Do you find yourself having available resources (face sets, tileset) dictating story sometimes?

I had a story, character, and place in my head, but ended up changing my story to fit the resources I had.

For example some minor characters just ended up looking better/prettier in the portrait than other main characters, and I found myself being drawn to making plot and dialogue with this character more than the other “main characters”.

Also, the main city that seemed more epic in my mind look more bland, than what I envisioned while a smaller city I was making looked a lot better than I first envisioned, and I ended up finding ways to route more story in there just because of that.

You guys have anything similar?

That's actually recommended by some game devs(like Yanfly for example) as the way you should make your game story, because it's less of a headache--The idea is to take what available resources you have, and let the game's story be built around what you have. You gather everything first and start working out the gameplay mechanics, features, enemies, etc, then the stuff like plot and characters fall in later. For most people, it makes it less likely to hit a creative wall when initially developing a game.

Can't present something that isn't available, yes. Resources sometimes dictate the story if you can't make it yourself. In my case, it isn't the story that being dictated, rather the gameplay, especially the encounters. I ended up making encounters based on available resources I have rather than come up with something then looking for the resources.

I mostly work with the RTP, alongside some additional materials from the store, so I just write my story around those assets.

Of course what resources will limit/affect your story. You can present something you don't have or can't do. Even bigger games face the same reality.

Sure but at the same time think about the ship tiles. The game doesn’t come with ship tiles people had to make it. Luckily when I started ship tiles had already been made by others. But think about having a port town with no ships! Really would change the game I would think when “bustling port town” has no ships. So what would you do then!

I completely changed the story and gameplay based on available graphics alone. I went in thinking there were more modern setting graphics by a certain battler creator than there actually were.

Seeing it in action actually made me quite excited for what amounts to a completely new game. I'm putting my original game idea for when I'm better at making my own graphics.

Basically if you're not 100% making everything, there will be other things that have a say in your creative process, even if you're working alone.

The limiting factor is not that some stuff are not doable, because like you said, if there's no ship tile, you can make one. The real limiting factor is time; sure you can make any tileset you want, but if it takes 10 years to implement everything you need for your story, you'll probably need to cut some stuff.

For the most part, no. I know what stories I want to tell and I'm going to try my best to make it work with what I have. If I need new tiles, I'll just hack up the RTP (or find some good ok-for-commercial assets) to make it look more like what I want. However, that's just for the main plot at a glance.

Now if you're asking whether I'm going to, say, add a guts dungeon because there's icky pink guts tiles, then hell yes. Absolutely, even if I have to add a few tiles of my own to it. Like, we're definitely going to need some blood lakes, animated pustules, vein trees, and other similar delights. :)

Good question. Personally, I don't let resources (or a lack thereof) get in the way of the story I want to tell. I'd rather use a placeholder or similar and just shoehorn it in (for example a magic circle being used as a spaceship's transporter device, or even a sword being used as an industrial machine's handle) than compromise on the story element itself. It may be less immersive, but as a designer it feels a lot better than sacrificing a cool story element. (And for stuff that's really important to sell the player on, I'll commission a custom graphic or three.)

I do sometimes let the availability of resources affect the type of placemaking that I do (maybe even changing the entire environment of a town, for instance, to fit what's available), but I try not to let it affect the story.

There's an argument to be made that professional creatives should let practicalities affect the types of stories they tell, though. For example, Eddie Sotto (lead Disney Imagineer for Mission: SPACE) explained why they didn't create a Space Station pavilion at EPCOT (even though they wanted to in their heart of hearts) - no matter how good the artistry and design might be, there would be screaming kids running around, neon emergency EXIT signs posted everywhere, guard rails, and of course a complete lack of zero gravity. "It would be like Seabase Alpha in space." They couldn't effectively tell you the Space Station story because the tools weren't available to convincingly create it. So they told a different story - one about a mission to Mars - by making the pavilion into a single ride experience that you immediately partake in once you enter the building (with a more traditional, shortened, pavilion experience as part of the post-show).

Personally? I would have probably created Starbase Alpha. But the fact that a group of very intelligent designers chose not to - it's food for thought.