abandonware vore games.

[warbrand4]

Ok this is sadly a common trend here and well anywhere that has vgames people work on truly great games even for fetish games and just abandon them half way through with no hope of them ever being finished do to the must have permission to work on thing. Which is a mixed bag, while yes you need to have that permission incase the dev comes back but almost 90% of the time the dev doesn't or does just to shut down the reboot(has only happened once and it was a good thing)

So here is the thing most games here become abandonware some how or some way, and well us who work on the games need to at least work on a way to lower the rate. (really some good concepts fall to the wayside do to real life or just plain not caring anymore)

So here is a suggestion for all devs of vgames. add a disclaimer at the bottom of the origin post stating that if the game is to be abandoned do to RL the game can or can not be worked on by others. I know most of the games will likely be can not but still best to have a rider on the topic for future instead of the normal drag up something old and start an argument cause it was old.


Also the necro stuff on vgames needs to be adressed as well many great games made by the comunity jsut drop by the wayside do to fear of necroing topics or fear that it is dead permanently, I can say that some devs actually fear this more then the community as it shows a lack of interest and if no one is interested why continue?


sorry for opening the can of worms and sorry for the fact I suck at typing things out... I am just a mapper, but I know problems when I see them.

[FutureBellyAche]

Well its not like it's that simple. A lot of people who quit making games also seem to leave the forums, or but it on infinite hold. They have the intent to go back to it, but probably wont.

[lapraslunch]

*comment deleted by original poster*

[eatmeplease]

Personally, IP or not I think if something is abandoned, other people should work on it. If the creator doesn't want that, then they should post where they're going, and when they'll be back. If they need to be gone more time, they should post an update saying so. If they don't, the game should be considered fair game to be worked on by anyone.

[darkevilme]

I've attempted to have the source codes of my projects available so people could resurrect projects that I'm no longer updating. Everyone has permission to pick up projects of mine if they wish.

[Winny]

What I don't understand is this, If someone starts a project for an extended period of time then either vanishes or discontinues it why would someone pick it up? I mean if you or someone else is willing to put the effort into making a game why not just create a game from scratch?

Besides a couple examples in the forums of either someone else updating a game with a more fleshed out system. (Vgame) or trying to make expansion packs. (VRPG) no one has successfully taken over someone elses work to completion. (If there is an example and I don't know I would bet its close to the one or two at max.)

If someone want's to use assets of a game then simply ask the creator, if they do not respond. (Or heaven forbid) they left deleting their account, or the account is inactive for long periods of time then theres nothing you can really do.

If you do use assets of someones game without telling them or are unable to tell them or ask, simply put a reminder in the game credits, or at the opening menu (X things created by X account) to give credit where it is do.

And most creators are very very very open about helping others, and it never hurts to ask creators (Hey, I really loved that sprite animation you made in X game, could you let me use it? and or, can you teach me how you did it?) A little politness and curticy goes a long way.

Dead games stay dead on EKA's there is'nt a need to bring something like this up, its all common sense.

[Skeiron]

Making a game and keeping it updated costs a lot of effort and time. Many games are open-ended and are in continual development until the creator loses interest. Over time, we will naturally accumulate more and more 'abandonned' projects, simply because more time passes. What I mean to say is that it is not a 'recent trend' or that it 'happens more and more' that games are abandonned. It is a psychological bias.

At the same time, often many hours are put into these projects by the developers, and almost always they do it for free or personal satisfaction alone. I see no reason why someone unrelated to the project can just claim ownership of a project, simply because it has not been updated in a while.

I agree with Winny above. Ask the original creator for permission, or just create something new.

Edit: Just re-read the original post, it looks like you are suggesting that developers could put out a disclaimer saying that others can continue their work in case they abandon it. If a developer wants to do that, then that seems fair.

[ryanshowseason3]

If you've got the time and inclination to pick up someone else's project and learn their system you'd probably be better off putting that time and effort into spinning your own.

I'm not saying that out of anger or spite...

My code is a god damn mess.

I've made it decently simple to add basic encounters but creating new areas or revamping the battle system?

I don't even want to peek under the covers of that pile of garbage. It's a lot of effort for me to trudge around in there.

Don't even get me started on my skyrim mod. FUCK THAT NOISE.

There will always be abandonware games. I'm teetering on offended that you consider this a problem, you're getting what you pay for. Which is a grand total of nothing. These creators have no obligation to finish anything or let other people branch their work and take it in different directions than they intended. If they ever take the project back up it gets REALLY awkward trying to merge changes without the proper software to actually do it.

Unless you're running out of public Github repositories it just isn't worth it.

That said I wouldn't be opposed to creating such an open source game that other's could freely merge into and add onto.

[Aleph-Null]

Concerning the original post,

I would make a suggestion to game creators to consider the situation and write out their wishes, but I would not suggest treating all abandoned games as open license.

The reason I suggest this is that the majority of times people have attempted to "continue" a game, it really seems like an attempt to take control of the game, and inevitably ends in drama.

There are numerous examples of this, but I think the best one was when Duamutef disappeared, a member came into the discussion on his disappearance and told the community that he was given control over the IP for dgvrpg, and asked all community members to stop mod development. This is after Duamutef had given permission to the community to do as they pleased with his IP. This was probably a legitimate misunderstanding on the part of that member, but it just goes to show how confusion can creep into these situations.

Despite the probable good intentions of parties taking over projects, these projects seem to be polarizing. Everyone seems to have their view of what should be included or excluded from these creations, and without the original author there to create canon, the community efforts to continue projects often end up incomplete and the net effect on the community usually seems negative.

And as Whinny pointed out, ideas are not in short supply, not continuing a project does not mean we have less content.

[Gibet]

Try to see it from the perspective of the fine people who make these games here When someone makes a vore game for the portal, they are doing painstaking work without reimbursement in order to provide the community with something else to enjoy. It is not their responsibility to make things more convenient for others should they decide to stop working to produce free content for the enjoyment of the community of a whole, as they weren't really being compensated in the first place. It's not very nice to nitpick the hard work that game developers do, because once again, this is a service that we consumers of said games (and that includes you and I, the only-partially-involved co-developers) are enjoying for free at the cost of the hard work and dedication of the people who make the games. Are these games limited resources that need to be shared equally among the populace in order to prevent wastefulness? Of course not. It's not feasible or practical to say that developers should pick up the halted work of others instead of starting new projects themselves, even if you may think that the large number of incomplete games is a problem that needs to be solved.

Developing a game for Eka's Portal is as difficult as producing any other kind of media for the site, including drawing and writing. A developer needs to be able to avoid all sorts of ungratefulness and criticism, even though the community here is really quite nice. Plus, continuing a project abandoned by someone else is much more difficult than one might think. Just because a developer used a program or code to produce a game doesn't mean that these resources are readily available to anyone who downloads the finished product.

If you are on the receiving end of a product that is created by someone with no request of reimbursement (i.e. You Got The Thing For Free), you should generally be unconditionally grateful, even if you may be disappointed that the project was abandoned prior to completion. I don't think it's appropriate to make further requests of the site's developers in this way, even if it's just a suggestion. But of course, all of this is just my opinion, and I am just a simple person.

[darkevilme]

I just had an idea for a counter proposal. Rather than having all developers put up a disclaimer saying people are allowed to take their project and continue it. How about contact the developer and see if you can coax them to come back with money. It's a big community and crowdfunding tools are on hand in this modern era. As is devs don't owe the community anything, not their continued effort, not their permissions for their project to be taken over, nothing.

Now personally I don't care if someone dusts off space odyssey or vore war, OVRL I handed off the Xyoshi, i care a little if someone tries to take over DT but that's cause it had a narrative and a story which could be adversely affected. But yeah, in this economic climate you might be best starting a crowdfund.

[eleventh]

Having done a bit of dabbling with assorted engines, I can agree that it would almost certainly be easier to make your own game from the ground up than to try and figure out how everything's been wired together in an existing one. That said, contacting developers to see if you can use the assets from their game is a fairly reasonable option.

[ryanshowseason3]

How about contact the developer and see if you can coax them to come back with money. It's a big community and crowdfunding tools are on hand in this modern era. As is devs don't owe the community anything, not their continued effort, not their permissions for their project to be taken over, nothing.

I would certainly be motivated since contractor work is what keeps me away from my projects in my off time from my 9-5. Being compensated for that time would give me an excuse to *not* get paid my hourly rate. However...

While I think this is a great idea it's sort of gray area-ish for a lot of games.

Any games that use any content not made by the creator are a legal limbo to accept money for their continued development. Unless all the assets are either paid for or completely freeware or licensed correctly it's not incredibly ethical to accept money.

To be honest though I've been thinking about this kind of thing too though and I'm looking to develop games and content that I could accept funding for with no legal or ethical complications.

[Seifens]

While adding money to the mix does complicate things, and contributors should certainly be able to control the things they contribute, I think the original post was a simple good idea. The OP is advocating for a kind of living will for projects so that in the event the author loses interest, abandons the game, or drops off the face of the earth, the community knows what permission they have to reboot/restore/finish the work.

Those permissions could be 'none', and that should absolutely be considered the default in absence of such a mention or other arrangements. The note could read 'This project dies with my interest in it.' and explicitly forbid people from working on it - and even in absentia we should respect the author's wishes if that's what they want. However (and maybe I'm just being sentimental here) I feel like on a community forum like this most projects are attempts to add back to the community, and most of the time creators would be happy (or at least indifferent) to see their work picked up and continued if it had actually been abandoned for whatever reasons. But I think yea or nay, the idea is just to get some clarity from the original author while they're around rather than having to track them down after the fact, which isn't always possible.

And I don't think the OP felt any of this was owed to him or anyone, just that it might be a good idea to given how frequently projects peter out to spell out those permissions ahead of time to avoid confusion later, especially if as a creator you'd be ok with seeing your project continued by others.

[eatmeplease]

What harm does it do to the author if someone continues their work? Abandonment to me means they no longer care. If they don't care enough to finish it, why should they care if someone else does?

Abandonment should by default mean it's OK to continue, especially if the author cannot be located or contacted.

[Aleph-Null]

What harm does it do to the author if someone continues their work? Abandonment to me means they no longer care. If they don't care enough to finish it, why should they care if someone else does?

Abandonment should by default mean it's OK to continue, especially if the author cannot be located or contacted.

This is rarely ever the case. Abandonment usually means life has taken over and you can't dedicate time to this fetish anymore. And it is still the creation of the original game designer, people typically don't drop all investment in projects that they have put so much time into.

[Chryseum]

Personally, I see the games on this site as personal projects, really. A lot don't just decide to make the game for the people here, instead mostly making games for themselves, then deciding to share them with the members of the community. They are not, and never will be, obligated to complete a game they post here.

However, does that mean upon abandonment the game is still their property? No. Once the game is abandonware, anyone can utilize the source code to continue the game. The former developer can request it's not continued, but they cannot force that no one continues it. Until the person publishes the source code in a completed game format, it's not their property, as source code can be changed so much to make it near indistinguishable from the original. As two game developers can take the same source code, and make two completely different games.

This is merely my opinion.

[empatheticapathy]

I gotta be honest, I'm not sure I get why this is an issue. How does it differ from making a mod for an existing project? It's not like an extension by someone other than the original dev means the original dev can no longer contribute, or that this new version somehow supplants the old version, or excludes the original dev from picking up where they left off.

[eatmeplease]

What harm does it do to the author if someone continues their work? Abandonment to me means they no longer care. If they don't care enough to finish it, why should they care if someone else does?

Abandonment should by default mean it's OK to continue, especially if the author cannot be located or contacted.

This is rarely ever the case. Abandonment usually means life has taken over and you can't dedicate time to this fetish anymore. And it is still the creation of the original game designer, people typically don't drop all investment in projects that they have put so much time into.

That's why the developer should take a few moments to say so.

[Chryseum]

That's why the developer should take a few moments to say so.

Seconded. Developers should mention this at least. Without doing so is basically an implying of abandonware.