Hi VCD,
I understand your sentiment and I am going to break down your statement step by step
What if this is the dev's first game? We all learn via trial and error in our own way, so being this harsh is completely uncalled for.
Lets recontextualize this scenario in some different ways and tell me whether or not you still stand with that idea;
- Your child brings home their first crayon drawing claiming its theirs just for you to find out that its actually their older sibling's drawing
- Your spouse tries to cook their first food, just for you to find out they ordered in the food in MacDonalds and claimed it was theirs
in these scenarios similar to this lets break this down :
1. They didn't learn, it was NOT trail and error
2. They felt it was okay to deceive you with this
3. No satisfaction is gained from creating , only from the praises
4. If you were competing with such person would it feel fair ( you might be justifying this because of the quality, imagine if they found the repo to call of duty)
You can make argument that I could have been nicer, which I agree with
But there is a certain disappointment that comes with seeing programmers condone this idea
Also there is a rule that majority of the code has to be written during the game jam - which they deserve disqualification for (but I didn't bring that up)
Especially that last part about having to "rethink your game dev journey".
That is a honest feedback I gave to them, no hard feelings, because this is not a way to grow
No programming or game design knowledge or expertise were applied here
Plus, it's a game jam, and there is nothing wrong with using existing assets as long as the dev have the rights to use them and as long as they weren't stolen.
Yes you are right, I support the use of assets 200%
Please I am not coming after them using assets, its the lack of creativity applied in using such assets
I appreciate the effort put into the game, if there were new levels or unique elements, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.
Please consider where you stand—being overly nice might not help the team grow.
I apologize for being blunt, but I understand how challenging game development can be.
I’m looking forward to seeing what they create next.
Thanks!