Game Dev Unlimited is a game development website and community based around small-scale indie game makers. Established in 2006, Game Dev Unlimited started out as a website about RPG Maker XP. Since the release of RPG Maker XP's successors the website has expanded beyond a one-engine website and today is a website that supports all engines and all indie game development.

Game Dev Unlimited is custom built for game developers. Nearly everything apart from the forums was created by the administrator, with the help of some 3rd party components of course (see the "Special Thanks" in the sidebar). The site as it stands today started being developed in early 2011 and in mid-2012 the site switched to the current system. The current system is a unique system that integrates the forum and member systems seamlessly into one coherent website.

Our ultimate purpose is to help people make games, promote indie game development and provide a friendly, useful and encouraging feedback platform.

The Beginning

Game Dev Unlimited was started on the 7th May 2006 on a free forum hosting website called invisionfree.com. Back then it was known as RPGXP Unlimited. The forum didn't really enjoy much success, but enough to make the decision to move to a proper forum. The old topics, posts and members from this forum weren't carried over to the new forum which we moved to on 4th October 2006. The old forum can be seen at http://z3.invisionfree.com/RPGXP_Unl...p?act=idx

The boom period

After finding a stable host and using our domain name, RMXP Unlimited started to gain momentum with consistent uptime. The community started to grow on the back of a solid staff team. The community took pride in a reputation for "friendly" game makers in comparison to similar communities.

RMXP Unlimited looked like this before changing to Game Dev Unlimited:

RMXP Unlimited to Game Dev Unlimited

Planning on GDU started in December 2010. It took until 10th September 2012 (the day of writing this article) for GDU to go live.

Just as RMXP Unlimited was becoming increasingly popular, Enterbrain released RPG Maker VX. Not only did this make our domain misleading to new content (rmxpunlimited.net), the site really struggled to get into RMVX with only several active members using the program.

Another catalyst for the creation of GDU was the functionality of RMXPU. It was a combination of website and forum software with a whole range of 3rd party modifications plugged in. The system was very messy and amateur. Content would be scattered over the site everywhere and sections of the site would become obsolete after upgrades and break down. Consistency was impossible.

It was decided the solution to the quickly depreciating site was to take the database and create a new system. Learning from the mistakes of the past, integration of the website's design was very important, but also very difficult to achieve while maintaining all the website data.

The planning of GDU started in December 2010. Shortly after the project went quiet for a few months and it wasn't until the 2nd half of 2011 that tangible progress was made. The project was able to progress after the design and member systems between GDU and its forum were developed and working.

Before going live GDU went through many design overhauls. Here's a few:


GDU went live at 1:53AM September 11th 2012 (2012-09-11T01:53:12+00:00)

The Death of Game Dev Unlimited, start of RMU

The start of 2013 was a rough one for the site. Coming off the back of 2 weeks of downtime the forums were struggling for activity. That may have been the end of the site had it not been for a few dedicated members who wanted to help and convince the owner not to give up. With a full year left on the domain, the decision was made to ditch the GDU concept: a site for all game makers. Instead the site would be renamed to Game Dev Unlimited, a website specialising in RPG Maker game development. The GDU design (seen above) was completely scrapped and the navigation and forums were revamped. And this was the birth of RMU.