Media Notes / RPG Maker

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RPG Maker (RPGツクール, RPG Tsukuru), is a series of game maker programs first created by ASCII, then succeeded by Enterbrain and Gotcha Gotcha. As the name suggests, they allow users to create their own Eastern RPGs. Visually and in terms of gameplay mechanics, they tend to be reminiscent of classic Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy titles.

The series is known for its ease of use and accessibility. Each version comes bundled with a large amount of graphical and audio resources, and there are many additional resources available as DLC or on third-party websites, so no artistic talent is needed to start off. Its tile-based map and event editor system makes it easy to create areas filled with interactable objects without having programming knowledge (though an understanding of programming concepts such as variables and loops can help a lot, and later versions allow custom scripting for advanced functionality).

There are over 35 programs in the series, many of which are for various gaming consoles, now-obsolete computer architectures, or were never released outside Japan. The latest PC version is RPG Maker MZ, released in 2020. The latest overall version is RPG Maker With (2024) for the PS4, PS5 and Nintendo Switch.

After several versions that only used a special interface for inputting commands, the series started supporting actual scripting languages. The first three versions to do so — XP, VX, and VX Ace — come equipped with Ruby scripting that allows people to drastically alter the in-game engine, which allows for numerous different types of games (the most common alteration is taking the front-view turn-based battle system that they both come with and changing it into a side-view active-time battle system). The following two entries, RPG Maker MV and MZ, employ JavaScript as the scripting language, in an attempt to make games produced with it multi-platform (i.e. can be ported to smartphones). RPG Maker Unite is an add-on to the Unity Engine that incorporates almost all of the RPG Maker functionality.

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

Because of the aforementioned accessibility and ease of learning the very basics, the program has developed a rather low reputation of only being able to pump out either low-quality, poorly-written, unbalanced grind-fests, or low-quality fetish pornography. This is a rather unfair accusation, though; there are plenty of high-quality games made in RPG Maker, with titles such as OFF, the LISA trilogy, To the Moon, OneShot (2014), Fear & Hunger and OMORI being some examples of just how great and varied games made in the program can be, when in the right hands.

It is also possible to make games in other genres besides RPGs— adventure games and Survival Horror games are the most popular, with the Explorer Horror genre being somewhat of a mix of the two, and not hard to make, while occasionally games in action-oriented genres have been created, though this is more difficult.

Outside of video games, Distortion is the notable example of a feature-length film or "machinima" made in an RPG Maker program.

See also Wolf RPG Editor, a similar game maker software.

Games developed with RPG Maker:

Tropes specific to RPG Maker material: