What does "Made with RMMV" mean?

Nope. The MV Editor is released using the RPG Maker license. The LGPL applies to the QT framework


That means at most, the RPG Maker developers only need to provide the QT source they used, not the editor, and doesn't need to be included with the editor. 




Which is the only requirement. eg if I get the QT sources from the RPG Maker developers, recompile it, and then replace the binaries distributed with RPG Maker's Editor, it would still work. This is beyond the capabilities of RPG Maker's target audience, and given that the editor uses QT and Node-Webkit, it would not be enough to re-create the editor. Hence you would not be able to create a Linux editor with just the QT source. 


Keep in mind it's entirely possible that the RPG Maker Developers have a commercial license to use QT, and thus they are free to do whatever they want. The Help file includes LGPL license 2.1, but does not indicate which part of the software it applies to.


The "Trademarks and Registered Trademarks" section of the help file isn't specific to the editor or the game client, but if you load up the "credits.html" file included with node-webkit, you'll see most of the same stuff. No mention of QT.


Modifying the player via plugins, or by replacing the node-webkit build is a far less trivial thing.


So there might be a few questions about license that applies to the editor's support libraries, but "modifying the editor" is different from "import/export from the editor, make adjustments outside the editor"


And as I mentioned pages ago, people asking the question of "what would violate the license" is never an innocent question. People ask this question because they have a use in mind that wasn't explicitly spelled out in the EULA.

So as a final clarification, are you confirming that modification to the MV editor is NOT supported by the license? 

The LGPL would only allow someone to recompile the QT portion of the editor. The only reason someone would have to do this today would be to port it to another platform or to update the supplied QT libraries if the RPG Maker developers no longer update it.


Like, it's something someone would do in 20 years trying to get the editor to work on whatever OS exists at that time. The LGPL only applies to the linked libraries. So if the RPG Maker developers were using the LGPL licensed version of QT, only the QT sources needs to be available. That does not open source the editor, because the editor sources aren't made GPL by using a LGPL library. This is a common confusion among open-source advocates that the GPL and LGPL means that the software can not be sold and must be open-source. This misunderstanding largely happens with software packages that use FFMPEG.


LGPL means that you only need to provide the sources to the LGPL library, and the library must always NOT be statically compiled into the application binary. Your application can link to any LGPL libraries it wants, and the user must be free to replace those libraries with their own customized/optimized/bugfixed versions. 


One would have to violate the RPG Maker EULA and decompile/inject code to "modify" the editor.

Thank you for clarifying.

Hello, I am sorry to beat a horse so to say but using plugins is still cool right for commercial releases?

that depends on the plugin and has nothing to do with the question asked here.


If the plugin writer allows commercial use (a lot of them do) and you're using the regular editor to handle them, then nothing will prevent you from making a game commercial.

When you say scripts you don't mean plugins but core library files correct? If you do mean plugins then it be incorrect because RPG Features Plugins so even if the plugins can change 100% of the style of what mostly is put on the market it's considered still made with RPG Maker MV.

is this still active?
I have a question. This may sound ridiculous but it can happen.


- I get the MV Trial (20 Days)


- Make a simple 1 quest story rpg


- Grab the JS files and Data (which comes with the project anyways)


- Refactored all the JS files


- Created my own editor


- This means the game can only be deployed to HTML5


Whose permission do I need to ask? This will take a great amount of work but it can happen. :D

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "refactored" the JS files, but this just sounds like using the trial to create a project, and then reverse engineering the project data to create an editor that can work with the poject data to complete your project without using MVs editor to get around that 20 day time limit. This would be more akin to piracy of the game engine as well as no longer 'making it in MV'


It would no longer be an instance of permissions as this would just be a breach of contract all together. As the Trial is meant for you to try the engine with the editor, at the end of that 20 day trial period your 'right' to use the editor AS WELL as the right to use the engine would be over. As well as from the get go this game engine is licensed out to be used with the editor as the Primary means of game creation.


Someone please correct me if I'm misstating something or missing something here.

@onepixel


The trial does not have a licence to publish the result, not even for free - so you can't deploy the finished project anyway.


You need to own the full licence for deployment.


That said, writing your own editor would make the project no longer "done with RMMV" anyway - and really???


Writing such an editor will probably take several dozens of hours of your time - spend these hours working somewhere and you should be able to pay for RMMV even on minimum wages after ten or fifteen hours of work,

@Isaac The Red


@Andar


Sorry, let me rephrase that.


- I get the MV with License


- Refactor all the JS files (Refactor means same functionality different design. So that I understand more of the framework)


- Create my own build script for the said rpgmaker framework


- Not create my own editor but use MV


Whose permission do I need to ask? or do I need to ask since I bought the License? :)

@onepixel


That was more completely changing questions than rephrasing, now your talking about actually having the license, and no longer talking about creating your own editor. But the idea is to not change the core JS files, but to instead extend or replace functionality via plugins. Making your own 'build' script to package a completed game though I don't think there is any issues with that, packaging and protecting your finished content is within your rights.


As far as viewing the JS files to better understand how they work as to better facilitate the creation of plugins there's no real issue there but it sounds more like your talking about redesigning things using the engine that's already there as a base. I'm just getting a kind of feeling on this one that if you have the skill to do that kind of work, then you would be better off putting that to use in getting the engine and making plugins, or designing your own engine rather than worrying about who's permissions you would need for such things.


I'm just kinda getting red flags here.

Changing the JS files are ok. You can get a much lighter game that way than if you use the plugin system.

@Isaac The Red


It is a red flag question. That's the reason I asked it before going any further. I've used VX Ace Lite and RPGMaker is a pretty powerful tool for creating an RPG (VX was using Ruby) and MV right now is using a language i'm pretty comfortable with and I want complete control on the code. RPGMaker by the way already has most of what an RPG needs (albeit turn-based battle system), as you said, I do have the skills to do that kind of work and trust me you don't want to start from scratch on developing a Role-Playing Game.

I want to know up to how I can push the limits of the so called modifications to the game framework itself not the editor beforehand before I delve deeper or get in trouble. This is also inline with the design choices and game mechanics that I want to make for an RPG. There's not much out there in the market that handles RPG mechanics as well as RPGMaker. I've read the Terms and Conditions and the EULA. I'm not getting into the nitty gritty of legal things since that's not my forte but reading it is still needed.  


If you're suspicious about the question having red flags its because it is that kind of question.



------------------------------------------------------------------------



To summarize here, If I do get the license:



Can I change (Refactor) the JS files that come with the game?
- this means using an external IDE and for optimization reasons create a build script that will minify the whole thing

Can I use 3rd party tools while still using MV editor at the same time?

Whose permission do I need to ask? KADOKAWA directly? The Admins here?

Do i need to provide a document that's asking for permission?

Yes, you can refactor the JS files that comes with the engine. Most people don't do it because it would break compatibility with plugins and you can't just paste new versions of the js files over the old ones, but if you're gonna be in control of your whole game, there's nothing wrong with it. Previous RM versions also allowed that, by making the default code editable inside the editor.


I did the exact same thing with my game. No plugins, just base code change.


And yes, you can use as many 3rd party tools as you want. 

@onepixel


The red flag was raised because of your lack of any real description and your sudden change from talking about the trial then the actual license. If you read through this thread it goes pretty deep into what it means to be made in MV, we've had the discussion about trying to nitpick about how much you need to use the core editor ect ect... weather your using eclipse or some other IDE, or just notepad or notepad++ or whatever to modify code that's all on you. it really all boils down to, did you use MV to make the game? If your using third party or self built applications for every aspect of your games design and just using the engine to run everything, no, no it is not made in MV.


If you want to streamline and optimize the game code, remove features you don't need, and add what you do need, go ahead. There is some good tools out there to help make some awesome progress, the tiled map editor and such help a lot just to name one.


The short answer is YES.


I think essentially this same question has been asked before. and there was a lot of fiddly nit picking about how little is too little and how much is enough yada yada. 


"and trust me you don't want to start from scratch on developing a Role-Playing Game."


That's actually debatable. It's a lot more work mechanically to start from scratch. Though weather or not you would want to start from scratch is dependent on answering another question. "Can the available engines handle what I want to do?" But really that's a whole separate discussion for a different forum.

@Isaac The Red


@Hudell


Thanks for the quick responses and apologies for the lack of descriptions. If Hudell is already doing that then it should be fine.


@Hudell: I've read through the pages and you seem to have gotten an ok, was that all it needed? or did you PM them and received the ok?

I didn't PM anybody, but I use the MV editor to draw my maps, configure the tilesets and parts of the database. The main point of this thread is that you can't use the default RTP just because you have a license. You can only use it if you're actually using MV.


In my case I am using MV and not using the RTP.

Thank you for information...

I would like to ask about an example.


I'm currently writing a simple puzzle game.  It does not use the combat engine.  There's no leveling or equipment.  There is dialogue, but not very much.


Most of the code I use from the game is how sprites move on the map (pretty standard stuff).  And the more involved I get in the game, the more I want to edit, use plugins, and add my own content.


At this point in the design-- this is still completely true:




But I'm not positive I could say my game is "mostly an RPG maker game" anymore.  Also, the more I work on it, the more I know that I should be optimizing certain aspects, which means straying away from the original software.