Because we aren't profesionals. We don't own game companies. We are not employeed by game companies.

We don't do this for a living, it is a HOBBY. And if you take it so seriously that you are actually turned off by non-professionalism than you need to find something else to do cuz you have the wrong attitude for it.

Quoted for the truth! We aren't professional, when making a game there needs to be graphics, sound/music! as well as coding which can be learnt. Most of the time if your a good programmer and you can draw decent enough you won't have trouble, since you can always find and use sound effects and music noone has used before.

Script Review: Figure out the components required for the type of story that you are trying to tell. Get a feel for the characters, their personalities, and by extension - hopefully, their appearances. Get a rough sketch in your mind of the areas that the story takes place.

Cast Selection: Use charas to start putting sprites together who look like they can fill the roles in your script. Alternatively, create your own from scratch, or grab some rips/rtp.

Location Scouting: Find tile/chipsets that will serve well for the locations planned out in the script.

Set Design: When the above fails and you have to create your own backgrounds to portray the scene as outlined in the script

It seemed fairly self explanatory to me.

The problem here is that actors and settings aren't originally MADE for one purpose, whereas game graphics are.  Settings and actors can be reused without a problem in movies whereas using rips in games is frowned upon, because these are two very different things.  Analogy ruined.

i really really do not like ripped graphics and would rather use either RTP or whatever else I can find.
needless to say I do not have adequate artistic abilities nor time to make my own

I don't know why I said all this in present tense, I haven't tried making a game for years.

The problem here is that actors and settings aren't originally MADE for one purpose, whereas game graphics are.  Settings and actors can be reused without a problem in movies whereas using rips in games is frowned upon, because these are two very different things.  Analogy ruined.

I'd still rather play a game with engaging gameplay and re-hashed graphics than its inverse. As long as all the internal parts work well, you can easily slap a new body on it.

If your idea of a good time and some pleasure is to perform activities you just aren't really great at and that take lots of time, effort, concentration and some aptitude for it, for no other reason than to make it look professional, by all means. Go ahead, put effort and take it serious.

Some people just don't care about making it look completely original, professional and polished.

Because we aren't profesionals. We don't own game companies. We are not employeed by game companies.

We don't do this for a living, it is a HOBBY. And if you take it so seriously that you are actually turned off by non-professionalism than you need to find something else to do cuz you have the wrong attitude for it.

no-one is arguing that people should have custom graphics that are on the same level of technical quality as professional games, they mean custom graphics as in just stuff you make yourself. i mean



i suck at pixelling which is why i use photos for my games and admittedly these are just pictures and not chipsets but it took ten minutes in mspaint for the lot and they're still a hundred times more eyecatching than even the cleverest use of rudra chipsets or whatever. this is what is meant by custom graphics. it's interesting that you guys all bring up this thing about PROFESSIONALISM when that's exactly what we're arguing against: there isn't any way that an rm game made by one person could be as accomplished graphically, musically, technically as a professional game, but the point is that instead of aiming for that by stealing graphics music gameplay etc from those professional titles it's better (for the community as a whole AND for you personally in terms of people-who-actually-check-your-game-out-instead-of dismissing-it-as-more-generic-rpgmaker-garbage) to use the limitations of a small project to explore new avenues instead of retreading old ones.

people have mentioned how ripped graphics are better than shitty custom ones, but i disagree: i actually think the professionalism of ripped graphics is a hindrance instead of a help, just because they tend to be absolutely lacking in any sort of interesting style or personality (and style and personality are basically two of the biggest strengths you can have for an indie game since they cost nothing but make people infinitely more likely to play/enjoy it), whereas even clumsy custom ones can still have both of those and also automatically help you to stand out from a crowd of 500 other rpg makers who are using pretty much the same charasproject characters and ripped chipsets.

I apologise to disagree, but I think those screenshots are not at all appealing. They may be eye-catching, but only on the same level that the drawings of children would be eyecatching; to me at least. I do not mean to offend, but simply state my opinion; I apologise if I cause you any undue grievances, in both the preceding sentence as the ones hereafter.

#1 learn to stand up for your own opinions jesus christ
#2 i disagree entirely idk where those screens came from but i would play any of those games, when i see overused regular rpgmaker type graphics my eyes completely glaze over and i give no fucks about them but those screenshots caught my attention right away, where are they from????

People who dismiss a game with unoriginal graphics as "more generic RPGMaker garbage" are simply that. People with an opinion. For everyone who hates your game based on the graphics, there's someone else who'll like it for the application of the graphics, or the story that they are used for. There's enough in the screenshot thread where people are truly impressed with the screenshots, despite them being unoriginal graphics that have been used before.

the problem with pandering to the people with the lowest standards of originality and invention is that you end up with exactly the same stagnant, insular circlejerk the rpgmaker scene has been for years. you can switch the word 'graphics' in that statement for 'story', 'gameplay', 'setting', 'characterization', 'music' and get the exact same argument and not at all coincidentally a whole bunch of mediocre-at-best retreads of games that were popular fifteen years ago. people make boring games, nobody plays them, people make the exact same boring games with slightly better mapping, rinse repeat etc. nobody wins: not the designers who'd like to reach an audience made up of something other than the same dozen-or-so rpg purists in the screenshot thread, not the players who are sick of the same old same old for years on years, not the rpgmaking community as a whole which continues to be regarded as a worthless creative wasteland by the rest of the (continually expanding and developing) indie game community. You can say WELL WHATS WRONG WITH MAKING WHAT I LIKE but while there's nothing wrong with that per se i was mainly talking to those people who don't just see their games as generic timekilling hobbies, those who actually care about making something worthwhile and interesting. and yeah, i think it is necessary for them to start moving away from ubiquitous, generic-looking rips and start thinking about how to make games that are interesting and different instead of continuing to pander to people who just want the same generic game over and over. note that i said interesting instead of appealing since taste cannot be disputed or whatever but continuing to work on premade content that's pretty in a generic way instead of actually taking chances and trying new things stylistically means dooming yourself to mediocrity and stagnation, not to mention like konix said severely limiting yourself in terms of the actual games you can make.

And hey, for every person who presents a game with custom graphics, there'll be just as many who dislike it at a first glance. You just can't get everyone to like your game.

this is true but you should bear in mind which kind of people are going to be liking/disliking it. different strokes and all that but if it's a choice between people who dislike a game for being unoriginal and generic and people who dislike it for being weird i think it's always better to err on the side of the former, for reasons outlined above


edit:

#1 learn to stand up for your own opinions jesus christ
#2 i disagree entirely idk where those screens came from but i would play any of those games, when i see overused regular rpgmaker type graphics my eyes completely glaze over and i give no fucks about them but those screenshots caught my attention right away, where are they from????

i made them to see how long it would take (about ten minutes for the whole bunch) and how much pixel experience you'd need to make something visually distinct from 99.999 percent of rpgmaker games (none)

vellfire is NOT A PLANT, everybody. i have never seen this person in my life outside of this studio audience. THIS IS NOT A HOAX. call now to recieve a twelve dollar discount on Swift DustWipes and experience the magic for yourself

are you using them in any games because i would play them no joke


also i have never met this person before i am just an innocent audience member.....*_*

nah probably not, i actually got the urge to make like a compilation of short weird rpgmaker games when i was drawing them but itd probably mean editing the rm battle system to something actually playable and i have no real desire to do that. i quite like the arabian one on the left though

That's like asking why people use game making software instead of coding everything in C++

Yet another awful analogy--this is not the same thing!  You're looking for the answer "because it's easier", but choosing a piece of software over pure code just changes the way you go about getting your end result.  On the other hand, using rips/rtp/etc. actually changes the end result itself.