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Role-playing game creation software is a game creation system (software program) intended to make it easy for non-programmers to create a role-playing video 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.
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.
| Name | License | Publisher | Initial release | Linux | Mac | Windows | Mobile | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adventure Construction Set | ? | Electronic Arts | 1984 | ? | Apple II | MS-DOS | ? | An early RPG maker for creating top-down view tile-based role-playing and adventure games. Published 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 | ? | Electronic Arts | 1991[ citation needed ] | ? | ? | MS-DOS | ? | A (relatively) early RPG maker by Interplay, based on the basic design (first-person view and tile set) of the Bard's Tale games, using a version of the Thief of Fate game engine. [1] |
| Mire Engine | Proprietary | Making Italia | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | A 2D Cross Platform Game Engine using WebGL, DirectX and HTML5. |
| BYOND | ? | BYOND Software | 1996 | Server only | No | Yes | No | Used for NEStalgia , and others. |
| DCGAMES | Proprietary | DC Software | 1990 | No | No | MS-DOS | No | An Ultima-style RPG game creation system [2] |
| EasyRPG | Free | EasyRPG community | 2013 [3] | Yes [4] [5] | Player [5] | Yes [4] [5] | Player [5] | A cross-platform, open source RPG development tool and client, compatible with RPG Maker. [6] |
| 001 Game Creator | Proprietary | SoftWeir Inc. | 2006 | No | No | Yes | Yes | A commercial action/RPG maker. Uses a subscription model. |
| Unlimited Adventures | Proprietary | Strategic Simulations, Inc. | 1993 | ? | Mac OS | MS-DOS | ? | A commercial game builder by MicroMagic using SSI's "Gold Box" engine. [1] |
| RPG Creator | Proprietary | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | A commercial game development toolkit which runs through HTML5. |
| RPG Playground | Proprietary | ? | 2012 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | A free, web based RPG maker to make, share and play RPG's. [7] |
| KAGE | Free | ? | ? | Yes | No | Yes | No | A free software game development toolkit able to make RPGs utilizing KonsolScript. [8] |
| OHRRPGCE | GNU GPL [9] | OHRRPGCE community | 1997–1998 [10] | Yes | OS X | Yes | Android | An open source RPG maker. [11] |
| RpgBoss | Free | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | A cross-platform open source editor and engine based on JavaScript and Scala. [12] |
| Solarus | Free | ? | 2002 | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Open source RPG engine with a custom quest editor. [13] |
| Sphere RPG Engine | Free | ? | 2000 | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | A set of open source RPG makers utilizing JavaScript. [14] |
| Verge | BSD | 1997 | ? | Yes | Yes | PSP | An open source 2D game engine with an emphasis on role playing games. [15] | |
| Maker3D | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | A 3D RPG creator in manga style |
| Lugdunon | Proprietary | Cinera LLC [16] | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | A 2D online RPG creator platform. |
While not an RPG maker per se, the Worldforge game engine is intended for creating MMORPGs.
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The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall is an open-world, action role-playing game published by Bethesda Softworks. The second video game in the Elder Scrolls series, it was released on September 20, 1996, for MS-DOS, following the success of 1994's The Elder Scrolls: Arena. The story follows the player, sent by the Emperor, to free the ghost of King Lysandus from his earthly shackles and discover what happened to a letter sent from the Emperor to the former queen of Daggerfall.
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An open-source video game, or simply an open-source game, is a video game whose source code is open-source. They are often freely distributable and sometimes cross-platform compatible.
RPG Maker, known in Japan as RPG Tsukūru, is a series of programs for the development of role-playing video games (RPGs) with story-driven elements, created by the Japanese group ASCII, succeeded by Enterbrain. The Japanese name, Tsukūru, is a pun mixing the Japanese word tsukuru (作る), means "make" or "create", with tsūru (ツール), the Japanese transcription of the English word "tool".
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The Official Hamster Republic Role Playing Game Construction Engine is an open-source, "all-in-one" game creation system. It was designed to allow the quick creation of 2D role-playing video games (RPGs). It was originally written by James Paige in QuickBASIC and released in late 1997 or early 1998. In May 2005, the source code was released as free software under the GNU GPL-2.0-or-later, and it was soon ported from QuickBASIC to FreeBASIC and to modern operating systems.
Video gaming in the United States is one of the fastest-growing entertainment industries in the country. The American video game industry is the largest video game industry in the world. According to a 2020 study released by the Entertainment Software Association, the yearly economic output of the American video game industry in 2019 was $90.3 billion, supporting over 429,000 American jobs. With an average yearly salary of about $121,000, the latter figure includes over 143,000 individuals who are directly employed by the video game business. Additionally, activities connected to the video game business generate $12.6 billion in federal, state, and local taxes each year. World Economic Forum estimates that by 2025 the American gaming industry will reach $42.3 billion while worldwide gaming industry will possibly reach US$270 billion. The United States is one of the nations with the largest influence in the video game industry, with video games representing a significant part of its economy. Major publishers headquartered in the United States are Sony Interactive Entertainment, Take-Two Interactive, Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts, Xbox Game Studios, Bethesda Softworks, Epic Games, Valve, Warner Bros. Games, Riot Games, and others. Major video game events such as E3, Summer Game Fest and PAX are held every year in the US. For many years, E3, held annually in the US, was considered the biggest gaming expo of the year in terms of its importance and impact. The Game Awards and D.I.C.E. Awards are some of the most respected video game awards events in the video game industry. 103 million people watched The Game Awards 2022 event alone. The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is still the largest and one of the most important video game conference for video game developers.
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