Game Maker: Difference between revisions

* RPGMaker

** RPGMaker is, obviously, for [[Role Playing Game|Role Playing Games]]. The latest model is RPGMaker VX Ace. For the Japanese, a demo with caps on how many items of each type you can use is available, and it is assumed that they can be changed into fully-featured "registered versions" after the actual release. The English version has full functionality for 30 days before it expires and you'd have to buy it. The previous versions, RPGMaker VX and RPGMaker XP, were released similarly. Prior versions, including RPGMaker 95 (97?), RPGMaker 2000 and RPGMaker 2003 (aka 2k3), were never translated into English, so any English-language versions you find across the Internet are (a) buggy and (b) illegal.

*** One important thing to note with RPG Maker, at least with earlier versions, is that level-ups and stat growth have much less effect in RPG Maker than in many real RPGs. It would be extremely difficult and require a great deal of trickery to make a game with the very dramatic power escalation of a ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' title, for instance.

** The three most recent entries in the series; XP, VX and VX Ace; come equipped with Ruby scripting that allows people making a game in the maker to drastically alter the in-game engine, which allows for numerous different types of games (the most common alteration is taking the boring front-view turn-based battle system that they both come with and changing it into a side-view active-time battle system.)

** The OHRRPGCE is a freeware, open-source editor that was originally a DOS application, but has now been ported to FreeBASIC for support with new Operating Systems. It boasts flexibility and a powerful scripting engine, though has strict limitations that still exist from the DOS versions. The games made use a ''[[Final Fantasy IV]]''-style battle engine, with potential for complex attacks. Graphics must be drawn by the user, but has allowed creativity as a result. The engine is suited for any style of game, having a library of both high quality titles and quick fun distractions.

* [http://www.sawbladesoftware.com/ Power Game Factory]

* [[MUGEN]]

** The most robust engine for 2D [[Fighting Game|Fighting Games]] out there, MUGEN sports a huge variety of features that enable makers to do damn near anything with it. There are a few full games out there, mostly fan games like ''Brutal Paws of Fury Remix'' and ''[[Mortal Kombat]]: Integral'', but far more common are stand-alone characters that can simply be plugged into the engine and used against each other in an [[Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny|anything-goes slugfest]].

** A Python-based engine designed with [[Visual Novel|Visual Novels]] in mind. It doesn't come with many resources; you have to provide your own art and music. However, the engine is very flexible, and its functions can be expanded if one is handy with Python. There are just over 300 games already made for the engine.

* ''[[Zelda Classic]]''

* [http://www.graalonline.com/ Graal Online]

** Started as an online ''Zelda 3'' clone; now it's hosting servers for anyone who can make about $100 a year. Hypothetically free if you bring in enough subscribers -- sadly, last check they frown on their developers letting people play for free...

* [http://www.adrift.org.uk/cgi/new/adrift.cgi ADRIFT], [http://www.tads.org/ TADS], and [http://inform7.com Inform 7] are currently the most popular entry points for [[Interactive Fiction]] designers. ADRIFT is perhaps slightly easier for the novice, as its environment simply slots all game elements into various nested menus without scripting, but older versions hits their limits fairly quickly when the designer tries something out of the ordinary (a problem that Adrift 5 is supposed to address). Inform 7 is really more of a language than a game maker, but it's one of the friendliest languages out there (natural language statements! Playable rooms within a minute!) and it scales very nicely with the programmer's experience. TADS is the most complex of the three, allowing for full object-oriented programming of game logic. All three handle very sophisticated levels of grammar parsing of commands.

** For those who want something even easier, there's the [http://www.ragsgame.com/Downloads.aspx RAGS suite], which is basically point and click!

* [http://www.stencyl.com/ Stencyl] is a finished after years of waiting product that is sort of a Game Engine for Game Makers. It has some of the functionality of a Game Engine, but rather than making a game, you use it to make a "Kit". Kits define the basic behavior of the style of game, like [[Shoot Em Ups]] or [[Platform Game|Platform Games]]. Then, it becomes a Game Maker for that particular style of game.

* [[Older Than the NES]]: Quicksilva released a program called ''Games Designer'' for the ZX Spectrum in 1983. It was fairly rudimentary, and rubbish, and it could only make four different types of shoot-em-ups, meaning that it may well have inspired ''SEUCK'', but it was a designer and it did the job.

* [[World Builder]] was a popular graphic adventure game maker in the black-and-white [[Apple Macintosh|Macintosh]] era, and was best known for the commercial game ''[[Enchanted Scepters]]'' (among amateur authors, Ray Dunakin and Louise Hope are probably the most noted). Its creator went on to found Cyberflix Interactive and develop an [[Full Motion Video|FMV Game]] engine called Dream Factory.

* [[Step Mania]] is a vanilla build of [[Dance Dance Revolution]], allowing people to make their own rhythm games from it. Hell, it's what ''[[In the Groove]]'' and ''[[Mungyodance]]'' were built off of.

* ''[[Unlimited Adventures]]'' allows to create [[Gold Box]]-style RPG games.

* The [http://www.toolkitzone.com/ RPG Toolkit]. You can make other types of games with it, but it's pretty hard. The learning curve for the programming language is steep, too, since (as of Version 3.0) it's now based entirely on C++.

* ''[[Neverwinter Nights]]'' came bundled with a toolkit from which sprang a large modding community, supported by Bioware completely. Many module series were pretty clearly superior to the original game.

* Also on the [[Apple II]] were ''[[Arcade Machine]]'', which used a positively Byzantine system to create shoot-em-up games.

* ''Atmosphir'' is a ''[[Game Maker]]'' that as of this writing includes platforming, multiplayer coop, multiplayer battle, and racing. Despite all these genres, it is not yet a full-fledged ''[[Game Engine]]''.

* ''[[Touhou]] Danmakufu'', a tool for making ''[[Touhou]]''-like [[Shoot'Em Up|Shoot 'Em Ups]].

* [http://maglog.jp/sb/ Shooting Game Builder] is a shoot 'em up maker, used mostly for freeware doujin games.

* [[Knytt Stories]] could be considered a tool for making [[Metroidvania]] games. Download it [http://nifflas.ni2.se/index.php?page=Knytt+Stories here].

 

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