C# and unity would be my suggestion. C# is one of the easier to learn modern general purpose languages. Unity is a 3d engine that runs on all major platforms, and uses c#/Mono as a scripting language.

I'd probably suggest either Game Maker or Construct 2 - it sounds like a few of your intended mechanics might fall a little outside the capabilities of RPG Maker, which I believe can be a little difficult to customize compared to other options. Using Game Maker or Construct 2 you would need to do a little extra work to implement the basic RPG mechanics, but you'll have a much more flexible system to work with, and either option would be very capable of the sort of gameplay you're after.

Both packages have free or demo versions available - I'd suggest having a play with both, looking through the manuals and user-provided tutorials for both, and choosing the option you're most comfortable with.

Expect to spend some time learning how to use any package you choose by working on a few simpler projects.


Honestly, programming with C# and Unity is probably a lower-level solution than you require unless you want to treat this as a learning exercise for more complex future projects, although that is certainly also a good option.

Hope that helps. :-)

(Posted from mobile.)

I would strongly recommend you stay away from Game Maker. It's very much overpriced.

That really depends on your needs and desired target platforms -- you can target Windows (including the Windows 8 app store) and Mac OSX with the Standard edition for only $50, which really isn't all that expensive if the package meets your needs. This is also very comparable to the pricing of RPG Maker, which the original poster was originally considering, so I assume it's within budget.

I'm not familiar with Enigma -- I assume this is the one you mean -- but one potential thing to keep in mind with free options is that you sometimes get what you pay for in terms of documentation and support. Game Maker and Construct 2 both offer extensive documentation and user-submitted tutorials as well as active and helpful communities to aid problem solving, and there's even a book available teaching the effective use of Game Maker. The resources available for users of Enigma may or may not be up to par with that, especially for someone without a programming background.

That being said, if it's something that looks like it might meet your needs by all means give Enigma a test run as well -- it won't cost anything other than a little time to give it a try!

I just don't understant why I should want to learn C#, if I want to use Game Maker, since Game Maker uses GML, right?

You wouldn't learn C# and Game Maker together, you would choose one or the other, although depending on your own goals in the longer term you may well learn both. Yes, Game Maker uses a visual editor as well as it's GML scripting language.

I understand that if I learn C# I will learn a language thats more "all-round", than a language made for gaming?

That's correct, Game Maker is well suited to a specific purpose, and is difficult or impossible to use outside of that area. C# (and other general purpose programming languages) are not restricted in this way but require you to do more work to get a game up and running. Whether or not this is better is entirely dependent on your goals and preferences.

Also, I have never heard of any commercial games made in Game Maker?

A couple of examples include Legend of Fae and Serious Sam: The Random Encounter, both of which are distributed via Steam and appear just as polished as many of the programmed games you'll see being sold. I'm sure you could find numerous others with a bit of research, especially now that mobile games -- which can be created with some versions of Game Maker -- are so popular.

Hope that helps!