Users of the official RPG Maker forums – a vibrant community hub for the famed game engine – are rushing to save years of valuable discussion and resources following the news of its impending shut-down.
RPG Maker has been used in the development of many noteworthy indie darlings, such as Lisa the Painful, Omori, and To the Moon. Announced in an official post by admin RPGMakerWeb, its forum is being closed on 11th December, 2026, as part of “changes to the community management structure”, and will see a fresh forum opening on a new platform operated by the developers at Gotcha Gotcha Games. As such, the old forum is being sunsetted.
Crucially, however, the announcement notes there are currently no plans for an official archive or backup of the old forums once it is closed. Users are encouraged to personally archive posts, guides, and resources before the closure.
The trouble is, years upon years of valuable development resources are present on these forums, and if they aren’t backed up by members of the community, they’ll vanish forever. That’s a significant loss, especially for newcomers looking to use RPG Maker for their next project.
While providing six months notice provides an opportunity for users to begin the work of saving valuable information from the forums, it’s a gargantuan task. There are hundreds of thousands of messages on the forums, many on specialty topics. Take the Legacy Engine support topic: this contains roughly 45,600 threads and 280,000 messages. All in all there are 1,416,549 messages on these forums, and while many of these won’t be hugely important, a significant number of them are – meaning all will have to be combed through.
So the clock is ticking. Here’s hoping there’s enough time to archive critical information in the coming months. That, or maybe Gotcha Gotcha will draft up its own archival plans in response to user feedback.
But beyond the issue of archiving, the broader mood around the impending forum closure has largely one of sadness fromusers. Some, like user Reversalius, are attempting to organise archival efforts. Others are saying their goodbyes: “Gonna miss you guys,” user Tsukistuffs wrote.
It’s a hard situation all around. On one hand, the desire to move discussion of RPG Maker to a new, more modern platform may very well make sense from Gotcha Gotcha Games. Maybe they could make this next home better, and the six months heads-up is certainly a nice touch. However, it’s the sort of news that’ll draw ire regardless. Especially with a website so established, many people understandably don’t want to move elsewhere.
