It seems like the only way you can end up as a successful game developer is if you grew up with your own computer and your parents gave you unlimited computer privileges.

@xianc78 idk about "successful" but i started using rpg maker on the family computer when i was 10 years old :)

@beardalaxy I don't know how much RPG Maker costed back then, but I knew for a fact that my parents wouldn't buy me GameMaker Pro which costed $50 and required you to repay for every update. I messed around with GameMaker Lite, but it was severely limited and lacked certain features like scaling and rotating sprites.

There was also Video Game Tycoon which allowed you to create 3D action games and even burn them onto CD. It was in a monthly Scholastic book catalog that was given out to us in our elementary school. I really wanted it, but our teachers urged us not to buy anything on there outside of books (they couldn't prohibit us/our parents from doing so, but it was heavily discouraged), and my parents agreed with them (being public school teachers and education advocates themselves).

I think I was aware of RPG Maker back then, but I probably wrote it off because I felt like a genre specific game maker was worthless and I didn't care for turn-based games back then.

@vokainen099 @beardalaxy 2009-2010. I actually never asked for it. I just knew the answer was "no" because my parents didn't like buying things over the Internet at the time.