Role-playing game creation software
An RPG maker is a game creation system (software program) intended to make it easy for non-programmers to create a role-playing game. The target audience for most of these products is artists and creative types who have the imaginative abilities to assemble the elements of a game (artwork, plotline, music, etc.) but lack the technical skill to program it themselves.
RPG Maker
The most famous RPG maker is the commercial Japanese RPG Maker series that has been released since 1988 for many systems ranging from the PC-8801, MSX, PC-9801, and Microsoft Windows, to the Super Famicom, PlayStation, Game Boy Color, PlayStation 2, and Cellphones.
Other RPG makers
Name | Linux | Mac | Windows | Mobile | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adventure Construction Set | An early RPG maker for creating top-down view tile-based role-playing and adventure games. Published by Electronic Arts in 1984 for the Commodore 64 and later ported to other 8-bit and early 16-bit microcomputers. | ||||
Adventure Creator | An early RPG maker for Apple II computers that allowed users to build very simple games. Not to be confused with Graphic Adventure Creator, a simplified version of which was also released as Adventure Creator. | ||||
Bard's Tale Construction Set | A (relatively) early RPG maker, based on the basic design (first-person view and tile set) of the Bard's Tale games. Released by EA and Interplay in 1991. | ||||
BYOND | X | Used for NEStalgia, and others. | |||
EasyRPG | X | X | X | X | A cross-platform, open source RPG development tool and client, compatible with RPG Maker. |
Engine001 | X | X | A commercial action/RPG maker. Uses a subscription model | ||
Forgotten Realms: Unlimited Adventures | A commercial RPG maker by Strategic Simulations, Inc. for MS-DOS and Mac OS. | ||||
RPG Creator | X | X | X | X | A commercial game development toolkit which runs through HTML5. |
KAGE | A free software game development toolkit able to make RPGs utilizing KonsolScript. | ||||
OHRRPGCE | X | X | X | X | An open source RPG maker for Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, and Android. |
RpgBoss | A cross-platform open source editor and engine based on javascript and scala. | ||||
Sphere RPG Engine | X | X | X | A set of open source RPG makers utilizing Javascript, first released in 2000. | |
Verge | An open source 2D game engine with an emphasis on role playing games. | ||||
Maker3D | X | X | A 3D RPG creator in manga style |
While not an RPG maker per se, the Worldforge game engine is intended for creating MMORPGs.