How to play downloaded games off of RPG Maker VX ACE

I have downloaded a game made by a fan off of the internet and I have placed it in my project folder and have tried going to open project and clicking on it and it keeps giving me folders that have nothing in them, then if I switch to allow it to see all files I see the game file but when I click on it it tells me that there was an "Unexpected file format" and it doesn't work. It also doesn't appear in my manage projects area and the file said that it was made for VX ACE so I figure it must be the right type of file. Does anyone know the answer to this? I'd appreciate it :)

Sorry I also forgot to mention that I would like to be able to edit the game through rpg maker vx ace. :)

If you are playing it but not editing it, you should be able to just go to it in the folder rather than opening it in the editor and click on the game.exe file directly.

*EDIT

The one who made it might have encrypted it so people couldn't edit it. There are ways around that but...

ohh gotcha well I respect that I guess it's just if there is a way to make it so that you can get some of the basic resources like character sprites I'd love to do that.

If the game is encrypted, then if you want the character sprites I would imagine you'd have to get them off the creator themselves.

oh ok gotcha thanks guys :)

The game encryption is intended to prevent you from doing that, and it's the game creator's choice to activate or deactivate the encryption for his own artwork.
If the game uses shop resources purchased here or on steam, the game creator is required to activate encryption, because using the store resources from a game without purchasing them yourself is software piracy.


You can follow the link in my signature - that is not only an overview of tutorials, it also links to the sample games and unencrypted games that you can open and learn from in the editor...