Game creating heaven
If you don't fancy playing a game for a change but instead want to turn your head to actually making it, there are a number of decent packages on the market, such as Virtual Reality Studio 2.0. RPG Maker XP falls into this bracket and if you're looking to create a Zelda-style RPG, then the options don't get much better than this. It's an easy to use package that is actually surprisingly powerful once you start tinkering under the hood but even if you don't there's a lot to amuse yourself with here. Pretty much every element you could imagine is here and it's all very intuitive to use. You can start by creating maps with the easy drag and drop interface, with a great number of tiles of varying styles, from exterior to interior, all included here. You've also got a large number of character sprites to choose from and you can set all the stats and classes in the equally straightforward database. The meat of your game will come through what are termed “events†which allow you to create actions such as walking through doors or more complex puzzles. As far as game creation packages go, this has to be one of the best on the market, although it has been superseded by later RPG Maker products. It is rather limited in terms of the type of game you can make with it (although a little imagination can go a long way) but if it's RPGs you want to make, there's no denying this is top notch stuff. There's a decent amount of content already included but you can also get extra graphics and audio packs so if you want to go down the game designing route, this is an excellent choice.
