👾 RPG Maker 2k3
I started going down the RPG Maker 2003 rabbit hole again today after coming across a fun YouTube series by a guy replaying the game he'd created 15 years ago. He was pretty critical of the game, but I actually think his younger self did a pretty good job. Not perfect by any means, but better than average quality and he actually tried to present a simple tutorial early on in the process.
I have a few different versions of RPG Maker, but I've always prefered 2k3's appearance because they're pretty close to SNES/Chronotrigger-era aesthetic. I also like how powerful it is despite not offering full scripting capabilities via ruby or javascript as the later versions have. It's a bit of a bummer that it's Windows only, but I had no problem getting it to run via Wine. Anyway here's a quick video explaining why anyone would want to work with 2k3 in 2025.