Many indie devs have used versions of RPG Maker software to create their low-budget games, like critically acclaimed story-driven titles like Freebird Games’ To the Moon and Dingaling Productions’ dark role-playing game Lisa: The Painful. Publisher Playism and developer Kadokawa Games have now launched the newest software in the Maker series — Pixel Game Maker MV, which is available in Steam Early Access on PC now.
Pixel Game Maker MV is geared more toward action titles, whereas the RPG Maker series is, as its name suggests, equipped for developing role-playing games. The game engine incorporates familiar features from previous software, like tile creation, but it also supports multiplayer up to four players. To make it possible to create games in the action genre, it has built-in physics tools.
The first iteration of RPG Maker debuted in 1992, and it started out as something for hobbyists to tinker with. In the 2010s, the Maker series became popular with developers because of its WYSIWYG approach. No programming is necessary, though Pixel Game Maker MV is compatible with JavaScript extensions. A brief scan of Steam finds over 800 games created with RPG Maker, which enables developers to create PC as well as console games. The latest version of the tool, RPG Maker MV, will arrive on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch in November.
