So.

Those of you in my Discord and who follow my weekly dev-blogs may have noticed I basically haven't touched Axial in like a week. We're going to get to that, but I while I'm at it, I think we need to talk about the community as a whole.

So, for the uninitiated, I would consider myself to be a pretty prominent member of the RPG Maker Community. I'm a moderator in the RPG Beta Tester Discord server, which is filled primarily with RPG Maker users, and I try to support the community to the best of my ability by joining fellow dev Discord servers and watching streams, as well as testing whatever games I can in the Beta Tester server. That said, it's also important for me to remind myself that the corner of the community I personally associate with is a fraction of the overall RPG Maker Community as a whole. I'm really only active in one dedicated "community" server. I occasionally lurk in the forums, and I'm a member of the Driftwood Gaming server and Studio Blue and even RPG Maker Cola, but despite being a member of these servers, Beta Testers was the only place where I really felt at home.

And I think that's okay! The Beta Tester server appeals to my personal needs in a community, while those other servers appeal to the needs of other people. I think even if I'm only active in one place, that doesn't mean that I'm not a big part of the community or that it's not my place to talk about the goings-on lately. I've played dozens of people's games at this point, a few more than a dozen people have played my own game, and I think I've generally done a pretty okay job keeping the server happy as one of its representatives.

So, with that said, there's a lot of stuff I think I need to go over.

Let's start with the Harold Jam. This is the biggest reason that I've been somewhat inactive as of late. So, basically, AkraticHuman is hosting the annual Harold Jam this month, and HOLY COW guys. So, I am really not that huge on the whole Harold thing, I would say for the most part I kinda play along as a formality and as a part of server culture. With that said, I have never been this excited for a Harold Jam before.

So, last year, I would say I generally did my part and participated a good deal in the jam even as someone who didn't directly enter. I played pretty much every game in there that didn't require I jump through hoops to play (Harold In The counts as one that I had to jump through hoops to play, because turns out that game is basically just a collection of jumping through hoops!) and I made the sprites for DJ's Stuck in the Past entry, while also trying my best to sort of serve as a mentor for him while he learned a new engine. Frankly, I would almost consider that part of things to be one of my better contributions to the community: DJ's become a mainstay in the community now and he's doing his best on a much larger project. Even with all that said, though, the Harold Jam just wasn't really my cup of tea last year. Some stand out entries and impressive projects, but from the premise alone there wasn't a ton that blew me out of the water.

That already appears to have changed this year. I already committed to submitting my own entry, which I ended up getting so excited for that I put my heart and soul into this thing and got it finished in like 4 days. DJ has come into his own skin now, and is serving effectively as a rival to me, being one of the only other devs that can really threaten my chances at a "Best Soundtrack" award. Nate is making one of the most visually stunning projects I've seen in a long while, to the point that I'm straight up jealous of how that game is looking so far, all while utilizing characters from a variety of games from the community that lets us enjoy this huge ambitious crossover, ELV has been making several entries at once that he's pumping out at a frequent rate, and that's just the stuff that people have been sharing! I can't even imagine what sort of insane machinations are going on behind the scenes... OH AND DID I MENTION FREAKIN' ARCHEIA PLANS ON ENTERING? YES. THAT ARCHEIA. The one time I actually decide to participate in the Harold Jam, the one time I end up really loving the game I'm working on, and these guys just had to come in and give me a run for my money!

The Harold Jam is the main thing that was occupying my time while I was gone, but I also took it as an opportunity to play some games in the Beta Server and catch up on what the community has been working on, and let me just say that this is one of the best batch of submissions I have ever seen during my time in this server. Obviously, we've got both Axial Disc 1 Finest Remix and Axial Disc 2 in there, my favourite indie RPGs that I am totally not biased towards, but even ignoring those, there are some amazing titles to play like Arthurian Romance Romance, Ultionem, Our Dying World, President Chainsaw, and even Paradise Delta, a title I loved so much that I wrote an entire five page essay about it. Needless to say, this is one of the best times to be a member of this server, because there is so gosh darn much to play and enjoy, and that's not even counting the server darlings like Trailblazer and Unwonted Hero that will surely be making a comeback in due time! Someone asked me once if the RPG Maker Community is dead. Honestly, while it might not be as mainstream as it was during the RPG Maker Horror craze of the early 10's, in terms of quality and dedication, I don't think this community has ever been as strong as it is right now.

And that doesn't even scratch the surface of our discussions

Because by golly, the kinds of game design chats we have on a near daily basis are INSANE. I used to spend a lot of time consuming all of the game design content I could on Youtube. I've seen the entire Dan Floyd era of Extra Credits several times, I follow all the greats like Architect of Games and Psych of Play, and you bet your ass I'm basically perpetually listening to a several hour video essay about how a game I've never played is a crowning achievement in game design.

But lately, I haven't been relying on them as much for my game design analysis, all thanks to the people in the community. You've got Tron, my nemesis from the mirror world who has come to defeat me by having completely opposite tastes from my own. Jeff is a bit of a prodigal revered dev who is always so eager to give his thoughts and advice to others, and the fact that he and I disagree on so many topics has lead to some extremely engaging debates to the point that I consider him to be a bit of a rival. Human feels like a proper Jean Luc Picard, this infallible paragon of logic who inspires everyone to be better just by leading by example (if he's picard then i call dibs on geordi hes my fav), and we have people of so many walks of life who, while united by the same love for RPGs, come from so many perspectives and draw that love from so many places that it is truly one of the best places to expand your horizons on game design. 

Jeff said in an interview that "if one of us had a Youtube channel or a podcast where we would just talk about our ideas, I don't think we would go as in-depth as that debate gets," which sums up my feelings perfectly. Because this community has cultivated such a scholarly "intellectual debate" atmosphere, we challenge our own biases and grow to not only understand other people's perspectives, but we rise up to make our own perspectives stronger. When you go unchallenged, you're never required to strengthen your position, but when someone disagrees with you, often you have no choice but to examine your stance and either choose to change your mind, or prove that your stance is worth fighting for.

So yeah, these are the things I love about this community.

I've stuck around for a reason. It's really hard to get your foot in the door of a community, especially one with so much history like this one, so the fact that I'm able to come in here for only a couple years and already feel like I'm right at home with the people is nothing to scoff at. The RPG Maker Community is such a wonderful group of people, and I'm so happy to be a part of it. I know the punchline of this whole post was that this was going to be some sort of huge community callout, but really I just genuinely appreciate these guys and the culture of constructive feedback and improvement we've cultivated.

I've just about finished my Harold Jam entry now, so anticipate more Axial-focused updates moving forward! Don't forget to join our Discord Server for more Axial content!