Download it here!

This is something I've been working on for a little while (also known as "since June 2011"), but I've finally started making real headway on it in the past month. This is an RPG engine made in Game Maker that's designed to be more flexible and more scalable than the other RPG engines I've seen. I might make a game with it, but even if I don't, I'll release it as an open source once it's done. Unlike most other GM engines, the source is thoroughly documented and should be relatively easy to modify. That's also why the graphics are a bit... scarce at the moment.

Here's what it can do!

• Overworld movement (but without much in the way of character animations)
  
• Turn-based battles
  
• Support for up to four playable characters and enemy parties of four (and while large parties often look cluttered, it's easy to add more if you really want to)
  
• Support for both random battles and battles triggered when you step on a certain spot
  
• Townspeople who say talky things
  
• Money for buying goodies
  
• A timer to record how long you play the game
  
• Pointers (objects that move you to different areas)
  
• Treasure chests that can be opened only once
  
• A pause screen to view player stats
  
• Items (which work in battles and on the pause screen)
  
• Equippable items
  

Important stuff I still need to add:

• A save system that actually works. Currently, most of the save-related mechanics are placeholders.
  
• A better text engine that doesn't mess up the HUD after you talk to someone.
  
• Giving the Speed stat an actual purpose.
  
• Allowing equipment to affect player stats, and preventing players from equipping useless items (an obvious example would be using an Ice Cream Sandwich as a hat).
  
• Healing and related special moves, both in-battle and on the pause screen
  

If you need more information, start the game and press F1 to view the help screen.
---
Edited by: Bibby, Sep 13th, 2014 @ 1:04 pm

I've been very busy with my classes, and I haven't done as much lately. Fortunately, however, this project isn't dead! Here's what's new:

• Battles are faster.
  
• Now you can allow certain items to be equipped only to characters with specific attributes (for example, class, gender, or level). The items still don't have any effect on player stats yet, though.
  
• You can use special moves in battle (and depending on the type of move, from the pause screen), although this feature isn't quite done yet.
  
• Now you can use up to four players in battle, instead of being limited to just two. Menus now adjust depending on your party size, too.

The final version is here! Go check it out.

What's new since October?

• Enemies can now use multiple attacks (if they have sufficient MP, that is!)
  
• You can now save and load game progress.
  
• Various bugs have been squashed (for example, enemies will only attack you if you have at least 1 HP).
  
• Equipment now has an effect on stats, and equipment stat boosts are now visible on the status screen.
  
• You can run on the overworld if you hold Ctrl.
  
• Sprites are now animated.
  
• Text boxes and question boxes now work perfectly. Muchas gracias to Jeff from MFGG.
  
• You can now heal from the pause screen.
  
• In-battle healing now works properly.
  
• I used scripts to streamline code and made it easier to modify.

The main thing left to fix is the game doesn't work if you uncheck the "Treat uninitialized variables as 0" box. I'd like to fix that if possible.

what do i need to make a compiled version of this? i don't think i have anything that can run game maker applications, but i want to see what this looks like.

I'm afraid I no longer have any sort of access to GM8, so in order to check this out I'd need to do significant rewrites to it in Studio (fixing things related to uninitialized variables would be easy, but the text box screen_refresh thing is not really do-something-about-able).


---
Edited by: Miles, Dec 28th, 2014 @ 5:37 pm

I sent Fireball3k an EXE so he could play without having to open it in GM 8. If anyone else needs the EXE, just let me know.

Miles: This game may also work in ENIGMA - it's a good open-source GM alternative. I've fixed most of the uninitialized variables today, although there are still a couple left, and the screen_refresh thingy would be tough to do in Studio.

I just uploaded a new version that fixes all of the uninitialized variables. While I don't care for GM Studio's interface, this game will actually run in Studio now, other than a few small bugs that someone would need to fix if they wanted to finish porting it to Studio.