Is using custom content a must?

Hello. I'm a newbie on RPGMVXA and so far I've done a 1 and a 30 min gameplay game. But so far, I am only using stock resources for my game with a few exceptions of some mack sprites and some music.

Just how much is this method frowned upon? Does it really show laziness? Can't one achieve same things with stock content as opposed to someone with custom content? Thanks.

In my opinion, no it is not a must. I believe one of the winners of the IGMC this summer used stock resources.

What is most important is that you have a well-made, high quality game.

Where the debate comes in, again in my opinion, is a couple of things: 1) People like pretty shiny things. New, different, quality graphics will catch someone's eye and sadly, might make them give your game more of a chance because of how it looks. Not saying it's right, but it is fact. 2) The stock resources of RM (also called the RTP) have gotten a bad reputation. Many out there will not give your game a chance if they see RTP used, because so many people put out bad games using it, that it tainted it for everyone else.

I say if you are happy with it, continue to use the RTP as you put out small projects and learn the engine and how best to use it. From there you can decide if you want other graphics or not. And if you do, there are plenty of free amazing resources created by the community here on this forum and elsewhere.

There is nothing wrong with RTP standard stuff, as long as your mapping skills are good with it (knowing how to Shift click mapping).

I use custom as well as it makes your game stand out from the crowd a bit more but generally my maps will be standard RTP

I......

Well, it IS possible, but I think the certain amount of things you can do with RTP are extremely limited from a creative aspect. IN THE AREA OF MAP DESIGN. Which can have a serious impact on your project idea.

I don't think it's a must at all. I find nothing inherently wrong with the RTP and there are several ways to edit the pieces to make things less redundant and/or more personalized. 

I do think; however, at a certain point most people do WANT custom content for their games but to me that has more to do with personal touch and getting exactly what they want/need for their game more than it has to do with the quality of the RTP. So it's mostly about options.

There is nothing wrong with using only RTP for your game.

It mostly depends on you mapping skills.

There are actually quite a few nice games available here that use just the RTP and some small edits.

If you're just starting out, just play around with the RTP.

There are a lot of nice, free for non-commercial games resources available in the forums, as well as in Restaff if you need more.

Wait. I think we need to distinguish between editing the RTP, and using completely custom content here. Because, when I think of not having any custom content, I presume that also means no RTP edits either, just plain vanilla through and through.

I don't think its a problem. If your game is well designed, addicting and fun, a normal player doesn't realize the standard rtp at all.

Well, he did say that he is using some Mack sprites, so I just made a point that he can edit some of the existing RTP as well to make his game look 'prettier', and use less of 'event' fillers to place one graphic on top of another.

That said, the RTP is very much sufficient and usable on it's own without any edits.

I started my game as all RTP and DLC at first, and once it got further along added more custom content. I'd say it is good when first learning especially.

Design first, Resources second. The stock RTP stuff (Especially the monsters!) is pretty good...err....soundtrack not withstanding.

Nothing wrong with the RTP :)

Hmmm, I'm having an agree/disagree moment here. There have been times when I've had to look outside of the RTP because of story lines.

However, I think it could be argued that if you commit to using RTP only, particularly at first, it can push you to get more creative in using what is available.

So, I can kind of see it both ways.

It is not a must, it is a plus (if the custom resources are at the same level or better than the RTP).

You can make awesome looking maps using only RTP, parallax or not. You could even edit the RTP to give your game a custom look without making every asset from scratch.

Vanilla RTP, using RPG Maker Ace's map editor + light effect overlay:

Edited RTP, parallax mapping + light effects overlay:

I'm happy to see that you guys seem to have not too big problems with not having custom resources. As long as a resource fits the game and is used fairly well, I see no reason why such would be a bad thing. It seems like a lot of people feel forced to throw in custom stuff just because. I think that mindset is one of the main reason why a lot of people never finish their games. 

To be honest, unless you are a great mapper, the only way you can really get away with it is to use parallax mapping in my opinion.  My issue is that so many games look graphically the same, and it gets annoying after a little while (especially when 80% of those games aren't great), but I've seen people do some cool things with the RTP graphics.

In my opinion...  I don't see anything wrong with using just the RTP.  My own game uses only RTP.  If the game demo itself (whenever I finish it and get it posted up) does well enough, I was thinking of perhaps sinking some money into some custom resources for the thing.  Not because I dislike the RTP, but mostly because there are things I'd just like to have graphically represented, or song tracks I'd like to have, and a few other things.

Personally, I see no need/reason to use anything beyond standard RTP until the game gets closer and closer to what I'd call "full release".  RTP works fantastic for "proof of concept" ideas as well as "would this even be popular?" ideas.  I find no reason to sink time and money into custom resources if the game itself isn't going to work well.  After all, what's the point of sinking in hours and hundreds of dollars creating custom content for a game that nobody likes because it's hopelessly boring, broken, and poorly written?

I'd rather only sink in the custom stuff for what I perceive to be "sure things".  Save me a lot of money and heartache that way.

No, custom graphics are not a must-have - but there is a different problem where custom graphics are often used to solve it.


If you want your game to get an audience, you need a "selling point" to get people interested - no matter if it's non-commercial or commercial. There are too many abandoned or below-average games made with RM available for free to have any chance of drawing attention to your game otherwise.


That "selling point" can be anything, but custom graphics are one possible option, and one of the more easier ones - good stories require time to be known around, unique engine add-ons require programming knowledge and so on.


So a lot of people default to custom graphics to show that they put something into the game (be it time if they are artists or money if they commission artists).


It is possible to use something different, but the other options often are more difficult to use.

No problem with the RTP at all. Where I think a lot of the hate comes from is that so many people use it to make a completely default game (and not a good one, at that), and then the RTP becomes associated with bad games. A lot of games over the years have come out using default graphics, scripts, and audio, but also default sample maps (no attempts at editing them) and the default database (using Ralph or Eric as the main heroes), including all default items, stats, etc.

Using stock resources is one thing, but building a game requires design choices. I do find a bit of fault with some of the audio in Ace and most of it in VX. But audio is the one thing that can be changed with almost no effort. Heck, the ReStaff submissions alone has enough audio to replace the RTP several times over, and they sound so much better.

What you do with the resources, well, that's part of the trick. Indrah's tutorial on edits, recolors, and clumping can really give you an idea of how great the RTP is, and how much it can be improved upon with hardly any experience at all. Scripts can add atmosphere as well, as others have pointed out with parallax mapping and light effects. But even the event commands can garner nice results. Tinting maps, adjusting the pitch of audio, creating weather effects or animation in the course of a cut scene...

Thank you guys for the insight. I'd like to think there are 2 audiences when it comes to RPG Maker games. One of them are us, we the fans who create/play RPG Maker games and second one are those who are not familiar with RPG Maker but enjoy RPG/JRPGs.

While it may be true that most people who start making RM games, they use stock content and don't finish their game or simply just rush it to release it to the public and hence why it may be frowned upon when someone sees an RM game with stock content.

But as most of you said, if the game is good, stock resources wouldn't get in the way. Thanks, I'll continue my project.

PS: Lol, now it seems like parallax mapping is a must to some point :p .

That reminds me of another question that rised some time ago, about having a custom battle system.

The consensus was the same: don't do custom for the sake of it. It must be dicted by the gameplay/level design etc (ie. the GAME itself) and not the other way around.