Yes! Finally it has been announced! Now RPGMaker is free of its chains of Windows!
It was years ago when I had first came across RPGMaker software, I was just a child back then, but interested in making games. After trying to make a zombie survival game, I gave up and deleted the software. Years passed, I went to a programming course and earned much experience from life and computer stuff. I came across the %80 discount on RPGMaker VX Ace and I immediately bought it. Result? I made the biggest game/graphical novel that I made in my life. I released it days ago. Many of my friends were asking if it worked on mobile. I even had to warn them that it did not work on iOS. Two days later of my game release I just searched the web to find any porting program and…RPGMaker MV was announced hours ago!
Windows…You now have no power here…Not anymore…
As it was the main obstacle in the way of RPGMaker in being a widely(wider than it is now) used Japanese Role Playing Game(JRPG) Maker, was the fact that its games and the software itself only worked on Windows operation system. However with the main focus of it being a solution to this problem, RPGMaker MV totally ports its games iOS(including mobile versions), Android and Web. Yes, web. In nerdy words, HTML 5. The software itself also works on Macs along with Windows.
Farewell Ruby, Hello JavaScript
Programmertically speaking, Ruby was not a widely used language among the programmers and it was limiting even the software developers if they did not know Ruby programming language, like me. Also in a way to port the games to web, iOS and Android at the same time , usage of another programming language was required. Therefore, as the actual main change in the software, the script language has been changed to Javascript with HTML support instead of regular Ruby of older versions. It is possible to say that it greatly increases the potential of the software just by looking at the awesome scripts made in the old language, Ruby.
Other New Cool Things
HD Pixel Art
In MV, old resolution of 32×32 is changed into 48×48, which is roughly 4 times of the older resolution. This will improve the graphical side of the game and we will be seeing some HD version of pixelated art. Not only that, but the window size of the games are increased from 544×416 to 816×624.
Side-View Battle System
Side-View Battles were not supported in the software and additional scripting was required in order to add them. Now they have the option to change the battle system from first person perspective to side-view.
Extended Database
Database limit has been extended to 2000. This will increase the variety of items, weapons, skill and other stuff, and it will be really helpful to big and serious projects.
Helper Functions
There are two announced functions that help the developers, event searcher and the plugin manager. Event searcher helps the developers to find events in the whole project while plugin manager is used for turning on/off the script plugins.
Three Map Layers
Now there is one more layer in mapping, so that map design is more dynamic. It is now possible to put more tiles on each other, contributing to the map design while allowing the player/event to go below some specific tiles, like trees.
Mouse and Touch Support
Yes, old version did not support mouses even though they run on Windows. Now we can click. And touch. Since we will need to touch in order to play games on Android or Apple phones/tablets.
Epilogue
Even though the old developers have been waiting for this porting support for years, Enterbrain has made the smartest move it could, and it will benefit both the gaming and the company itself. You may still be asking the importance and the significance of these new content if you are really a stranger to RPGMaker. Don’t worry, you will soon be witnessing the boom on the production and the quality of the JRPG games on Android, Web, Apple and Windows.
… I am so excited…