RPG Maker, known in Japan as RPG Tsukuru, is the name of an expansive series of programs for the development of role-playing games (RPGs), first created by the Japanese group ASCII, then succeeded by Enterbrain. The Japanese name, Tsukuru, is a pun mixing the Japanese word tsukuru , which means "make" or "create", with tsuru, the Japanese transcription of the English word "tool". The RPG Maker series has been released primarily in Japan, with later versions also released in China, Taiwan, South Korea, and North America.