At what point does it no longer feel like your creation?

[CWells]

With so many limits to the RM engine, yet still so much creativity at your fingertips, at what point does your own game, your creation begin to feel like it belongs to somebody else? I'm talking about all the scripts that can be used. I can only do so much by myself. But I think about some of the scripts that I thought/plan on using or am using and see what they allow me to accomplish. It makes me wonder, how much did I really do? How much am I borrowing or having someone do for me? I can do the art, I have the equipment for that, I can work out all the mechanics for battles and all the stats. I write the story. But without the right scripts, it is true that what I really do sometimes may not fall in the right place when they are needed. Or a game might not work as planned or some other thing.

It all seems too easy to unintentionally take advantage of all the scripts that are out there for one to "use as they see fit".

What do you think of this?

 

[Robin]

You can do all the art, work out all the mechanics, write the story, (and presumably create the game, which strangely you didn't mention), and yet you find using the scripts of others somehow makes the game not your creation.

It all seems too easy to unintentionally take advantage of all the scripts that are out there for one to "use as they see fit".

It's demonstrably not. People are consistently terrible at finishing games, despite the abundance of resources available within this community.

 

[kerbonklin]

Just remember in life, it's a natural process to use others as a stepping stool to reach a greater personal goal. Stand upon the shoulders of giants, but thou shall not forget thy names.  Life is all about making improvements over other people's work, whether a functionality change or just an aesthetic change.

Of course giving credit where needed.

 

[whitesphere]

I don't think it's ever not your creation.  You are still doing the difficult parts:

* Writing a great story

* Telling the story through NPC conversation, scripted events, battles, etc.

* Creating all of the maps

* Creating all of the events and linking them  together

* Extensive playtesting to ensure everything is balanced (do classes scale well?  Does XP/Gold come at a reasonable rate?  Are encounters too difficult or too easy?  Are there ways to break the events?)

Granted, it's a huge benefit that so many people write incredible scripts which extend the abilities of RPG maker so far.

But these fine tools are just that --- tools.  You're still the person who needs to pull them all together and tell a great story.  

So I don't ever think it stops being your creation.  But at the same time, yes, you are depending on other people's work.

I forget which great scientist said it, but, I think it was Newton, who said:  "If I can see so far, it is only because I stand on the shoulders of giants."

 

[Lunarea]

That's like saying the cake you just baked is not really yours because you used store-bought flour and didn't get it from growing your own wheat.

Art, scripting and music assets are just that - assets. They're tools that help you create a game. They don't automatically create the game for you, nor do they imply that your game is somehow inferior for having used them.

 

[kerbonklin]

I forget which great scientist said it, but, I think it was Newton, who said:  "If I can see so far, it is only because I stand on the shoulders of giants."

Boo you stole my line. =/   Well it wasn't exact anyways. =P

 

[mlogan]

I agree with the others. I think what ultimately makes it your creation is your vision for it and how you put it together. As Luna said, perhaps you use tools created by others but that doesn't make it any less yours. Just because Frank Lloyd Wright didn't pick up the hammer and put in each nail of "his" buildings, they are still considered his creations. We just went to Disney World last week. I don't think any would contest that it is a creation of Walt Disney. Yet, I'm sure he didn't physically build the rides himself. It was his vision and his drive to use the tools and people available to him to see his creation to fulfillment.

 

[Mouser]

Very few painters go out and grow the plants and grind the rocks to make their own paint.  Just sayin'

 

[Zoltor]

It should be noted that most scripts are hardly plug & play(the odds are, the only plug & play script a person is actually using, is the battle engine its self), you still have to customize how the scripts work with your game.

On top of that, you still need to do the mapping, story, eventing, item/skill creation,, custom art(if you're gonna have custom art), ect.

As for the using scripts, I try my best to event anything possible, so thus I mainly use development tool type scripts/script that fix the flaws of the engine.

However on the whole using other people's stuff in general, rather it be scripys, the RTP or resource packs. Everyone who has ever made a game, is getting some kind of help, if they claim they aren't, they're flat out lying.

Rather it be scripting, spriting/, the story, eventing, composing music or whatever, noone can do it all.

Hell even the most experienced coder needs to go to a website here, and there asking for help/how to go about coding x or can you post the code for X function..

Seriously you should look at the more hands on developments tools, these forums are utterly empty compared to forums for other development tools, just because people need more assistance to figure things out/create stuff.

Hell even the huge commercial game companies with their big teams, use other people stuff for a big leg up(aka the engine is a common thing for companies to barrow/rent, or whatnot, as are tons/countless of behind the scenes things, I'm sure).