RPG Maker
RPG Maker, known in Japan as RPG Tsukūru (RPGツクール - sometimes romanized as RPG Tkool) , is a game creation engine first released by ASCII, then succeeded by Enterbrain. The Japanese name, Tsukūru, is a pun mixing the Japanese word tsukuru (作る), which means "make" or "create", with tsūru (ツール), the Japanese transcription of the English word "tool".
The very first version was RPG Maker 98, but the first version to be released for modern Windows PC was RPG Maker 95 (released after 98). It was succeeded by RPG Maker 2000 and later 2003, both of which increased the limits of the game engine, though had lower screen resolution than 95.
Starting with RPG Maker XP, the game engine was coded in the Ruby scripting language, which made the game engine somewhat harder to learn and use (since many of the preset events in the game now had to be manually scripted), but allowed great flexibility.
It was succeeded by RPG Maker VX, and it's updated revision, RPG VX Ace.
The latest version is RPG Maker MV, a rewrite of the engine to use Javascript instead of the Ruby coding language so the program can be used on and code for multiple platforms.
- DLC: Available via the Steam release of RPG VX Ace, which includes new game tiles, music, and other resources.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: It was designed as game creation engine for RPGs, though a talented programmer could possibly make other types of game depending on their programming skill.
- Fan Translation: Every version from 95 to XP has gotten legally questionable game translations, though all versions since (XP included) are now released with official English versions.