Using RPG Maker Graphics in an IRL card game?

RubyDev · 2018-10-06T00:10:44+0900

So, maybe this is the wrong category, but I didn't find any better, sorry! For a week or so, I have this craving to design my own "trading card game", basically something that plays similar to Yu-Gi-Oh, Magic or Hearthstone, but a non commercial game, in which anybody can print their own deck without any cost attached to it. I got the idea, because I really like some of the battler graphics the, for example: VX Ace RTP has, but in a real game I'd never use them because they are way too static. So I got more and more into the idea, I already set up rules and stuff, but today I remembered that there is written somewhere that I can't use the RPG Maker graphics in any other way than in RPG Maker products. I'm mainly worried, because I'd like to give my friends access to a website that allows them to build their own deck, and then print it. And that website would display the cards and obviously some of the graphics as well then, if I was just using them completely in private, I wouldn't even be here and or worry. So now I am debating with myself wether I can still use some of the graphics the way I like to or if I simply can't because a website would be software outside of rpg maker. I also already sneakily thought that maybe disguising my card game as an advertisement for an actual rpg maker game, could be a loophole? After all the licenses state that limited use for advertising is allowed. I also wouldn't make it easy to rip any of the graphics of a card picture, because they are obviously rescaled, maybe colors are edited, there is a most likely messy background on the card and sometimes parts of the battler (I mainly want to use battlers.) would even be cut off. Can somebody maybe tell me if I am worrying too much or paying too much attention to detail? I'm pretty sure everybody is going to tell me that I simply can't use the art but hey, still worth a shot to be a descent human for once and ask if I can. Oh and maybe some people have input on if I can't use the images, where I can find similar style monsters and pictures that would fit perfectly in a project like that.

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Started by RubyDev Oct 5, 2018, 03:10 PM 24 posts Page 2 of 2 View original ↗

Shaz

#21 Oct 6, 2018, 07:31 AM Source

As I said, that discussion has been done to death. I don't intend to rehash it all here - go find the thread and see that all your excuses have already been put forward and debunked.

If you are not using the RMMV editor to build and deploy your game, then your game is not made with RPG Maker.
Traverse

#22 Oct 6, 2018, 07:35 AM Source

Shaz said:
If you are not using the RMMV editor to build and deploy your game, then your game is not made with RPG Maker.

This is what I am saying, which you have completely missed.

If you use the editor to ONLY build and deploy your game in a web deployment and that's all you use it to do, that's enough to classify your game as an RMMV game and enough to allow you to legally use the resources. Even if you just transplanted your own JS files - which are essentially your custom engine - in place of the ones usually used by RMMV to build the game.

Build/deployment is all you need for it to be considered RMMV, even if 99% of the deployed files are essentially your own engine.

I think you got confused by the difference between "game engine" as in the software used to produce the game and "game engine" as in the code that the finished product runs on. You can get away with having very little of the former in the latter - in this case, the build and deployment step would suffice - and it would still be enough to allow the use of the resources.
TheoAllen

#23 Oct 6, 2018, 07:49 AM Source

Let me link that for you: https://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?threads/what-does-made-with-rmmv-mean.53137/
Kes

#24 Oct 6, 2018, 07:50 AM Source

@Traverse Your claim has already been discussed fully in this thread and the answer is clear that you cannot do as you suggest. If you are doing as much outside the editor as possible and changing the scripts as much as possible so the original MV scripts are no longer used - your game is not "made with MV". Please remember that just because you are not caught does not mean that what you are doing is legal. In the end it boils down to whether or not the individual user has a conscience about stealing assets. If the user does, then it is not an issue. If the user does not, then of course that person might take the risk.

[mod]As the OP has already said that they have found other resources, the original query is resolved. I am, therefore, closing this.[/mod]