RPG Maker (1997)

Developer: Kuusou Kagaku
Publisher: Enterbrain, Agetec, ASCII Entertainment Software, Inc.
Platforms: PlayStation
Genres: Role-playing (RPG), Simulator

The 3D catalog: game boxes on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalog in 3D

The same catalog has a room you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real games from it when you tell them what you feel like playing. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this game is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

It feels like quietly tinkering with simple tools to build your own modest 16-bit fantasy world at your own pace.

creativeopen-endedexperimentallow-pressuretinkeringnostalgicaccessiblesandbox-like

About

In RPG Maker, players with absolutely no programming experience or prior game-production skills can make their own role-playing quests and save them to the PlayStation memory card for themselves or a friend to enjoy. The world creation in the game is tile-based, and the entire game is done in the 2D style of 16-bit era RPGs. Players can create characters, towns, dungeons and script action to move along at a certain pace. They will place treasures, enter dialogue and create events that are triggered by certain actions within the game world. Although players can create nearly anything they like with the game, it must be more or less contained in a fantasy theme, as the only graphics available adhere to that specific genre. Within that genre, however, the possibilities are varied, and you can make your new RPG a massive epic or a short jaunt. It can be utterly serious or laced with juvenile humor. Also contained within RPG Maker is a mode called Anime Maker, where those with the desire can create 2D pictures and animate them accordingly.

Screenshots

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More by Kuusou Kagaku

This page is from Underplayed Gems, a catalog of older and overlooked games. Not quite it? You can browse by platform and genre, or take this one into the 3D catalog and ask the Catbot for something closer.