anyone know any good free rpg making apps?

[trashcompactor]

so ive been wanting to make an RPG but RPG maker is expensive and there's only like one place i could find to pirate it and it gave me like 10 Trojans :(. im looking for rpg maker 2000 mostly but idk which one is the best to use. help would be greatly appreciated ^^!

[TheFrugalGamer]

This is rather niche, but I'd like to plug my current favorite engine, which is open source and free: GB Studio. It's for making Game Boy/GB Color games specifically, but they're also playable via the web if you choose that option. It's drag and drop and very easy to use, and has a large community built around it.

PixelBox lets you create all sorts of games in HTML5, RPGs included.

Godot is also a free, open source game engine, but it is a bit involved. There may be templates that provide the basics for an RPG game if you're interested in learning some code.

The Hamster Republic RPG engine seems a bit antiquated, but it is "coding free," which means the barrier to entry is usually lower.

Those are just a few I've saved in my bookmarks, but there's also this site: https://enginesdatabase.com/ that lets you sort through various game engines according to various filters. You might check it out if these don't work for you!

[Nael]

Keep an eye on humble bundle, I got my rpg maker at it with a huge huge discount and a bunch of other goodies c:

Game Maker has a free tier and it's great, you can also make games here using only building blocks and without writing any code.

[Tuffy!]

You can check out https://github.com/Ward727a/RPGCreator and https://rpgplayground.com as well 

[grubbyfox]

RPG maker tends to go on sale on steam sometimes. I bought it for almost absolutely nothing many years ago.

I think there's a few older versions of it that may be free to use now too? I'm not sure. But I see you got some options here anyway. In the meantime just wishlist RPG makes on Steam and catch it on a day with sale!

[Nikodile]

I would recommend getting Godot which is a very general game engine, but there's a great software package for it called RPG in a Box that gets you started with great templates/free assets in where you don't need to know much programming to get started. All free!

[camelwize]

I would recommend getting Godot which is a very general game engine, but there's a great software package for it called RPG in a Box that gets you started with great templates/free assets in where you don't need to know much programming to get started. All free!

Just want to second this recommendation for Godot. I started using it a while back. I was initially kinda put off by the fact it wasn't as well known as Unity, Gamemaker, etc, but I followed some basic tutorials on making stuff in it and quickly found myself feeling really at home with the engine.

Just search a tutorial for making an RPG in Godot and follow along with it if you're new to it, and don't be afraid to experiment. It's generally pretty intuitive and you'll be surprised at how quick you learn stuff.

It is 100% free if that part wasn't already obvious. :)

[Gnee]

This isn't immediately helpful since you mentioned RPG Maker and how it isn't free, but I still suggest wishlisting it. Not even for a sale, but sometimes even older versions are outright given for free. VX Ace, while not the newest version, was made free for a time on Steam last year. I would investigate other options but keep RM wishlisted. You don't necessarily need the newest version.

[kringle]

Not even for a sale, but sometimes even older versions are outright given for free.

can confirm this, last year or so i got rpgmaker xp completely for free, there's genuinely like at least 5 different versions of the software so it's only a matter of time till ONE of them is free again

   as of writing this post it looks like all of them are also on sale, looks like it ends on the 23rd of FEB

[grubbyfox]

^ I got RPG maker (some version, i dont remember which lol) for a suuuper low price years and years ago. I think I paid like 2 or 3 bucks on Steam. So yeah, it's well worth wishlisting and checking up on.

[Rubbereon]

I'm surprised nobody mentioned wolfrpg, I thought it was far more popular, several "classics" use it instead of rpgmaker. 
Fair warning, I never used it and I heard from other people that it was harder to learn than rpgmaker.

I also heard about paper rpg maker or something like that?? It's also free, but it's in 3d so if you want the same 2d top-down vibe as rpgmaker you're not getting it with this, the games made with it look a lot more like Octopath Traveler, although SquEnix used Unreal engine (only way you're geting shaders this good) and just like a few have said you can make a rpg with "generalist" game engines. Yeah I guess it's harder, but it'll stand out more and you'd get more freedom to do whatever you want.

[SCARY GRANDMA]

RPG PAPER MAKER WAS ALWAYS A GOOD ONE, THOUGH YOU DO HAVE TO PAY IF YOU WANT TO MAKE COMMERICAL PRODUCTS WITH THE TOOL!! I ALWAYS ENJOYED THE FACT THAT IT'S 3D AND I THINK YOU COULD GET A LOT OF MILIAGE OUT OF IT!!

[John]

Offers might vary depending on where you live, but for me RPG Maker 2000 is currently on sale (until 23rd February) for 2,45 € ... https://store.steampowered.com/app/383730/RPG_Maker_2000/

[asahelix]

Another member already mentioned it, but WOLF RPG Editor immediately comes to mind as a free RPG Maker alternative. I've only ever heard of it and never really used it myself, but it seems like a worthy contender as a free RPG game making program. This is one of the few ones that I have found that lets you actually make full games with it.

As others also mentioned, if you want to use an actual official version of RPG Maker, the engines go on sale very regularly and are dirt cheap when they are. I remember buying VX Ace for $7 (A FULL YEAR BEFORE IT WENT FREE), MV for $12, and being gifted 2003 for I think $3 (I PAID FULL PRICE FOR XP AND I REGRET IT SO MUCH XP IS THE WORST). The engines are currently on sale on Steam right now up until February 23 as it's the annual RPG Maker Festival. Out of them all, I'd suggest getting VX Ace for $7. It's a very good engine and doesn't have a lot of annoying quirks that come with the earlier engines. It also has good script support from the RPG Maker community.

I had a whole thing written out about one project called RPG 20XX but it seems like the project died in 2022 and the download link doesn't work anymore.