Getting Started

Prerequisites

You need an RPG Maker XP project folder — specifically, a directory that contains Game.exe and a Data/ subdirectory with your map and tileset files. The editor reads and writes .rxdata files directly, so no export or conversion step is required.

Installation

Maker Studio has two parts, and you want both:

The editor app — the desktop program (Windows / macOS / Linux) you make maps with.
A game-side plugin (“integration”) — a small Ruby plugin you copy into your game project. It is what makes your game display the Maker Studio content that plain RPG Maker XP doesn’t support (extended layers, shadows, extra autotiles…), and it adds a Maker Studio entry to the game’s Debug menu to launch the editor. The editor itself runs fine without it, but the game will ignore the extended content until the plugin is installed.

Step 1 — Install the editor app

Download the build for your system (these links always point to the latest version):

Platform	Direct download
Windows	`.exe` installer (recommended) · `.msi` (alternative)
macOS	`.dmg` (Apple Silicon)
Linux	`.AppImage` (universal) · `.deb` (Debian/Ubuntu)

Every build (current and previous versions) is also on the Releases page. Once installed, the app keeps itself up to date automatically.

The installers are not code-signed yet, so your OS shows a one-time warning on install:

Windows — run the .exe and when SmartScreen says “Windows protected your PC”, click More info → Run anyway, then follow the installer.
macOS — open the .dmg and drag Maker Studio into Applications. Gatekeeper blocks the first launch: right-click the app and choose Open, or on macOS 15+ go to System Settings → Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway.
Linux — make the AppImage executable (chmod +x Maker.Studio_x86_64.AppImage) and run it. It uses your system’s WebKit: if it doesn’t start, install webkit2gtk-4.1 and gtk3 (Arch) or libwebkit2gtk-4.1-0 and libgtk-3-0 (Debian/Ubuntu). The .deb installs with sudo apt install ./Maker.Studio_amd64.deb. On Linux the AppImage does not self-update — use Gear Lever to manage updates (it can auto-update AppImages from GitHub releases).

Step 2 — Install the game-side plugin

The editor can do this for you. Open your project: when it finds no integration, the dialog shows a Build dropdown with every supported engine. Pick the one that matches your project, press Install, and it downloads the right zip and sets up Plugins/MakerStudio/ itself. Restart the game afterwards. You can reopen that dialog any time from Help → Check Game Integration….

The two paste-in builds — Essentials v17.1 and BES v5 — cannot be installed automatically, because they are a single script rather than a folder. Picking one turns the button into Download; once it finishes, Open Folder takes you to the zip so you can paste the .rb into the Script Editor yourself.

To install by hand instead, download the integration that matches your project:

Your project	Direct download
Pokémon Essentials v21.1 (vanilla)	`PE21.1.Maker.Studio.zip`
Pokémon Essentials v20.1 (vanilla)	`PE20.1.Maker.Studio.zip`
Pokémon Essentials v19.1 (vanilla)	`PE19.1.Maker.Studio.zip`
Pokémon Essentials v17.1 (vanilla)	`PE17.1.Maker.Studio.zip`
La Base de Sky 1.1.x	`LBDS1.1.0.Maker.Studio.zip`
La Base de Sky 1.2.x	`LBDS1.2.0.Maker.Studio.zip`
Pokémon Essentials BES v5	`BES5.Maker.Studio.zip`

Note on v19.1, v17.1 and BES v5: these engines’ older tile renderers mean per-tile passage/priority/terrain overrides on a plain (non-extended) tile don’t affect in-game collision. Extended layers, extra autotiles, and cross-tileset tiles all work normally.

Then:

Unzip the download.
Copy the MakerStudio folder from inside it into your game’s Plugins/ directory, so the final path is <your game>/Plugins/MakerStudio/. Don’t rename the folder — the editor reads project mods, config, and stats from Plugins/MakerStudio/003_Editor/.
BES v5 and Essentials v17.1 only: those engines have no Plugins/ auto-loader, so instead of copying a folder you paste a single merged .rb into the RPG Maker XP Script Editor (in the slot above Main) — follow the README.md inside the zip.

Each zip also ships its own README.md with engine-specific notes, in case anything differs on your setup.

To check it worked: start your game in Debug mode, open the Debug menu (F9), and look for Maker Studio… — from there you can launch the editor directly (if the app isn’t installed yet, that menu shows the download link).

Keeping the plugin up to date

The plugin ships alongside the editor, so a project can end up running an older one than the app — usually after you update the editor and forget to re-copy the folder. Symptoms are subtle: the game renders something differently from the editor, or a fix you read about in the changelog doesn’t apply in-game.

The editor checks for you. When you open a project whose Plugins/MakerStudio is older than the app, it offers three choices:

Update Now — downloads the matching integration and replaces the plugin files for you. Your 003_Editor/ folder (project mods, config, stats, and the portable editor if you keep one there) is left untouched. Restart the game afterwards.
Download Manually — opens the release page so you can copy the folder in yourself.
Later — dismisses it for this project until the next editor update.

You can run the check any time from Help → Check Game Integration…, which also tells you which build the project has (PE21.1, LBDS1.2.0, …) and its version next to the newest one available.

BES v5 and v17.1 projects are covered too. Those builds are one pasted script rather than a folder, so they carry their version as a comment in the script itself. The editor finds it in Data/Scripts/ or Scripts.rxdata and, on Update Now, replaces that single script in place — no other script is touched, and the script bank is backed up first.

If the editor finds no integration at all, it says so once per project and offers to install one (see Step 2) — the editor works fine without one, but your game will ignore extended layers, shadows, extra autotiles and per-tile effects.

One caveat for existing projects: integrations installed before this check existed carry no version marker. A folder plugin is still recognised — the editor works out which build it is from the plugin’s own files and shows it as (detected) — but a pasted script reads as “not installed” until you paste the current one over it once.

Launching

Run the editor executable. On first launch you will see a welcome screen prompting you to select a game folder. Click Browse and navigate to your RPG Maker XP project root (the folder containing Game.exe).

The editor remembers your last-opened project, so subsequent launches go straight to the map tree.

Opening a Map

The Map Tree panel on the left shows every map in your project, organized in the same hierarchy you set up in RPG Maker XP. Double-click any map to open it in a new editor tab. Maps with a dot indicator next to their name have unsaved changes.

When you open a project, a “Loading project…” card appears in the map editor area listing each load step (maps, tilesets, system data, opening the first map, and tileset graphics) with a progress count. The rest of the layout stays visible around it, and the card disappears once everything — including all tileset graphics — has loaded, leaving the first map ready to edit.

Moving around the canvas is straightforward:

Pan: Hold Space and drag, or middle-click and drag, or Shift and drag.
Zoom: Ctrl + scroll wheel, or use the + / - buttons in the toolbar. Zoom ranges from 5% to 400% — the low end lets you see a large map in full at once.
Status Bar: Shows your cursor coordinates (X, Y) along the bottom edge of the window.

Saving

Press Ctrl+S to save the current map. Changes are written directly to the corresponding .rxdata file. Every save first backs up the previous file into Data/map-backups/ (the newest 10 backups per file are kept), so you can always revert if something goes wrong, and writes are crash-safe — a crash or power loss mid-save can never leave a half-written file. Unsaved work is also autosaved in the background every few minutes; see Map Management → Autosave and Crash Recovery.

Building from Source

If you prefer to build the editor yourself:

npx tauri build              # Production build
npm run tauri:dev            # Dev mode with hot reload