Bring back the games

[LastRound]

Edit (26/09/2023): So I wrote the riginal comment (see below) about 5 years back, and after reading a lot of game developpers' experience relating to game development, as well as Nadja's comment below, I realised that finishing an old game can prove troublesome. Due to this fact, my original post may have come off as entitled, and if so, I apologize. To be honest I wanted to delete the comnent, but I still feel as though a solution can be reached. My solution is a sort of "Public Domain" of sorts. You know how after a certain period of time, a copyrighted work may enter the "public domain" which would allow other creators to create derivative works based on it? I'm suggesting the same thing here. This kind of thing already happens on this site, to an extent. I'm sure a lot of us here played SpanQuest DX, which was Banjo's mod of the original SpanQuest. Some of you may also remember Life Lessons DX: Banjo's mod of Life Lessons by the user named Kandor. The problem here is that, for a variety of reasons, a creator may want to "disappear" for lengthy periods of time due to some issue in their life. This can prevent modders from posting their mods of the game, as they can't get permission from an unresponsive creator. In the case of Life Lessons DX, I recall that we didn't get to play that game until almost a year after Banjo stated that he was working on it, as Kandor hadn't responded to his messages for a while. What I'm proposing is that game creators, when posting a game here, preemptively post rules/guidelines for potential modders to follow before modding/making works that are derivative of the game the original creator posted. This can range from a list of options such as:

1. "I consider my work to be public domain; do whatever you want with it, no need to ask me for permission before uploading your mod/derivative work."

2. "If you want to do something based on my game, be sure to follow these rules: ...
As long as you do that, no need to ask me before uploading your mod/derivative work."

3. "If you want to do something based on my game, PM me first. Do nothing with my work without messaging me, even if I can't be contacted. (The default rules of this site)"

4. "If you want to do something with my game, PM me first using these methods (the user will add their contact info). If I don't respond after X amount of time, then I consider my work public domain. Do whatever you want to it, no need to ask for my permission."

5. (If the creator doesn't say anything regarding permission, then this should be interpreted as if they had said #3.)

This is not an exhaustive list of options. I also of course cannot expect creators that have disappeared already to see this, so none of what I said should apply to them. I also don't expect this to be a rule that the admin enforces, which is why I'm merely suggesting game creators do this, not that the admin enforces this rule. My goal with this post is to circumvent a few problems, namely:

1. Modders being unable to release games due to being unable to receive permission.

2. Games from being left unfinished, as now they can be picked up by other creators.

3. Creators unable to make their own games, as they have the technical know-how on how to create games but lack ideas.

4. Game droughts (no new games being released for a while). Ideally, this proposal would also apply to game updates as well, so potentially, we could get different versions of the same game from different creators.

Final thoughts: if anyone is reading this and has posted a game on this site before that is still available for download, consider replying with your own terms regarding rules for modding your games.

Lastly, if all of this is ridiculous/unfeasible, feel free to point it out in the replies. I have no experience with game development, and I play all of these games for free, so I understand that I can't complain.

Original Post (21/02/2018):

So this is something I've been thinking of since I started playing these games. A number of the good ones on this site (well they're all mostly good) have been abandoned. Games that were rough but had so much potential. I would give examples, but ALL of them I really enjoyed and am very sad to see them die. I know its pretty selfish because some of these creators had very good reasons to discontinue them, but I just can't help it. So I beg all of you game creators on this site, if you posted a game here and discontinued it, PLEASE consider taking it back up in the future. No matter how bad, unimportant or embarrassing you think all your work was, I've read through the comments on all of these unfinished games dating back to 2007 and it seems that I'm not the only person who feels this way.

[Nadja]

While I sympathize with those who played my game and enjoy it, it won't be picked up again as I'd have to start from scratch due to corrupted files.
Currently no plans on a new game as I have neither concept nor ideas to go for. Sorry to disappoint.^^"

[LastRound]

(Copying the edit here to make this post visible on the front page)

So I wrote the riginal comment (see below) about 5 years back, and after reading a lot of game developpers' experience relating to game development, as well as Nadja's comment below, I realised that finishing an old game can prove troublesome. Due to this fact, my original post may have come off as entitled, and if so, I apologize. To be honest I wanted to delete the comnent, but I still feel as though a solution can be reached. My solution is a sort of "Public Domain" of sorts. You know how after a certain period of time, a copyrighted work may enter the "public domain" which would allow other creators to create derivative works based on it? I'm suggesting the same thing here. This kind of thing already happens on this site, to an extent. I'm sure a lot of us here played SpanQuest DX, which was Banjo's mod of the original SpanQuest. Some of you may also remember Life Lessons DX: Banjo's mod of Life Lessons by the user named Kandor. The problem here is that, for a variety of reasons, a creator may want to "disappear" for lengthy periods of time due to some issue in their life. This can prevent modders from posting their mods of the game, as they can't get permission from an unresponsive creator. In the case of Life Lessons DX, I recall that we didn't get to play that game until almost a year after Banjo stated that he was working on it, as Kandor hadn't responded to his messages for a while. What I'm proposing is that game creators, when posting a game here, preemptively post rules/guidelines for potential modders to follow before modding/making works that are derivative of the game the original creator posted. This can range from a list of options such as:

1. "I consider my work to be public domain; do whatever you want with it, no need to ask me for permission before uploading your mod/derivative work."

2. "If you want to do something based on my game, be sure to follow these rules: ...
As long as you do that, no need to ask me before uploading your mod/derivative work."

3. "If you want to do something based on my game, PM me first. Do nothing with my work without messaging me, even if I can't be contacted. (The default rules of this site)"

4. "If you want to do something with my game, PM me first using these methods (the user will add their contact info). If I don't respond after X amount of time, then I consider my work public domain. Do whatever you want to it, no need to ask for my permission."

5. (If the creator doesn't say anything regarding permission, then this should be interpreted as if they had said #3.)

This is not an exhaustive list of options. I also of course cannot expect creators that have disappeared already to see this, so none of what I said should apply to them. I also don't expect this to be a rule that the admin enforces, which is why I'm merely suggesting game creators do this, not that the admin enforces this rule. My goal with this post is to circumvent a few problems, namely:

1. Modders being unable to release games due to being unable to receive permission.

2. Games from being left unfinished, as now they can be picked up by other creators.

3. Creators unable to make their own games, as they have the technical know-how on how to create games but lack ideas.

4. Game droughts (no new games being released for a while). Ideally, this proposal would also apply to game updates as well, so potentially, we could get different versions of the same game from different creators.

Final thoughts: if anyone is reading this and has posted a game on this site before that is still available for download, consider replying with your own terms regarding rules for modding your games.

Lastly, if all of this is ridiculous/unfeasible, feel free to point it out in the replies. I have no experience with game development, and I play all of these games for free, so I understand that I can't complain.

[aka]

I understand this pain. It sucks when a game vanishes into the ether, because the original creator vanished, and nobody else has access to the source or permission to do anything with it.


Fortunately, the internet has developed quite a few good tools for addressing this problem, generally falling under the *copyleft* umbrella.


I release the content of my games under some version of the CC-BY-SA license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/, and my source code under the GNU GPL Version 3: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.en.html.

There's a fair bit of legalese going on that isn't really pertinent here since I'm not going to be suing anyone. As far as I'm concerned, these licenses taken together say the following:

You are free to use my story (setting, characters, plot, etc) to create your own stories/games/artwork/whatever so long as you:

1. Specify that you're using work created by me, AKA.
2. Release your work under the same license (i.e. if you draw a picture of Scarlet Moon, your artwork is released under CC-BY-SA), so that others can do with your work the same kind of thing you did with mine.



Similarly, you are free to take my source code and modify it as you see fit so long as you:

1. Specify that your game is derived from a game created by me, AKA.
2. When you release your game, release your source code under the same license I did (i.e. GNU GPL Version 3) so that others can do with your source code what you did with mine.

Basically, you're free to take my stuff and run with it, so long as you give me credit for my work, and let other people run with your stuff!