VN Ren'Py Abandoned Love Next Door [v0.2 - Part 1] [EroBro]

[Orangepocalypse]

Well status on the page is abandoned so it must be abandoned.

The abandoned tag reflects how long it's been since the last update, and by that metric the game is surely and truly abandoned. I had actually heard from EroBro when I posted the reply that you are quoting, and I had asked him to please put something on this board to communicate to supporters that he was alive and well and to let folks know where his head was at.

I can't really speak for him, nor do I want to presume that I know his headspace on a day to day basis. All I can tell you is that the rules for how a game gets marked as abandoned do not include information that I had at the time but thought was relevant (I was in communication with the developer myself). So, I tried as best as I could to let people know that the presumption that the game *must* be abandoned might have been a premature one.

So, yeah. I can read the tags. I just had information that other folks didn't have and shared as much as I felt comfortable sharing to the best of my ability.

I would love to have the man himself come on here and give an update, but I don't really want to presume that I have the right to share information that doesn't belong to me.

 

[FookU2]

Well status on the page is abandoned so it must be abandoned.

That's not how this website works. They mark the thread abandoned when this site stops receiving contact from the dev, or when they see the dev no longer posts updates on their Patreon. A lot of devs left Patreon, or never were there in the first place. And many devs will go a really long period of time without posting updates, but will still be working on the game.
So....being marked abandoned on F95 definitely doesn't mean the game is no longer in development.

 

[J.R.]

Sorry, but I don't trust that dev anymore. He did that stunt now the second time. Making an update, promising this and promising that, and of course he will communicate better in the future - and suddenly vanishing again. Even on his own Discord not a single peep since, I think, early Jan. Nobody can tell me he had no time for a simple post there, except there is some serious health issue - then I apologize.

Well, time to unwatch that thread. Was a nice try to reboot my sweet neighbours, but even there's surprisingly an update coming again at some time it's imo going nowhere, will never get finished.

 

[Orangepocalypse]

Sorry, but I don't trust that dev anymore. He did that stunt now the second time. Making an update, promising this and promising that, and of course he will communicate better in the future - and suddenly vanishing again. Even on his own Discord not a single peep since, I think, early Jan. Nobody can tell me he had no time for a simple post there, except there is some serious health issue - then I apologize.

Well, time to unwatch that thread. Was a nice try to reboot my sweet neighbours, but even there's surprisingly an update coming again at some time it's imo going nowhere, will never get finished.

From my last dialog with the man himself, I don't disagree with your assessment at all. His physical health has been fine as far as what he was sharing in conversation with me. I just think it's another case of a developer not having the requisite time to execute a plan and IRL issues being significant enough to cast real doubts on whether that would ever realistically change.

The lack of communication with his supporters on Patreon, his followers on Discord, and the folks here is just something I cannot explain. I'd be pleasantly surprised to see him get back in the game, but it would take a few consistent updates before I would feel anywhere ready to be invested in the project.

 

[Mondoblasto]

Looking through his game socials, he replied to someone on Itch.io last year that he'd been busy at work with a new firm. It's possible he's working on this when he can, but that's real-life cheques paying the bills and all. We certainly all know that this situation happens.

If he turns up again with another update that would be nice, but I won't hold my breath for it. There are other games.

 

[farners]

it's sad

 

[MikeOG]

 

[H1M]

shame i enjoyed this...

 

[snow123789456]

hopefully it would be back,

 

[Orangepocalypse]

hopefully it would be back,

I have more realistic hopes . . . like for world peace

 

[Maladika]

Ahaha... i feel stuck in a time loop

I just discovered this game and this topic...
- "Oh ?!! cool ! a new version of My Sweet Neighbors... this game i really liked the start few years ago but that was finelly abandonned.. saddely"
- "Oh ? but ?...."
- "..."
- "this one is abandonned too ?!"

I wonder if someone will start later a remake of this abandonned remake of an abandonned game.

 

[Orangepocalypse]

Ahaha... i feel stuck in a time loop

I just discovered this game and this topic...
- "Oh ?!! cool ! a new version of My Sweet Neighbors... this game i really liked the start few years ago but that was finelly abandonned.. saddely"
- "Oh ? but ?...."
- "..."
- "this one is abandonned too ?!"

I wonder if someone will start later a remake of this abandonned remake of an abandonned game.

I tried to do that very thing, but sadly the project is abandoned unless and until I find an artist and a programmer who are good fits for my particular set of skills.

So yes, an abandoned remake of an abandoned remake of an abandoned game has already happened.

 

[JDVT]

I have ways to continue the story or make a new one but without the
assets from the characters I can't do it?

 

[Orangepocalypse]

I have ways to continue the story or make a new one but without the
assets from the characters I can't do it?

I'm not an international copyright lawyer, but here's my take.

The premise of the story, mother and daughter move down the hall from MC and the MC "romances" both behind each others' backs, is not something that can be copyrighted. It's basically the same idea as a songwriter can't copyright "my woman left me" as a premise to lyrics.

If you were to continue the story with the same characters or use the same assets, then you'd be running into some issues with intellectual property.

I don't know if you'd run into any issues if you were to utilize certain story telling elements (LND used some of the elements from MSN such as running into the daughter in the building hallway because she was locked out of the apartment), but those similarities are broad enough that I don't think you could be rightly accused of trying to do a scene by scene ripoff of the story.

There's also the question (that I can't answer with any authority) over how much copyright is retained over a project that has been abandoned before completion. I can't imagine that the original writer can claim copyright over things that he never wrote, so as long as you aren't cut and pasting dialog or doing a scene by scene copy of what's already been done, you would have a pretty clear argument that you are doing your own exploration of a broader (uncopyrightable) theme. There are plenty of games that take place in college, for example.

I wrote about 300 pages of script for just such a project only to have my artist/programmer realize that he had bitten off more than he could chew. Depending on what you're interested in doing, I could share the work that I did with you and we could talk about making the project move forward.

 

[Vualen]

It is pity that such nice games get abandoned...

 

[farners]

I'm not an international copyright lawyer, but here's my take.

The premise of the story, mother and daughter move down the hall from MC and the MC "romances" both behind each others' backs, is not something that can be copyrighted. It's basically the same idea as a songwriter can't copyright "my woman left me" as a premise to lyrics.

If you were to continue the story with the same characters or use the same assets, then you'd be running into some issues with intellectual property.

I don't know if you'd run into any issues if you were to utilize certain story telling elements (LND used some of the elements from MSN such as running into the daughter in the building hallway because she was locked out of the apartment), but those similarities are broad enough that I don't think you could be rightly accused of trying to do a scene by scene ripoff of the story.

There's also the question (that I can't answer with any authority) over how much copyright is retained over a project that has been abandoned before completion. I can't imagine that the original writer can claim copyright over things that he never wrote, so as long as you aren't cut and pasting dialog or doing a scene by scene copy of what's already been done, you would have a pretty clear argument that you are doing your own exploration of a broader (uncopyrightable) theme. There are plenty of games that take place in college, for example.

I wrote about 300 pages of script for just such a project only to have my artist/programmer realize that he had bitten off more than he could chew. Depending on what you're interested in doing, I could share the work that I did with you and we could talk about making the project move forward.

for me, go to the project.

If there was a contract or something similar to a work relationship, considering that there's an abandonment of the project by the other party, many judges would rule that if there's no bad faith and you've done everything possible to reactivate it, you're free to continue the story.
On the other hand, if there were economic profits, it would be wise to make a provision for a part of the earnings in case there's a claim. And to show good faith, in case the other party reappears.

On the other hand, this depends on which country and the regulations that exist, both for one partner and the other. But the essentials would be similar, at least in the Western world.

 

[Orangepocalypse]

for me, go to the project.

If there was a contract or something similar to a work relationship, considering that there's an abandonment of the project by the other party, many judges would rule that if there's no bad faith and you've done everything possible to reactivate it, you're free to continue the story.
On the other hand, if there were economic profits, it would be wise to make a provision for a part of the earnings in case there's a claim. And to show good faith, in case the other party reappears.

On the other hand, this depends on which country and the regulations that exist, both for one partner and the other. But the essentials would be similar, at least in the Western world.

It's not a contractual question where one of the developers wants to continue while the other has vanished. It's an IP issue of how much "rights" EroBro (or if you want to be REALLY accurate Pandelo) has over the general concept of the story of a mother and daughter moving in to the building occupied by MC.

I'd argue that there's very little that could be asserted in this rather broad story interpretation just as surely as a songwriter would have a hard time copyrighting the general theme of "my woman done left me and my truck broke down".

Continuing either LND or MSN with the assets that were being used would invite legal action because character design I'd argue falls under the umbrella of IP, but EroBro for example was in my opinion 100% safe with his remake because he (while clearly paying some level of "homage" to MSN in the same way that Led Zeppelin paid "homage" to Willie Dixon et. al.) started a story from scratch and was already introducing divergent elements.

I was working loosely with EroBro as a writer of sorts, and if I were to examine this theme I'd be doing so from a story that starts at square one (and in fact have a ton of script written that does just exactly that).

But from the perspective of someone who wanted to do their own take on the general theme (mother and daughter move in to building and MC "romances" both of them behind each others' backs), I'd say that the risk of any accusations of appropriating someone else's IP is pretty much zero.

 

[pothb]

If nothing else, isn't this game basically a copy of My Sweet Neighbor?

Sure there are differences, but I doubt anyone who will do similar will hard copy it unless they're aiming to continue a project which doesn't seem to be the case.

 

[Orangepocalypse]

If nothing else, isn't this game basically a copy of My Sweet Neighbor?

From an IP perspective, you could argue that it isn't, but yeah you can definitely see that EroBro was familiar with MSN and drew some "inspiration" from how MSN had developed in its early chapters when launching his "take".

I'd argue that the thing being copied is a broad enough premise that it's not necessarily something that could be claimed as IP, but realistically both MSN and LND appear to be so completely and thoroughly abandoned that I'd be surprised if either of them were to re-emerge and claim some kind of ownership of the project.

If either of them were actually in the mood to profit from the broad premise, they'd be continuing to work on a project that is obviously in demand.

 

[SubtleHustle]

"my woman done left me and my truck broke down"

What about the fucking DOG!? Goddamn it. Some tear in my beer.