Producer Letter #19
ACTION GAME MAKER's First Anniversary and Future Updates
Hello everyone, Morino here again, and as many you know by now, I am the producer of ACTION GAME MAKER.
Thanks to the incredible support of our community, ACTION GAME MAKER officially celebrates its first anniversary, which is today, June 17, 2026!
First of all, I would like to take this opportunity to express my heartfelt gratitude to everyone in the community.
Over the past year, there have been bugs, difficult to use features, and other frictions and inconveniences. However, thanks to your reports and feedback, ACTION GAME MAKER has improved tremendously! Our official Discord server and community hub, the RPG MAKER GUILD, have also become valuable knowledge bases thanks to your contributions. Game development is now significantly easier compared to the early days after release thanks to everyone’s efforts!
As we work toward our second and third anniversaries, we will continue doing our best to improve the engine. We hope you will continue to show us your support as we work to make our tools even better to use.
In this 19th Producer Letter, I would like to focus on our development roadmap and discuss the following topics:
Version 1.3.0, which released today
Development plans for version 1.4.0
Our major development direction towards version 2.0: "Usability"
There are no major changes to the plans for version 1.4.0 compared to what was announced in Producer Letter #18. However, our direction for version 2.0 represents a major shift in our policy, so I would like to explain the reasoning behind it in detail.
About Version 1.3.0
To have a bit of a surprise for our first anniversary, we decided to release version 1.3.0 without previously discussing its headline features in a Producer Letter. So let me take a moment to introduce the two major additions: Custom Action Plugins and 3D Backgrounds.
Custom Action Plugins
The Custom Action Plugin feature allows users to create original Conditions and Actions using GDScript.
Last year, we introduced a feature that allowed GDScript methods to be used as Conditions and Actions. However, that system required users to attach scripts to child nodes and write code directly there, making it feel very much like a feature intended for advanced users.
With the new system, users can simply place a plugin file somewhere within the project, and it will automatically appear in the Conditions and Actions lists, where it can be used almost exactly like the built-in functions.
This functionality was inspired by the plugin ecosystem used by the RPG Maker series. Our goal is to make it easy for users to share scripts and for beginners to use them without needing extensive programming knowledge.
Sample scripts and creation guides will be published on RPG MAKER GUILD. Additionally, the existing Module Sharing Board on GUILD has been renamed to the Module & Plugin Sharing Board.
We hope you'll take advantage of this new feature and share your creations with the community!
3D Backgrounds
Another highly requested feature from our users has finally arrived: support for 3D backgrounds!
Simply add a BackgroundLayer3D node, load a 3D model in the glTF format, and configure the 3D camera position to easily add 3D backgrounds to your projects.
Importantly, the 3D background camera (BackgroundCamera3D) automatically tracks the position of the active scene camera, allowing parallax scrolling effects to work naturally with minimal setup.
However, it's also important to note that the 3D space is strictly a background layer and exists separately from the 2D gameplay space. As a result, scenarios such as a giant 3D boss fighting 2D characters are not possible using this feature.
Even if you're not interested in 3D development, we've also included a new Shaders & HDR Sample Project that demonstrates how to create more modern and visually impressive effects using our current 2D features!
Whether you're working in 2D or 3D, we hope you'll enjoy the powerful visual capabilities that Godot Engine provides.
Roadmap for Version 1.4.0 and Beyond
Next, I'd like to discuss our future update plans in more detail.
Among the items mentioned in the previous Producer Letter, I'd like to elaborate on two topics:
Performance Improvements during Object Generation
We have received reports that generating objects can become slow, particularly when those objects contain large/complex Visual Scripts.
We now have a clear path toward resolving this issue and have begun implementing a substantial fix.
The root cause is that Visual Script resources were being copied whenever an object was instantiated. The performance cost of this process turned out to be significantly higher than originally anticipated.
Because the solution requires fundamental changes to how Visual Scripts operate internally, implementation will take some time. We currently expect this improvement to arrive later this summer.
Update to Godot 4.6
As mentioned previously, ACTION GAME MAKER will be upgraded from Godot 4.4 to Godot 4.6.3.
This update includes many bug fixes and improvements, but from a 2D development perspective, two major changes stand out.
1. Node UID Support
What does this mean in practice?
Actions that reference nodes, such as Change Property, will continue to function correctly even if you rename nodes or change their order in the scene tree.
This is essentially the node equivalent of Scene UIDs, which were introduced during our upgrade to Godot 4.4.
2. Updated User Interface
The editor UI itself will be updated.
While the overall layout remains familiar, several usability issues will be addressed. For example, the Inspector will no longer become increasingly cramped and difficult to navigate as more sections are expanded.
Overall, the interface will be easier to read and more comfortable to use.
These improvements are highly beneficial, but as noted above, every action that references nodes—including features such as Change Property—must be updated to work with the new Node UID system.
As a result, this upgrade will require considerable work, and we currently expect it to be released this autumn.
Towards Version 2.0: Usability
Now I'd like to discuss something entirely new.
At the beginning of this letter, I mentioned that our direction is changing slightly. This is what I was referring to.
In our early Producer Letters, we stated that we would not modify Godot's user interface. However, as we move toward Version 2.0, we have decided to pursue deep UX improvements that will include changes to the UI itself.
There are several reasons for this decision.
First, more users than expected found Godot's interface difficult to understand.
Second, even users who successfully learned the interface often found certain aspects of ACTION GAME MAKER inconvenient despite the level of functionality available.
So after a year of stability improvements, we now have the resources necessary to focus on UI and UX enhancements.
From an engineers perspective, Godot's UI is extremely logical.
Everything is organized according to clear technical structures. Properties are categorized consistently, and all available settings are exposed through the Inspector.
However, that same structure can feel unintuitive and inefficient from a non-engineers perspective.
Consider the process of creating a tileset:
Add a TileMapLayer node in the upper-left panel.
Configure tile size and collision settings in the right-side Inspector.
Import tile graphics using the lower-left and lower-center panels.
Switch tabs in the lower-center panel to begin placing tiles.
To an engineer, this workflow makes perfect sense: create a node, define its data structure, configure it, and assign resources.
But from the perspective of a typical creator, it may seem unnecessarily complicated. Why should creating a single tileset require interactions across four different editor panels and four separate steps?
Over the past year, we've come to appreciate that one of the strengths of the RPG Maker products was their ability to hide this kind of engineering complexity and present workflows in a straightforward, approachable manner.
This is our declaration that we are now fully committed to improving the UI and UX experience.
We'll discuss specific plans and examples in the next Producer Letter. However, I'd like to address some concerns that users may already have.
The Challenges of Modifying Godot's UI
1. Some Features May Become Less Accessible
Making the interface simpler requires making decisions about which elements should be surfaced and which should hidden.
We will carefully balance usability and flexibility, but some Godot Engine functionality may become less directly accessible through the simplified interface.
2. Future Godot Updates May Require Additional Work
Any UI customizations we make must be maintained and updated as Godot continues to evolve through versions 4.7, 4.8, and beyond.
For example, we may create a one-click tileset setup workflow, only for Godot itself to later redesign its tile system, requiring us to update our implementation.
Many users may understandably be concerned about this point.
To address this, we plan to allow users to freely switch between the standard Godot interface and the new ACTION GAME MAKER interface at any time.
This means advanced users will retain access to the full Godot experience whenever they want it.
Closing Remarks
That’s all for this Producer Letter!
Even though we celebrate our first year, ACTION GAME MAKER is still only at the beginning of its journey. We will continue working as hard as possible toward version 2.0 - and beyond!
Thank you, as always, for your continued support.
