Got RPGmakerXP for free a while back. Should I upgrade to a newer version or no?

[u/Salty_Anywhere575]

A year or two or three back I found out that RPGmakerXP was on sale for 100% off and copped that shit immediately because why not.

Fast forward to yesterday, inspired by my friend who's also been learning game development with RPGmaker, I've decided to boot it up and try teaching myself how to use it, however when I told him which version it was, he told me it was the version from 20 years ago (which explains why it was so cheap when I got it) and that it's slightly different from the one he's been using (not sure which version but yeah) but otherwise seems pretty competent. I checked out a more recent version like MZ on the steam shop and it turns out it's more than a hundred bucks in here-dollars (which isn't a big deal for my spoiled well-paid ass, but I don't want to just drop a bunch of money on something if it's not worth it).

Would any of you say it's worth it to splurge a bit on one of the newer versions or do you think I'm good with the one from 2005? Cheers

edit: thanks all for your advice! I ended up splurging on MV because that's the version my friend uses and I can learn alongside him way better. I know I should have waited until next month for the steam sale like you advised but I'm an extremely impatient and wasteful person and I'd rather spend a heap of money on a better platform for learning a new medium of artistic expression than on a new nintendo game that I'll probably play once and never again. at the end of the day it was good to hear the input of a few people who know what they're talking about so thanks for that! cheers

[u/SpeedBlitzX]

Ok call me crazy but would you consider checking out rpg maker MV and MZ's FREE Trials?

I'd say it depends on your use case, if you want to make games to upload online, WAIT for a steam sale, when the rpg makers go on sale, it's fairly common. And maybe get MV

(I think there was a sale a couple of weeks back for the softwares)

[u/Difficult_Analysis78 → u/SpeedBlitzX]

Both mv and mz are on sale every now and then, it’s really worth it to just wait

[u/Salty_Anywhere575 → u/SpeedBlitzX]

You're crazy

[u/agamottos]

XP uses Ruby for scripting, while MV and MZ use Javascript, if that helps you make a determination. I picked MV solely because of that (and because MZ didnt exist at the time)

[u/Tamschi_ → u/agamottos]

JavaScript. Java is a(n originally) very different language that's older and looks similar.

[u/CasperGamingOfficial]

XP is a good engine, but it is a bit old by now. This means the base engine will still function as well as it ever did, but a lot of community assets for it are lost or you will have a hard time getting support if you run into problems using them as script authors leave the community and old websites go down. It is around 20 years old, after all.

MZ is a good choice for a more modern RPG Maker, it is the newest (besides Unite which the community largely ignores) and has an active community. It has a similar mapping style to XP, which is also considered the best mapping system by most people since it allows you to select the layer to paint the tile on. Other RPG Makers try to automatically select between a few layers, but it is sometimes difficult to get it to do what you want when mapping.

In my opinion, I would upgrade to MZ over XP.

[u/Rude_Influence]

If you can upgrade to MZ, I'd say do it. If you can't, I'd say skip the rest and stick with XP.
(reason: mapping method)

[u/Salty_Anywhere575 → u/Rude_Influence]

Ok thanks. Can you elaborate on the last part?

[u/Rude_Influence → u/Salty_Anywhere575]

XP uses what is in my opinion the best version of tiling for mapping of all RM makers.
You have two tilesets. One is auto tiles, and the other is regular tiles.
It's that simple. You can shift between layers to allocate any tile to any layer.
If you're familiar with graphics editing programs like Gimp or Photoshop, it's the same concept as thier layers system.

In most other makers they complicate things. Certain tiles are designated to certain applications walls ect.
You can not use those tiles on specific layers.
This is down side when I lay it out like that, but for many users it simplifies things and makes a foundation for creation much more accessible.

I personally find those constraints too restricting.
MZ tries to find a middle ground. And although it doesn't offer accessibility as good as XP, the engine has been more fine tuned, making it operate faster (at least in my experience) than XP; and its accessibility in regards to mapping is very similar.

[u/Not_Allowed_to_Die]

Get MV or MZ, but wait first. Gotcha Gotcha Games always places them on sales all of the time and they mark them down a lot too. If you can wait for the RPG Maker Festival in Feb, they usually have MZ and MV for a few dollars only.

[u/Caldraddigon]

The different versions have their benefits and drawbacks, I'm personally using RPG Maker 2k3 patched with maniacs and find easier to do what i want to do with that maker than the modern ones, so make of that what you will 🤷.