Ren'Py Abandoned The Regional Manager [v0.171] [Horizontical Studio]

[allm]

Look at that! The hypocrite hiding behind the nickname MasterGamer1234567890 is still trying to demand something from someone?!))) That's hilarious, especially after he shamefully chickened out, failing to find a direct link from the author to the game "Lust and Power")))

 

[Jgriz04]

You still didn't answer the question. Why not make a new game with the same concept instead of trying to continue someone else's work?

I didn’t know I had to answer the question since I am doing neither.

For the sake of argument, if someone was building a house and then stopped it would make sense to start from where they stopped, particularly if you really liked how they designed their base of the house.

I suppose a more apt analogy would be that you are copying their design. One reason for this, beyond the fact that you really like that base design, would be that you would be less likely wasting funds because you already know exactly what is needed. This may not be a problem for a large construction company but if you building as a solo project, you may not have everything exactly planned out and/or have limited funds thus less ability to overcome waste.

My real question that I would want you to answer is why is this such an important issue for you? You have been arguing for pages now, trading insults back and forth.

From what I can see, you are not the owner of the original game which is who I would expect to have copyright issues from if any were to come up. You may even be right with your opinion. I neither know nor care. Frankly, I have skipped over most of the argument because I find it tedious.

 

[devonY7]

The situation isn't any different for any of the other games I listed or the +50 games I'm currently following. Often same day or max a few days later after a game version has been made public available, the game updates makes it to this site. For evidence. I think it was in the Club Detention thread that no long ago, there were a discussion about a version being leaked in Asia, but it wasn't until the dev made the version public available, that it made it to this board. But I doubt that discussion will satisfy you, so I'm not going to waste time finding the date for the discussion.

what you mentioned is completely different than your claim . all this implies is that no one bothered to download it from the Asian site and repost it here . that is very different then your claim of moderators not letting new updates on this site at the request of devs .

 

[allm]

I didn’t know I had to answer the question since I am doing neither.

For the sake of argument, if someone was building a house and then stopped it would make sense to start from where they stopped, particularly if you really liked how they designed their base of the house.

I suppose a more apt analogy would be that you are copying their design. One reason for this, beyond the fact that you really like that base design, would be that you would be less likely wasting funds because you already know exactly what is needed. This may not be a problem for a large construction company but if you building as a solo project, you may not have everything exactly planned out and/or have limited funds thus less ability to overcome waste.

My real question that I would want you to answer is why is this such an important issue for you? You have been arguing for pages now, trading insults back and forth.

From what I can see, you are not the owner of the original game which is who I would expect to have copyright issues from if any were to come up. You may even be right with your opinion. I neither know nor care. Frankly, I have skipped over most of the argument because I find it tedious.

That's exactly what I've been trying to prove to him this whole time. Why create a similar game in this genre from scratch when we already have a fantastic game that everyone likes? The only problem is that it's unfinished, and unfortunately, the future of this project is unknown.

So, I'm gonna slowly start preparing: I'll create 3D models of the game characters, look for location models—I think all that will take about a year. Then, together with willing fans, we'll discuss the plot development, and I'll start preparing game renders and writing code. I hope the original game author will show up by then and continue their project, but if not, we'll at least have a plan "B" in the form of a fan-made (even if unofficial) continuation.

 

[Darksmiling]

Without getting too close to anyone, I think a completely new game would be better because you can bring in your own ideas and add to the existing ones. But that's just my opinion.

 

[Diggers129]

Without getting too close to anyone, I think a completely new game would be better because you can bring in your own ideas and add to the existing ones. But that's just my opinion.

I’m in agreement with this cause the Dev had multiple irons in the fire so to speak when it came to direction of the characters and the story so many patreon people involved.

I think picking up the project without their support is a bad idea I haven’t been following this forum at all till talk of the game being continued but I know there are so many people who still check the discord every now and then and would be more then happy to help I’d recommend reaching out to them on discord otherwise this could end up being another bad Bobby game with several people starting their own continuations

 

[MasterGamer1234567890]

I didn’t know I had to answer the question since I am doing neither.

For the sake of argument, if someone was building a house and then stopped it would make sense to start from where they stopped, particularly if you really liked how they designed their base of the house.

So you would continue to build a house that you don't own, and don't know whether the owner would come back someday and claim the ownership? Why not just get your own ground and build your own house on that, and using the first one as inspiration.

I suppose a more apt analogy would be that you are copying their design. One reason for this, beyond the fact that you really like that base design, would be that you would be less likely wasting funds because you already know exactly what is needed. This may not be a problem for a large construction company but if you building as a solo project, you may not have everything exactly planned out and/or have limited funds thus less ability to overcome waste.

The base design isn't what takes most of the time or funds. Specially not when you have a house where you get ideas and solutions from.

My real question that I would want you to answer is why is this such an important issue for you? You have been arguing for pages now, trading insults back and forth.

From what I can see, you are not the owner of the original game which is who I would expect to have copyright issues from if any were to come up. You may even be right with your opinion. I neither know nor care. Frankly, I have skipped over most of the argument because I find it tedious.

No I'm not the owner of this game. The issue is important to me, because no body will be able to continue the game in the same style as the original dev. It will therefore most likely be a Frankenstein, and the new parts will look like any other games here. This game should remain abandoned until the original dev comes back. If he doesn't then the game is dead for good, and quite frankly. I prefer that over a Frankenstein. If anyone has the skills to make a continuation of the game, go and make your own game. Don't steal others and make them part of yours.

But I see that I'm starting to repeat my self, so I think I'll end our conversation here.

 

[MasterGamer1234567890]

what you mentioned is completely different than your claim . all this implies is that no one bothered to download it from the Asian site and repost it here . that is very different then your claim of moderators not letting new updates on this site at the request of devs .

As I wrote. You will find some excuse for why I'm wrong.

No one had to download the game. All they had to do was to send the uploaders a link to the leaked version. Do I have prof they did. Not some that will satisfy you. And with that, I'll end this conversation.

 

[devonY7]

As I wrote. You will find some excuse for why I'm wrong.

All they had to do was to send the uploaders a link to the leaked version.

if you read the sharing rules you will clearly see you cant just do that .

 

[MasterGamer1234567890]

if you read the sharing rules you will clearly see you cant just do that .

Well. It worked well in the past for me, when a public version was a little late getting published here. But I strongly doubt it will work for a none public version, as long as the dev's are making the game public available within 3 months after subscriber release, or 1 version back.

 

[devonY7]

Well. It worked well in the past for me, when a public version was a little late getting published here. But I strongly doubt it will work for a none public version, as long as the dev's are making the game public available within 3 months after subscriber release, or 1 version back.

im not talking about that though . ill give an example . attack on survery corps has a public version that comes out after 2-3 weeks . the game regularly leaks on a russian forum . i have personally downloaded that version and re uploaded it on a verified file host and the mods have posted it before the public release. however i have seen people post the direct unapproved link or mention it but the mods have ignored it .

 

[MasterGamer1234567890]

im not talking about that though . ill give an example . attack on survery corps has a public version that comes out after 2-3 weeks . the game regularly leaks on a russian forum . i have personally downloaded that version and re uploaded it on a verified file host and the mods have posted it before the public release. however i have seen people post the direct unapproved link or mention it but the mods have ignored it .

As I wrote before. We will never agree, so let's end this conversation by agreeing to disagree.

 

[devonY7]

As I wrote before. We will never agree, so let's end this conversation by agreeing to disagree.

sure . but like i said im still willing to agree if you show me the right examples .

 

[MasterGamer1234567890]

sure . but like i said im still willing to agree if you show me the right examples .

Nah. It will just be a waste of time. You will always find an excuse for telling me, I'm wrong.

 

[aifman7]

Remakes happen all the time. We've also seen several games get additional content after the original developers either completed or abandoned their work.

Witch Trainer Silver is a modded version of Witch Trainer developed by a group unrelated to Akabur, the original creator. Akabur released his game as a completed work and moved on to other projects. Silver is still a very popular title and just received another big content update today.

Lab Rats 2: Reformulate is a modded version of Lab Rats 2 developed by a group unrelated to Vren, the original creator. Vren abandoned his project before finishing it and has seemingly moved on from game development, or at least stopped communicating to his fans. Reformulate is as popular as the original game was, perhaps with renewed interest due to the various different mod branches folks are working on (like the GenAI mod for example)

Sexbot Restoration 2024 is a remade version of Defective Sexbot Chop Shop developed by someone unrelated to Radnor, the original creator. Like Vren, Radnor also abandoned his project before it was finished and is now MIA. squirrel24 has taken over development in the remade game and has even offered to support modders by working to port their content over from DSCS to SR24.

This is only brushing the surface, too. Searching all of F95zone for "remake" and filtering results so that only game threads show up yields 12 pages of results. This is really rather common in the world of porn games, and about half of the posts I clicked from those results were actually fan recreations of previously completed (or abandoned) titles. Anna's Exciting Affection, Urban Demons, Big Brother, Manila Shaw, Lily of the Valley, and on it goes. These were extremely popular games, both the originals and fan versions.

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allm - My recommendation: Change the title to make it obvious what your project is so there's no confusion. Call it something like "The Regional Manager: Unofficial Fan Remake" (or something more clever than that, lol)

I think the most important thing is to make it clear to others that your version is unofficial and not the original. As long as you do then I think you should be fine.

I would definitely recommend making a separate development thread for your dev discussions though, or at least a separate game thread for your modded version. I wouldn't recommend posting your work in this thread directly because it'll get lost in these 160ish pages of discussion and it could also confuse newcomers.

Good luck with the project, I'm curious to see what you've got up your sleeves.

 

[MasterGamer1234567890]

Remakes happen all the time. We've also seen several games get additional content after the original developers either completed or abandoned their work.

That is absolutely true, and I'm fine with that, under the conditions you have listed. But what allm is planing to do, doesn't fit any of your cases. As far as I understand, he is planning to take the code from the original game and ad content to it. This while the dev is dealing with a personal crises, which is why he isn't working on the game.

This game should have the on hold tag, but the rules on this board can only give it the abandoned tag.

 

[aifman7]

That is absolutely true, and I'm fine with that, under the conditions you have listed. But what allm is planing to do, doesn't fit any of your cases. As far as I understand, he is planning to take the code from the original game and ad content to it.

That is exactly what WT:Silver and LR2:Reformulate did.

 

[allm]

allm - My recommendation: Change the title to make it obvious what your project is so there's no confusion. Call it something like "The Regional Manager: Unofficial Fan Remake" (or something more clever than that, lol)

I think the most important thing is to make it clear to others that your version is unofficial and not the original. As long as you do then I think you should be fine.

I would definitely recommend making a separate development thread for your dev discussions though, or at least a separate game thread for your modded version. I wouldn't recommend posting your work in this thread directly because it'll get lost in these 160ish pages of discussion and it could also confuse newcomers.

Good luck with the project, I'm curious to see what you've got up your sleeves.

Hey! Thanks for the advice, that's actually what I'm leaning towards as well. But to be honest, we're getting way ahead of ourselves. Right now, I'm just looking into whether this sequel is even possible, and that's gonna take a while. At the moment, I've only just started collecting the in-game characters, because if it doesn't work out at this stage, then there's no point in even wasting time on the rest. If you're curious about my progress so far, here's the new Audrey skin, for example:

 

[fake.name.again]

That is exactly what WT:Silver and LR2:Reformulate did.

Yeah, and in most cases it's just called a mod. And I would rather that people mod unfinished/abandoned games, and start immediately creating new content, than get bog down on recreating something that was already created, that will generate little interest until the stage with new content, and very likely burn out the creator. Especially when some part of the fan base is immediately hostile.

Buuuut... Picking up someone's code-base, render style and writing is a tricky business. In this case, renders could actually use upgrade, they are decent, functional, but rather basic.

And yes, it is important to at least try to play nice with the original author. At least clearly label that you are modding/ basing on someone else's work. Especially if he is, to some degree, still active. If he returns, and we hope he will, we'll get the fork situation. And to my knowledge, mods that fundamentally split from the main game, when it is still actively developed, are not usually that successful (like mods for Rogue Like Evolution)

Buuuut.... (again) from what I read allm didn't really intended to deceive anyone, he was happy to forthrightly state what his intentions were. Did he come strong with an attitude, and maybe too much confidence, that other will support his efforts? Maybe. I'll admit I did not read the whole exchange from the start, but at this point, his arguments make so much more sense than his opponents.

 

[MasterGamer1234567890]

That is exactly what WT:Silver and LR2:Reformulate did.

With the dev's approval as far as I know, which isn't the case here.

This discussion is really starting to run in circles now. I'll therefore stop any further posting on this subject in this thread.