A game developer's biggest wish is to reach an audience as big as possible. And since RPG Maker works with a Run-Time Package, you need to include it in your project so the end-user doesn't have to install it separately. That would make the game more user-friendly.
But... do you really need every single item the RTP can offer? The answer will most probably be no. Then... why include a ton of resources that are not needed for the game, that just inflate your file size with junk files?
This is why a made this little guide, since I see this is a very common problem in this community. (Most of the pictures of this guide will be from RPG Maker VX Ace, but the process is the same for all the versions)
Step 1: Tell the game to NOT use RTP
If you release a game without RTP, an user that doesn't have its respective RTP installed will have an error saying: "This game requires (RPGM Version) RTP".
As you may think, this is not good, since the user won't be able to play the game. To avoid this, you'll have to open your project's root folder, and find a file named "Game.ini".
After this, just open the file with Notepad and modify the second line. The one that says "RTP=(RPGM Version)"
What you want to do is delete everything on the right side of the equal symbol, wich should leave you with this:
Save this change you've made and you're good to go. Now RPG Maker won't ask the users to install RTP on their computers.
Step 2: Adding only NEEDED RTP Files to your project
After you finished Step 1, if you open your game you'll probably get an error of a missing file. This is because the program will no longer search for the RTP files on their respective folder; it will search them in your project folder now. What you want to do to fix this, is import every single RTP asset your game uses until you get no more errors. This can take some time depending on how big is your game. There's two different ways to do this:
• Using built-in resource manager
This will require you to use the resource manager on your RPG Maker to import RTP files. You can differ RTP files from your files because RTP files will be blue, and your project files will be red.
• Manually importing files from RTP folder to your game folder
This is my personal favorite, and the fastest way to do this. You will need to open the RTP folder (C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Enterbrain\[Your RPG Maker Version]) and manually copy-paste the files you need from this folder to your project's folder.
(RPG Maker VX and VX Ace only: Please note that you will always have do something through this method no matter if you imported all your files from the resource manager, and that is copying VL Gothic font to your project "Fonts" folder. Otherwise, you will get a missing font error)
Step 3: Compiling your project
After you make sure there's no more missing files errors, you'll be ready to compile your project without problems. Just make sure to disable Include RTP Data option, because we won't be needing it anymore. You can also encrypt your project if you want; it won't make any difference.
And that'd be it! You've successfully reduced 150-200MB from your game's file size.
But... do you really need every single item the RTP can offer? The answer will most probably be no. Then... why include a ton of resources that are not needed for the game, that just inflate your file size with junk files?
This is why a made this little guide, since I see this is a very common problem in this community. (Most of the pictures of this guide will be from RPG Maker VX Ace, but the process is the same for all the versions)
Step 1: Tell the game to NOT use RTP
If you release a game without RTP, an user that doesn't have its respective RTP installed will have an error saying: "This game requires (RPGM Version) RTP".
As you may think, this is not good, since the user won't be able to play the game. To avoid this, you'll have to open your project's root folder, and find a file named "Game.ini".
After this, just open the file with Notepad and modify the second line. The one that says "RTP=(RPGM Version)"
What you want to do is delete everything on the right side of the equal symbol, wich should leave you with this:
Save this change you've made and you're good to go. Now RPG Maker won't ask the users to install RTP on their computers.
Step 2: Adding only NEEDED RTP Files to your project
After you finished Step 1, if you open your game you'll probably get an error of a missing file. This is because the program will no longer search for the RTP files on their respective folder; it will search them in your project folder now. What you want to do to fix this, is import every single RTP asset your game uses until you get no more errors. This can take some time depending on how big is your game. There's two different ways to do this:
• Using built-in resource manager
This will require you to use the resource manager on your RPG Maker to import RTP files. You can differ RTP files from your files because RTP files will be blue, and your project files will be red.
• Manually importing files from RTP folder to your game folder
This is my personal favorite, and the fastest way to do this. You will need to open the RTP folder (C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Enterbrain\[Your RPG Maker Version]) and manually copy-paste the files you need from this folder to your project's folder.
(RPG Maker VX and VX Ace only: Please note that you will always have do something through this method no matter if you imported all your files from the resource manager, and that is copying VL Gothic font to your project "Fonts" folder. Otherwise, you will get a missing font error)
Step 3: Compiling your project
After you make sure there's no more missing files errors, you'll be ready to compile your project without problems. Just make sure to disable Include RTP Data option, because we won't be needing it anymore. You can also encrypt your project if you want; it won't make any difference.
And that'd be it! You've successfully reduced 150-200MB from your game's file size.
