the era of rpgmaker games

[halcybutton]

I've always had a fondness for Yume Nikki and games heavily inspired by it (Yume 2kki, .flow, Answered Prayers, etc.) ever since I can remember. I believe I was looking for free games to play on my laptop when I was a kid, and came across the wiki page for Yume Nikki. Other games I love are Ghost Suburb II, Space Funeral, OFF, and My Hole is a Mouth of Dirt. I've always wanted to make my own RPGmaker game, but haven't gotten around to it.

[Memory]

I've always had a fondness for Yume Nikki and games heavily inspired by it (Yume 2kki, .flow, Answered Prayers, etc.) ever since I can remember.

Yesss, I have such a fondness for YN too! Anyone who visits my site will understand my love for Yume Nikki, and I place it in my top 3 favourite games ever! I actually recently started playing it again, for the who knows how many-th time, because my partner was thinking about playing it! Definitely one of those games that's a favourite because I played it during some of my most formative years growing up, but I even have a Madotsuki Tattoo designed by a very good friend of mine that you can find here (WARNING: flashing and eyestrain in the link!)



Other than YN (and fangames) though, I think most of the classic big popular ones are the ones I've played! Misao, IB, Witch's house, Mad Father, Ao Oni, Corpse Party, Omori, OFF, Your Turn To Die, The Crooked Man. As well as more niche/lesser known titles such as Hello Charlotte and Fear and Hunger 2: Termina which are big favs of mine!

I've tried to make some games in RPG Maker myself, but I cannot for the life of me work out the smallest details and it frustrates me LOL.

[ThySonnet190]

I've played a good number of rpgmaker games! Most recently, I have played disc creatures and ara fell!

I have always wanted to make my own but I have no video game development skills. Maybe someday I will take the time to sit and learn how to actually use the system and create my own sprites and music for my dream rpg!

[Memory]

Hm... where to locate the era of RPG Maker games? Is it over? Are there still interesting releases happening?

I can speak for the history of the OHRRPGCE, a similar game engine to the RPG Maker. The era of hordes of youth people building tons of RPGs is long over. But there still are new releases, and they definetly have risen in playability. So quality instead of quantity.

@ThySonnet190: Maybe the RPG Maker or similar engines can guide you to your own game. Although the RPG Maker was too complicated and buggy for me as a 12 year old, so I ended up with the OHRRPGCE.

[Lyonid]

here are some assets from my games that i long abandoned, haha. a part of me still wants to finish them..

I am absolutely in love the little screenshots of your abandoned projects. I hope you hold onto those forever because they look so unique regardless of them being finished or not.

I have been obsessed of horror RPG Maker games in the past and I recently had a bit of a game binge (because of this thread hahaah). German games have been pretty unique in that regard and I replayed a horror game called Desert Nightmares. It's definitely not amazing and it has aged considerably when you think about its representation of indigenous people and the "The Hills have Eyes" trope. However, it capture the vibe of this era very well. Of course, the VGPerson games are absolutely amazing and gruesome and I am here for it.

Recently, my friend told me about Fear & Hunger and I have been completely in love with this game.

"(CN mention of graphic and NSFW topics)"

It's so cruel and unforgiving and tells a story so so well with rich mechanics and stunning art. It's insanely graphic and tackles very hard topics not only through simple text boxes, but mechanically. It's like an unforgiving roguelite in a dark fantasy world where the different characters have very unique agency. The battle system reminded me of Mother and Undertale but on absolute crack where any enemy can sever your limbs in a blink of an eye. Really recommended if you are of age and can deal with depictions of gore, sexual violence and drug abuse.

[close]

I remember making a game myself as a child but it was such a dumpster fire. Stolen assets, no real story, stupid encounters - I wonder what I could create now that I kind of grew as an artist? Hmh!

[Memory]

Recently, my friend told me about Fear & Hunger and I have been completely in love with this game.

I'm so so glad Fear and Hunger is getting more fans! I still feel like it's relatively niche, mostly because there's not a lot of documentation about it online, so when I tell you I had a difficult time playing Fear and Hunger 2: Termina as soon as it was released... Boy was it rough...

I've been watching a lot of videos analysing it online (because it's my main autistic comfort LOL. I liked a piece of media? Must consume 100 more views/takes/thoughts on that piece of media to relive the media over and over again!) as well as going through my fourth playthrough of Termina, and a recurring thought keeps popping up that I wonder if you agree with?

Fear and Hunger is a difficult game, yes, but while that statement is true it still doesn't fully encompass what Fear and Hunger is about. The mix between "difficult" games being challenge and/or punishing coalesces so well in Fear and Hunger, and more than anything, it's just downright unfair. Not solely due to the RNG mechanics present in the game, but seen in every part of it. I think thats why I enjoy both entries so much. It's unfair, and yet it never judges you for your decisions to try and make the experience less unfair. Difficulty born out of a struggle to survive.

It's so fun! And I hate it! LOL.
(Sorry, I could ramble for ages about F&H! I love it so much and just got excited to see another player!)

[devils]

I'm so so glad Fear and Hunger is getting more fans! I still feel like it's relatively niche, mostly because there's not a lot of documentation about it online, so when I tell you I had a difficult time playing Fear and Hunger 2: Termina as soon as it was released... Boy was it rough...

I've been watching a lot of videos analysing it online (because it's my main autistic comfort LOL. I liked a piece of media? Must consume 100 more views/takes/thoughts on that piece of media to relive the media over and over again!) as well as going through my fourth playthrough of Termina, and a recurring thought keeps popping up that I wonder if you agree with?

Fear and Hunger is a difficult game, yes, but while that statement is true it still doesn't fully encompass what Fear and Hunger is about. The mix between "difficult" games being challenge and/or punishing coalesces so well in Fear and Hunger, and more than anything, it's just downright unfair. Not solely due to the RNG mechanics present in the game, but seen in every part of it. I think thats why I enjoy both entries so much. It's unfair, and yet it never judges you for your decisions to try and make the experience less unfair. Difficulty born out of a struggle to survive.

It's so fun! And I hate it! LOL.
(Sorry, I could ramble for ages about F&H! I love it so much and just got excited to see another player!)

I've had my eye on F&H for a bit now- I don't think they're my kind of games at all, but the world the first one created (IDK anything about Termina) was so fascinating... The art is beautiful too. It's such a striking concept for a game, capturing the drive to survive, that I even have had dreams with scenes of it even though I never played it!

[Memory]

I've had my eye on F&H for a bit now- I don't think they're my kind of games at all, but the world the first one created (IDK anything about Termina) was so fascinating... The art is beautiful too. It's such a striking concept for a game, capturing the drive to survive, that I even have had dreams with scenes of it even though I never played it!

That's understandable! I get that it isn't for some people, and I relate to loving especially lore/the world of games without feeling up for playing them (Silent Hill, Resident Evil, Elden Ring, for example). But that's so weird that you've had dreams about it regardless! In a cool way, I mean. I played it over the winter months last year and it consumed my life until I had completed it LOL. Which seems to be the general experience, so it's interesting how even though you haven't played it, it still managed to consume a little part of your time too!

[bugfeli]

i love rpg maker games!! in the past I've played OFF, yume nikki, mad father, witches house, and ib (and probably a few others i've forgotten). i feel like old rpg maker horror really shaped many of my current interests. even now i've been a little obsessed with fear and hunger, although those games are nowhere near as graphic as this one. i can never truly escape the charm of rpg maker games :3

[Yukari]

ough I could wax poetic on rpg maker for thousands of words. I will keep this post short-ish and talk about my history with OFF. I was taking french in high school when it started getting popular on tumblr. After beating it I tried to replay it without the translation, but I gave up once I got to Dedans. All the other characters were easy to understand but he eluded me... and then it turns out, most of his dialogue is swear words and ableist slurs so. It's good I didn't know what he was talking about at any given moment. 😇

OFF is always interesting to me because the translation that made it popular was not very good. But it was a free service, and only worked on by two people (one of which was also a high schooler at the time), so I can't complain. Batter got characterized as a terse killjoy but he's actually verbose and not that apathetic. One of the lines in a boss fight accidentally switched the direct object and subject of the sentence, which changed the meaning of the entire plot.

Spoiler

In the incorrect translation, the Queen says "I won't let you lay a finger on the son that we have brought into the world". But it should be, "the son that brought us into the world". So the early fanbase thought all the events in the game were literal. It's more accurate to say that everything was happening in "the son's" head.

[close]

Anyway here's the updated 3.0 version, if anyone is so inclined

[Bede]

I've made whole essays on my site about my experiences with going back and playing classic RPGmaker horrors! (See "I Played Yume Nikki in 2022" and "I Played More RPGmaker Horror in 2023" on my articles page.) It's always fascinated me how so many horror titles with such huge impacts were originally created with such an easily-accessible game. Not only that, but one of my favorite recent releases, 'Super Lesbian Animal RPG', was made in RPGmaker too!

My favorite RPGmaker games include Yume Nikki (of course), Ib, Super Lesbian Animal RPG and Dreaming Mary. On my 'to-play' list includes OneShot, LISA: The Painful, OFF, Omori, Hello Charlotte and Mogeko Castle!

[MrsMoe]

Ohhhh, man.

RPGmaker horror games are one of my biggest interests. I love horror indie games in general, but these have always had such a big place in my heart and I love how most of them incorporate surreal horror in some way. I've even been fiddling with RPGmaker myself in hopes of actually making something someday. I've...barely made any progress, but it's nice to dream about.

This might be a totally cringe thing to admit (if you're on Twitter, at least), but Omori is actually my favorite video game of all time. It really resonated with me a lot as someone currently dealing with isolation and mental health issues and it genuinely made me cry like a little bitch. I also absolutely adore Yume Nikki for a lot of the same reasons. I love theories and readings of the game through the lens of alienation and disconnection from humanity because it makes so much of the game's imagery deeply resonate with me. It's what makes me wanna try making my own Yume Nikki fangame someday inspired by my own thoughts and feelings.

I have no idea if that'll ever happen, but eh...

Other than that, my other favorites are OFF, Ib, and Mad Father. I should probably play Oneshot sometime lmao.

[Riqo]

I totally adore RPGMaker games!!! Although some of the older games aren't as popular as they used to be, they'll always live on! Even newer fans of the RPGMaker genre (like me) can still discover and appreciate them

Some top favorites of mine would be Yume Nikki + fangames, OFF, Hylics, Ib, Hello Charlotte, Escaped Chasm, Dweller's Empty Path, and Omori. There's still tons more I'd love to check out!!

One of the things I like most about these sorts of games is how they aren't afraid to reach more weird or surreal themes. If you've played a few of my favorites, you could probably see where these themes come to play ..

Another thing I like about the RPGMaker engine in general is how friendly it is to artists You don't really need any coding knowledge to learn how it all works. Since it is so simple to learn and easy to work with, it's no wonder that many creators decided to display their stories using it! I even bought RPGMaker 2003 some time ago to make my own Yume Nikki fangame. I really haven't made any progress on it though .. all those fancy chipsets and spritesheets are just too daunting for me at the moment When the time comes where I actually want to bring my game to action, I'm sure I'll put in the effort to work things out! For now, the ideas will just simmer in my mind, I suppose