If this is in the wrong section, please move it. I had difficulty determining if this was a program or general topic.

Over the past few months, I've put my PRGMaker projects on the back-burner while I tinkered around with another game engine by the name of Unity3D. While nowhere near as simplistic or streamlined as RPG Maker is, Unity does have a robust code library, vibrant graphics engine, dedicated community, and various open-source implementations and system license options that allow developers to push their games to multiple markets for reasonable cost.

However, of late, I've found that developing from the ground up in Unity is... well... meticulous. I yearn once more for the simplistic, speedy tools and methods of RPG Maker while still keeping the robust graphics and processing capabilities of Unity. That is when it hit me(like a freight train, I might add).

What if I were to combine the capabilities of RPG Maker with the Unity 3D engine? What if developers could take a tile entity in RPG Maker, such as a tree, barrel, table, or a house, and could instantly see their maps brought into 3D, even if it were only of the capabilities similar to the Nintendo DS? Characters that could be built and customized in RPGM, and then brought into Unity3D where tweaks could be made to things like clothing, hair, and details. The power and simplicity that is RPGM mixed with the cinematic and graphical capabilities of Unity. To me, it is an incredible idea and one that still leaves me a bit giddy, to be honest.

However, all of this prospective talk raises huge questions for me. The freedom of use of the RPGM license, for starters, is where my concerns begin. Usually in the past, developers had to buy license for things like RPGM DS in order to export to the Nintendo DS. What kind of legal issues would this kind of toolset incur? Is it even possible for a group of programmers/designers to develop such a tool, or does it violate the EULA of RPG Maker?

Coming from a flash background, I understand the methods of monetization with flash games. Pop an ad on the first frame while your game is loading, and you'll get paid based on the number of views, clicks, and actual referenced signups/purchases. However, with RPGMaker, you don't exactly have the same API tools at your disposal. (And, as far as I know, there isn't any way to export your RPGMaker game to flash. Food for thought?)

So, this begs the question, how do you monetize your games? Of course there is the old method of selling copies, but in this day and age of digital distribution and DRM cracking, that doesn't exactly seem the wisest of ways to go. Free-to-play games reach a broader audience, but have the drawback that there is no actual revenue coming from the game itself.

What options do you persue when it comes to making revenue off your games?

[First and foremost, if this is in the wrong forum, I appologize. Also, this is an inquisitive discussion, not a debate; please don't get the wrong idea and think I'm saying bad things about the Maker suite!]

So, I've been looking over the Maker suite for the past few days with my eye on IGMaker in particular. Most of the features are really appealing as well as the ease-of-use and export capabilities to consoles. However, I am sitting on the fence a bit, to be honest. You see, I have my own copy of Adobe Flash CS3 from my animation and ActionScript programming classes, and most of what can be done in IGMaker can be made in Flash to my knowledge.

I'm just wondering, is there anything that's not covered in the features list that can really sell IGMaker to me? For other developers out there, are there any advantages to using it over flash? Can I attach movies to the beginning of my games that are compressed along with the file unlike flash?

How about speed and functionality? Most of the time when I'm working with thousands of instances on the screen for things like bullet shots or enemy space ships, Flash bogs down and lags. Does IGMaker have the same issues, or is it free of such bugs?

Last but not least, you guys! How's the community fare? Is it like pulling teeth to get some help or are most people generally eager to help new learners?