RPG Architect

Who needs some monetized plugin bullshit when the software does everything you'd ever need it to do?

There is a larger learning curve when compared to RPG Maker, but with what has so far proven to be a much less restricted and a highly flexible engine, it's a learning curve i'm willing to power through. I could see the engine being too unfriendly to some, but I think for most it'll be appropriate for what somebody in the market for RPG Maker is looking for. Every interface, stat, mechanic, art asset, and many many more elements are 100% customizable in many ways. The engine gets updates daily and continues to grow at a rapid pace.

I'm glad to have made the change to RPG Architect after getting frustrated with the monetization of every plugin needed to make a decent game + the lack of control of many basic game mechanics.

The Discord community is active, friendly, and super helpful, and are always happy to help, including (but certainly not limited to) help directly from the lead developer Locke. Wiki has been a help as well, though it's definitely a work-in-progress as I have run into a blank page on more than one occasion. The Youtube video series is FANTASTIC and Bert is such a fun guide in setting up alot of the basic RPG things.

I look forward to finishing my first large-scale project on this powerful, highly customizable engine.

I had been considering a flexible and cost worthy option to develop my own project. I explored a number of popular franchises for making RPGs and decided to choose this engine.

Basically, this is close to a RPG maker but is easier and more user friendly to customise everything e.g. UI and battle system which are vital for a project to be unique.

Indeed, this also means that you have to figure a lot of things out by yourself since almost everything have to be created by your own. At the same time, there might not be tons of tutorials.

However, the developers and users form a very supportive community to make this engine become better, and questions are welcome too!

From my personal experiences, if you own a RPG maker, you can compare its functions with this engine and you can understand this more easily. And now there are templates too so it becomes way easier for learning too!

I had my doubts first but the developers of this engine have been putting their efforts and passions in this and I believe that this is a worthy option for game making.

Just saw this in my library and thought that I should leave a review based on how things went for me.
Bear in mind that I last used the engine many months ago so I'm going to focus more on the developing experience rather than the tools/assets provided as I'm sure many things may have changed.

I bought it on sale and thought to try it over rpgmaker or godot. I knew what I was getting into so I overlooked many issues that I assume have been fixed by now. Went through all the tutorials on youtube and the forums for starting/basic information. I did a step by step following the videos with my own assets and eventually ran into a hurdle. I spent 5 hours trying to find a way to overcome it.

I looked through the sample games and everything to see if I can figure it out but still no success.
Finally caved in and joined the discord and asked for help on said issue. I was told to go through videos and forums to find the answer, told them that I did. I then specified my problem and asked if any other documentation or sample was available or if anyone could help me out. Within literally 5 minutes, I got a snarky remark and was told to figure it out myself.

Now I'm sure there are good people in the discord server but if this is how someone gets treated when asking for help, politely and respectfully I should add, then there's very little incentive to use this. I took a good amount of time to learn the basics and overlooked a lot of quality of life flaws but that reception alone was so off-putting that I never bothered touching the engine again.

(I'll be updating this review from time to time)

I'm having a great time with the engine so far. The developer is active and willing to hear suggestions and criticism, the Discord Server has an entire channel dedicated to requests and ideas, and will talk with you about the feasibility of feature requests depending on technical complexity.

Documentation is kinda lacking but video tutorials cover almost everything essential to work without problems.

The engine has it's restraints in how assets need to be created in a specific way to take advantage of the import tools and how it handles autotiling, restraints that hopefully get erased by consecuent updates at some point in the future.

The best part is having virtually infinite global and local switches and variables, and a sort of custom data types (or data collections) with Data Entries, and the almighty Entity Definitions, that are a way to define a generic entity with it's own scripts and variables/switches only once and then make variations from the same base entity when placed in Maps

Like making a "Interactable_SingleUse" Entity Definition, and then make Levers, buttons, chests that open once, etc, with the logic already implemented, and only add the specific behaviours and sprites in each entity that is based of it.

A solid 8/10 so far, i recommend it a LOT.

I really, REALLY hate to leave a negative review, because there's truely a lot to love here; However, there are a ton of things that really destroy the user experience. It's a real "death by a thousand paper-cuts" kind of deal. I can't really say its worth 52 bucks, which is pretty upsetting. The things I'm gonna list might not be deal breakers to you, and if so, try it out! Again, there really is a ton to love here, I'm just going to explain my issues that I have, and that you might run into as well.

Its very User-unfriendly

It's a big problem, and is a common complaint in other reviews. It doesn't look so bad at first, but so many things make it a complete chore to use

The UI

It's simply atrocious. There's no other word to describe it. And no, I'm not just talking about how it looks. I'm fine with ugly user interfaces as long as they function and are easy to use. Unfortunately, functioning is something they only do sometimes, and they are far from easy to use. If you can tolerate all the bugs that appear, like missing elements and lag, it's still incredibly clunky. You usually will have to resize the actually window in order to actually see everything on screen, or use a horizontal scroll bar. Even if you make it full-screen, the UI windows constantly resize themselves when you add stuff, making it super hard to use. The lack of documentation, an issue I'll cover later, also plays into this. There are little question mark icons that should explain what certain things are, like annotations for example, but a lot of these just lead to empty wiki pages. The one's that do lead to something often are bare-bones, not explaining anything. I understand that the program is in early access, but it's quite frustrating to see multiple tabs for features you don't understand.

It's Janky

So, imagine this. You want to make a simple action rpg where your character shoots a gun. You can using Entity Definitions and Projections, if you can figure out how it works. You can even set it so that it fires in the direction the player is facing, how nice! Except, it turns out the default direction the player is facing when no directions are inputted is Northwest. Which means that your character could be facing East, standing still, and some how shooting projectiles Northwest. In order to fix this, you have to use a variable, set a condition for each direction, assign each direction a variable, 0-7 going clockwise from Northwest, and make the projectile shoot based on the variable instead of the baked in "Hero Direction" function. This is a lot of trouble to go through to fix an issue that shouldn't even exist, and situations like these are extremely common. It feels like you work more against the program than with it. This combined with the user interface makes doing everything a complete chore. It's frustrating, because one of RPGA's selling points for me was it's versatility, but more often than not, I have to fix issues baked into the program.

The Documentation Is Bad

I mentioned it earlier, but figuring out what anything does in this program is a complete nightmare. Most programs that are hard to figure out usually come with a user manual, however, RPGA only comes with the official video tutorials, the wiki, and the discord server. None of these things are good sources of information, and I'll explain why.

The Video Tutorials Don't Actually Explain Much

As grateful as I am for official tutorials, they do not feel official in the slightest. They are definitely the best source if you want to find out how to actually do things in the program, but they're unhelpful if you want to actually Learn. None of them explain specific functions, or what exactly certain functions do. This wouldn't be too big of an issue if the wiki did, but we'll get to that. They also barely have any editing, and a lot of dead air. They are clearly unscripted, and even has mistakes that they make, where they have to go back and fix them. Not to mention, they become outdated pretty quickly, since RPGA is constantly updating. The worst thing though, in my opinion, is that some of the more recent videos have been using AI generated art for the thumbnails. Aside from the morality of that, they look tacky and unprofessional. This is something I expect from a youtube tutorial with 56 views, not the official tutorials for a 52 dollar product.

The Wiki Sucks

Speaking of official documentation for a 52 dollar product, the wiki is, quite frankly, embarrassing. I already talked about the empty pages, and bare-bones explanations, but the formatting on the wiki is also pretty bad. None of the menus are collapsible, and EVERY article is always listed on the left. That means you have to scroll down forever, trying to find the article you actually want. This also makes using ctrl+f quite difficult, since it looks at the articles for whatever word you're searching for too, not that using it is ever necessary, given the articles being so empty.

The Discord

Ok, so this section might get a little bit mean. I promise I don't mean to slander anybody, my limited experiences with somebody might not reflect on them as a human being; However, since the discord server is not only advertised heavily, but basically essential to get any mileage with this program, I feel it is only fair to explain my issues with it. Please know that these are my subjective thoughts and opinions, and that I am doing my best to share these in good faith.

I have had several conversations with RPGA's lead dev, Locke, mostly in response to questions about the program and suggestions for future features. In these conversations, he came off as extremely passive aggressive and condescending. I'm not ignoring the fact that I could've offended him in some way, but looking back through the conversations we had, I can't really find a place that I did. And maybe he didn't intend to come off as mean as he did, but it seemed like we both left the conversation frustrated. It was quite disheartening, and made me afraid to ask for any advice. It's embarrassing to ask for information, or give suggestions, only to be treated as such. Despite all this, the other server members have been very helpful, and I'm grateful to them for being patient with me.

Again, my personal experiences with somebody don't reflect their character. I wish Locke nothing but the best.

Closing Thoughts

So. I may have come off as pretty harsh towards an indie project with only one main developer. Truth be told, I feel awful for having so many issues with certain things, but the price tag is the main reason I'm writing this. I can't recommend RPGA with a lot of the issues I have. Things like AI art in the tutorials and my interactions with Locke make me weary to use it at all. All the issues I've run into when trying to get the program to work have been frustrating. That's probably the word that fits RPGA the best: Frustrating. There's a lot to love here, and the contributors to it are very talented. It's why I'm so disappointed. My only hope is that the engine improves over time. It's still in early access, but there haven't been any noticeable improvements since I started using it about a year ago. I'm sure Locke is working very hard to make RPGA the best he can, but I can't recommend it in it's current state.

The engine is still in early access, so of course opinions may change in the future, but I am honestly very content with what's on the plate right now. The ease of switching between 2D and 3D, Doodads and the constant flow of Tutorials are my favourite aspects of the game and the community, and I've already made a nice little prototype. ^^

I'd highly recommend getting the engine and help fund development.

RPG Architect is a brilliant software for creating almost any kind of game you wish. Do you need to spend some considerable time learning how to use it? Well duh my guy, yes you do, but it is definitely worth it. The RPG Maker series may seem less daunting to learn but, likely, your game will be immediately recognizable as a RPG Maker game. Why? Well, 90% of RPG Maker games use the same or very similar assets and mechanics. If you want to make a game that is unique and interesting it will be MUCH easier in RPG Architect. RPGA's flexibility and the ability to use your own assets will set your game apart in a way RPG Maker cannot easily do. They have great tutorials on their youtube channel that explains 90% of what you need to know and a very active discord channel as well. So you should have no problem learning how to use the engine with a little time taken on your part. In my opinion I wish I had learned this engine sooner instead of wasting time on RPG Maker.

Very cool and surprisingly robust piece of game making software. If you've ever gotten the urge to make your own little RPG game but have been intimidated by the open-endedness of something like Unity or Godot, this is a great alternative starting point that I would 100% recommend if you think a more tailor-made engine is what you need. I've never liked writing code. With RPG Architect, I could probably make a whole game on the scale of something like Undertale without writing a single line of a script. That being said RPGA does have support for stuff like scripts. With the right toolset, you can make a convincing DOOM clone in the 3D RPG engine. Someone in the discord already did it I think.

It may have a small community now but there are little game jams going on in the discord and the dev(s) and community contributors are all super friendly and respond to questions and feedback. As someone who learned Gamemaker 8.1 as part of a class in highschool, RPG Architect is where I plan to build my first video game. Go check out the Youtube tutorials and see if this is what you're looking for.

First off I wanted to say that this is one awesome piece of software for game creation and it needs more love than it's getting. You can do just about anything you want for your game and I'm discovering new ways to do things almost daily. It has so much versatility and overall use. You can make a 2D RPG, a 2.5D RPG, a 3D RPG, a turn based RPG, an action based RPG, visual novels, action games, FPS, 2D or 3D dungeon crawlers, blobbers, etc. you name it you can probably make it. Shortly after release the dev has said he will incorporate Tactical RPG elements as well and I know that will open up a whole other can of worms of games that can be created from those concepts.

The main Dev Locke is pretty cool and down to earth, Bert the sound guy is cool also and both (but mostly Bert) have made a nice series of YouTube tutorials that help to get the basics out and I highly recommend the videos before diving in because if you don't you may be severely overwhelmed with information and options that it can be very daunting. There are SO many options but that makes sense since you can make pretty much anything you want. Shout out and thank you to all the other people working on this, I don't want to leave anyone out.

The learning curve is steep due to all the options so it can be very intimidating if you don't know where to start which is also why I recommend the tutorial videos. This isn't RPG Maker (no shade on RPGM it does some great things) where most things are made for you and it's pretty easy and slap dash to throw an RPG together, no, this engine is something much more phenomenal with limitless potential in game making. It will be well worth taking the little extra time to learn how to use the program software and making the game you always envisioned but were limited by other software or you don't want to learn to code. There are also a handful of sample projects that you can play or open up in the editor and play around with or see how certain things are done so this helps a lot also. The devs are trying to make it as easy as possible to learn, understand, and use the software.

There are a few bugs here and there but devs are very active on working on the project and are constantly getting feedback and tweaking things as necessary. This isn't one of those EA cash grabs. The initial release out of EA is coming very soon, likely within a few months but the dev hasn't made a hard release date yet. He also plans on developing the project after full release to add even more customization options and potential for even more types of games. This whole thing is well worth it.

TL:DR : Great software for game making. You can make pretty much any type of game you want. Learning curve is steep but worth it and it's made much easier by the wiki and YouTube tutorials. There's also sample projects you can learn from. Small bugs here and there but the devs are highly consistent in squashing these and are constantly working on the project. No cash grab here. Highly recommended.

This product is not beginner friendly, and if you're first starting out, stick with RPG Maker MZ. I get the program gets a lot of flack, but you don't have to spend almost an hour just to find out how to make a new map. Also the resources provided in the game are not clear in terms of dimensions. I have to keep starting/restarting my project just to select '32', and even then there seems to be no character models that work. Also the tilesets are weird in 3D. I put down a simple mountain, go to play it, and half of it is white, cut out, not being able to load.

I applaud the developer for having a wiki, tutorials, etc. However, this product is for experienced users. Do not expect it to be similar to RPG Maker or anything like it. One day I'm sure something like this will take off, but its just easier on RPG Maker.

I thought I had already recommended this wonderful engine?! Well, at least I'm here to correct my oversight now! ^_^

So where to begin..? I've used RPGA for a fraction of the time that I invested into the RPG Maker series, and I'm already falling in love with it - from the immense amount of granular customization available (with the base engine offering a slew of options that 'other engines' would need a plethora of plugins and a load of tinkering to achieve), to the absolute dedication of the RPGA team as a whole (Locke in particular is a beast of a programmer, and is pushing out updates almost daily), there are only bright things in the future for RPG Architect!

The only caveat I'll add, is that it has a bit of a learning curve at first; yet this is handily addressed by in-depth tutorials (shout out to Bert for those!) that cover a number of commonly encountered topics.

If you're interested in finding out more, be sure to join their discord - Locke is usually around there to answer any inquiries, and if not the man himself, then the friendly community will no doubt be happy to help.

Coming to this as an experienced RPG Maker dev, I can say Architect really is a dream come true for me. It might take a bit more work to get a basic game up and running than it does with RPG Maker, but that's simply because Architect is a much more open and versatile piece of software.

Support on Discord has been great. Updates are constant, bug fixes are lightning fast. Great community and I've really enjoyed seeing the vastly different projects people are working on - from traditional 2d rpgs to FPS dungeon crawlers.

I can't really comment on what this is like for a beginner, but if you're at all experienced with RPG Maker and frustrated with its limitations, you should definitely give this a go.

I not only plan to use Architect for my future projects, but intend to remake my past games in this engine.

I'm sure this is a powerful, useful product, but it also has an incredibly steep learning curve. I think this is likely a good choice for someone with development experience, but if you're a gamer who is dreaming of their perfect game, be warned.

Good software for making different types of RPGS

For years, I have wanted to get into game developement, but the difficulty curve was too great. RPG Architect is the best game engine I have ever used. It is simple, to the point and has many tutorials to help build a game from start to finish. Open world battles, platforming, 2d games, first-person, animation compatibility, and the ability to meld 3d objects with 2d are all base features that helped me to create innovative worlds. No more ripping my hair out over plugins that have their own individual prices, like with rpgmv or rpgmz.
It also comes with its own premade music from bit-by-bit sound, premade tiles, enemies and characters. If there's a bug in the system, it's rapidly fixed and the dev team is very patient with solving problems. All in all, I'd give it 5/5 stars.

It's like RPG Maker but it doesn't take a million plugins to make something good.

11/10 Kadokawa adjust

Its still in Early Access but every person who buys RPG Maker should actually be using this

I was able to make a short horror game using the RPG Architect Engine in a span of two weeks. Their Discord community is very responsive and helpful when it comes to technical support. This engine's flexibility in creating UI and menus using easy visual scripting won't disappoint. A lot of tutorials from their official YT page will immensely help in learning the capabilities of this engine, and I can't wait until it is out of Early Access to see how else the engine developer (Locke) can improve the database for game developers who have minimal coding skills like me.

-UPDATE-

The dev has fixed these issues very quickly and I will be submitting more on discord. This is the kind of support we need in the RPG Maker space. This one guy is putting a entire company to shame.


-Old review-
Ok there really needs to be a mixed option for reviews because I DO NOT recommend this engine! However I also do not think it is a not recommend. Let me explain.

All sample template games are broken...
I have never seen such a thing, my jaw dropped open when I went through all the 3 sample games and got stuck in the first 2 then was able to move through all objects in the 3rd. I even went into the tileset to see if things were blocked off and....they were...

You have to be out of your mind to have sample games out that don't work.

That being said even in EA this engine is just way better then anything RPG Maker has. Those people are the lazy monsters that have kept that software in the past with god knows how many other horrible things they do and the people they have working for them.

I was able to make a sample game in about 10 min where it won't let me walk through walls so it's not a engine problem. Also most of the char and enemies have the top of their heads chopped off....

The systems in place, the games you can make, and the support this has all makes this better then RPG Maker. Not because this is so great but because RPG Maker is run like crap.

So yeah if you know what you are doing buy this. Just keep in mind that even the stuff that is supposed to work in the EA doesn't.

If you had to choose between RPG Maker and RPG Architect in 2024, you should choose Architect. Here's why.
1. Incredibly active dev, who you can also talk to for help
2. No reliance on paid plugins
3. No spending hours looking at free plugins, trying to decided which version that does the same thing is worth using, or getting one and finding it has a bug that was never fixed and the author left the community X years ago and you hope someone will fix it
4. Baked in 3d and dynamic lighting
5. No RPG Maker stigma
6. Freeform whatever you want, seriously
7. Import RPG Maker graphics, any of them. RPG Maker ONLY did this with the most recent release.
8. Infinite tileset size, RPG Maker has no business in limiting this nowadays.
9. Many, many more...

If you still want to try out RPG Maker then be my guest, as it gets very cheap on sale, but it's too limited now compared to other options like Architect.

Between the nearly daily updates this receives, as well as the tutorial videos and a very active Discord, this has to be one of the most promising engines I've seen in a long time, and it's really good to see someone challenging the near-monopoly RPG Maker has had in this space for far too long.

After tooling around with this for the last week or so, I can confidently say this will finally allow me to make the Wizardry-like I've been wanting to make for years now!

I really love RPG Architect, the costumability of the game UI and the possibility of making a 3D game is a really nice touch, plus the software is fairly easy to use for beginners. The developper is also very responsive on the discord and publishes updates and fixes very quickly. Their youtube channel for tutorial is well made and easy to follow. I recommand 100%