Well in my opinion 3DGS will degenerate into insignificance if there's going to be no changes to adapt to a niche or special target group. It may have been THE indie engine in the A4 to A6 days but it took some wrong steps in my opinion. I don't want to talk about some bad decisions like the too late integration of shaders which then also was half-assed in the beginning. Back then it really aimed at Indies and people totally new to game creation. It was perfect for that purpose because of it being a full development suite offering modeler, world editor and a script editor (later on) in one package. Together with the nice templates you really could achieve some basic things very fast (i.e. in comparison to other engines)...

I just think 3DGS didn't see the signs of changing times then. For example: Back then it was cool to have MED because besides the extremely expensive big 3D suites like 3D Max which were no option for most people. Things have changed though and now we have many good free modelers like Wings or Blender. Instead of keeping MED around while trying to make it somewhat useful they should have scrapped it a long time ago. Just a tiny & nifty piece of software for animation is what really is needed (which would have been great in a WED revamp we didn't really see either)...

I also never understood as to why there had to be Lite-C. I mean besides this totally strange thing of having one guy code which apperently nobody did really care about just to find out that all comments were written in Chinese when he left or however the things did turn out. Ok, Lite-C added more features and options and that's great. Still it's a self-made language you cannot use anywhere else and which also isn't THAT much different from like a full blown C++. I never understood as to why the decision for such a more complex language was made. It totally worked against that main target group of Indies and newcomers. Experienced users were able to make things work with their .dlls and nowadays also can include the engine in C++, C# or whatever else they're using. What in my opinion would have been a good idea is to include an easy language like Java(script) or Lua. That's also where I see the big advantage of e.g. Unity or Shiva (apart from talking about the feature lists): When you're new and no experienced programmer you just can use those easy script languages like Javascript for Unity and Lua for Shiva. As experienced user you still can use some of the more powerful languages. I don't see where Lite-C fits in here. Ok - it is a bit more easy than e.g. C++ but it's nowhere as easy to use (and learn) as e.g. Lua...

And that's why I say 3DGS is going to lose more and more importance and the market as it never really got used for really big projects (and it might never be) while making itself less and less attractive for all the Lone Wolves and small Indie teams. Especially nowadays where everything is about minigames or casual games it starts to get obvious how bad things are for 3DGS. Ok - part of the problem is the lack of platform support but still - 3DGS once was THE engine for such small titles. Like for example Pong or Krokmania or even that game where you play that mouse and collect the cheese. For some reason games like that stopped from popping up here although there currently seems to be quite a demand for such games. Not that nothing good is made with 3DGS nowadays but I think 3DGS lost focus on what it was good at and had a real chance to be good at. I don't see a real perspective in being a rather "programming heavy" with the lack of a great gear in terms of editors, features and performance...

It's sad because I like 3DGS and had my first steps in the 3D world with A4 but it made its way down on my "favorite engine for creating a game with list" further and further. I still wouldn't call 3DGS "dying" though but from my perspective it's heading in the wrong direction where other teams which much more manpower and a more well thought out product strategy will just always be one or several steps ahead...

My 2 cents - 3DGS is a decent engine but the number of starting positions where 3DGS should be the engine of choice really is shrinking...