Reviews

• 

  MarcusC

  Sep 8, 2016

  Not yet as good as RPG Maker(any) yet. But I love this so far. What it needs most is scripting.
• 

  DrassRay

  Sep 9, 2016

  Update 11/29/2019 Still Recommending the Software. Most recently: They've added Custom Damage /Heal Formula's for Skills and Items and also added Events During Battles! I still think we need to be able to add custom States (like custom damage over time and heal over time) But the fact that updates are still rolling out, makes me hopeful for more things to come! Edited 1/11/2018 I can now fully recommend this software! They have already addressed some of the issues I noted previously: 3D Battle System, Advanced Variables, Parallel Processing, Camera Controls, Customizeable 2D Sprite Animations, free movement, common events, export to Unity (via DLC), are now all part of the engine! You can now purchase an amazingly featured character creator for $10! They are adding new features pretty much monthly at this rate! Here are a list of things I would like to see added! 1) Adding this, as of 2/21/17, becuase I feel these are VERY important: States, Damage Control, AOE Target Areas, and customizable EXP Curves. I want to be able to make interesting battles! 2) Built in scripting outside of exporting to Unity There are more things, I'm sure, but these are the more important things I could think of on the spot. Once these things are implemented, I feel this would be the PERFECT alternative to RPG Maker. And it's getting closer everyday!
• 

  Auveveee~

  Sep 12, 2016

  + Easy to use + User friendly interface + Quick map creation. Drag and drop, camera rotating feature etc + Simple event makings based from template to advance, even with advance, the flow diagram really helping. + Customized graphics supports, 3D and 2D + Friendly developer, I've been asking and chatting a couple of things with someone named Sana. So nice and able to help me found my mistake, even cheering me to create a great game. - Needs script editor so we can have a customized battle flows. = = = Will be a new trend and alternative for game making efforts, good way to start and make you intrigued to learn Autodesk Maya. lol = = = Buy This, it's worth I have 3 game making software license in another accounts (you can search 'schleez'), and I'M NOT REGRETTED THAT I BOUGHT THIS SOFTWARE.
• 

  Holden_Mcgroin

  Sep 16, 2016

  Extremely simple and intuitive to use. Drag and Drop. Since I wrote this revciew they have a 3D battle system and VR, and export to Unity. There is now a 3D character builder DLC, and you can export most characters to other games/engines freely under the sensible license terms. A very slick product which is being improved all the time with new features. Hard not to compare with RPG Maker series, it weighs in at the same full price as RPG Maker MV but lacks scripting. Virtually everything in the editor is no more than a mouse click or two away, and finished games have keyboard and controller support You can export standalone games, compiled from one button click in the editor, or export to Unity, and there are no restrictions or royalties, whatever you make is yours to give, share or sell. What it lacks in scripting it makes up for in its style, camera views and the fresh feel of 3d assets in an RPG. Rather than write scripts from scratch, the user can choose events and functions and stitch them together visually in the editor. Enough events are provided to make a traditional RPG - for example walking and stationary animated characters which you can set to talk with, give or receive items, add to party, etc. Events are provided for shops, inns etc, where you can buy/sell inventory items. "lootable" items like animated chests/dressers, and these events can be combined in a click-together visual system and become "advanced events" with which you can do a lot more than a casual glance suggests. The battle system was virtually the same as the 2D RPG Maker, but now includes a 3D battle system. SGB helps you make JRPG games with a 3D view, top down or first person, all switchable in game by the player, or you can lock each map view. Panning around in third person 3D gives you an RPG-Maker style "Mode7-ish" style which really works well and looks good. The smoke, fog, weather and lighting effects, day and night, and 3D assets combine to give it a great visual style. Adding your own assets seems fairly straightforward and it is simplicity itself to build respectable 3D maps in the editor. The developers are active and have been patching and improving SGB since its Steam release. There is a 30 Day Trial version with slightly limited assets, which I spent a few hours using before buying the full version, there are enough features in the trial (and a demo game) to give you a good idea if it is right for you. I can't help feeling that the price should have been pitched at around £20, plus DLCs, I really don't think it will attract many new users from the RPG Maker community without scripting. An alternative to RPG Maker MV it isn't, but for those of us who can't/won't learn a new script, or who struggle with scripts in the first place, that wont't matter. And the included events are useful enough to make a serviceable RPG. What sets it apart from the RPG maker series is the 3D and utter simplicity of use. It has a robust little 3D engine that works well, very logical and intuitive editor controls. It's clearly not competing with RPG Maker, but it is offering something different. Now that I have bought it for full price, you can look forward to it being in an 80% sale or a cheap bundle any time soon, at which time you should snap it up.
• 

  Nico

  Nov 4, 2016

  A decent game making engine with very few resources, and not enough customizeable options as RPG Maker. Definitely not worth $80. Wait for a sale. $60 is a much better price point.
• 

  Wizard Indie Games

  Dec 30, 2016

  According to Steam, I have used this software for over 74 hours in total but it seems less because it is a joy to use! I have searched Steam extensively for game-making software that is both easy and powerful. I have yet to find one that delivers on that promise - except Smile Game Builder! One of the first things I tried was building terrain. This is very easy: simply choose the type of terrain you want (choose from various natural or man-made varieties) and paint it where you want. You can use various select options to select parts of the terrain in your map for modifying. The terrain can easily be lowered and raised. The use of the term 'terrain' is perhaps a little misleading here because you can also use this to create interiors by raising the 'terrain' to build walls. You can then furnish your rooms with objects simply by dragging and dropping. All terrain is made up of blocks so don't expect realistic rolling hills - I believe this is in keeping with the RPG genre anyway. For the exterior world, you will find many buildings and objects to simply drag and drop into your maps. You can then attach doors that lead the player into the interiors you have created using the terrain tools. You can set the size of each map as well as the lighting and any special effects (snow, rain, fog, falling leaves, etc.). You can also choose atmospheric sounds and music for each map. A recent addition is the ability to have the map play in first-person mode. This is an awesome new feature which can totally change the game experience! You can populate your maps with several different characters. They are cartoony but some are more blocky than others (you kind of get a mix of Legoesuqe and action figure types). Changing the look of any character is very easy. You can also choose which animation they use. It is a shame there are not more characters but you can easily change the behaviour of each one by modifying its event sheets. The characters are essentially 'events'. There are many different pre-made events to get you started (for example, stationery characters, walking characters, speaking characters, item-giving characters and so on) plus lots of pre-made non-character events. All the events can be modified using a powerful yet easy event editing function. Basically, the events are made up of a number of 'event sheets' each of which is formed by a number of 'panels'. The event sheets kind of resemble a flowchart. I cannot overstate how briliant this event editing system is. It is the closest you will get to coding without actually learning to code. At first, I was able to produce very basic events but I quickly became proficient enough to do some quite sophisticated stuff. You'll soon learn that this, along with the Variables functions, has the power to let you do almost anything. The assets library isn't huge but you can import your own. The Add Assets function isn't the easiest though. It would be nice if you could also create unique stuff within SGB itself by using a character creator, terrain texture editor, etc. There is a powerful battles system which can be easily customised by changing all the monsters' attributes, strengths, etc. Of course, you can add new monsters. There is an inventory system too and you can customise that too, changing existing items and adding your own. There is little in the whole game you cannot customise. Customer support is good and software updates are quite frequent. Overall, this is a real gem! All it lacks is the abillity to create unique content within the software itself. 9/10.
• 

  Rhyan Jenkins

  Dec 30, 2016

  I've been an avid user of the RPG Maker series, and recently brought RPG Maker MV - after several months of use and massive technical hitches with Windows 10 and not to mention the massive memory leak, I decided to look for an alternative. Smile Game Builder, at first impression lacks the polished finish that other RPG Engine products have. However given time, this will surpass the RPG Maker series, both in functionality and appearance. I have now begun transferring my game from RPG Maker MV to Smile Game Builder. I brought this during the recent Steam Sale for around £45, which I feel was a reasonable price for the product, £60 (which was its original price) is too steep for what the program offers at the moment. Like RPG Maker, Smile Game Builder offers a RTP-esque tileset, albeit in 3D - with pretty much all the materials to create a basic and fully playable game. Unlike RPG Maker, you have the ability to use both 2D Sprites and 3D Models on a 3D environment which opens up many different aspects to game design. Mapping is incredibly intuitive, and is a select and click placement system; elevation change is a bit clunky but nothing major. You also have the ability to view the map in any perspective (apart from underneath) and can set the perspective to lock within gameplay. Scripting and eventing, has yet to be developed as much as the mapping engine - however if worked to the same degree it will be incredibly easy to use - the Smile Game Builder offers presets for different recurring events (Inns, stairs etc). Materials provided as stated before will suffice for first-time developers, however more variations need to be developed in order to create a more 'diverse' world - perhaps access to template files? The Battle System does look impressive, and is much better then RPG Maker, even with modifications to plugins. The development team seem very committed to making an engine with features that developers want, and take all feedback on board. ============================================== Overall, I would definitely buy this product. ==============================================
• 

  Tassilo

  Mar 3, 2017

  Smile Game Builder is a great jRPG construction kit with excellent editing functions. Both the map and the script-editor are easy to use and allow a wide range of behaviours. You can set booleans, use integers and script about everything you'd like to. Dialogues could use some polishing though - I didn't find a way to stay in loops within dialogues, they end and have to be reinitiated. The graphics coming along are neat and can easily be used as a base for your own custom work. Adding new artwork is quite easily done. The graphical performance is sub-par, though. Given the resolution of the textures and polygons of the models, it should perform faster. Artwork resolution is limited to 960x544, I would love to see HD resolutions available. The engine comes with a localization tool that definitely needs some work, cannot recommend it for multi-language games at the time of writing this. Nonetheless, the developers are actively updating the engine and I already had several requests resolved in no time. Support is great, fast and friendly. Biggest drawback in my opinion is the lack of influence I have in designing the game's actual rules: Character stats cannot be really modified or extended, you are limited to what it delivers out of the box. Given that this engine is yet very young, I have to say I am impressed by its state and look forward to future updates. It does have some weaknesses yet, but I am pretty sure it will improve soon and it can already be used for the production of professional games. If you are looking for an engine to develop good looking 3D jRPG games easily and quickly and can live with its limitations, this is probably the best software on the market and well worth its price. If they keep working on it as they do right now, this may become one truly impressive piece of development software. I will keep this review updated as the engine progresses in development.
• 

  mrkarate1983

  Jun 9, 2017

  I have been using this program since December 2016. As a user with a reasonable amount of hours on my back (+270 hours) I think it really is a program that allows in a fascinating way to introduce to the development of games in a friendly and enjoyable way. In order to understand the context under which we can create our games, we must first understand that although it is in fact a friendly program, it requires notions of programming logic (albeit at a low level) to use the advanced event editor and create Our own events. If you do not have that kind of knowledge or skill, then you can turn to the preloaded basic events. Another important point is that the program contains a large library of objects for use in our first generic projects. And as in the case discussed above, for advanced users there is the possibility of creating your own objects and import them into the game engine in order to give a unique and special touch to our projects. The simplicity of the map editor allows even an 8 year old to create his own scenarios and adventures in less than 30 minutes. How do I know that? Well, I have checked the above since I am a school teacher and I have used the program with my own students, from 8 year olds to 18 year olds. All of them have had a good experience and have had enough fun, letting their imagination flow and seeing immediate results thanks to the flexibility of the program to offer both novice users and those experienced users the tools necessary to create their stories. In my experience as a teacher and as a 2d and 3d video game development instructor, of all the programs we have used (OGRE, UNITY, COCOS, PHAZER, STENCYL, RPG MAKER SERIES, CONSTRUCT 2 & 3, GMS 1.4 & 2 etc .), this is without a doubt, the simplest, didactic, practical and friendly to introduce someone who does not have any knowledge of computer science or programming languages. However, like all good things in life, this program is still in its youth stage and little by little it is improving and polishing its mechanics and characteristics. I fully trust that with the passage of time, the support of the community and the effort and dedication of its talented team of developers, we will be able in the future to have a real masterpiece that rivals without any problems with other programs with more antiquity in this area . At the moment, I am very happy with what I have seen so far and I have been part of the user community that has supported and helped the developers to continuously improve each of the engine updates. Do I recommend it? Absolutely! SMILE GAME BUILDER is truly amazing and a total must-have in your library If you are an enthusiast with passion for game making and a strong dessire to create your own games with no-coding. And If you are an advanced user coming from more complex engines, take a seat and enjoy the simplicity of SGB, but don't be wrong, for a creative mind there are a lot of possibilities of things to do using the advance events editor.
• 

  evildeadfan102

  Jul 1, 2017

  This software is very awesome :) I am creating my own game with this software called Ryan's Adventure. I have always wanted to create my own game and with this i can :) My game is using the stuff in the base game but i am making it my own style :) if you cant do programming this is the best gaming software to use. 10/10 for awesomeness :)
• 

  Vendon

  Aug 15, 2017

  Smile Game Builder is a really nice Idea but for this price with all that huge lack of features it has right now, its very much a super limited program. It uses an 960x540 resolution that you can't change. It has also no scripting support. Means you end up with problems like changing UI, Hud, Battle System, Skill Animation, Graphics, features like jumping, craftings, party size, and much more. The sad thing is that it doesn't even had a character generator so you where extremely limited with your playable charakters and yeah, it has a generator now but I have to pay for it? Rlly? A feature which has to be in this program from the beginning? Why do I have to pay for each feature it must have had from the beginning? It's already 73.99 € and I still have to pay more for a missing feature? Well as for now I can not support this. It looks really good but if I do have to pay everytime a new feature appears then it's just a rip off. All other RPG Makers are getting these features for free just to make it possible to the costumers to make better games. All NOT summer purchased people will get this generator for free and all other people well what should I say about that. I don't mind to pay something for more textures but I also will not do this again with Smile Game Builder because I did that and there was also a lack of Face sets so I ended up with useless purchased DLC because there where no faces I could use to make some new playable characters. Hope it will be better one day but for now I can not give here a thumbs up.
• 

  ThatDaleDude

  Jun 11, 2018

  Personally there are quite a lot of things I like and dislike about Smile Game Builder. However, because the Pros outweigh the Cons, I'd be more than happy to recommend this to others; Pros - It's as easy to use as RPG Maker. - The software allows you to make RPG games in a 3D perspective. - The software allows you to support VR. - If you purchased the Unity Exporter DLC (there's a Con about this below too) you have the ability to export to various platforms (Windows, Android, iOS etc). - Using a dropdown menu, you can configure the time of day (e.g. Day, Night, Afternoon and others) and the lights on lamps and buildings will turn on or off accordingly. - The software supports various weather effects such as rain, snow, confetti and others. - Again, if purchased, you can customise 3D character models. - You can configure your title screen logo, text placement and effects. There are other pros but it'll take too long to think and list them. Cons - It doesn't have many default assets unlike other software such as RPG Maker. For example, the insides of buildings have VERY limited assets. - If you want to export to platforms other than Windows, you will need to purchase the Unity Exporter which, when I last looked, costs more than the software itself! - The code for the software is on lockdown so it doesn't allow for as much configurability as other software. - It's fairly limited in terms of what you can make items or skills do. For example, it will either inflict damage, heal, buff or debuff stats and that's about it. You can't make an item that will run common events for example. - You can't use vehicles like boats (this isn't really a con if you don't use vehicles though). - Documentation for things like guides are limited. However, there is a lot of help and guides on YouTube. OVERALL Overall, I think this software is definitely worth the purchase. Although the software is still fairly young, it is frequently updated with bug fixes and new features (meaning some of the cons mentioned above may disappear). If you're looking for software that's like RPG Maker MV but in 3D, then this is the one. BUT, don't expect the same amount of features because there are things that SGB can do that RMMV can't and vice versa, meaning you may need to make compromises with some of your game's functionality. Thumbs up from me!
• 

  jdiperla

  May 15, 2019

  This software is never updated. Hasnt been any new features in over a year. There is hardly any administrative support. All tutorials come from community members as well as new assets. The engine isnlacking, yet i paid iver $100usd with the hope that all the assets i bought it would eventually be upgraded to make up for what it lacks. Stay away from this software.
• 

  jeffcourty0

  Jun 24, 2019

  Ok for absolute beginners, a real nightmare for everybody else. I worked my last 15+ years on different versions of rpg maker. To me, picking SMILE was a natural progression and I was really excited to finally break in the third dimension. Concerned about unity's learning curve I was hoping to make my project faster with a more user friendly interface. Boy I was wrong. On surface, it offers everything you need to competently make a game. But a myriad of problems soon arise when you realise that anything but a bland rpg will be a hell to make. I understand the engine is relatively new so its ok to miss a few features here and there, but in reality it miss A LOT of basic functions: -No way to add comments in your code (!?). You heard me right, there is to way to document your own work! Good luck working around that, its nearly impossible. As if the devs themselves didnt used any during the development cycle... -You cant compare two variables between themselves, not easily, that is. A clever guy found a workaround by making a copy and substract the value of one on another. - No way to call an animation state in a model. Everything must be harcoded. Like calling an attack animation from an ennemy. You must precisely know and tell. Oh and their directions resets as well when calling, so you must find a way yourself to deal with it. - Whant to make a custom GUI? Good! just input numbers on screen. Things like healthbars wont be possible. When you stretch a picture, it MUST be evenly, not only on one axis. - And believe me, there is a lot more of these little annoyances everywhere Thats the problem, there is a ton of artificial restrictions that prevents you to accomplish anything. So the vast majority of your time will be spent on ways to override those limits instead of creating your game. After hundreds of hours wasting my time on it, I throw the towel. Starting the same project on another software will be faster than trying to finish it on SMILE.
• 

  RpgBlaster

  Jun 2, 2020

  Too bad buying the engine was not enough you even have to spend money on the unity export dlc i dont want to pay an 70$ DLC just to use my HD 3D Models
• 

  sylardean

  Sep 25, 2020

  UPDATE 20/03/2021 - ANYONE considering buying this product, don't bother.. it has really bad lack of features and bad developers that has the community begging for updates with hundreds of suggestions to make the engine better but they just choose to ignore the user base and instead give us crappy additional extras like a cat model inside a chest, crap that the engine can do without when it is so featureless. As you can see I have spent many hours using this product, spent a LOT of money on my game I WAS making but now have decided to shelve the project because of what the engine is missing. Did I enjoy making what I have for my game so far..? YES! but way too often I hit walls because of lack of features it has that I know my game could have IF the engine was MUCH better. but nothing. ------------------------------------------ OKAY so rather than carry on and on I will bullet-point the good and bad. This review ain't going to be good so STOP reading now SGB fans IF you are offended easily. I've used SGB for a few months now and making a game with it, so I can see it's limitations, interacted with the community, and have learned by now what is entailed in using this Engine. THE GOOD -Easy to use! -Can choose 3D view or 1st person view with a single press of a key, the 1st person view can be disabled if you don't want people to play your game like a Doom style game. -Can alter the camera angles freely, so you could make a side-scrolling game if you wish. (without jump though, which sucks, see The Bad.) -The standard graphics packaged with the engine are quite nice looking. THE BAD -The Event Menu where all your functions are located is a complete mess. -Not enough free assets packaged with the engine, it has a bare minimum, I mean it don't even have a bucket ffs! characters that come free.. only a very small few have character portrait art with them so you are left once again to hunt for someone to do custom art for you.. that you will probably have to pay for unless you can draw yourself. -IF your maps are too big the area when playing will jitter slightly so the engine don't manage too well with large maps using animated objects like grass, trees, windmills, etc. -NO Jump function. (which is ridiculous.) you can't jump in game and there is NO function to make an event jump either.. how fk'n archaic is that..? -NO scripting possible (like RGSS in RPGmaker, which I believe is this engines killer.) -IF you want something that would usually require a script and you cant figure it out by using pictures, variables, and events then forget about what you want to do. -Extremely small community. -If you want assets then you will need to learn 3D modelling, like Blender yourself. -If you want some form of scripting (for whats possible in SGB) you will need to learn extensively all about variables, etc for the system, people simply won't do things for you. -(with possible shunning from the discord I say this) Don't expect 90% of anyone to make anything for you in terms of demo or assets for something custom, it just don't happen. There are the slight few who WILL however go out of their way to try to help.. but rarely. -The eventing options are limited compared to RPGmaker. -The devs hardly add anything that the community requests, as evident by looking on a discord page and the few hundred requests on there that haven't been implemented. So requesting additional stuff is pointless cos it just falls into a blackhole of "NO FK OFF". -IF you make huge maps and place too much stuff on it your maps zoomed out will make things clip and disappear, only way to see what's there is either zoom in, OR click and hold a mouse button over an object on the map so it reveals everything. -Be prepared to spend a lot of cash on this engine for assets/functions/music/etc unless you find the minor few people that will help for cheaper or free. There's probably more but I can't think of any right now. Even with all it's bad and not enough good it's still a great engine with many possibilities.. just expect to spend cash, have to learn 3D modelling, and be prepared to spend HOURS trying to learn variables to actually be able to make anything extremely fantastic in a game. This engines downfall is the fact there is NO scripting available, like RGSS for RPGmaker.. IF this engine had scripting possibilities then it would kick @ss off RPGmaker.
• 

  Manurocker95

  Nov 2, 2020

  Well, the program itself is not that bad. It's mostly RPG Maker for 3D graphics. However, it's is REALLY limited in every single aspect if you want to do ANY professional game: Polycount, textures and animations that can be applied to the models, you can't code nor script (which would help to improve this A LOT), no multilanguage support (you can only export one but not change it in runtime), no customization for shaders nor lighting, controls are unintuitive af, no support for most 3D formats, and the worst part: They did a really bad implementation of Unity's exporter. Once you export your project to unity engine, you say: "Okay, now I can code and configure everything to my needs" ahahahaha, no. This uses deprecated stuff like IMGUI FOR RENDERING and old methods that need to be replaced even in Unity LTS. They instance things in runtime instead of creating the objects in the scene, so it's hard af to modify things. Also, they use tons of Find, GetComponent and loop methods that should not be used like that. You can't modify their code in most of scripts bc they are hidden and there's no editor in Unity for their maps. There's no support at all for Universal Render Pipeline nor HD Render Pipeline (for their custom shaders). To be honest, I'm VERY glad for not spending more than 30 bucks on this.
• 

  Unpayedovertime

  Jan 12, 2021

  NOTE: I have not take a thorough look through any option, addon, or feature of this program yet. This program IS going to be compared to the RPG Maker software to hell, so take note. I am not using any custom models or scripts, barring the character generator, take note. PROS: + "RPG Maker" [b]IN 3D![/b] + Corpse Party DLC is okay, I guess. + VR Mode(?!?) + Easy to make cheap Horror RPG games with its First person view. Cons: - MV Is better. - "Advanced Scripting" is not simple like RPG Maker's event menus. - No Dialogue format/previews. This does not count going through the playtest and view the dialogue yourself. - Lack of Spears. - Better get it when it's in the double digits on a sale. - Features are behind a paywall. (Character Generator) - Interface(?) is odd. Things such as Right clicking when world building doesnt copy the selected tile into the tile brush for a quick edits. - Character Generator (DLC) is limited. Palette. - Character Generator (DLC) does not have "Detailed" model generator. Well of course. - The price for the Deluxe Edition. Wait for a sale when it drops to double digits. - There hasn't been an update since Oct 2020. Overall: 4/5 (or 7/10) Despite the overall Cons... This fits as a "3D RPG Maker", but is a few steps away. If the RPG Maker Devs would've made a 3D RPG Maker instead of a mess MZ is, I would've said "SIGN ME UP". Instead, I said it to Smile Game Builder instead. Expanded Thoughts: 3D - It's fun to recreate the maps I made in RPG Maker in 3D. Unfortunately, I'm limited in what objects I can place. MV/VX/VXACE has many objects I can use to decorate my rooms. In Smile? Not much. Palettes are limited, so I can't make many "dungeons" without them looking like copypaste maps. But hey, I can make a 3D Ao Oni clone ^.^ Dialogue - Creating dialogue is a nightmare. As of this writing, I do not see any option to preview my dialogue I written, most of the time it gets cut off and bumped into an unnecessary text box. Example*: "You know you can move that crate box to block the enemy..." - The text ingame displays "You know you can move that crate box to block (Skips to another dialogue box) the enemy." *This example obviously is short enough to fit in the dialogue, just giving an example when it doesn't* In RPG Maker, while it doesn't have the problem, the program is kind enough (most of the time) to give an indicator where text would cut off if not formatted correctly. The Price? Oh god, the Price of the Deluxe Edition is 280.15 USD. I got the thing for 55(ish) USD during a sale. The program at its bare minimum is at 69.99 while MV costs for 79.99. Even with the 9.99 USD for the character generator DLC, MV is superior. That 69.99 price, like any maker, is NOT worth the cost. Final Thoughts - Between RPG Maker and this? I rather stick onto RPG Maker... MV. It's more simple, more friendly, but if you want to take a spin on Smile, go on ahead. Smile maps makes great for RP maps.
• 

  CubanMedic

  Jan 13, 2021

  I logged 160 hours during my game development course for level design. One of the objectives was to use a game tool or game engine not normally used by the student. luckily for me the SGB engine launched when i started the course and it has become one of my preferred game engines since. That being said, i have only used it for prototypes for level testing using all of the tools provided by the engine, When it came to importing my own art for the engine, i found it very frustrating as i followed the instructions to the letter and was unable to appropriately upload my characters, animations, etc. I found that others were able to import so i chalked it up to user error, but due to the extensive regulations and parameters for import, i have abandoned the engine for more favorable ones. The best part of this Engine is its simplistic programming. It is a great engine for Designers, and unless you can figure out the import process, artist as well. During my 160 hour usage, i was very focused on the design portion of the project for the course i was taking. If i have more free time and the art import process becomes less extensive, i will be happy to create games using SGB.
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  josephguilbert44

  Mar 4, 2021

  Good old RPG Maker may be the old "tried and true" ; but Smile is the better of the two. Everything from map design to EVENTS (yes Events). It took me all of an hour and a half to make a game with 16 maps with fireworks going off and little glowing blue flames. Character design is simple importing your DLC is literally a 2 clicks (NO FOLDER SWAPPING ETC.). RPG Maker cannot compete with Smile. Some advice: always look at the dates on reviews on Steam, You Tube or anywhere else. Also, check out all recent updates since those reviews. Most user suggestions and complaints are addressed by developers.