Looking for some Star wars assets

[Gavador]

I've been messing around with the RPG maker for a while and I kinda want to make a private Star Wars game. Does anyone know where I might find some good assets?

[JohnDoeNews]

That is a tough one... The thing with copyrighted titles is that you can make your own fan game and it would even be all legal, as long as it is private. (Using copyrighted assets in work you make for yourself, is not illegal.)

But sharing the assets is actually against the law. So those asses will be harder to find for that reason alone. Artists would be less likely to put many hours in a set this large, while knowing they can probably never sell it, or use it themselves.

If you do find something, it will probably be 1 image here, another image there. And in the end you have 30 different styles and still not all the characters you want.

It would be much easier to find assets, if those can fit the same theme as star wars, but are not actually C3PO and R2D2 or jedi and stormtroopers. There are some cool robots in the MZ assets, that are not anything like the starwars robots, but can still present a nice robotic companion in another space story.

This means you could make a story like (and inspired by) star wars, with a space hero from a lost planet, some mythical spiritual mentor and many intergalactic warlords. But it might not be Luke Skywalker with Obiwan and Han.

If you want actual star wars assets, you might have to be very lucky to find them. At least I have not seen them yet.

[Dusk_Army]

A cursory search using Google (star wars rpg sprites) results in a variety of things, some of which look to be made for RPG Maker, others that are ripped from official Star Wars licensed games. Legality of selling/distributing a product made with them aside, they're out there and not that hard to find (some of them were even on RPG Maker's forums). I'd share what I found, but I'm not sure what the policies on this particular subforum are for that kind of thing; but like I said, I didn't go much farther than typing in the search terms before coming up with something viable.

And yes, they run the gamut from "legally not Obi Wan Kenobi" to "clearly R2-D2", with all the things that are inspired by, but technically not, Star Wars outside that range.

[Gavador]

Originally posted by JohnDoeNews:

That is a tough one... The thing with copyrighted titles is that you can make your own fan game and it would even be all legal, as long as it is private. (Using copyrighted assets in work you make for yourself, is not illegal.)

But sharing the assets is actually against the law. So those asses will be harder to find for that reason alone. Artists would be less likely to put many hours in a set this large, while knowing they can probably never sell it, or use it themselves.

If you do find something, it will probably be 1 image here, another image there. And in the end you have 30 different styles and still not all the characters you want.

It would be much easier to find assets, if those can fit the same theme as star wars, but are not actually C3PO and R2D2 or jedi and stormtroopers. There are some cool robots in the MZ assets, that are not anything like the starwars robots, but can still present a nice robotic companion in another space story.

This means you could make a story like (and inspired by) star wars, with a space hero from a lost planet, some mythical spiritual mentor and many intergalactic warlords. But it might not be Luke Skywalker with Obiwan and Han.

If you want actual star wars assets, you might have to be very lucky to find them. At least I have not seen them yet.

I thought you can share assets but not make money off it. I guess I was wrong. I guess what I'm actually looking for are assets similar to the original trilogy.

My idea is to set it in a galaxy three centuries after a new hope.

[JohnDoeNews]

Nah, that is a common mistake within the RPG maker community, but sharing copyrighted content without making money is indeed infingement.

In 99% of the times it might not lead to trouble, but it can. Therefor I expect the graphics to be hard to find.

If you can find them, and your projects is private as you said, then you don't have to worry about that though. Making a game like that is not a violation. Sharing it is where copyrights come up.

[Gavador]

Originally posted by JohnDoeNews:

Nah, that is a common mistake within the RPG maker community, but sharing copyrighted content without making money is indeed infingement.

In 99% of the times it might not lead to trouble, but it can. Therefor I expect the graphics to be hard to find.

If you can find them, and your projects is private as you said, then you don't have to worry about that though. Making a game like that is not a violation. Sharing it is where copyrights come up.

What about custom assets. I'm not interested in ripping assets from other games. If I were to commission someone to make a bunch of sprites would that still be considered copyright?

[Dusk_Army]

Originally posted by Gavador:

Originally posted by JohnDoeNews:

Nah, that is a common mistake within the RPG maker community, but sharing copyrighted content without making money is indeed infingement.

In 99% of the times it might not lead to trouble, but it can. Therefor I expect the graphics to be hard to find.

If you can find them, and your projects is private as you said, then you don't have to worry about that though. Making a game like that is not a violation. Sharing it is where copyrights come up.

What about custom assets. I'm not interested in ripping assets from other games. If I were to commission someone to make a bunch of sprites would that still be considered copyright?

If you commission someone to make a sprite of Darth Vader, then use that asset in a game which you share for profit*, that is copyright infringement. If you commission someone to make a sprite of a space samurai warlord in black armor with a red plasma katana, then use that asset in a game which you share for profit, that is (probably) not copyright infringement. Disney owns the likeness of the characters, as well as the details specific to the universe of Star Wars (The Force, Lightsabers, The Jedi and The Sith, etc.). In other words, making a game about magic space samurai is generally okay, as long as you aren't using the same terms (and you might catch flak for following the plot of any of the films/books too closely, but that's a bit... trickier to say the least).

*I'm not a lawyer, and none of this constitutes legal advice. Also, copyright law varies wildly depending on your country of origin, so certain aspects may or may not apply. There can be clauses about transformative works (aka fanfiction etc.), which may prevent large corporations from generally taking action against you if you are not making (or attempting to make) a profit on the work in question.

[JohnDoeNews]

Originally posted by Gavador:

[
What about custom assets. I'm not interested in ripping assets from other games. If I were to commission someone to make a bunch of sprites would that still be considered copyright?

Well, the copyright is on the design. So even if you spend 20 hours drawing a tie fighter, and you drew it all yourself, then still it is the design that is not free to use without permission.

If you would make Han Solo look like Harrison Ford too, then it would not only be copyright infringement, but portrait right infringement as well.

But like I said before: If you are indeed making a private game, not to share online, then there is no violation and you can use anything you want.

Originally posted by Dusk_Army:

If you commission someone to make a sprite of Darth Vader, then use that asset in a game which you share for profit*, that is copyright infringement. (...)

Also if you share it without profit. Profit is not the real violation, sharing is. That is why you might not easily find free parts either.

The thing is... The copyright holder doesn't care if you make money of it or not. They care if it costs them money.

---

Nintendo went after pokemon fangames in the past, because they saw a reduced number of sales, because of fan games, which were often just as good as the real thing. They didn't make profit, but they were taken down anyway.

But, if you make profit, it can only increase the chance to get in trouble, and if you get in trouble, then making a profit will make the penalty so much higher. (up to max $150k!! Per image!!)

So... There is a difference between sharing copyrighted materials for profit, or without profit. But in both cases the copyright holder can sue the sharer.

[Dusk_Army]

Originally posted by JohnDoeNews:

Originally posted by Dusk_Army:

If you commission someone to make a sprite of Darth Vader, then use that asset in a game which you share for profit*, that is copyright infringement. (...)

Also if you share it without profit. Profit is not the real violation, sharing is. That is why you might not easily find free parts either.

The thing is... The copyright holder doesn't care if you make money of it or not. They care if it costs them money.

---

Nintendo went after pokemon fangames in the past, because they saw a reduced number of sales, because of fan games, which were often just as good as the real thing. They didn't make profit, but they were taken down anyway.

But, if you make profit, it can only increase the chance to get in trouble, and if you get in trouble, then making a profit will make the penalty so much higher. (up to max $150k!! Per image!!)

So... There is a difference between sharing copyrighted materials for profit, or without profit. But in both cases the copyright holder can sue the sharer.

Which is why I put the asterisk noting that this isn't intended as actual legal advice, and that copyright laws vary by country. You'll notice that Archive of Our Own still exists, as does Fanfiction.net; there are exceptions, and if money is not involved, the worst you're likely to receive is a Cease and Desist order. Although, since it's Disney and Nintendo we're talking about here, they're both more likely to send those than other companies (hence, AM2R being shut down just days after its release).

[JohnDoeNews]

That is indeed the most likely action when not making a profit... But not the worst one.

If a company loses money because of copyright enfringement, then they might try to reclaim their lost income on the violater. It is way less likely, but not impossible.

Indeed, Nintendo and Disney are probably the 2 companies that are most likely to sue for enfringement. :p

Nintendo even sued gamejolt last year or the year before, for sharing copyrighted content in fangames, fangames that were not even theirs. Gamejolt was forced to take all games containing nintendo assets down. Gamejolt was very lucky that taking down the games was all Nintendo demanded.

(Never meant to turn this in a copyright discussion, though. The topic was for the OP to find the assets. The only reason I mentioned copyrights, is because copyrights might make it harder to find the assets they are looking for. So, gavador, sorry to make it all about the copyrights. That wasn't my intention.)

[Gavador]

Originally posted by JohnDoeNews:

That is indeed the most likely action when not making a profit... But not the worst one.

If a company loses money because of copyright enfringement, then they might try to reclaim their lost income on the violater. It is way less likely, but not impossible.

Indeed, Nintendo and Disney are probably the 2 companies that are most likely to sue for enfringement. :p

Nintendo even sued gamejolt last year or the year before, for sharing copyrighted content in fangames, fangames that were not even theirs. Gamejolt was forced to take all games containing nintendo assets down. Gamejolt was very lucky that taking down the games was all Nintendo demanded.

(Never meant to turn this in a copyright discussion, though. The topic was for the OP to find the assets. The only reason I mentioned copyrights, is because copyrights might make it harder to find the assets they are looking for. So, gavador, sorry to make it all about the copyrights. That wasn't my intention.)

Don't be sorry this is important information. It just goes to show the degradation of copyright abuse. I just want to make a Star Wars fan game with no intent to make profit.

I understand the importance of protecting IP but this goes beyond that. It also limits fan interaction, which shows how detached these big companies are from their fan bases. I remember George Lucas would encourage fan creativity believing it would increase fan interaction.

[JohnDoeNews]

Don't let me stop you, though. There are plenty of fan-game communities where fangames are shared without a problem. But indeed, it is important to know the is a risk when you participate in that, although the chance is very small, almost 0.

It isn't really abuse, at least not in most cases. When it is presented as a fan-game, then I can't really say you are abusing anything. But it is technically not okay and therefor there is a risk.

I don't know that the official opinion of steam or the RPG maker team is on fangames, but personally I think fangames are okay, as long as you know what you may get yourself into.

It would be a totally different story if you would want to make a fangame of an indie game. Those devs do often struggle to make any money with their project themselves. They would actually be affected by stolen designs. And they don't have the money to sue either...

[Psychronic Games]

I don't have Star Wars assets for you, but I do have Star Shift Assets for you:
https://psychronic.itch.io

From our game, Star Shift Origins (we give out our custom assets for free):
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1706310/Star_Shift_Origins/

[Gavador]

Originally posted by Galacti-Chron:

I don't have Star Wars assets for you, but I do have Star Shift Assets for you:
https://psychronic.itch.io

From our game, Star Shift Origins (we give out our custom assets for free):
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1706310/Star_Shift_Origins/

I think I've seen some of your stuff in the workshop, I'm already subscribed to a few of them.

[Psychronic Games]

Cool, more will be coming, but so annoyingly busy.