Picking an Engine

I'm currently in the process of experimenting with engines that seem suitable for the sort of RPG/social sim I'm itching to build.

My options, as a shortlist, are:

  1. RPG Maker - pricey, a bit dated, but probably the most beginner-friendly.
  2. Godot - free, open-source, with a great community. However, quite a lot more of a learning curve (particularly with regards to coding).
  3. GameMaker Studio - pricey when you want to actually develop commercially, but free to mess around with, very mature, quite frequently updated and apparently quite a bit easier for non-programmers when compared to Godot.

I'm going to update this post (or make sub-posts) to document my experiences with each engine as I try to follow tutorials, poke around and build simple games.

The Early Days - Experimenting With Pico-8