JPDE2 Needs A New Engine (Patreon)

[This is the same conversation that happened on the Community Discord but I thought I'd post on here as well for full transparency and posterity.]

Okay guys, serious talk time. This concerns JPDE2.

I need your feedback because there's already been too much of your money and time sunk into this hole and I've hit another wall at the bottom.

So, you may remember how Lightboom moved to Russia. Due to his new job and the time investment it requires, he is no longer able to work on the game. This is, of course, not a problem. He's doing better things, he got a job in the industry he loves and I wish him the best of luck in everything.

What I didn't foresee was, similarly to when I tried to find a 3D artist for the character models, just how difficult it would be to find a replacement. Both in terms of raw skill and willingness, I had hit the motherload with him. It's not just a matter of money, there's simply a lack of people wanting to work on an Unity RWBY Fan game.

So, the alternatives presented were: 1) learning to code myself; 2) find an engine that doesn't require that much coding.

Try at Number 1: tried it, it's sadly a time sink investment that would take months if not years to reach a serviceable level and until then, what happens with JPDE2? To reach the level of confidence I have with Ren'py right now it took me 4 years and I still don't have full mastery of Python.

Try at Number 2: this is where it gets interesting... I've looked for alternatives and there's one that I really liked, called Smile Game Builder. It's pretty much a 3D version of RPG maker, which allows you to make games like Bravely Default (hence those enigmatic song posts in the JPDE2 Updates Channel).

Problem is that SGB is, I've discovered, pretty much abandonware at this point. They're going to stop support for Unity porting within the next year and updates to the software have already slowed down to a crawl despite the software having some pretty dumb limitations, like not being able to have more than 6 elements and 4 pre-coded status effects, for example.

So, with that also gone, I only see one last way to make the game I want JPDE2 to be. Not just a visual novel, but a complete JRPG because the story of JPDE2 can't be told in a pure visual novel. Only one engine, one software which I already have, has an enormous community of modders behind it and constant support...

So. Thoughts?

- Meinos Kaen