Best freeware 2D RPG engine?

[Jorsoft]

I've made several amateur RPG games in the past and I'm gaining a lot of interest in making a serious attempt at doing one again. I used to use the DCGAMES engine but that's now extremely dated and very buggy no matter which release. I want something like Final Fantasy VI but I would also be open to something more isometric, a la Baldur's Gate. I have little programming experience but I'm sure I could learn Javascript or something else simple without much trouble. It's important it be easy to use since I'm not much of a programmer, though. Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[Preacher]

My friend was an instructor at a summer camp for a program just like this , i'll ask him when he wakes up for you.

 

[baronvongogo]

Here is a list of game engines and some of them are open source:
List of game engines - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

If you want to maybe learn programming but nothing too advanced I`d look at blitzbasic,darkbasic and purebasic all of which are specialised for 2d/3d game programming.

There are other options like gamemaker and RPGmaker but they are probably not as advanced as you would like.

 

[Jorsoft]

I remember looking at Dark Basic before, that was a while back, though. I don't mind paying a few bucks, either, so I probably shouldn't have said freeware. I'll check out a few of these and see if any look enticing.

 

[baronvongogo]

I made a basic 2d shooter in darkbasic as a project had 3 levels mutiple enemys powerups etc not a bad piece of software.

Although From what iv seen of blitzbasic it looks like an easier tool to use also has a lot more code samples and tutorials.

Purebasic last time I checked was lacking the tutorials and resources but is aimed mainly at pure 2d gaming.

 

[Jorsoft]

Decided I'm gonna check out RPG Maker XP. Not quite as powerful and I was hoping for but it's definitely easy to use and there's quite a few resources for it. We'll see how it goes.

 

[Kharn]

Jorsoft check out the FIFE engen its isometric, free an open source MVbaricuda has a thread in the programming area (stickied) an is also on my MSN list go take a look there.

 

[Gunraidan]

Sphere.

It's Java though.

 

[Jorsoft]

Jorsoft check out the FIFE engen its isometric, free an open source MVbaricuda has a thread in the programming area (stickied) an is also on my MSN list go take a look there.

That looks kinda cool, screenies remind me of Tropico and JA2. Have to look into that one some more.