Which one would you suggest me to start with?
RPG Maker VX Ace is so easy, it's not even a software in my opinion. More of a sandbox "make your own" game.
You can add and edit scripts, but you can also make a basic RPG/adventure game with literally nothing else than what's included within RPG Maker already. In other words, if you actually do really want to learn to make games... maybe not your best option. If, on the other hand, you want to try to make a game without the knowledge and skill, then this is perfect for you. Both RPG Maker and Ren'Py are fantastic "fake dev software" as I like to call them. They can make amazing things but also very simple things without much effort.
As a side note and in case you weren't absolutely sure, Game Character Hub is actually not a game making software, it's a sprite creator, typically for RPG Maker games (it uses the exact same sprite style and function, as well as dimensions).
PS: Didn't vote because I've only ever used RPG Maker.
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It does seems to be easy to use, I opened it once and took a look, but I'm more interested in something that forces me to learn at least a bit so I can decide if I want to put the effort on it or give up (I wanna know myself). There's also the fact that I have little experience even playing RPGs so I just stared at it with a complete lack of ideas.
I knew that character hub was some sort of RPG Maker companion program so I put it in the "related" list.
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Personally, I don't like using RPG Maker for making RPG games - the default turn-based combat system turn me off, and it's too much work as well as skills/knowledge required to completely rework it. Instead, I really like to use it to make almost visual novel-like adventure games where there is no combat, just a pretty linear but interesting story to play through. Think "To The Moon".
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From that list the only thing I can recommend is Game Maker Studio and RPG Maker. I've used both (older versions back when it was RPG Maker XP and Game Maker 7 or something like that) and they were great then, I imagine they're better now. But both have their limitations. I highly suggest checking out Godot, Unity or Unreal Engine all 3 of them are free and have active communities as far as I know. Out of the 3 I guess unity would be the easiest to get into thanks to the amount of tutorial collected over the years.
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With RPG Maker, could you potentially make a game with only included assets and swap them for custom ones at the end of the programming process? (I hope that makes sense.)
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Yes, definitely. As long as you use the same positioning on your tileset, you can add new tilesets and switch between them on each map as you see fit.
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Godot is pretty good (and 100% free)
https://godotengine.org/
http://store.steampowered.com/app/404790/Godot_Engine/
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This, if you're really serious about learning. Blender is a free 3D modeling software which you should probably add to your list(free)
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Construct 2 or Construct 3
GameSalad
I think there are several (or a lot) tutorials for both
Can be codeless (no complicated specific programming language knowledge needed)
Pretty quick and easy, drag and drop
Free
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Are you confusing "try for free" with "free"? None of these are free if the game is meant to be published..
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I started if Construct 2, at least it's a good starting step if you wanna move to another engine later.
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Try Godot Engine. https://godotengine.org/features
Free open source game engine in competition with Unity3D.
Major release 3.0 coming end of this month. (it will be simultaneously released on Steam as well).
Current Godot 3.0 RC1 (release candidate) is available for testing.
Hint: this increasingly popular project wouldn't even exist without https://twitter.com/reduzio from your country ;-)
Also, check this topic https://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/gXM5E/free-gamedev-material :-)
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I only ever use Unity for my work, but this is what I hear about other engines:
GameMaker Studio is good for 2D and tends to be used most for platformers and SHMUPS. I hope you already own the export options for it or they'll charge an arm and a leg. Godot 3.0 is shaping up to be good, but the awful 'finished' projects made on previous versions the engine and the sparse documentation are a bit of a turn-off.
For 3D, Unity and Unreal are the big players. I prefer Unity since it's good for rapid-prototyping, but there's so much wrong with the engine under the hood that it isn't even funny. It has a LOT of documentation, tutorials, and forum posts though. Unreal is meant more for professional developers since it's designed with AAA games in mind. It has C++, so you may prefer it (but traditional coding is de-prioritized in favor of visual coding through Blueprints).
Of the things you listed, Spriter Pro is the only one I regularly hear good things about.
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Yeah I'll probably try doing a 2D platformer since that's my favorite genre, the only thing in 3D that I'd like to try making someday is a walking-sim (I like them, don't judge me :P).
I have 2 export DLCs (ubuntu and OS X) and a "Profesional" DLC, is that good enough for starting or should I hunt down something else? I guess there should still be some bundle leftovers going around in steamtrades or some other place.
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If that's all the functionality you want, then you're golden. I think they occasionally do sales on the export modules anyway, so you can just pick up the ones you want when that comes around.
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Good to know :D Thanks for the help.
As soon as I have enough knowledge to put together something functional my plan is to experiment a bit with making a small metroidvania, I have a few doubts about gameplay and lives that I want to try, I've been thinking about it for months and making it myself seems more straight forward than playing a bunch of games to find out if it works or not.
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...so I would appreciate some suggestions. (I runned out of space on the title)
I have no previous expericience making games and my experience on programing is limited and rusty (I know some C), but I wouldn't be afraid of learning some scripting if necesary. The thing is that I want something ideal for a noob and I'd like to use one of the things I already own. Good tutorials and easy of use are priorities.
Besides those on the poll I also have this related software on steam (I've kinda been hoarding them for when I finally get around to this):
I don't know if any of these is actually good for something.
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