[RPGMAKER] WHAT ENGINE WOULD YOU RECOMMEND?

RPG Tsukuru 2003 (our name for the "unofficial fan port" of RPG Maker 2003) has the advantage of DynRPG, a C++ plugin system that allows you to do pretty much anything if you have the C++ chops for it. There's also a lot of existing plugins for it that you can use. The downside is that anything you make with that version is technically illegal, so you shouldn't risk selling it. I recommend buying the official version regardless just for the ethics of it, but you won't be able to use DynRPG on it.

I can't speak too much on XP and VX Ace, haven't used them much. They use Ruby for any scripting you want to do beyond the basics (and you'll need it for anything data-driven, the basic scripting doesn't have variable reference capabilities like the previous versions).

MV seems to have dropped a few features compared to previous versions, but it comes with (IMO) better-looking character generation sprites. Beyond-basics scripting is done in JavaScript. In fact, the game engine itself is JavaScript, and you can override parts of it with your own plugins if you find it useful. Games can also be deployed on more than just Windows -- you can do Mac, Linux, Android/iOS, and web pages. Definitely a strong advantage if you want to sell your creations.

There's three "series" available. Each has it's advantages, and downsides.
There is cross licensing so you can use resources (music, graphics etc) from any rpgmaker in any other rpgmaker.

tl, dr: VX Ace is a good choice. I mostly use VX Ace and MV, depending on the project.

The classic series (2000 and 2003)
2003 is generally superior to 2000.
These use 16x16 tiles (which are easy to draw).
There is no scripting built in, but the event commands in 2003 are more powerful than other RPG makers to compensate.
Example: You can have animated pictures "out of the box" with 2003's show picture command, which requires scripting in later versions.
There's the "Maniacs' Patch" for the legal version which does similar things to DynRPG.

The RGSS series (XP, VX, VX Ace)
RGSS is based on the Ruby programming language, which is user friendly and relatively easy to learn.
These use 32x32 tiles natively.
The art style changes from VX onward to character sprites fitting inside a single tile.
XP has some nicer features with mapping, such as the autotile expansion feature.
In other respects, VX Ace is the best of the series.

The HTML5 series (MV)
MV is based on web technologies, written in javascript.
On the upsides, you can package your game for different computers, mobile or web browsers.
It uses GPU for graphics, which makes things more complicated but can do fancy things in the right hands.
The engine (but not the editor) is completely open for you to mod with scripts.
But, it's javascript, which is a bit messy.
Natively uses 48x48 tiles, with a similar art style to VX Ace.
The community is a bit more commercially focused than the older engines.

If you have something already, use that. You'll probably be able to do beginner stuff with all of them.

From everything I've heard, Unity is extremely flexible but a giant pain in the ass even if you know what you're doing with coding. So, you kind of get what you pay for. :V

Once a year, there's an RPG Maker Humble Bundle, and Steam often has VX Ace on sale for 12 dollars or less.

Actually you should probably consider playing RPG Maker games rather than making them. It's a real pain in the ass.

Of all the RM engines, these are probably the most widely used:

RPG Maker 2003 is still widely used, as its age allows it to run on many different computers with very little trouble. It's a great engine for low res games, and is a popular choice for game jams thanks to tiny file sizes and ease-of-use.

The downside is that, if you choose to include combat, you are stuck with the battle system included unless you make your own with the in-engine event editor, which takes a considerable amount of time and can be more easily-achieved with newer engines.

RPG Maker VX Ace is also still a popular engine, and is still one of the most popular engines in this community specifically. Like XP and VX before it, it includes a code editor that allows you to customize and change 90+% of the engine to your liking. It is also a clean, efficient engine that, like 2k3, can run on most PCs.

The downsides to Ace is that it doesnt have the export options like MV does, and the games struggle to run on anything besides Windows PCs. There are also very few people writing scripts for Ace anymore, so whatever resources are out there is basically what you're gonna get.

RPG Maker MV is the most recent RPG Maker engine, and it makes a few key changes to the engine over VX Ace. Namely, export options allow the games to be played on platforms outside of Windows, which makes MV the preferred RM engine for commercial developers. As mentioned in this thread, MV is editable with Javascript if that is something that is to your advantage.

MV does have downsides. For one, tiles and character graphics are 48x48 which is widely considered a controversial change, especially since that meant Ace graphics (32x32) could not be ported easily into MV. The engine is also very clunky and has stability issues, and the games' file sizes are generally massive compared to older engines.

It also has not received any significant updates since August 2018, so if your preference is to work with only the latest engine, it's your call if you want to dive into MV now or wait and see if there's another RPG Maker around the corner .

Honestly, the most important thing in gam mak is to mak gam. Once you've finished a game, THEN you can start looking into more engines. Whatever you end up using doesn't really matter as much as it seems- a decent artist can make something cool with whatever tools are around.

For eas of use VX Ace is still the best.

Unity is easy to get started, but hard to finish. There's easy aspects to it, but if you don't know C# you're in for a world of hurt.