What are the best RPG engines?

February 26, 2011 5:28 PM

I want to write a text-heavy story-based RPG. I'm familiar with scripting languages like python and ruby, but I have no art talent whatsoever, so i'd prefer that whatever I use have art assets available, and I don't want to write an engine from scratch so I'd like to build off of an existing framework. What are my options? Free or paid, doesn't matter. It might be an RPG engine or an adventure game engine, or even a 3d engine, but whatever I use, I'd want something that would let me focus on writing and designing and less on programming the framework.
posted by empath to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

Best answer: Ren'Py is made to create text-heavy dating sim games but people have made other types of games in it like the excellent Digital: A Love Story which is a recreation of using oldschool BBSes. I'm not sure about the art asset part, though.
posted by zsazsa at 6:03 PM on February 26, 2011

It sounds like what you want is more Interactive Fiction, which is narrative and text based. The wikipedia article lists possible development systems.
posted by blueyellow at 6:25 PM on February 26, 2011

Best answer: RPG Maker VX is really good, in my experience. My 9 year old son has logged about 500 hours in that thing and it's been able to handle every aspect of his considerable imagination.
posted by felix at 7:10 PM on February 26, 2011 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I don't want interactive fiction, I want an actual RPG engine with graphics.
posted by empath at 7:14 PM on February 26, 2011

Probably either RPG Maker or Game Maker.
posted by curious nu at 8:11 PM on February 26, 2011

Nthing RPG Maker. Later versions are slightly easier to use, but earlier versions have far more free resources that you can use from sites dedicated to teaching you how to use the programs.
posted by daysocks at 8:38 AM on February 27, 2011