MR Dean James Reynolds decided to make a fan copy of the hit xbox indie game by the same name, howoever for this pc version he added some extras to it including some multiplayer fun! Have a look it is very well done and made with clickteam software! Ohhhh.. Ahhhhh... Zombies!!!!
I'm confused, is he the original creator of "I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MBIES 1N IT!!!1" ?
Because if he isn't and made this without the consent of the original author this is both illegal and morally wrong, even if he explicitly stated this isn't his original creation, which he didn't.
I played the game and its harmless fun, also its free I would not read to much into it. I did change the news text slightly. Comment edited by Rikus on 6/25/2012
Those are two completely different things, playing a cover version of your favourite song is ok, remaking a recently released (and still selling) game or movie without the original author's content is not, made even worse by the fact he doesn't state it's a fan made game anywhere. He even goes as far as putting "I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MBIES 1N IT!!!1 PC edition" in the main menu, implying this is an official port. All this classifies as morally wrong in my book.
The way I see it, there are a lot of things wrong with this world, but if we can somehow learn to encourage creativity and chill the fuck out, then maybe we'll be alright.
"Hello this is my game I've made based off of the xbox 360 live arcade indie game "I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MBIES 1N IT!!!1" It is almost an exact replica..."
I think reading the download's description would have saved you all a lot of confusion. All this infringement uproar seems to be much ado about nothing. Comment edited by s-m-r on 6/25/2012
s-m-r: I did read the download description, and that part doesn't say explicitly he isn't the creator of the original game, only that he's making a replica off it.
And no one has made an uproar, at least I didn't. Apparently for some people it's totally ok to rip off someone else's work without authorization, I beg to differ. From my part there isn't much more discussion to be had.
Chris Burrows:
"if we can somehow learn to encourage creativity"
Encourage creativity by encouraging people to clone other people's games without their consent? We must have very different definitions of "creativity" then.
@Johnny Look Seriously calm down, this is not illegal since it is completely free, the gfx were NOT stolen I copied them, Didn't rip them, the only thing I used of there's is the song, which as you said; "It's ok to play the cover of the song". This is not a fan game either, I've never even played the xbox version, I made this because I was looking for a zombie top down indie game to replicate and perhaps add multi-player online (which I did happen to do).
Dean James Reynolds: First off all, wrong assumption, just because you are not profiting with this doesn't mean it's legal to use copyrighted material without authorization.
Second, I didn't say you stole the graphics.
"the only thing I used of there's is the song, which as you said; "It's ok to play the cover of the song"."
Huh ? What does playing a cover of a song have in common with ripping a song from another game ?
Anyway, fan game or not, bad intentions or not, you are deliberately ripping off someone else's work without authorization. Same title, same gameplay, same theme, same UI etc...
s-m-r: Why wouldn't they ? Remember the original was for the xbox.
@Johnny_Look You are going way to far with this, grow up. I'm a 16 year old kid making a game in MMF2 because I wanted a pc version with multi-player, now seriously get a grip. I highly doubt somebody is going to start a lawsuit and sue a 16 year old teenager for making a replica of a game he liked on a totally different platform.
I have no qualm with people who clone games, especially if it is fan inspired and not to make a quick buck,
but copying pretty much every aspect of the original game and calling it the same thing, for profit or not, it is a douchebag thing to do, regardless of the intentions.
I would have leaned more to your favor if you had at the very least called the game "I C0P13D A GAM3 W1TH Z0MBIES 1N IT!!!1". Retuning the song to reflect that would have been brilliant as well.
s-m-r is right, grow up kids. You stupid fools, I can make whatever the hell I want and there aint nothing you can do about it, I didn't have to release it. so give it a rest and go outside.
Anyway, I'm not saying they are going to sue you. Ska studios is a indie studio and I doubt this will hurt them so much they would use their few resources to fill a lawsuit against you, at most they would send you a C&D letter.
The thing is and like Cecil said, from a developer's perspective, a homage with the same setting and similar gameplay could be technically illegal but they would probably appreciate it. Another entirely different thing is cloning the game and calling it the same thing and on top of it not stating clearly you are not the original developer. If they found out about this I doubt they would be happy and could even interpret it as copyright infringement, unfair competition, assets theft, impersonation etc, each of them worth a juicy lawsuit. Again, I doubt they will use legal means if they ever hear of this, but this is just so you understand why I'm saying this is morally wrong.
Also yes, I'm a indie developer for over 7 years now and I have my own company (http://neogen2.com) .
Chris Burrows: yeah, calling me a douchebag definitely added a lot to the discussion. Comment edited by Johnny Look on 6/25/2012
That was inappropriate, and childish. You are being given criticism here. There is an obvious controversy (a little petty maybe) here, that has some concerned. Don't take that lightly.
James Silva is however, a really cool guy. I doubt he would give a crap that you made this (or maybe he would). People have been given C&D's for far less harmful things.
This is probably not as good as the xbox version, I mean it wasn't the easiest thing to make, but I only did this as a small fun project so I doubt Ska are going to file a lawsuit against me, I understand what you're saying, but nobody gives a crap about my games on here anyway, that's why I only release my clone's and crappy tests on here and stuff, maybe the odd good thing now and again, but my original and creative games need proper advertisement, this site is not for big selling games believe it or not.
Just wanted to mention that Johnny Look is absolutely correct about this. Even if you don't like his attitude, James, you should take his advice serious. I've been working in the industry and believe me it is full of sharks who will try everything in their power to make money off of stupid or unknowing people who think it's all just fun and games.
I think one of the best lawsuits in this case is from none other than Nintendo, because they sued the creators of Giana Sisters of copyright infringement and they actually WON! Giana Sisters had to be taken off the shelves, believe it or not
PS: The irony is that somewhat recently Giana Sisters was re-released on the Nintendo DS... ^^
I didn't call you a douchebag. I said somebody a certain somebody was being grumpy. I didn't even say it was you haha.
Unquestionably, in the eyes of the law, and probably God if there is one, making an identical fan game is a criminal offense, but at the end of the miserable day, who really cares. Obviously, you guys.
Yeah we don't need to call sherlock holmes to guess who you were referring to as "mr.grumpy pants". And implying I would denounce the kid for whatever reason is kind of the same as calling me a douchebag.
"making an identical fan game is a criminal offense, but at the end of the miserable day, who really cares."
Because a criminal offense can get you outrageous bills and fines and in some cases jail time, I care. You don't, that's fine, your problem. Still I think you'd be shocked if you were aware of a quarter of the legal mumbo jumbo that goes behind the scenes in the industry, trust me I've seen people getting sued for far less than this.
Again, it's not just the legal side of things that is questionable here, but I think you already voiced your opinion on that matter as well.
When the day comes, I will go down fighting with an AK-47 in both hands screaming through the blood in my mouth THIS IS WHAT I THINK OF YOUR BILLS, YOUR JAILS AND YOUR INDUSTRY!!!
@Johnny_Look If I have to go to jail for doing something I love (developing games), then so be it, I've been doing it for 2 years and I still love it so I aint giving up now.
Dean, no one is telling you to give up on anything. Just think twice before you clone other people's games because, summing up, that's not nice and in some cases can get you in legal trouble.
Plus it's so rewarding doing your own stuff, why bother losing time and effort re inventing the wheel ?
@Johnny_Look I've made original(ish) games of my own before, nobody ever plays them no matter how I advertise them, I get more attention from doing clones than my own, I see no sensible reason to invent my own when clone's get me more appreciation (somehow).
That is because you are riding on the gameplay and fame of a game made by someone else. Of course it's easier to clone a game than make a good game from scratch but if it's real recognition you are looking for you will hardly get it by making solely clones and remakes.
If no one plays your original games then they are probably not good, which is fine. Everyone's first games sucked and in some cases were even mocked. The difference between a successful developer (or anything really) and a nobody is their persistence and willingness to learn. Some get there faster than others, but you can't realistically expect to hit the jackpot at your first try.
@Johnny_Look Are you fucking blind 'kid'? I've been doing this for 2 years and made over 300 games (some clones), don't say my work is 'probably' shit when you've not tried a single one of them, "but you can't realistically expect to hit the jackpot at your first try." Get the fuck out of here, you don't know the effort I put into my games.
Wow, that was supposed to be helpful and honest advice. Why do I even bother is beyond me. And I did play your last one, which should give me a good idea on how good you are right now so I wasn't exactly talking out of thin air. I find it hard to believe you made over 300 games, and two years is nothing so perhaps you ought to be a little more humble and accept some advice ?
Get a fucking life, you have all the more flaws than me, so if you're not a kid like you don't deny, then go fucking get a job and stop bossing people around dipshit.
You judge me based off of 1 game, a clone. Sad pathetic loser.
And I NEVER said I wanted to make money off of any of my games, get your facts right you stupid loser.
Oh and I don't fucking care if you're so mentally retarded enough to find it difficult for your pea-sized brain to believe I've made over 300 games, I don't need to prove it to you and nobody else. I keep my games to myself and friends.
If the real xbox version of the game is even 2x better than this, i would still give it a one or two stars. I mean that everyone here could make a better shooter than this crap. But i have to admit it was fun about ½ minutes. And yes.. i played it till death several times.
@Dean James Reynolds ..if you would have made original, and not copy a crap, it would have been propably a good shooter.
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I love top down shooters, i make them myself.
edit: to clarify the crapness: Why the hell ruin this (and the original) with annoying music, fucked up lightning and other effects, and give it stupid childish name. I just dont get the popularity of the original. Comment edited by hapsi on 7/1/2012
@hapsi Are you retarded? All the light effects, song, etc was in the original so therefore I'm not stupid and childish, I just copied the game, deal with it you bitch.
@Johnny_Gay Get the fuck out of my game discussion page you weak ass son of a bitch.
@Dean James Reynolds I KNOW that all the light effects etc. was in the original(and you were stupid enough to copy that shitty part too). I think you didn't even read my message before.
I am concerned that a few people are getting a bit tense about this now. Can we all cool off???
Dean, congrats on making a game and getting it frontpaged!! Most people will release games on here and will never get them frontpaged. On the other hand you need to accept that other people are entitled to their opinion and will generally offer constructive criticism. Ignore those who launch into personal attacks. Please try to remember this when/if you post on here again.
Everyone else. Please calm down and offer constructive criticism for this dev! Everyone has opinions about why certain things don't work well and instead of just saying (I'm going to paraphrase another user here) "This crap" explain why. If it is part of the original game and the cloner has cloned that then explain that maybe they shouldn't have done and offer them an alternative solution.
This place was originally designed to allow other users to offer HELP and guidance. I remember a time when a dev could post on here and expect helpful comments from other people not slated and ranted at.
Can we all now offer Dean a well done for actually completing a game in these times when so few games are actually getting finished???
"This place was originally designed to allow other users to offer HELP and guidance. I remember a time when a dev could post on here and expect helpful comments from other people not slated and ranted at. "
That's funny, I did just that and what I got was an avalanche of insults. In case you haven't noticed, he doesn't react very well to people giving him advice.
Of course some people saw it as an opportunity to poke fun at him which was unnecessary but the issue here is definitely not lack of help and guidance, more like a case of extreme immaturity. I think trying to convince him to listen to the advice of others in the future would be more helpful than just saying congratulations, you finished a game.
Chris Burrows, I pretty sure I wasn't like that at the age of 16. And were you expecting to loosen up the ambience by starting a post with "Attention all assholes"? I don't think we need anyone to add more lumber to the fire. Comment edited by Johnny Look on 7/2/2012
@lembi2001 I understand, guess I was a bit harsh but I still disagree with OTHER INDIE DEVS calling my work crap, especially when I applied effort to this project, CLONE OR NOT.
@Johnny I guess so, well my apologies for calling you with insults etc, I have anger management, I guess it made me really angry people calling this crap and saying I would get sued and stuff.
I really didnt hope my "this crap" was going to be such an issue. In reality i was angered by the effects, music, etc as said before. Otherwise the game is nice.
@hapsi I really thought the effects and backgrounds were really fun, I mean.. if it was just a grey harsh background with noise in it then wouldn't it be very boring?
Wow, I go on holiday for a bit and come back to this. I'd try and think how James De Silva would feel.
I'd be pretty annoyed if somebody tried to pass off one of my projects as "the PC Edition", and depending on the severity of the issue would consider legal action. But that's me though. I'm pretty protective of my work and have gone down this route once before, with the results ending in my favour. So I would agree with Johnnys initial opinion.
However, there is no excuse for rudeness. I do admit though, that at 16 I was overly defensive when I made my games. Without wishing to come across as patronising, this part of your personality will fade as you get older and wiser.
Dean James Reynolds - you apologised to Johnny in the end so I guess that's good. But I'm keeping an eye on all involved in this post. That's a yellow card, folks.
From my part it's all good, apologies accepted.
I understand he's young and all and even older people can get pretty defensive about their work. Though things got a little out of hand I never really felt offended, I even thought "johnny gay" was pretty funny
Being 16 is no excuse for how he acted.
People raised a valid point and even if he doesn't agree there is no reason to be insulting like that.
If he has anger management problems or something i can understand that more and hope for his future self that he is seeking counseling help. But being 16 is no excuse. In some countries you can drive a car at 16, work and drink alcohol.
Well when I put effort into my work, the last thing I expect is to call it crap. Just saying, also my anger management finished after 3 years because it had gone, but I still get angry more than normal people in specific situations.
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MR Dean James Reynolds decided to make a fan copy of the hit xbox indie game by the same name, howoever for this pc version he added some extras to it including some multiplayer fun! Have a look it is very well done and made with clickteam software! Ohhhh.. Ahhhhh... Zombies!!!!
