It’s time to put up or shut up. For all those wannabe game designers, particularly those with a passion for role-playing games and the PlayStation 2 console system, making your own adventure just got a whole lot easier.

When BioWare unleashed the Aurora Toolset, it was discovered that there were a lot of people who liked to toy with creating their own levels. Agetec was on that path as well, delivering the original RPG Maker in September 2000 (on the original PlayStation), and building on that title with the launch of RPG Maker 2 in 2003 for the PlayStation 2 console. In September, RPG Maker 3 will ship to retail, and the brain trust at Agetec and developer EnterBrain, the title promises to give players easier access to the creation process.

To understand how RPG Maker 3 works, one has to understand that each created adventure is broken down into four general parts, with many sub-menus from there. There is The World, Characters & Items, Story & Rules and Data Management. The first three are sort of self-explanatory, but the latter is what enables you to go back at any juncture in the creation process to edit pre-loaded elements. Don’t like the castle you chose for The World of your adventure, go into Data Management and change aspects of it.

Some of the choices are finite – for example, there are only three general castle types, but when given the context of the other options, there is quite a palette of possibilities.

What really marks RPG Maker 3 from its predecessors is the ease of use. Even without the benefit of a manual, this program seemed easy to use, with almost all the information needed laid out on the screen.

Creating dungeons is as simple as drawing a line, which the game then changes into a hallway. Creating a level is also so easy that even younger players should have no problems. You go into the edit mode and are presented with a floor plan of your level. Using the cursor, you can plant objects anywhere in the level, and tie them to treasure and/or events. However, you must remember that in order to connect levels, you need portals of some sort, meaning doors and stairs.

If, by now, you are scratching your head and having trouble trying to figure out where you would begin, fear not – RPG Maker 3 comes with a tutorial – of sorts, a pre-built game called Dear Brave Heart. You can play the title, as well as go in and edit aspects of it. It shows what can be created with this program.

Of course there are drawbacks to this program. For those working with 8-meg memory cards, the game data will eat up more than a quarter of the space on a fresh one, so be prepared to have a dedicated memory card. RPG Maker 3 is also time-consuming. Before you get to the point of actually playing your adventure, be prepared to spend a lot of hours creating the rules, characters and environments. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but one should be prepared for the considerable time investment. The more meticulous you are, and the more detail you wish to put into the game, the more time you will have to invest.

Will players be able to create a full-on adventure the likes of a Neverwinter Nights? With a lot of time and patience, you can come close. But it will feel segmented.

Graphically, this game may not compare to the likes of a God of War, but for a program of this nature, what you can create is very nice. The game’s 3D graphics engine gives the animations a very good look, though some movements are a little stiff, and there are so many weapons, spells and character types, that you should have little problem in creating a level or a game that is tailored to your difficulty standard. The environments may be slightly antiquated, and the sound can become redundant, but overall this is an entertaining experience.

It may be wise to have a USB keyboard on hand when you create your story, otherwise you will be doing a lot of controller typing.

With its streamlined controls, solid graphical elements and deep creation process, RPG Maker 3 is a good design tool that will give those interested in videogame design the basics of what it takes to create a full adventure. It is also the chance for those who think that they could build a better game than what is currently available the chance to prove it.

Gameplay: 8.0
This is a program that takes time to put together a decent adventure, but the way the program is designed, it is a task that is easy to do. Be prepared for lots of saves, though.

Graphics: 7.4
The graphics available here are serviceable, but do not expect to be wow’ed by them. They are nicely done, but there are two types – the characters and environments. The characters look very good; the environments are a bit antiquated by comparison.

Sound: 7.0
The sounds here are solid, but while you are building your adventure, it is easy enough to mute them least they become very, very redundant and annoying.

Difficulty: Medium
The program itself is simple to use; the adventures can be challenging. The only real problem here, though, is that if you create it and play, you know what to expect and that takes some of the thrills and chills out of the game.

Concept: 7.7
Easy to use and that is the true strength of this program. Even without a manual, you will be able to guess what is going on and how your adventure is shaping up.

Overall: 7.8
Considering the extent to which one can create an interactive adventure on the PlayStation 2 console system, RPG Maker 3 is a stalwart adventure that does a fine job of not only putting creation tools in the hands of gamers, but making them easy to use.