Post by pfail in Problem with fake entries

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As explained on my game page, my game is explicitly inspired by a number of different 90s FPS games. And of course I used freely available assets. I assume that the majority of entries used a fair number of free assets for their projects, some even more than the few that are in my game. It's part of how game jams often work. I have no problem with that. I have problems with someone stealing an entire game, making ZERO alterations to it, and calling it their own. If you look at the source code of the game I pointed out, it even has the name of the original game still in its files. That's ridiculous, if you ask me.

https://github.com/limelighteditor/GitHub-game-off-2017/blob/master/texttool.htm...

FWIW, I've never seen this mod you linked to, let alone played it. You can obviously see that the two are extremely different aside from one graphic element, which I only found as a random and free animation asset. So would you mind explaining your point, and why you decided to create a new account solely to make this useless comment?

nexia7 years ago(+2)(-5)

Woohoo down-vote madness. I guess it's better trying destroy a comment instead of trying to find some discussion these days or trying to think on your own.

I created the account just recent and so? Am i not allowed to do so? How you know i won't use it in future for some games.
Useless comment? It was a valid question due to some similar approach of style, atmosphere, assets, inspiration of shooters (wolf3d, doom). Maybe i played too many 90s shooters to see some similarities *shrugs*. So the answer to my question would be that it's coincidence.

Yes copying games is bad. That we can agree on, no question. I checked your game/page and didn't see any mention of "free" graphics. Didnt state anywhere that some things are from somewhere else. You gave some info about sounds, music but only on the page and that's it as far as i seen?

5 min. google search and didnt bother to give minimum info? Btw. that one element makes up a decent amount of the game relatively to the rest (on title, as the only enemy in a shooter). Maybe you wanna name where the assets come from cause just that one thing alone shouldn't even appear anywhere as a "random free animation" and originated in that mod. I thought i know a few of the graphics from some games and not free sources. But not sure now.

Well, taking a game and calling it yours is bad but doing same with assets is fine i guess. As you said, many of the entries likely do same.

CptSpaceToaster7 years ago (1 edit) (+4)

The issues you're pointing out in regards to the use of an image miss the point entirely. As the OP pointed out, a game was copied near verbatim, and submitted with efforts to hide the original title. The original was properly attributed, and the attribution was removed. In the case of the free picture of the eye monster... we can debate if pictures should always be credited, but in this case, the attribution was forgotten.

IMO, actively removing the original title and author(s) of an already existing game is much different than neglecting to attribute the artist behind a 32x32 pixel sprite (especially one that has been used in many other games with a similar level of attribution)

lghost7 years ago(+1)

But now you know that this "free asset" is from another game, and is not a "free asset" actually, just somebody ripped it from the OG game and published without sourcing. But now you know the source, so you could just, you know, add this tiny bit of info to the game page. Dunno what's so weird about it?

The fact that your old game was stolen, retitled and republished is of course abhorrent, no question about it.

pfail7 years ago(+1)

You are absolutely right about updating the info, which I've done on the page now. My only issue was with the motivation/intention of the person who posted the comment, not the fact that the sprite was apparently from another source. That was my mistake, and hopefully I've now provided proper attribution.

itch.io

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