That's why the platform got invaded by simple-looking JRPGs. For the first time, RPG Maker users got the opportunity to directly release their works on Steam. When RPG Maker VX appeared on Steam, Steam Direct was blooming. People pirated the engine, illegally translated it, and used it to make small RPGs to post, play and comment on in tightly-knit communities. RPG Maker games have always been hereįor years, RPG Maker didn't have a Western publisher. I have a few thoughts that might help us to understand what's going on. But why have they got such a bad reputation? There: RPG Maker games are officially not bad. On average, RPG Maker games have a median value of 76 per cent positive reviews, putting them firmly in the 'Mostly Positive' category. The ones without a thumb icon have fewer than 10 reviews. Most games without a score were released after the launch of Steam Direct. On average, an RPG Maker game receive 227 reviews. 'Positive' games are those with a positive score, but fewer than 50 reviews. Those are the scores of all the 559 games I analyzed:ġ90 games do not reach the minimum of 10 reviews, and therefore don't get a score. Steam reviews aren't truly indicative of the quality of a game, but are a good instrument to gauge if a game is well-received. Projects can't be ported between newest versions, so people usually choose an engine and stick with it for years. RPG Maker VX has been around for a while, and has the highest numbers of custom resources/plugins freely available to devs. Having said that, the RPG Maker Steam tag more or less contains: There were also a couple of games I wasn't able to identify, because they looked too different from your average RPG Maker game. Guessing the exact version used to make each game involved a lot of squinting at trees, so I can't assure you my estimations are 100 per cent correct. Many RPG Maker versions have been released over the years, and even the older ones are still in use. That's why I took a deep dive in the Steam RPG Maker tag, gathering data about all 559 tagged games released to this day.īehold the results of my foolish research.

RPG Maker games tend to look the same, so this means that only untalented developers use it, right? Mine is the endless battle in defence of RPG Maker, accused by many of being a bad engine only used by lazy developers. We all have our petty personal crusades to fight.

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