Monetization Questions

[OpiumDolphinProductions]

Hello! So brand new to the community. Little background on me and what I’m looking for:

I’m a Linux user looking for a good RPG maker and apparently that’s been more headache than I bargained for. Most of the RPG maker engines on the market either flat don’t work with Linux or require all sorts of hoops like installing and unzipping wine, or downloading some play on linux program, downloading other work arounds, and on and on. Most of these require a lot of work to install and then don’t work anyway. Either that, or it requires setting up a Windows virtual machine which impacts performance.

So to this end, I’m intending to build a commercial game, so I started looking into your platform a bit. I’m not quite sure how things work on the licensing end though. I’m not sure I understand the legalese on your terms and conditions, and some of your responses you have posted in the forums kind of contradicted each other at different points?

So I saw originally in 2015 you posted something like “Hey yeah you can sell your games, no sweat.”

Then I saw a post in 2017 that said you can’t currently export games so it can’t sell at the moment, but listed possible options to sell in the future. I also saw some posts about possible sell-able in game currency.

If I’m understanding the terms and conditions correctly, however, it seems that a lot of the intellectual property (assuming settings, sprites, etc) are copyrighted, so I’m a little confused there. So just to clarify:

1) Is there currently any update from the 2017 response as far as ways to sell games made here / export games made with RPG Playground?

2) If I attempt to sell a game made with RPG Playground down the line, will I run into issues with Copyright as far as intellectual property (sprite designs etc)

3) How is the in game currency situation? Is that something still in the works?

In short, I’m serious about creating a quality game, but my concern is that if RPG Playgrounds retains all rights, then if I put a whole ton of work into making this thing on your platform, you’ll get a great demo game to generate interest in RPG Maker (fine for people who are just wanting to make a game for fun) and I’ll get nothing financially for all my work. I’m also worried that if I use this as a protogame and later remake the game on a different platform, will I run into copyright issues with you, if I’m understanding the legal stuff correctly?

Anyway, I hope none of this comes off as aggressive. Completely new here and all and it’s exciting to actually have an environment to make all this, just want to make sure I know what I’m getting into. 🙂

[deWiTTERS]

Ah, a fellow Linux user 😁! I’ve been using Linux as my primary system since 2002, so everything is first tested on Linux 😀.

The sprites are not mine but all free to use for commercial purposes. So an export wouldn’t be limited by copyright. Music and sounds are from zapsplat, so that is also not an issue. So legally it’s possible.

I always have commercial releases on the back of my mind, so I keep all options open for that.

As you noticed I change my priorities sometimes. This is mainly because I listen to our community and try to get a feel of what people need. If Aura would have said to want a commercial release, it would have definitely be higher on the priorities. But it seems most users just want to make a game and share it. So your feedback is definitely valuable.

So let me explain my current vision on monetizing your games. I first want to introduce a credit system on the platform, like Robux. A game designer can then request credits as a paywall or for micro transactions. If I notice the players are not receptive, I could also allow you to show ads and monetize like that.

My assumption is that it is more profitable to get noticed on RPG Playground, than to compete with bigger players on the usual platforms. I want to support all flatforms in the future, so that would allow you to press share and have an audience everywhere. This also means you don’t have to go through the approval process of all those platforms. It seems to work for Roblox.

About exporting games, which I assume people will want to do at some point, it will be a feature geared towards indie studios. That means you are willing to pay the $99 ios developer or Steam fee, and a minimum $200 for exporting your game. I don’t want to flood the playstores with crappy games. So this option is really for those who are serious.

What I suggest to you: start out in RPG Playground. All your creations are copyrighted by you (story, gameplay, dialogs, …). If I go too slow for you, you have a way out: You team up with a Godot developer and port over your game. Since you already have a complete game to show for yourself, this is way easier than when you wouldn’t have this. Then copy over the art from my credits page at https://rpgplayground.com/credits/ . You can use it the same way as I did.

And if I can keep up, you can be one of the first to monetize your games 😀.

[OpiumDolphinProductions]

I like the sound of that.

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