Article disponible en français ici

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RPG Maker, here is a complicated game engine ... Not really in the technical sense (it depends on the domain), but more in the sense of reputation. Even though some developers are doing great things with RPG Maker, the reputation of the game engine series is tinged with "toy engine", "low quality fangames nest" or some other unrewarding adjectives... It's more complicated, than that in my opinion. Your devoted servant (who really has nothing better to do) will take care of displaying the reasons for sinning with RM.

1- The problem does not come from the name or the orientation...

RPG Maker, here is a clear name, crisp and precise. It's a fact that this engine series is geared towards making turn-based RPG-type games like The Myths of Lightis prototype, and RPG Maker does it very good.

However, just because its engines are geared towards this type of RPG doesn't mean it's possible to do only that. From RPG Maker XP, it is possible to integrate Ruby code (RGSS1, 2 and 3, to be precise) from XP to VXace, and JavaScript since MV.

With RPG Maker 95, it was already possible to manipulate pictures and Booleans. RPG Maker 2000 introduced integer manipulation. RPG Maker 2003 added some programming fundamentals.

Pictures, manipulation of integers and Booleans, possibility of adding external code and so on ... It is fair to say that RPG Maker can make other types of games than RPG (like HopDrop, it runs with VXace). Here is a list of non-RPG games running on a version of RPG Maker:

• HopDrop (★Yamashi Fenikkusu, 2.5D plateforms game and various mini-games, VXace)
• Vaisseau3D (Joke, 3D rail shooter, 2003)
• OneShot (Future Cat, puzzle and exploration, XP)
• Lavender (Clockwork Prince, puzzle and exploration, 2003)
• Rocky Adventure (Garruk, 2D plateforms game and various mini-games, VXace)
• 1 RPG sans nom Racer 1.1 (Hypnodisc, racing, 2003)

RPG Maker also offers a set of basic resources (graphics and audio), parameters already done so that anyone can embark on the adventure!

2- But rather of what is made of it...

The simplicity of the software has attracted more of a curious, more of a dreamer, more of a fan of Final Fantasy/Dragon Quest/Zelda/The 3 at the same time... And that is understandable. Many of his young dreamers go it alone in the shadows, so it is difficult to establish a precise observation of the use of RPG Maker. But we can already make this observation...

Those who emerge from the shadows are often young, sometimes very young, and do not have the skills and/or the time to create more advanced games than is offered at the base. We all start somewhere, and we shouldn't be ashamed to make bad or average games (that's why I release my old games). There are several scenarios:

1. Some new developers will stick with it and make great games.
2. Others, despite their good faith, will lose their courage and give up. Some cases lead to a loss of self-confidence.
3. Some, without good faith, will give up.
4. Some are trolls.
5. And others will make questionable pornographic games of no interest.

The cases of figure 2 and 3 seem to be the most common, the games are very similar so:

• Basic graphic resources, basic musics or taken from Final Fantasy/Dragon Quest/Zelda/The 3 at the same time.
• MogHunter scripts/plugins to make a menu that rocks.
• Scenario inspired by Final Fantasy/Dragon Quest/Zelda/The 3 at the same time.
• Archetypal characters from Final Fantasy/Dragon Quest/Zelda/The 3 at the same time and from the developer's favorite manga(s).
• Games are often based on humor, sometimes it works, sometimes no. In the case of French-speaking communities, some games are intentionally bad to caricature all that.

I must however qualify my remarks, to make a game which resembles what I aroused is in no way a fault. If the game at the end is good, that is the most important, it is better to have a good unoriginal game than a bad original game.

Likewise, if people (especially the youngest) give up, it's not always their fault ... Precisely ...

3- And ESPECIALLY communication.

The publishers of RPG Maker and some specialized sites are carrying the message that RPG Maker is simple and will allow you to make the video game of your dreams without too much effort. If it was as quick and easy as shitting in the morning between waking up and having coffee, it would be known. I explain:

• RPG Maker softwares are ... Softwares precisely, composed of 0 and 1. RPG Maker does not think, it executes ... Thus, RPG Maker will not do your scenario for you, it will not correct it or improve it. I'm talking about the scenario, but it's valid for everything else.
• If indeed the apprehension of the software is easy, it will be necessary to redouble imagination and efforts to really benefit from it.
• There comes a time when you realize that your simple passion is not enough to make a video game ... Even low skills in programming, graphics, sound design, or writing will be necessary. This moment arrives very quickly and the need for skills will be greater over time and with ambition. This is especially true for lone developers.
• Filling in its gaps by integrating the very latest cool script/plugin from MogHunter is just an illusory solution that does not work.
• Creating a video game takes time and it's still difficult (game jams are another context, the games are often improved afterwards and made by experienced developers). This is especially true for RPGs, the genre for which RPG Maker is optimized.
• Basically, making a video game, whether using RPG Maker or another engine, it is the same difficulty.

So, what I blame is this questionable communication. People last RPG Maker sell dreams, people get seduced, and buy software that will be useful to them for a short time, before gathering dust at the bottom of their Steam library.

What I touched on in parts 2 and 3 should explain why RPG Maker has such bad press. It remains my opinion, I may have forgotten something, but I still think I explained it.

I must nevertheless emphasize that RPG Maker, despite a communication that I would qualify as dubious, remains a good gateway to the realization of video games.

4- Of course, RPG Maker has its limits.

Limitations are among the origins of art and innovation. I have always been a great admirer of video game pioneers, who managed to make fun and touching games with technologies that performed poorly compared to current standards. Technologies which were much more capricious than today, which forced them to work well and to redouble their ingenuity to go beyond certain limits.

It is also in this sense that I appreciate RPG Maker, because at first glance it is limited, and it forces you to show ingenuity and rigor. When I discovered RPG Maker, I didn't know what an RPG was (I grant you, it's quite paradoxical), the only "RPG" I had played were the Zelda 64 and Twilight Princess, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time.

So I tried to develop other kinds of games, from A-RPG to Mario Kart like, via platform games.

To develop its genres of games on an engine that lives up to its name, it was therefore necessary to imagine solutions, acquire skills, do programming. This is how I found the real limits of RPG Maker. The first is 3D (although there is always a way to simulate it).

The second is an unforgivable thing: its disgusting code.

To cite an example, when I coded the controller system for HopDrop, I tore my hair out to find the action keys to change.

Clearly, there is no global function for this kind of thing, the key system is decentralized, it will be necessary to modify one by one the lines of codes of the key presses in each of the scripts of the game. The key to confirm a choice has been changed? Great, we'll have to redo it to get the messages and menus across.

Add to this that the keys, at least on VX and VXace, do not correspond to anything. The C key on RPG Maker? Forget immediately the C key on your keyboard, the C key for RPG Maker is Enter and Space. And it's the same for the other keys!

Another example, the structure of RPG Maker does not seem to offer the creation of multilingual games, a height for game engines of the 21st century!

Of course, HopDrop is multilingual, but that's specifically because it's not a RPG (so either it's me or it's the software, but the situation is paradoxical all the same), it doesn't use therefore not the database of enemies / skills / items which is only intended for one language. This is the reason why The Myths of Lightis, however an RPG, will be migrated to another engine. As it stands, The Myths of Lightis is split into 2 versions, one French and one English, which translates (I chose my words too well) into 2 versions to be developed individually, 2 versions to be uploaded individually ... You see the idea.

These are a few examples, but others could be cited (absence of real debugging tools, inefficient manipulation of decimals, absence of table type variables in event commands, Boolean expressions which could be better ...).

5- But Ô Great Yama', why are you staying on RPG Maker then?

As I explained, RPG Maker has its qualities, and the problem isn't just with the software itself.

When I started game dev in 2010, the computers that I had access to or my own computer were not competition beasts, RPG Maker was the only solution I had, Unity or Unreal it was almost out range ... And I did not knowthes engines, I had otherwise heard of Blender, Game Maker, Adventure Game Studio. I was coming out of Super Mario World romhack with Lunar Magic and Super Mario Kart with TrackDes.

When I got out of the world of romhacking, so I turned to RPG Maker, I was using cracks from VX and then VXace, and I stuck to it over the years ... I ended up buying both of these softwares.

When I debuted on RPG Maker, , I was quite young and very impressionable, with RPG Maker I really had the satisfaction of starting from almost nothing to make a video game (satisfaction that I didn't have with Lunar Magic and TrackDes). I didn't realize I was making shit. By the way, to quote me during a conversation:

The real version of [archived game coming soon], I was very young when it was created, I was a pretty impressionable kid at the time, and my dream, like a lot of makers* I guess, was to create a video game [...]
It [the game I'm referring to] was really short and ridiculous, but seeing my dream come true was very beautiful. Admittedly the content was ridiculous, even for one of my first games, but my imagination spanked the rest ... It was a bit like a kid to whom you give Lego, he will do something ugly but he will be satisfied and imagine great adventures around his Lego construction ...

*name that French-speaking RPG Maker users give themselves

Of course, time has come a long way, little Yama' has become great Yama'. I gained skills and wanted to make games that are always better. This can be seen quite well when comparing my archives and more recent games.

I started HopDrop and The Myths of Lightis in 2015, HopDrop is in my opinion at a point of no return, it cannot be migrated to a new engine without losing several years of development, so I want to finish it in its current form.

The Myths of Lightis is different. In practice, it is not very advanced, and will therefore be ported to another game engine that opens up more possibilities.

Bottom Line: As soon as HopDrop is complete, RPG Maker will retire with me. After more than a decade of good and loyal service.

6- To conclude.

RPG Maker therefore has qualities, it is some of its limits, the communication around and certain achievements that tarnish the reputation of the software. I also think that staying on RPG Maker when you have ambition is not viable in the long term.

Making a video game is complicated, but if the game at the end is good, we don't care about the engine. Better a good RPG Maker game than a bad Unreal Engine game.

I have absolutely nothing against young developers who just want to make a game out of desire, out of passion, without great ambitions. I find that it gives off a certain innocence that makes me nostalgic for my beginnings. When I see a novice game, I can't help but feel some sympathy. Everyone has a different relationship to video games, anyway ... It's the difference between each human being that is beautiful, the diversity of the paths taken.

What I reproach, at the risk of repeating myself, it is rather the communication around RPG Maker. So the view people have of it saddens me a bit. Here is an ugly comic that sums it up well:

Everything I have said represents only my personal opinion, but I am open to debate and discussion in all courtesy.

(I also deliberately left the financial aspect aside, it's a subject that goes beyond the scope of this blog post, but making a video game comes at a cost: don't forget that RPG Maker is paid software)