A few years ago, a Kickstarter project known as The New 8-bit Heroes was successfully funded and allowed one Joe Grenato and his colleagues to create an NES game, now known as Mystic Searches, that he's been wanting to design from his childhood, and a documentary detailing the process of designing a brand new game for retro hardware. In the process, they accidentally created a program that can easily make NES games without needing to know a single line of code. Presenting the NESmaker, previously known as the Mystic Searches S.T.A.G.E.
Now while the NESmaker is technically already finished, it is only optimized to create adventure games much like what Mystic Searches is. So what Joe wants to do is refine it and add modules that will allow for more genres that can be designed with little to no effort, and have a built-in music making tool so one wouldn't have to rely on external programs like Famitracker. He answers many questions regarding the NESmaker in the video below.
The project only needs $32,000USD for the minimum goal, but if this program is going to be at its best, it needs a grand total of $256,000USD for all modules, the music maker, the Troll Burner demo, and the memory mapper to be developed for it. If you wish, you can pledge any amount you wish here. This software looks quite promising and I honestly would be extremely disappointed if it couldn't reach all of its stretch goals. Please pledge as much as you feel comfortable with, but until then, I'll be seeing you.
DISCLAIMER:
I have not been paid for this article, but I have pledged some of my own money to the original Kickstarter.