ENGINE REVIEW: RPG Paper Maker

A LOT of people get into making games through RPGMaker - it's a reasonable little engine that can make some pretty amazing stuff if you're willing to work on it.  "LISA" and "Stitched" are both great and use the engine in very different ways.

The main problem is the AMOUNT OF WORK you need to put in, just to get plugins to work, to get around size limitations and to add in lighting effects. 

And that is were RPG Paper Maker comes in.

Firstly, the standard version, which has all of the functionality of the $64 version, is free to use as much as you want, for what you want, on the condition it isn't used for a commercial project.  For $64 you get a commercial licence for using the engine for paid-for games and apps and you only need to pay it once.

In regards to use, the meat and 2 veg of any engine, if you've used RPGMaker then you will find your way around this easily, so long as you have a functioning brain.  Even I found my way around, and I don't have one!  The tools are almost the same.  Then you start looking at the extras.  Then you get blown away.

This light-footprint engine has 3D capabilities.  You can use 3D objects and characters as if they were slottable tiles - you just put them where you want them.  Whilst it's obviously more focused on pixel art, it can handle hand-drawn art and animation, as well as low-to-mid poly 3D.  You want to make a game more like Grandia?  You can do it here.

You want to make a low-poly 3D FPS?  Welcome home.

Want reactive lighting?  There's already a free plugin for that and it is insanely easy to install.  The developer, Wado, is very active and is still working on the engine, including taking requests.  The light plugin will soon possibly become unneccesary as Wado is implementing a set of lighting systems as I type this.  Static, reactive and full tracing is coming to RPGPaperMaker.

Here's an early build trailer made by Fortunus.Games about a year ago that's a pretty good example of several of the engine features.