Is XV Ace the Best RPG Maker for beginners?

[harmonic311]

Hello, everyone! I'm new to RPG Maker and wanted to know the best RPG Maker product for someone like me who is just starting out. I've never done coding or game design before and, honestly, I'm just curious to see what I can do with it.

I want something that's easy, but I also want something that has a lot of variety. I've heard that VX Ace has the most variety of the Makers--is this true? Is there a good variety specifically for character design?

Also, is it truly simple for anyone who has never done game design? Thanks for your help!

Edit: Yes, I know I misspelled VX Ace in the title. Lmao sorry.

 

[bgillisp]

It depends honestly. VX Ace has been around longer and has the most resources, and is usually cheaper. However, MV is still being updated and new plug-ins are written constantly for it, so it comes down to can you make a game with what is already out there (for ACE) or do you want to get the newer one and see what comes down the road for it?

Maybe the best thing for you to do is to download ACE Lite (its the free trial version of Ace). This has a lot of restrictions (no scripting allowed, a very low event limit, etc), but you can try to design a really basic game with it, and work through the tutorials (see my signature for a link for them). Plan to spend about a month working through the tutorials to learn the program well, and that should allow you to judge for yourself better.

 

[Rhaeami]

From using just a few of the Makers myself, I've gotten the distinct impression that they're more similar than they are different. If you're just starting out, any of them is just as good as the next to learn the basics. That said, VX Ace is at a good point right now in terms of community, which means you can find a lot of tutorials, Q&A, resources, etc. on the internet. This is a time sensitive advantage - MV will eventually overtake it, and previous Makers have gradually lost their own community content over time.

I suspect that's what people who said it had the most "variety" were talking about - that you can find the most art, code snippets, etc. for it if you look online. As far as built-in features go, they're all pretty much the same for a beginner, I think.


Just saw the previous post, and I second the idea to try a free trial version. Personally, the first Maker I used was one of the old console versions on PlayStation - now THAT was limited. The trial will be good enough for starters.

 

[Moonport]

I honestly do think RPG Maker MV is better for beginners.
Firstly, you can actually overlap the mapping tiles B-E, whereas in the other two, if you want to overlap two elements, you'd draw what's on the bottom and use an event to layer what's on the top.
Secondly, the system comes with a lot more resources. For example, the software gives you two battle systems: front and side. Plus the Character Generator thing provides you with the sideview battlers, as well as fallen characters on top of regular walking sprites.
However, the VX Ace does have a lot more available resources (I think?) on the internet so you'd have more things to play with, if you look at it from that perspective (I'm just lazy most of the time and like to work with what I have lol).

However, I'm just saying this from my point of view. Since I can't garantee if it's what you want, I recommend you try the trial versions first.
I do also support the idea of that free trial version. It actually lets you play with the engine forever aside from some restrictions. But even with the limitations you can still make a decent game and it's very, very easy to understand.

Hope this helps! =D

 

[harmonic311]

Thank you everyone for your support! I'm very convinced that I might purchase MV just because it IS the newest edition and it looks awesome. I'm currently downloading the trial and I'll see how I like it.

 

[Heirukichi]

I would say that MV comes with more basic resources while VX Ace has more community resources. This gives VX Ace more freedom so far.

That said it doesn't that MV won't give you the same freedom in the future. On the contrary, it could possibly give even more freedom because using MV is possible to exort for Android and iOS so your game can be player everywhere.

Keep in mind that you have to wait if you want to see all the resources prople made for VX Ace working on MV too. I don't know how much you have to wait but if your purpose is to make a computer game then probably you don't have to wait and you can purchase VX Ace. If you want to create a cross-platform game then you might consider buying MV.