What this forum needs is a community, at least thats what I'm thinking. Even if there are quite a few developer, scripter, ressource builder, etc. one very important thing they need is feedback. PC has a very big community and it seems at least, that there are quite a bit of users watching these threads but it seems they aren't very interested in giving feedback, asking questions and stuff.
It's kinda sad, but expected, since PC is a Community build around a commercial game francise and the corresponding TV series, spin offs, etc. Most users are just interested in this things. At least I don't think anybody would get an account only because he's interested in the game develop section.
Another problem this subforum has is it's position. I mean you have to scroll nearly at the bottom of the main page to even see, that there is a forum which spezialices in game development.
I don't think changing the layout will make it more popular (well at least it won't make it less popular too). What this section really needs is an active community of his own and also some advertisement, a game jam sounds nice too.