Tired of Ren'Py projects left in limbo? What if you could be the hero who revives them?

[Aexier]

Hello everyone, I'm reaching out as a long-time observer who is now stepping into the conversation. I've noticed an alarming trend of beloved games that fans were excited about being left behind and abandoned by their developers. While I understand this is a platform for sharing games, images, models, assets, and more, like many of you, I’m frustrated by seeing incredible games go to waste. I truly believe that no project should be considered finished until it’s fully realized, and I am eager to pick up where others have left off. My first goal is to dive into the game Gates Motel

I want to acknowledge the unfortunate circumstances surrounding the developer in Ukraine; it’s clear that game development isn’t his top priority right now. I genuinely loved the game and was excited for what was next but felt disheartened by the hiatus and concerned for the developer's safety. My intention is to create a fan remake of his game, and I've been doing extensive research to grasp his vision. The developer Psycho drew significant inspiration from Bates Motel and Psycho; I’ve been immersing myself in both the book and show to better understand his creative mindset. There’s so much potential within this game—its characters, settings, fetishes, kinks—and so much more remains unexplored.

I'm not sure if this serves as a recruitment post or simply an announcement, but it's essential to express how devastating it can be when games are abandoned left and right. Like many of you, I desire resolution and fulfillment from these projects. My hope is that through this message, I might find a few collaborators who share my passion or inspire others to revive their favorite unfinished games.

 

[NeonSelf]

There are two ways to complete an abandoned game, but both of them are complicated:
1 - get the original models and code, so you can resume where the author left the game. In most cases its impossible to get original assets and you will have to remake them from scratch.
2 - remaking everything for consistency. Depending on the game it may take months to render everything with new assets just to catch up to where the original game was abandoned.

And the most annoying thing is dealing with IP ownership. Do you have permission from the author to resume his work? Are you planing to get profit from your remake?

If you've got the right skills - it makes more sense to make your own game, inspired by someone else's, instead of trying to revive an abandoned game and then getting backstabbed by its author.

I'd consider resuming someone else's work, if game's original creator shared all the assets for it and marked it under some general public free usage license like CC-BY, GPL or something like that.

 

[kytee]

Title makes me think of some sort of isekai, "Sent into the World of an Adult Visual Novel to Make Happy Endings Repeatedly", where an MC has to go into abandoned visual novels, resolve the plot in one and then get sent to another and have to resolve the plot in that one ad infinitum.

 

[Danv]

never going to happen
i've seen dozens attempts to revive dead games, none of them got anywhere

 

[Mr_Ainz]

You have to understand that the same struggles people have to finish an original project are going to appear in any sort of revival/continuation. Case in point Project Sage where a guy was making some scenes to substitute in the original (not even a complete project) and it also got discontinued.

Regarding IP ownership like NeonSelf says, I don't even think it's that much of real problem. I don't know shit about law but if a guy in thailand is making a ren'py game and then some dude in madagascar steals his idea I don't think that dude will face real repercussions. If someone is willing to school me on that I welcome any info on that.

Reality is that most people online dislike plagiarism and they will shame you, other than that I don't think there's anything stopping you from releasing a copy of a porn game

 

[Waterthose]

The issue is, you don't have the original vision of what makes the original great. You're not the same person, you don't have the way they express things and you sure as heck won't write in the same way.

It's not that easy to pick up where someone left off especially if you were never involved in the first place.

 

[anne O'nymous]

Regarding IP ownership like NeonSelf says, I don't even think it's that much of real problem.

In term of justice, yes there's really few risk that the IP owner will sue you. But he can contact Patreon/SubscribeStar/whatever, explain them the situation, and you'll be kicked out.

It's not that easy to pick up where someone left off especially if you were never involved in the first place.

And if you are so good that you can copy the original everything, then why bother with the continuation of a game? A better use of your skills would be to make your own one, with a story that you control right from the starts.

 

[Hagatagar]

Soo... it's a fanfic?

 

[Waterthose]

And if you are so good that you can copy the original everything, then why bother with the continuation of a game? A better use of your skills would be to make your own one, with a story that you control right from the starts.

Yeah, with blackjack and hookers!

 

[suprisedcrankyface]

In term of justice, yes there's really few risk that the IP owner will sue you. But he can contact Patreon/SubscribeStar/whatever, explain them the situation, and you'll be kicked out.

This - once money is involved things can go sideways easy

As others have said rather than revive a game methinks you would be far better off just drawing heavy inspiration from it. And to be fair most games are just a clone of another game - just look at the number of princess trainer inspired games on this site

I will paraphrase a quote from somewhere
'to truly copy an artist you must exceed them in every way, you must have such a great understanding to not only be able to mimic their movements but also their mind'. And if you are better than them, dont waste your time copying them

 

[Pirosc]

I wish you good luck. I've seen lots of games abandoned, only one ever finished (Rick and Morty: Another Way Home) that stayed with the original concept and was completed. Good luck and if nothing else I hope you do start making and finishing games.

 

[Geigi]

It's stealing. The only way you could continue abandoned games is if you get permission from Devs of original games to continue or the best way is to be inspired by the game and make your own version.

 

[Aexier]

Hey everyone! At the start of the week, I have posted this and have met with good points and feedback. Now as the week comes to a end, I have appreciated your feedback and your advice as I have listened to it very closely. I am no longer working on Gates Motel as I have reached out to the developer and have not received a reply back as of yet.

I am however, working on a game that is loosely based on Bates Motel and Psycho. The game is called Beneath Her Shadow and is still in the early development stages. I have already posted this in the thread that you can follow here

Once again, thank you for your responses as it helped me to realign the game to be a spiritual successor to Gates Motel. I hope to provide more updates within the coming days but until then, stay tuned!

 

[Aexier]

Title makes me think of some sort of isekai, "Sent into the World of an Adult Visual Novel to Make Happy Endings Repeatedly", where an MC has to go into abandoned visual novels, resolve the plot in one and then get sent to another and have to resolve the plot in that one ad infinitum.

That is actually hilarious. Now that I think of it, it does come off as an isekai name. Although I have changed course into developing a new game instead, I would still love to continue developing games left abandoned. I do hope that will be the case eventually as everybody deserves a happy ending.

And yes, I know how that phrasing sounds, but I stand by with my words

 

[MissCougar]

I think if you have the drive and motivation to do it you should just do you own version instead of take the parts someone else left behind and try to continue that. Continuing a parody of a parody is some black mirror game devving.

Obviously though if it's what you want to do, go for it. But if you just want to go crazy and complete a game that's already a parody you may as well do your own parody version too. I don't think anyone would mind hopefully.

Good luck!

 

[woody554]

the rare people who try to continue games never understand why the original worked, and instead leave out everything that made them good as 'mistakes'.

the bar is not high but they simply don't have the chops for even that.

 

[Doorknob22]

Never ever going to happen, for a simple reason. If anyone has the time, talent, motivation and creativity to continue an AVN, they are going to use all that time, talent, motivation and creativity to pursue their own project.