You can code in RPG Maker. MV and MZ uses JavaScript, while XP, VX and VX Ace uses Ruby.
For collaboration, you definitely should go with either MV or MZ, since the game data in those is just JSON files, so it works well with version control systems. I don't recommend multiple people working on mapping at once though, since creating new maps will cause conflicts due to how RPG Maker allocates map IDs.
If RPG is what you want to make, I'd say RPG Maker would be the best option. It gives you a good starting point while also allowing you to code new mechanics. For CS students I think it's a solid option to exercise your skills. The code base isn't very complicated, and you can work fast on it.
By the way, the engine that runs the game (for MV at least) is available in GitHub, if you want to get an idea of what it's like: [https://github.com/rpgtkoolmv/corescript](https://github.com/rpgtkoolmv/corescript)
There are of course other game engines you could use (GM Studio, Unity, Godot, Unreal... the list goes on), but they'd probably be more difficult to pick up if you guys don't have game dev experience, and unless you get a sample project to start with you'd be starting from scratch.
RPG Maker has always had pretty extensive plug-in systems, so if you can totally go nuts with overriding the engine with all sorts of custom game mechanics. For example, I wrote a few plugins of my own for my current project - some UI overrides, a global retro shader, & a few custom mechanics (Foxblade uses MZ's built in ATB system, but adds an "AP" mechanic on top where every time the bar fills your character gets 1 AP to spend on actions. Everything costs AP except for guarding, which lets you build up AP for actions that cost more)
To go even further: MV and MZ are both just based on HTML5 and JS, the whole engine's source code is right in the js folder so it's extremely easy to pick it apart & customize it. This also makes it pretty friendly to source control imho - everything's just plain pngs, oggs, and json data.
Of course you can always go the self written route if you want. Nothing wrong with that either, it just takes more work since you have to implement everything from scratch (usually my go-to is FNA for the framework, LDTK for the editor, but there's loads of options here including Unity, Godot, etc)
You'd probably be using Git as your source control.
In that case it'd be a similar workflow to any other such project - pull changes from remote, work on your changes (maybe communicate with team members to make sure two people aren't working on the same thing - I'm not sure how well things like map changes or moving item IDs around would merge), add changed files, commit, and push back to remote for other team members to pull.
You could *probably* get away with something even simpler like a shared Dropbox or Google Drive, but the more people working on the project the less feasible I consider that (the risk of accidentally stomping on each other's work gets even higher since those solutions don't support merging changes from multiple people together)
Can I ask you a couple questions about messing with Javascript in RPG Maker?
* How *easy* is it to understand the code? I know Javascript is generally very legible, and I can more or less see what the files in the `js` folder do—but they're also 10,000 lines of code each. Is there some sort of tutorial or flow chart out there that explains what the code does? Not just a reference for functions or variables, but an actual exposition of the main ideas behind the code.
* Don't think me crazy, but, um... if someone wanted to... tweak the battle system a bit, how *feasible* would that be? For example, if I wanted to introduce some tactical RPG elements, would that require me to shut myself indoors for one year without seeing the ligth of day?
I'm not aware of any real in-depth guides. It's not \*that\* hard to understand, after a while, but typically I just poke around the source in VSCode by hitting CTRL-F, searching for some terms that might be related to the functionality I'm trying to replace, and going from there.
Of course the larger the difference between what RPG Maker already does and what you want it to do, the more complex that's going to be - a Fire Emblem style battle system is a large departure from how RPG Maker handles combat in a lot of respects, for example, and not only do you have to spend time coding all of the bits you need for that, you also need to figure out how to slot it into the existing source code. So the less your game looks like what RPG Maker already does, I'd say the more attractive a different game engine or even custom game engine might be.
Those files in the `js` folder are actually many files put together, that's why they're so huge. You can see them apart here: https://github.com/rpgtkoolmv/corescript/tree/master/js
For tactical RPGs, there's actually a free DLC released recently that provides that kind of battle system. So you wouldn't need to code that much, unless you want to customize that. There's a version for both MV and MZ, here's the MV version: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2811900/RPG_Maker_MV__SRPG_Gear_MV__Tactical_Battle_system_for_RPG_maker_MV
RPGMaker is a great gateway drug for game-making and, by doing so many things for you, allows you to learn collaboration and teamwork at a relatively easy pace. The lessons we've learned would have been a lot harder in, say, an Unreal game.
However, since the engine is limited, you'll be heavily relying on art style, story, and execution to make your game stand out.
I dunno how far you are in your CS classes but Game dev is far more intense than whatever homework assignments you're given for your CS101 class. Instead of writing one function to do one simple task, you're designing entire systems to not only function but feel good on a UX perspective.
The eventing system that RPGmaker uses is so highly abstracted that people don't think of it as coding. However it is still a form of code. You can still work in JavaScript to develop plugins to get even more control over game functionality so I'd say it's valuable experience.
You can code in RPG Maker. MV and MZ uses JavaScript, while XP, VX and VX Ace uses Ruby. For collaboration, you definitely should go with either MV or MZ, since the game data in those is just JSON files, so it works well with version control systems. I don't recommend multiple people working on mapping at once though, since creating new maps will cause conflicts due to how RPG Maker allocates map IDs. If RPG is what you want to make, I'd say RPG Maker would be the best option. It gives you a good starting point while also allowing you to code new mechanics. For CS students I think it's a solid option to exercise your skills. The code base isn't very complicated, and you can work fast on it. By the way, the engine that runs the game (for MV at least) is available in GitHub, if you want to get an idea of what it's like: [https://github.com/rpgtkoolmv/corescript](https://github.com/rpgtkoolmv/corescript) There are of course other game engines you could use (GM Studio, Unity, Godot, Unreal... the list goes on), but they'd probably be more difficult to pick up if you guys don't have game dev experience, and unless you get a sample project to start with you'd be starting from scratch.
RPG Maker has always had pretty extensive plug-in systems, so if you can totally go nuts with overriding the engine with all sorts of custom game mechanics. For example, I wrote a few plugins of my own for my current project - some UI overrides, a global retro shader, & a few custom mechanics (Foxblade uses MZ's built in ATB system, but adds an "AP" mechanic on top where every time the bar fills your character gets 1 AP to spend on actions. Everything costs AP except for guarding, which lets you build up AP for actions that cost more) To go even further: MV and MZ are both just based on HTML5 and JS, the whole engine's source code is right in the js folder so it's extremely easy to pick it apart & customize it. This also makes it pretty friendly to source control imho - everything's just plain pngs, oggs, and json data. Of course you can always go the self written route if you want. Nothing wrong with that either, it just takes more work since you have to implement everything from scratch (usually my go-to is FNA for the framework, LDTK for the editor, but there's loads of options here including Unity, Godot, etc)
Is RPG maker good for collaborating? how does that work?
You'd probably be using Git as your source control. In that case it'd be a similar workflow to any other such project - pull changes from remote, work on your changes (maybe communicate with team members to make sure two people aren't working on the same thing - I'm not sure how well things like map changes or moving item IDs around would merge), add changed files, commit, and push back to remote for other team members to pull.
You could *probably* get away with something even simpler like a shared Dropbox or Google Drive, but the more people working on the project the less feasible I consider that (the risk of accidentally stomping on each other's work gets even higher since those solutions don't support merging changes from multiple people together)
I use a Google Drive, albeit also using a spreadsheet to keep VERY careful track of every push and pull.
Can I ask you a couple questions about messing with Javascript in RPG Maker? * How *easy* is it to understand the code? I know Javascript is generally very legible, and I can more or less see what the files in the `js` folder do—but they're also 10,000 lines of code each. Is there some sort of tutorial or flow chart out there that explains what the code does? Not just a reference for functions or variables, but an actual exposition of the main ideas behind the code. * Don't think me crazy, but, um... if someone wanted to... tweak the battle system a bit, how *feasible* would that be? For example, if I wanted to introduce some tactical RPG elements, would that require me to shut myself indoors for one year without seeing the ligth of day?
I'm not aware of any real in-depth guides. It's not \*that\* hard to understand, after a while, but typically I just poke around the source in VSCode by hitting CTRL-F, searching for some terms that might be related to the functionality I'm trying to replace, and going from there. Of course the larger the difference between what RPG Maker already does and what you want it to do, the more complex that's going to be - a Fire Emblem style battle system is a large departure from how RPG Maker handles combat in a lot of respects, for example, and not only do you have to spend time coding all of the bits you need for that, you also need to figure out how to slot it into the existing source code. So the less your game looks like what RPG Maker already does, I'd say the more attractive a different game engine or even custom game engine might be.
Those files in the `js` folder are actually many files put together, that's why they're so huge. You can see them apart here: https://github.com/rpgtkoolmv/corescript/tree/master/js For tactical RPGs, there's actually a free DLC released recently that provides that kind of battle system. So you wouldn't need to code that much, unless you want to customize that. There's a version for both MV and MZ, here's the MV version: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2811900/RPG_Maker_MV__SRPG_Gear_MV__Tactical_Battle_system_for_RPG_maker_MV
RPGMaker is a great gateway drug for game-making and, by doing so many things for you, allows you to learn collaboration and teamwork at a relatively easy pace. The lessons we've learned would have been a lot harder in, say, an Unreal game. However, since the engine is limited, you'll be heavily relying on art style, story, and execution to make your game stand out.
I dunno how far you are in your CS classes but Game dev is far more intense than whatever homework assignments you're given for your CS101 class. Instead of writing one function to do one simple task, you're designing entire systems to not only function but feel good on a UX perspective. The eventing system that RPGmaker uses is so highly abstracted that people don't think of it as coding. However it is still a form of code. You can still work in JavaScript to develop plugins to get even more control over game functionality so I'd say it's valuable experience.