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NEWS: RPG Maker MZ Game Announced for PC




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R. Kasahara



Joined: 19 Feb 2013
Posts: 704
PostPosted: Fri Jun 12, 2020 4:52 am Reply with quote
Dammit, I just bought MV last year! Had barely touched the thing, too. At least I didn't spend too much on it. Hope this new one is good.
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wolf10



Joined: 23 Jan 2016
Posts: 928
PostPosted: Fri Jun 12, 2020 8:17 am Reply with quote
This happens every. single. time. I finally break down and embrace the latest engine. I totally sympathize with the Japanese devs who never left RMXP.

From the system specs, it looks like it's still WebGL under the hood, so I can hopefully still use the code I just finished porting over from Ruby. Hopefully it's just a newer NWJS core and an updated editor.
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TarsTarkas



Joined: 20 Dec 2007
Posts: 5923
Location: Virginia, United States
PostPosted: Fri Jun 12, 2020 2:45 pm Reply with quote
Have any of you actually made a game using previous iterations of this software? It interests me, but I wonder if it is actually that easy to use. And if any games were made from it, would anybody want to play.

I doubt the game play is going to look like that cover art.
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wolf10



Joined: 23 Jan 2016
Posts: 928
PostPosted: Fri Jun 12, 2020 3:24 pm Reply with quote
I'd say it's not only easy to use, but the best at what it does. Even though at this point I could and probably should be using a more "grown-up" editor like Unity, the fact of the matter is that RPG Maker has so much of the really, truly awful aspects of database management, map editing, and event planning so thoroughly streamlined that I keep coming back.

Expect the base engine to be skewed towards the overall look and feel of late-90's Dragon Quest (or the PSP remake of Final Fantasy), but if you're not too picky about visuals it's easy to tell a good story. The event planning lets you string together most in-system commands (move character, display message, play sound, etc.) and supports basically every logical operator as well, enough that people were writing entirely new battle systems back in the days before true scripting. Stuff like shops and menus have fairly smart defaults, but scripting as of MV lets you extend and rewrite basically every part of the game engine, though you're still limited by how well your code works alongside the main editor.

RPG Maker games are definitely bigger in Japan than the rest of the world, probably because the indie dev scene found a pretty strong pre-built audience in Comiket. Some RM games have even become famous enough to get full remakes and anime adaptations (Corpse Party and Ao Oni come to mind.) Of course, the "easiness" of the editor also makes it really easy to make crap. Most games you will find are not on that level. A useful mantra: "A little kid probably made this, I don't need to say anything."
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R. Kasahara



Joined: 19 Feb 2013
Posts: 704
PostPosted: Sat Jun 13, 2020 7:53 am Reply with quote
TarsTarkas wrote:
Have any of you actually made a game using previous iterations of this software? It interests me, but I wonder if it is actually that easy to use. And if any games were made from it, would anybody want to play.

I doubt the game play is going to look like that cover art.

I once made a comedy RPG in VX Ace (the version before MV). It's free and you can download it here. It was the first in an annual project where I make a game in a different engine every winter, though I'm taking 2020 off.

I upgraded to MV in part because of the Mac support (and in part because I was getting impatient in regards to a new version being released. Welp Rolling Eyes ), but haven't been able to get back to the project I started with that. In fairness, it was a larger project; maybe I should start with a small game again.

RPG Maker is easy to use and doesn't require much (if any) programming if that intimidates you-- though the option is certainly there! As wolf10 has said, it's great at what it does if you specifically want to make RPGs. There's plenty of user-created scripts as well, if you want to do something outside of the basics.

Also as wolf10 said, there are a small number of very good games made with RPG Maker, including the well-known Corpse Party. One such Western indie game is To the Moon, though there are a few others. One warning if you play To the Moon: have some tissues handy.
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wolf10



Joined: 23 Jan 2016
Posts: 928
PostPosted: Sun Jun 14, 2020 7:03 am Reply with quote
Oh, and I can't believe I forgot to mention Angels of Death, which was built in VX Ace and had an anime just a couple years ago.

Lots of people use RPG Maker just for the visual event builder, since there isn't really anything comparable for adventure games. RPG Maker horror is basically its own subgenre. (You could make a VN in it as well, and I believe people do.)
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