Do not send your project!!

[JohnDoeNews]

Every now and then, people ask if they can look at my project. Not the deployed published version, but the version they can open in RPG maker. To learn from, they say. And that is probably true. However...

Your project is full of little detailt that you came up with. Those details is what makes your project unique. Maybe you made a unique loot system, or a new interactive way to deal with dialogue.

It is cool that people learn more about RPG maker by looking at your events, but they see every little trick that makes your game stand out.

Those little tricks, that might have come naturally to you, will be noticed by those "learning from" your events. Even simple idea's that you didn't realize were genious little idea's no-one else thought off, will now be known by others, and used in their game too.

This slowely turns your own game, into nothing but avarage. (Since your unique idea's will now be used in different games spread out trough the comunity)

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If that is all fine with you, and you really don't care about your game standing out, there is something else you risk when you send your project:

There is people who just want to take what you've made and put their name on it. Could be your graphics, could be a system you made, could be your database, or even your whole game. (Yes, it happens. I've seen mulitple cases where games were sold, after they were stolen from other devs.)

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When someone really wants to learn, and you are willing to teach, ask them which part they would want to see and send screenshots, or make an example in a otherwise empty project, using RTP images. Leave out anything you want to keep to yourself.

If they still want the original project, block them and never talk to them again. They are not asking to learn. To learn they do not actually need your project.

NOTE When you deploy your game, they can STILL see everything you did, and steal your game. Encrypting your graphics and audio does not only protect your graphics and audio, is also makes it a lot harder to edit the game after deployement.

Edit: You can still edit after deployment, because you have the original project. The deployed one is the one that becomes hard to edit after encrypting. And you don't even have to encrypt yourself, RPG maker can do it for you.

[Niknokinater]

Sounds about right

[Dusk_Army]

Just to add this, I've been told that the built-in encryption feature for MV is not particularly strong (at least, for the audio and image files). So if you are very concerned about asset theft, it's wise to find an alternative encryption method.

[JohnDoeNews]

Originally posted by Dusk_Army:

Just to add this, I've been told that the built-in encryption feature for MV is not particularly strong (at least, for the audio and image files). So if you are very concerned about asset theft, it's wise to find an alternative encryption method.

Yeah, that is true. If they really want to crack it, they probably can. But don't present it to them on a golden platter. :p

I am not really concerned about the art and the music though... Those are the obvious things you lose when they rip your game. It is those little idea that you use in so many saces because it is simple and works great. Those things that you come up with without thinking about it.

Those are the things that you don't learn, but that you make up yourself. Those are the things make your project different from all other projects available. When you lose that, you lose all chance to stand out.

This also happens when both parties have the best intentions at heart. Even when they indeed use your project to learn, then unwillingly they copy your identity as a developer bit by bit.

[Hiruzen Sarutobi]

that's why I will never put my game on itch.io. Steam seems to do well on protecting that stuff, cause I bought an rpg maker game and I can't simply see your game file on rpg maker.
So yeah steams pretty legit unless someone very persistent wants to see your stuff.

[Iguana Guy]

Yeah, I've been asked by "friends" to have my project file not just the deployed game so they can help me with some edits that for some reason they cannot just explain to me. Always sounded fishy and I would just ignore the request or say I was having internet issues and couldn't do that. I don't need my game project being on someone's $2 a game page.

[MartyrmanX]

Maybe not related to this discussion directly, but my contribution to this discussion here
https://steamcommunity.com/app/363890/discussions/0/4260919351472382994/

feels appropriate to this topic. It was a unique concept that felt entirely ignored (which may be a good thing if I don't want people making my unique idea cliche/overused/average. I basically figured out how to make enemies copy player stats and skills).

Just in general, an idea for a game doesn't even have to be distributed in a project in order for it to be plagiarized. I threw this solution willy-nilly without second thought.

[JohnDoeNews]

Originally posted by www.twitch.tv/2fast2keanureeves:

that's why I will never put my game on itch.io. Steam seems to do well on protecting that stuff, cause I bought an rpg maker game and I can't simply see your game file on rpg maker.
So yeah steams pretty legit unless someone very persistent wants to see your stuff.

I don't think it matters where you uplaod the project. Steam isn't actually changing your upload and encrypting it for you, is it? It is how RPG maker MV deploys. In VX Ace, you would deploy into a single .exe file, which would have been a lot harder to crack. That is just not the case with MV, due to Javascript.

Originally posted by IguanaGuy:

Yeah, I've been asked by "friends" to have my project file not just the deployed game so they can help me with some edits that for some reason they cannot just explain to me. Always sounded fishy and I would just ignore the request or say I was having internet issues and couldn't do that. I don't need my game project being on someone's $2 a game page.

Oh... I would just honestly tell them I don't want to send the projects, because I don't want them to see everything I did. Often it takes 2 or 3 tries to convince them that, no matter what their intentions are, I am not going to send them my raw project. :p

[Dusk_Army]

Originally posted by JohnDoeNews:

Originally posted by www.twitch.tv/2fast2keanureeves:

that's why I will never put my game on itch.io. Steam seems to do well on protecting that stuff, cause I bought an rpg maker game and I can't simply see your game file on rpg maker.
So yeah steams pretty legit unless someone very persistent wants to see your stuff.

I don't think it matters where you uplaod the project. Steam isn't actually changing your upload and encrypting it for you, is it? It is how RPG maker MV deploys. In VX Ace, you would deploy into a single .exe file, which would have been a lot harder to crack. That is just not the case with MV, due to Javascript.

Steam just kinda hides where your game is located, compared to itch giving you the compressed folder and expecting you to put it somewhere. If someone's actually able to undo the encryption, navigating to the local files folder for Steam isn't a significantly larger hurdle to cross.

[Hajami]

Event Code can be often obfuscated to make it very hard to understand.

[JohnDoeNews]

Originally posted by Dusk_Army:

Steam just kinda hides where your game is located, compared to itch giving you the compressed folder and expecting you to put it somewhere. If someone's actually able to undo the encryption, navigating to the local files folder for Steam isn't a significantly larger hurdle to cross.

That is litterally 6 seconds of work, right? I mean, after you've looked in the steam folder once or twice, it is pretty easy to find where you stuff is safed. If not, CTRL+F never fails. :p Hackers know this too.

But I wasn't actually warning against ill-willing people, though. I think most who asked me were not hackers or thieves. But even those who actually want to learn, will learn everything... Even the things you don't even realize are your fingerprint, your trademark. The things that come naturally to you, but not to other devs.

If they want to learn, and you want to teach, make them a demo, or screenshots. That was more my message than: Beware of thiefs.