People who diss RPG Maker agitate me.

[C-C-C-Cashmere]

I have a friend who dislikes RPG Maker because he believes it is an inferior engine to others like Unity. I think the best way to approach this is to get them to have a playthrough of at least a small segment of a collection of the best RPG Maker games to prove that there is some respect to the engine.

Games you can recommend:

• Wine & Roses (VXA)
• To The Moon (XP) [commercial]
• Master of the Wind (XP) [long, but good]
• Star Stealing Prince (VX)
• Homework Salesman (VXA)
• Aetherion (VX)

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

well, IMHO it is inferior in so many ways if compared to the high-end engines... but is it enough to dislike it? NO. Seriously, even if it's inferior, you can still make totally awesome games with it... and depending on what you want to do, it might actually be "superior", or at least more "usable"


and really, comparing a "simple" engine to a High-end engine? it's like comparing notepad to MS Word

 

[C-C-C-Cashmere]

well, IMHO it is inferior in so many ways if compared to the high-end engines... but is it enough to dislike it? NO. Seriously, even if it's inferior, you can still make totally awesome games with it... and depending on what you want to do, it might actually be "superior", or at least more "usable"

and really, comparing a "simple" engine to a High-end engine? it's like comparing notepad to MS Word

Well... not exactly. Notepad is way better for coding than MS Word. Notepad is probably the purist's choice anyway (well, unless you're counting options like emacs and IDEs). And it's not going to be easy to use the Unreal Engine to make a 2D JRPG now is it?

Different engines; different uses.

 

[Zoltor]

well, IMHO it is inferior in so many ways if compared to the high-end engines... but is it enough to dislike it? NO. Seriously, even if it's inferior, you can still make totally awesome games with it... and depending on what you want to do, it might actually be "superior", or at least more "usable"

and really, comparing a "simple" engine to a High-end engine? it's like comparing notepad to MS Word

Aside from the bad scan rate, and the screen viewing range, you can pretty much bypass all its limitations through scripts(keeping in mind, this engine is specificalls made to make RPGs, and simular genres ofcourse, not a bullet hell shooter or something else that is as far from a RPG as you can get), and lets be real, having to use a script here, and there(depending on the game, and what you want to do), is a hell of a lot better then needing to code the entire game from scratch.

Hell nearly all of the script I'm using, don't even have anything to do with the systems in the game I'm making, they're basically just development tool adjustments(like allowing equips to call common events, being allowed to create custom equipment slots, a text code script, being allowed to add more page conditions to events, and a region event coding script).

At this point, I pretty much bypassed just about every limitation the utility has lol. People have no idea how diverse the event command are, all it is, is a matter of manipulating the commands, and you could alost do everything you could possibly think of.

 

[Aceri]

I think the RM programs are damn near perfect when it comes to wanting to make 2D games. Plus if you want to make a platformer or bullet hell or what have you, they have IG Maker for that as well, so the whole line of RM products are very versatile.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

I wouldn't say perfect, but non-arguably one of the most useful (if not the most)

 

[Aceri]

Well yeah that's why I said damn near. But then again I guess perfect is all in what you're used to using as well.

 

[Simon D. Aelsi]

Have your friend play Ib. That blows (MOST!) RPG Maker games I've ever played RIGHT out of the water.  It's kinda scary and it's a survival-type game with custom everything pretty much.

Also, if you get the wrong ending the emotional....ness..... can really get to ya.  I'm not a crier at games, and even I cried fiery, fist-clenching manly tears of doom. (That.... that guitar theme gets me every time...T__T)

I love RPG Maker because it's easy to use... but just because it's easy to use doesn't mean it's easy to MASTER... like somebody else said before!

 

[Ellie Jane]

People who "diss" RPG Maker (or any engine) neglect the fact that 99% of what makes a particular game good is the planning, storyline, and other content created by the user, which could be done in any engine (or none at all). The engine might be fallible when compared to others, but at the end of the day, a good game is a good game, and the engine used to create said game matters very, very little. Dismissing a game because it's made in RPG Maker is like dismissing a cake because it's base was a cake mix instead of an intricate recipe.

 

[Simon D. Aelsi]

People who "diss" RPG Maker (or any engine) neglect the fact that 99% of what makes a particular game good is the planning, storyline, and other content created by the user, which could be done in any engine (or none at all). The engine might be fallible when compared to others, but at the end of the day, a good game is a good game, and the engine used to create said game matters very, very little. Dismissing a game because it's made in RPG Maker is like dismissing a cake because it's base was a cake mix instead of an intricate recipe.

This.  Just add a little vanilla and food coloring... and maybe some chocolate chips and they'll never know... *said slyly*

 

[Vassim74]

People I know who disses RPG Maker are only doing it because either:

1. The engine is too old-school for them

2. It can only make 2D games

3. A lot of the games it makes look alike

4. The games are not made by professionals (my older brother's main complaint)

Honestly I think a lot of gamers today (the ones I know anyway at least) are spoiled by recent and current gen games. Some of my classmates will absolutely refuse to play 2D games because apparently it's "too old-school" for them, or they just prefer games with the latest graphics. Another thing too is that unless they are within my circle of selective gaming buddies, they will not touch any RPGs made in Japan.

It's times like these that I'm glad for the friends within my gaming circle because I've actually shown VXA to some of them and they've expressed genuine interest in it.

 

[Lars Ulrika]

Well, I faced this blank silent moment after answering "Rpg maker" to someone asking how I'm making my games, my wife in first place. But hey, when I showed her sites like Aldorlea or Amaranth she suddenly developped a serious interest for me making more mon....games. XD 

More seriously, I think it depends on the public, for exemple my wife (yes her again) preferred the rtp big time to some other custom graphic systems I showed her. If it doesn't work on Steam, sell elsewhere there is a serious fanbase for retro 2D gaming and I doubt they're all stuck on Steam. 

 

[Indinera]

It's normal for people to express some doubts at first, but once you explain to them the mechanisms, they usually start seeing the whole thing a bit differently. RM is a powerful tool. If you use it with serious and dedication, you are likely to make good business with it.

 

[Tsukihime]

well, IMHO it is inferior in so many ways if compared to the high-end engines... but is it enough to dislike it? NO. Seriously, even if it's inferior, you can still make totally awesome games with it... and depending on what you want to do, it might actually be "superior", or at least more "usable"


and really, comparing a "simple" engine to a High-end engine? it's like comparing notepad to MS Word

RM is better than most game engines out there. Anyone that has ever tried to create a cut-scene for a game should understand how difficult it is to code a cut-scene. Even the simple act of displaying a message on the screen is quite challenging if the engine you're using doesn't already build that in for you like RM does.


RM allows you to just drag and drop stuff without having to write any code!

 

[Zoltor]

RM is better than most game engines out there. Anyone that has ever tried to create a cut-scene should understand how difficult it is to code a cut-scene. RM allows you to just drag and drop stuff without having to write any code!

^This, omg this. RM has so few restrictions in general, and nearly all of the restrictions it does have, can be bypassed(like the Page condition BS, the original RPG Maker didn't have such restrictions, btw than's hime for making a script to fix that). Yea while RM might not be as powerful as other engines, It's better then most engines out there. It's still powerful enough to make most type of games(even games of genres It's not meant for), and omg yea making events in RPG Maker(even the more complicated ones you maybe having trouble with(It's always fun to try, and fige things out in RPG Maker) is a downright pleasure, where It's a coding nightmare with literally every other engine.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

It is simpler, but that really doesn't translate to better. though better might be a very subjective word. I mean better in a sense of the full capabilities no matter how complex it is.

 

[Zoltor]

It is simpler, but that really doesn't translate to better. though better might be a very subjective word. I mean better in a sense of the full capabilities no matter how complex it is.

Well keep in mind that most of It's limitations can be bypassed with scripting, and having to possibly script a feature/mechanic here, and there is a lot better then having to literally script/code everything from scratch(Isn't that why you, Hime, and Yanfly are here? All three of you are great coders, if you wanted to, I'm sure you guys have the knowledge needed to create a game from scratch through coding).

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

I used to try to make it out from scratch, but I stopped because making something to handle animation/graphic related thingy from scratch is not my forte... Plus full custom resources for non-RM usage costs higher, and I'm not rich to handle that.

 

[Mouser]

Haters gonna hate.

It's a 2D engine. It's not the powerful thing in the world and there is a low barrier to entry. For the life of me I can't figure out why Degica hasn't made an RPG Maker for smart phones - they would have made a KILLING when everybody was trying to make the next "Angry Birds".

I've said this before: If you want a "real" game engine, you pony up the 75K for a Hero license (the 'cheapest' of the A quality engines I know of) and build your game. Anything under 5K and you're squarely in 'hobby land' (OK, Ogre was used for Torchlight, but Runic Games did a LOT of work on that engine to get it to do what it did - Unity was used for the latest Might and Magic game, and I suspect the same is true there). And yes, I am working on a commercial project using RPG Maker - it's good enough for what I'm doing, which is it all it has to be.

Honestly, the one I've got my eye on is Everquest: Landmark. I was Alpha testing that for a while, and had some input to the lead dev. If they handle it right, that will be the breakout platform of the decade (commercial and non-commercial). I don't know if they'll choose to go down that road or not, but the potential is very much there.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

Well, an RM for smartphone will probably still be hard to use to make angry birds... more like that one needs IGM for smartphones... I think the main thing is that RM has been made utilizing the .NET framework (which is why it's windows only), so it's kinda need an overhaul for porting to be easy. A lot of us do really hope they add porting capabilities on the next RM.


I have a friend on another community which uses Unity to make an MMO which looks like a Skyrim + Path of Exiles mash-up... Unity, Unreal, Cry etc do require a lot of work if you use them, since they expect you to build things yourself. But that comes with A LOT of flexibility.


Hero only costs 75K if you want the source code of the engine (which might be useless unless you want to modify the engine itself to extend it's capabilities etc), else it's just $99 per year...