Arcadian Atlas - Reflects RPG Maker Progress

Arcadian Atlas is the type of game we need more of on PC according to PC Gamer. Its development reflects the rise of RPG Maker as a serious tool for development.

"I would say the current version is leaps and bounds ahead, and much cooler, than the old versions," Bair said. "The old versions were fun in that you could make a classic RPG-style game, but they weren't open-ended enough to where you could necessarily change the core mechanics of the game. Now with MV you can do Javascripting, so you can pretty much customize the game to whatever you want it to be, which is what allows us to do the tactical battle engine and the isometric X, Y and Z plane mapping that we have."

A work-in-progress sprite sheet tweeted by Becca Bair.

Bair draws and paints in Photoshop and does sprite animation in Pyxel, a young, still-in-development tool built for pixel art. "It can export directly into a sprite sheet or as an animated gif," Bair said. For the sprite sheet it will just do a frame-by-frame breakdown and you can import that directly into RPG Maker. I like that program specifically for spriting. Their animation features really lend themselves to that, and the layers that they offer. Photoshop is better for color and contrast tweaking and the finishing touches for sprite work."

Arcadian Atlas's programmer has already built an engine for creating the isometric battle maps they'll use in the game, which Bair pointed to as a possible avenue for future mod support. It's already user-friendly enough to allow for designing maps without the need for complex programming.

Even well-received RPG Maker games like To the Moon and Skyborn ultimately look very much like the top-down 2D Super Nintendo games that inspired them. Arcadian Atlas may draw just as heavily from isometric games like Tactics Ogre, but if it's a success, it'll show how far RPG Maker has come as a game development tool.