switched up the idea for my game so I could retell my story through RPG Maker, and I've been enjoying it ever since!

I want to make a few finished games with the 2003 version before I consider upgrading. I'm not planning to create anything entirely high-tech, and am liking the simple things I can do with it at the moment... but until then, I'll stick around the forums, learn more, and share my experiences with it as time goes on. (It's also the first thing I've bought from Steam myself-)

 

[mlogan]

(Six years later, I’m going to pop this on over to Maker Casual. Don’t mind me.)

 

[KenKrath]

My younger brother knew I was writing a manuscript and he bought me RPG Maker and told me to tell my story through it. That's what I've been doing ever since. I'm not using RPG Maker to make a game but rather a series. LOL.

 

[OcRam]

I was just browsing Steam games and since I had "RPG" tagged. RPG Makers was in my feed stream of course.

At that time there was no MV nor MZ available so I just skipped them.

One day I saw RPG Maker MV with open source JS engine?!?! I remember that I thinked "that just can't work!". Then I bought it just out of plain curiosity, but I fell in love with it immediatly and still loving it!

And I have to say as programmer that MZ is huge improvement from MV (which was already super great engine!).

 

[Kokoro Hane]

I came across the existence of RPG Maker, I believe it was around 2013-ish if I recall correctly. I actually discovered it at the now closed down Voice Acting Alliance site. There was a very big passion project looking for voice acting (and would have ALL dialogue voiced), in hindsight I regret to this day not trying to audition for it lol, but 2 VAs from my own circle ended up in it, so when the game was out, of course I wanted to play it. I love jRPGs and when I learned what engine the team used to make this ridiculous, fully voiced game, I wanted to make voiced RPGs too! I first got my hands on VX Ace Lite, which, despite the limitations, helped me learn so much on how to use it. One day I was able to convince my brother to buy me the boxed version of Ace as a birthday gift lol, only condition he gave me is I better use it since it was expensive and finally, sometime in 2017, I released my very first completed game for a 1 week jam. Been hooked ever since, and as of late, I have been trying to make more RM games. Grabbed 2003, XP, and VX when they were on sale, even though I was gifted MV sometime ago I also grabbed MV standalone when it was on sale (since the one I had was Steam only and I prefer my RMs standalone).

All because of a fully voiced, comedic RPG game (that I still love to this day). I owe it to that one game for introducing me to the wonderful world of RM and being able to make something more interactive than a visual novel (which is my expertise).

 

[Soeufans]

Hello!!

I found RPG maker 2000 21 years ago, nearly in his first release, before RPG maker 2000, i was a boy who made maps and little modifications from games just like Warcraft 2, Doom2, Duke Nukem 3D, Quake, and the last one before RPG maker 2000, Unreal and Unreal Tournament, but it was not enough for me, one day, i translated to spanish a RPG game, named Soul Blazer, from the Snes, and when i released taht bad translation, i was in a search of more RPG makes, someone told me aobut a website comunity of RPG maker, and... the story with RPGmaker 2000 started since then, i started my game, made several engines and lots of Example games to teach other programers on how to do certain engines in RPG maker 2000, 9 years ago I finished my first game, and now a days, im making lots of Video tutorials for RPG maker 2003, and making a big remake version of my first game ported to RPG maker 2003!

And now, im going stream too, with gamepalys and testplays for anyone who wants to learn on how to improve in their games

 

[Jammythewerewolf]

It was five or six years ago, my friends were making a game about printer ink themed characters based on themselves, and brought me on to help with art. It never ended up happening, but I did create and finish my own game a little while after, although it was very simplistic.

I tried a few more things that didn't work out, left RPG maker for a couple of years, and eventually got back into it. I'd been using it in the meantime to create personal maps to help with comic making, so I never really forgot about it.

 

[QuexpRPG]

I was searching for an app to make a mobile game on Android. I ran into RPG Maker which turned out to be MUCH better than what I was looking for.

I bought RPG MAKER MV, did some tutorials, and then it sat until covid shutdown. I'm an amateur but enjoying it a lot.

 

[orochi2k]

In 2004, I decided to go to a bookshop after school to find some textbooks.
There was a shelf full of computer games which were absolutely more attractive than textbooks.
And then, on that shelf, I found RPG Maker 2003 which is absolutely more attractive than computer games. (To make it sounds more legendary...that was the one and only copy in that bookshop.)

The rest is history... (The almost 17 years of development of NEOLITHIC series by now)

 

[Kristina]

I googled after different engines I could use to make games on then I found RPG Maker and its community. It was pure luck to be honest.

I had never played a RPG Maker game, now I have played several.

 

[Jules98]

I... don't actually remember.

I think I might have stumbled on some videos from SumRndmDde sometime after MV released and that might have gotten me interested in RPG Maker?

 

[DawnStar]

I first came into contact with RPG Maker around 2016, when a friend of mine was working on RPG Maker VX Ace and asked me to playstest his game and give feedback since I played a lot of J-RPGs. The engine picked my interest, so I decided to give it a try. I was impressed at how easy yet powerful it is and the ammount of possibility it offered with scripts to extend it, and MV with mobile option just made it even better. So here I am.