ASCII Corporation / Enterbrain · 1992 · 1990s–2000s · Proprietary scripting (Ruby in RGSS, later JavaScript)
RPG Maker democratised Japanese-style RPG creation, giving non-programmers a tile-based editor, event scripting, and default battle systems — spawning a decades-long tradition of indie and hobbyist RPG development worldwide.
RPG Maker originated as RPG Tsukuru Dante 98 on the PC-98 in 1992 and was produced by ASCII Corporation before Enterbrain acquired the brand. The SNES version (RPG Tsukuru SUPER DANTE, 1993) introduced the tile-map editor and event scripting system that defined the series; RPG Maker 2000 (2000) and RPG Maker XP (2004) brought the toolset to Windows and introduced the Ruby Game Scripting System (RGSS), allowing developers to override any default engine behaviour. The RPG Maker ecosystem produced tens of thousands of games, from hobbyist curiosities to commercial successes: Yume Nikki (2004), To the Moon (2011), and Omori (2020) were all created in RPG Maker and reached mainstream audiences. The engine's defaults — top-down tile maps, turn-based battles, four-party JRPG combat — have become a visual and mechanical shorthand that indie developers either embrace earnestly or subvert deliberately.