Best RPG maker?

[danzibr]

Just wondering what good RPG makers are out there. I'm not necessarily looking for the one with the best graphics or most capabilities, even a good community. Something like NES/Genesis/SNES graphics would be fine if it has a bunch of cool games.

[Gnoman]

There used to be a couple of very good RPG Maker XP/VX communities, but the ones I used to frequent were strangled by excessive moderation and died. There's probably new ones, though, as it was a very popular program.

[Mondsichel]

If you don't mind going through everything in Japanese there is a Wolf Editor which acts quite like an RPG Maker on steroids.
http://www.silversecond.net/
http://www.silversecond.com/WolfRPGEditor/

There are some games made by the engine creator and one of them is Sylph Dragoon Zero (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fw-TRWqoZjc) which is a STG with RPG and ADV elements mixed in.

And another one which plays like Princess Maker with more emphasis on fighting is Sylphade Academy Story (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFpZVJ-3JSE). Played the demo and enjoyed it immensely, but the method of payment makes it impossible to get the game outside of Japan unfortunately.

There are also yearly contests for making games and sharing them using the Wolf Editor. Here is a recent one with top 10 contestants by vote.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRJzOKltd-w

[Nepenthe]

I am quite fond of the OHRRPGCE (http://hamsterrepublic.com/ohrrpgce/Main_Page.html).

Easy to use, deceptively powerful.

[lesser_minion]

From what I've seen, RPG Maker has its advantages (most notably that it includes artwork and provides you with a license to use it, which will save you a lot of hassle if you can't personally sprite), the lion's share of the community, and people have pulled off some pretty impressive work with it.

There are a few free options -- Sphere, OHRRPGCE, and RPG Toolkit. I know of a few well-regarded games made in Sphere, but none for the others.

I don't think you'll find any RPG makers that aren't aimed at sprite-based games similar to the kind you'd find on a SNES.

[Wookieetank]

Could always try Python, C++, C#, JAVA, etc. http://roguebasin.roguelikedevelopment.org/index.php/Main_Page has quite a few examples for ya of what can be done :smallwink::smalltongue: