Kadokawa, the Japanese studio behind the indie-enabling RPG Maker engine and its many iterations, recently announced Pixel Game Maker MV, the latest entry in the Maker software series. It's currently being shown off in Japan, but Kadokawa says it's coming to the West via Steam Early Access this summer.
Pixel Game Maker MV is said to feature the same "no programming necessary" development tools that made RPG Maker so popular and accessible. You can handle all the scripting via easily navigable logic flow charts, for example, and it comes with a built-in physics engine. Kadokawa says the engine "works with any genre," is tuned for top-down and side-scrolling perspectives, and natively supports up to four-player local co-op.
As you might expect, the engine comes with pixel art tools, but artists will have the option to import custom sprites. Likewise, for devs not satisfied with the baked-in options, Pixel Game Maker MV supports JavaScript extensions, which RPG Maker creators have used to streamline existing features and add new ones altogether. There's also a collection of stock particle effects. Here's a look at some basic assets in action:
RPG Maker put cheap, serviceable development tools in the hands of countless budding devs and made a major impact on the indie scene via cult classics like Yume Nikki, which went on to become such a phenomenon that Kadokawa made a direct sequel. Last year, Matt broke down how RPG Maker exploded on Steam, and Giada explored the engine's secret history and the source of its bad reputation.
Thanks, RockPaperShotgun.
