Rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated.

Rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated. RPG Maker forums', on the other hand...

I've been away from RPG Maker for about 10 years or so, and yeah, forums in general have lost the battle against Discord, but it's still quite a shock. I remember, back then, it was common to see hundreds of members online.

The movement and content that the forums used to see daily hasn't moved to Discord, unfortunately, and most communities seem to have devolved into a circle jerk of the same few terminally online people chatting about things that have nothing to do with making games or game development content.

Yet here we are, with the same core problems in both the software and the community that were present more than a decade ago, in a much different game development landscape, while the world is turning into a sci-fi dystopia.

And the slop. Oh, the slop.

Some people said that RPG Maker is dying, that Gotcha Gotcha Games is likely to go bankrupt, and that we're witnessing the end of the software that was so dear to us.

The AI crap really did fill some RPG Maker plugin marketplaces, but that was an easier prediction to make.

Even if there are no new releases of RPG Maker, the core engine could be updated and maintained by the community, so maybe that "the end is coming" statement is a bit too pessimistic, but it does reflect what many long-time members of the scene feel.

This video was uploaded 9 years ago and it's still representative of what many think:

Many long-time users want to see changes, improvements, and new features. Others simply see the software as a hobby and aren't looking for anything more than a toy.

These are two forces pulling from opposite directions.

People who want RPG Maker to be more professional are okay with paying professional tool prices for the main program and plugins. The hobbyists wait until RPG Maker is on sale for 10 bucks, and rarely pay more than 5 bucks for a plugin. Do you see how these are opposite target audiences impossible to fully satisfy with the same software?

Professional tools cost more than hobbyist tools. Professional plugins cost more than hobbyist plugins.

RPG Maker continues to sit in the middle, trying to please both groups.

But hey, at least we're likely to get some kind of UI editor in the next version.

Or maybe an official UI editor plugin.