Hello everyone.
A few years ago, after discovering the world of visual novels, I came across Summer's Gone.
I found the writing incredibly well-crafted and the development of Nika, Nami and Bella's personalities and the ways they interact with each other extremely inspiring.
Having always loved telling stories and having a lot of experience as a 3D artist, I immediately wanted to learn how to use Daz and Ren'Py to create my own visual novel.
I found these 3 characters so visually beautiful that I wanted to work with them and so I found the assets used on the Daz store.
To summarize, I wanted to use Nika, Nami and Bella as a means of training by only keeping the relational dynamics between them, their personalities and their faces/hair.
I had fun putting them on stage, as a hobby.
The problem, which I didn't see coming until it was too late, was that over the months I found myself with a very advanced scenario and a few thousand renderings...
You see what I mean ?!!
The more time passes, the more proud I am of what I accomplished as a novice and the more I want to share it or even sell it on Steam but I don't dare.
Even if, as it stands, my story is different and the MC's past is different as well as the causes of his depression and his isolation (for example there is no Summer in my story), I still have some big scruples because in my opinion, what makes the heart of the novel Summer's Gone is the clever mix between the charisma of these 3 characters, the relational dynamics between MC and Nami (Yo!Rolls!), and between MC and Bella, (I love you , Me niether...c*nt !).
To make a long story short, although I have a different story, different causes and consequences, different events and different names and characters throughout the story, the simple fact of having the heads of these 3 characters, their states of mind and the relational dynamic between them is more than enough to pose a big dilemma for me and it frustrates me more and more.
This is why I come to you, the community, to get your opinions, your opinions on the moral dilemma that I am facing. I need to take the temperature a little to know how this would be perceived in the world of visual novels devs and fans.
Friends have told me that it's common to find the same 3D assets used in different VNs but, as I said, I think I've done a lot more than just copying 3 faces.... I have copied what I believe to be the heart of this excellent Summer's Gone.
Thank you in advance for your views on the matter and sorry for my English. Also sorry if this isn't the right place to talk about this, I'm new here.
Have a good day !