Picking up abandoned project

[Ldub]

Just wondering if there was any president of someone picking up another devs abandoned project. There are some that i would really like to see finished such as Nightclub but the dev has been gone for a long time. Would it be out of bounds to take those assets and do more with them?

 

[Machinist]

If the game is abandoned then it's up for grabs imo. If you can mimic the style then go ahead.
That's what happened to bif brother after all.

 

[Alcahest]

Bimbo Life Coach was taken over by a new guy with the original dev's approval.

https://f95zone.to/threads/bimbo-life-coach-v0-6-3-bimboroom.31473/page-33

 

[golrim]

Using breeding season as an example of abandon project, you have permission from the original creator to use the games code to create a similar game, but you can't use the majority of the art assets because the art directer who created them had not given permission and forbid use of it. If no permissions are given than second best is to come up with a similar game with original code and design.

 

[MrFriendly]

The few times that it has happened the new dev received the approval of the old dev. I am not familiar with an instance where a new dev just picked the game up and ran with it. There are "spiritual successor" type games where a new dev has claimed to be inspired by the old one, tried to emulate the previous game, and then created a wholly new project.

If you are looking to do the latter then there are some abandoned games that could be inspirational to you as I am sure we all have favorite games that were abandoned.

 

[Adabelitoo]

If you can get in touch with the original dev and get his approval, then it's all good.

If you can't get in touch with him, I guess doing your own fan game continuing the game/story as you want and making obvious mentions and references to the original game and its author, I think you're good to go too. At least most players won't have a problem.

If you could get in touch with the original dev and he said no, then it's over.

 

[Tor7]

While clearly getting the permission of the previous dev is the best route to take... as long as you are not profiting off of it, you can pretty much do what you want. If the character models are available there is no reason you can't use them.

As an example, when the Mandalorian came out and baby Yoda was revealed Disney forced people that posted screen shots (even memes) to take them down*. However, for artist who drew, painted, crafted copies of baby yoda and posted them, Disney could not do anything about it.

*While some of the usage could have been considered "fair use", I am not aware of any person going against Disney's order to take them down. What average person would want to go to court against Disney?

*Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, this is not legal advice, just my opinion on events I have witnessed in life