So because Shadow takes inspiration from MNGF its plundering and you feel there is a "feud"?
The devs know each other, yes. I am sure if MNGF Dev doesnt like what Shadows is doing they can speak up for themselves.
I like both games and they clearly have a different story and a different approach in how to go about things.
I know very well that the two know each other! They even do some light cross-featuring! Kate from Shadows is the unknown girl Eric meets at the Neon Club…
Maki is the unknown girl in Shadows’ NYCT Club (by the way, she even references the Neon Club -> another club not too far away). And funny thing about this one, they even went as far as sharing the
hmm.mp3 audio file from MNGF for Maki’s appearance in Shadows, just renamed
CGsmirk.mp3 (18KB)… Nice little detail!
All of this is pretty cool, but where it becomes problematic from a player’s perspective is that the situations are copy-pasted!
Take Eric’s reaction when discovering the Neon Club:
‘Whaow, big, can hear the music from the inside’—almost the exact same lines for Luke…
And then both clubs have the same decor and lighting (pink/gray).
And then you have the same tables cutting the screen horizontally with shots on them (okay, the drink color is different)…
Etc...
That’s what I mean by plundering.
Yet, the solution is already there—they just need to fully embrace it by officially declaring that the games share the same universe!
Then you make it a single club with a single decor, and suddenly it’s not jarring anymore. The NYCT bouncer becomes Samuel (especially since they’re identical except for skin color…), and everything falls into place. And you can share all the assets you want without a Patreon thinking,
“Wait, am I paying for the same game twice??”
IMHO, if this shared universe isn’t treated as a real feature, then it’s just an excuse for a certain kind of laziness! And I’m saying this while fully acknowledging that Shadows still represents a huge amount of work!
I think it’s a shame that someone casually checking out these 2 games—like many people do—will just see two productions that look so similar they won’t even know who inspired who…
