Is this a good choice for a beginner?

[Calvinball8]

I really am wanting to get into game development and I figured i should start with RPGMaker as it is simple to use, has a lot of things you can do with it, and has a large community that would make people discovering my game much easier as long as it is unique. Is this version the best to start with, or should I use something like MV or VXAce? Also don't just say that I should use something else that's free/cheaper; money isn't a problem for me when it comes to this.

[JohnDoeNews]

If you start with RPG maker, you start with an engine that you can make games with without any coding knowledge what so ever. And if you keep using it, you will be better at it by every hour you use the software. You will learn some coding, you will learn how games work begind the scenes.

Which RPG maker you should start with, is kind of personal. Personally I love MV more than MZ (but to be fair, I didn't give MZ much of a chance just yet).

If you go older than MV, you might need more coding, so you will need to watch more tutorials, read more script description and such. This is harder, but it will teach you more about coding.

If you just want to use the engine as is (no custom anything), then it really doesn't matter which you will use.

Best advice I can give you is: Download the free trial for MV and the one for MZ, maybe also the VX Ace one. Try them all out, and then decide which one you like best.

[LoneWolfLegend]

It's what was said above, the more you use any one of the programs the better you get. no coding needed(it does help though I myself know nothing on it) the rest of it is pretty much the same engine to engine eventing wise. some things are different like new features and so on. (persoanlly i say start with MZ because it has more features that wil benefit you in the long run. like event list on the left side, and move route preview.)

[JohnDoeNews]

Originally posted by animefan232:

It's what was said above, the more you use any one of the programs the better you get. no coding needed(it does help though I myself know nothing on it) the rest of it is pretty much the same engine to engine eventing wise. some things are different like new features and so on. (persoanlly i say start with MZ because it has more features that wil benefit you in the long run. like event list on the left side, and move route preview.)

I actually think MV still has more features, thanks to the enormous amount of plugins available. Howver, this will probably change soon, since most of those plugins are being ported over, and I think it is safe to say most new plugins, will be written for MZ.

[[TMI]RastaMan]

I can recommend simple & basic RPG Maker 2003.
It's like mapping for GZDoom: You need to learn how to make maps for vanilla Doom 2 first.

[Elriadon]

I have to say that RPG Maker is very beginner-friendly when it comes to this type of software, if not the most then certainly among the top ones. That doesn't mean you will create an amazing game first try, but you won't be totally lost. The program even has a tutorial (accessed through the Help tab) that runs you through the basics by having you create a very short sample game by following instructions. And there are even more guides on the internet. Javascript is also a very useful language to learn and MV/MZ offers a good chance to practice if you are interested in it.

Based on what you've told us, I would recommend you start with MZ. Sure, MV has a lot more plugins, but since you are starting, I'd advise you not to bother with plugins until you have grasped the basics anyway. By the time you learn enough to make something worth playing, the number of plugins will most likely increase substantially. MZ also has some pretty neat minor additions over MV that improve the user-friendliness, like Event Searcher or the option to preview Move Route. Plus it will be the better version to become familiar with long-term, since it's the latest one.

[awanderingswordsman]

Only consider using MV or MZ since they have a javascript backend as opposed to ruby that the earlier versions use. Learning even small amounts of javascript will be a lot more helpful and it's really so much easier than you probably think it is. If you can do the eventing, you can do coding, cause the eventing is coding just with an interface.

Might as well start with MZ as well.

As for if rpg maker as a whole is right for you, your entry level options are pretty much.
1. RPG Maker. Has default assets and that alone is a godsend. You don't have to create or find free art assets or music assets to be able to make a game. You will probably want to find those if you want to sell a game but I think having default assets makes life so much easier. It's backend is javascript which is one of the most used programming languages and is fairly similar to the other most used languages.

Having default code is a blessing and a curse. It's a fantastic learning resource and its hugely useful to be able to actually play test right away but that also means you need to learn the default code and add your stuff in which is often times more complicated than just starting from scratch which means you know everything thats in your game because you made it yourself. On the other hand, it will teach you generally good habits and useful tricks.

The final downside is that it's pretty much only good for making rpgs. You CAN make just about anything with it but doing anything but 2D tile turn based rpgs is going to be far more work than just creating it from scratch in an engine suited to it.

2. Renpy. Whilst primarily this is a visual novel making engine, you can easily use it to make an image/text based rpg as well. This is easily the simplest of all the options. The backend is a modified version of python which itself is one of the most simple programming languages. Despite being simple, it's still pretty flexible and is a worthwhile language to learn. I'd say javascript is more useful to learn but it's something.

With renpy you get no default assets or code but it's simple enough to be able to easily understand how to do anything you need to with a short tutorial. It's not that hard to make a map with clickable locations and set up a simple battle and leveling system.

3. Unity. Probably the most advanced and flexible option. You can make a 2D or 3D game, rpgs, shooters, platformers, visual novels, rts, whatever you want. It comes with no default assets so thats a hurdle to overcome. It has technically a few programming languages you could use but really your main option going forward is C#. It's probably the hardest of the languages here to learn but not that much harder than javascript and it is a very popular language so learning it will be useful going forward.

4. You could also not use a development platform and just make something from scratch in which case javascript in html5 or java are probably the best bets although really you can use almost anything.

I'd personally advise if you are an artist going for renpy > unity > something higher end like unreal 4. If you are looking to be a programmer going with rpg maker > unity > something higher end like unreal 4. I'd also advise making your first project a solo project that you release for free to use as a sort of resume going forward. While knowledge and skill are important, it's a rare trait to find someone that can actually come up with a project, correctly decide which features to keep to make the game good and which features to cut to make the game actually come out in our lifetime, and maintain motivation and discipline to see it through to completion. Motivation and scheduling will be the main things you struggle with making a game, not coding or learning tools.

[Elriadon]

Originally posted by awanderingswordsman:

The final downside is that it's pretty much only good for making rpgs. You CAN make just about anything with it but doing anything but 2D tile turn based rpgs is going to be far more work than just creating it from scratch in an engine suited to it.

I agree with you that while you can make anything with RPG Maker given enough time and effort, it might not be a good idea simply because there are other engines better suited for it. However, the thing with turn based, 2D RPGs isn't really true. People have made all sorts of games with RPG maker and especially things like puzzle/adventure/2D horror games of certain types would be even easier to make than RPGs, since they use less of the default features of the engine.

Also, from the beginner perspective, while an experienced coder might be able to create certain games faster with a clean slate so to speak, that's not necessarily true for a beginner. In fact, exploring the default options of the engine and trying to expand its limits is a great way to learn. If nothing else, you can get a working prototype, then finish the game in whatever engine you deem superior for said type of game.

[JohnDoeNews]

Originally posted by awanderingswordsman:

Only consider using MV or MZ since they have a javascript backend as opposed to ruby that the earlier versions use. Learning even small amounts of javascript will be a lot more helpful and it's really so much easier than you probably think it is. If you can do the eventing, you can do coding, cause the eventing is coding just with an interface.(...)

If javascript is better, depends on many things. It is flexible and easier to learn, but on the other hand the Ruby engines are more stable while they need less processing power.

I am an MV user myself (will probably switch to MZ at some point. I own it already, so guess it is just waiting for me to be ready for it) because of javascript. But I know a couple of devs who still won't step aside from VX Ace, because they can make much bigger games with it. (As in, larger maps without lag, stuff like that.)

If you want to make a game, like oldschool fallout, where you freely roam a huge map, then I think Ace is a better choice, for example.

[awanderingswordsman]

I disagree with the idea that it's easier to have a working prototype if you are inexperienced. It is probably better for your learning, but it's much harder. Thats literally how I learned back on rpg maker xp. You want to change one tiny thing but that thing is connected to 15 other things which are themselves connected to 10 other things each and you are jumping all over the place through all this code you don't understand trying to figure out why they have it set up the way they do.

There are plenty of basic tutorials for just about any language that will teach you very quickly how to make a simple game from scratch and thats the easier way to learn. If you are somewhat experienced, then taking the working rpg maker code and seeing what it does is actually pretty simple in most places but a complete beginner is going to see something like
"return damage / (damage > 0 && target.isGuard() ? 2 * target.grd : 1);" and have zero clue wtf that means because they have no idea what a ternary operator is. It's a great learning tool cause figuring out those answers will show you good ways to do things but having to take that time to figure out ALL the code takes a long time that starting from scratch just ignores.

And yeah you can make games that are essentially 2D tile based rpgs without the battles aka adventure games but just because someone made them in rpg maker doesn't mean that it was smart to do so. I know on the reddit I've seen an actual fps made in rpg maker. Realistically if you aren't taking advantage of the map editor and eventing it'd probably be better to use something else.

-------------

I'm pretty sure thats not because of ruby but because the pixi.js version in MV is crappy and causes memory leaks which shouldn't be a problem with MZ.

I learned on ruby myself and it's a fine language in it's own right but nobody uses it for anything whereas javascript is everywhere and shares more similarities with c# which is the other major language that is everywhere. If you learn ruby it won't serve you much of anywhere outside of old rpg maker engines whereas javascript is all over the place and looks to remain popular in years to come.

[Calvinball8]

I feel i should clarify I am not a total beginner, I took a class on coding in python for a year, I'm just a beginner when it comes to actually making games, not coding them.

[awanderingswordsman]

Then assuming you want to make a game that rpg maker is designed to make, MZ should be a great tool to help you learn. Just looking through the default js files should teach you a ton and the map editor and eventing make it a lot easier to keep track of stuff.