RPG Maker XP - Right, I'll do it Myself
If piracy is the sincerest form of flattery, then users
have been flattering the hell out of RPG Maker in all its
previous incarnations for years. Finally, however, it's
struck the developers that maybe providing a legal English
translation of the game might be a sensible idea.
It's fairly self-explanatory really. RPG Maker XP follows
on from RPG Maker 2000 and 2003, allowing people to design
their own role-playing games. You can customise pretty much
everything, from obvious stuff like tile sets and characters
to in-game menus, music, and combat engines. There's also
a special 'game-disc creator' for when you're finished.
If you're ever finished.
The big difference this time round is that the program
now accommodates scripting. Those with the skills can now
use the Ruby Game Scripting System (RGSS) to really create
what they want from the ground up, with no restrictions.
RPG Maker now also supports three layers rather than the
previous two. This makes little but important things like
putting some trees in front of some other trees much easier.
The game provides resources like sprite sets and map tiles,
and comes with fifty different battle backdrops, but you
can also import your own from other programs like Photoshop
or Fireworks or whatever. This means that a brief look round
on the Net will find you a whole bunch of places where people
are offering up their own custom graphics for other people
to use. So if you're not happy with the rather distinctive
Japanese cutesy anime style the program itself seems geared
for, there are plenty of other resources out there. Tiles
are all a standard width, but you can now vary the length,
which means that big complex graphics don't have to be 'jigsawed'
quite so often. Sprites can be any size, and the game now
supports true color and JPG formats.
For those new to the program, or indeed the concept of
building your own RPGs, the program seems to be simpler
to use, and not just because the menus and help are no longer
in Japanese. You can be as ambitious as you like, start
from scratch, or make use of the scenarios, set events,
and story elements that come with the game.
It's obviously not for everyone, but if there's a secret
stash of hex paper in your bedroom somewhere, then you'll
probably enjoy at least playing with this. Even if you never
quite roll out a whole game, it's a useful tool for testing
'what if' scenarios.
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