Kan Gao on Why He Uses RPG Maker

Kan Gao is the creator of the successful indie To the Moon series. I am not personally a fan of To the Moon. I tried the first entry and it just was not working for me, so I never finished. But despite not being a fan of the series, I read with some interest a recent Automation West interview with Mr. Gao. Automation West asked Mr. Gao why he chose to make To the Moon in RPG Maker instead of a different tool or engine. Mr. Gao replied:

It was the tool with the least friction capable of making what I needed to make. I think an important rule for me is to choose not the most elaborate, fancy or feature-heavy tool, but rather the simplest one that’s capable of doing what I need for the project. Friction is the enemy of making multi-media projects, and I tend to become my own obstacle when choosing a needlessly complex tool for the job.

Kan Gao

Well put. Now that I am a totally professional visual novel developer, I continue to think about which tools to use for new projects. I made my most recent visual novel in ONScripter-EN, which I suppose has its roots in the same era as Mr. Gao’s tool of choice, RPG Maker XP. None of this is to say that old engines (or old school engines) are necessarily better than the new. but tools are a means to an end. The best tool is the one that efficiently helps one reach the end goal of, as Mr. Gao puts it, making “interactive experiences that someone might remember one day.”

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