ZFGC
Projects => Discussion => Topic started by: Rayo on September 02, 2016, 01:14:49 pm
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Bad news friends, Nintendo is active again and removed almost all fan games on Gamejolt:
Hi Rayo,
Nintendo of America, Inc. has filed a takedown request under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), 17 USC ยง 512 (http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap5.html#512), for many of the fan games on Game Jolt that infringe on copyrights and trademarks owned by them. Unfortunately, your games Zelda Online is/are among the urls they've submitted to be taken down.
In order to comply with Nintendo's request, we have quickly built out a system to make your game page completely private and accessible by only you. Your game will not be visible to the public but you'll still have access to it.
We believe the public should know what content is being removed from Game Jolt and why. See notice from Nintendo here: https://github.com/gamejolt/dmca/blob/master/2016/2016-09-02-nintendo.md
If you have any questions, let us know by replying to this email. We're happy to help!
Game Jolt
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Worrying times, it really makes you think twice about investing hundreds of hours into a fan game only for it to be slapped with a take down notice. From the looks of that list it seems 42 Zelda games were taken down.
Right now I'm only working on Zelda mini games so that if they do get a DMCA request I won't feel too bad as I won't have spent too long on it. For those who have spent literally years developing their game, ouch :'(
I was thinking this morning about the possibility of making fan games using the same mechanics and gameplay as they were intending, but with all copyrighted resources such as graphics, trademarked names, sounds, .obj etc files files replaced with 'placeholder' resources when releasing the game for download, the sort of things you find on opengameart.org.
There would then be another website that hosts resource packs that contain the more sensitive materials, the user downloads the pack for the game they are playing and replaces the /resources/ folder and voila, you have a Zelda fan game!
EDIT: Another thought, for a place like ZFGC where we tend to use the same graphics it might be the case that you can create 'universal' resource packs that can be used across multiple games easily. Lets say you are making a game using ALTTP graphics and sounds. You use the resource pack when designing the game, release the game using placeholder graphics and text e.g. 'The Large End of Zoldo - The Shattered Orb'. You simply state at the top of your post that if you want to have Zelda graphics you should download the ALTTP resource pack from a place you have no knowledge of ;) and add it to the game folders.
Then Nintendo can't issue a DMCA notice for your game because if you have been thorough there are no infringing materials you have created.
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Sounds like an excuse to take your knowledge making a fan game and do something original! :)
There's lots of tools to do it now too it's easier than it's ever been
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ALL THE DMCAs! This is just sad.
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Sounds like an excuse to take your knowledge making a fan game and do something original! :)
There's lots of tools to do it now too it's easier than it's ever been
this right here.
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Nintendo sure likes to come in and kill someone's creativity.
At this rate, its like they going on a hunt, kinda like a dbz villain going planet to plant destroying it. Would suck if they came here.
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Damn, the !@#$% Nintendo.
Nintendo sure likes to come in and kill someone's creativity.
At this rate, its like they going on a hunt, kinda like a dbz villain going planet to plant destroying it. Would suck if they came here.
Yep, we might never get OoT2D if they came here.
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Makes me think, even, let's say you haven't release a demo or some download, they still come after you? I have been delaying my game for the longest because I am paranoid with small fixes and whatnot, my last demo has Chu gels that can strike you down in almost one hit due to bug.
But yeah, I won't stop adding on to my game, Nintendo needs a reality check, plus I do have a side-project that is very very early in the works if it comes to a last resort.
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Eh, as someone above said, it's a good excuse to push you to work on something original, which is infinitely more rewarding anyway. If you're actually serious about pursuing a job in the industry, you could put it on your resume or hell, even publish said game with no repercussions (and giving you even more of a name).
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Eh, as someone above said, it's a good excuse to push you to work on something original, which is infinitely more rewarding anyway. If you're actually serious about pursuing a job in the industry, you could put it on your resume or hell, even publish said game with no repercussions (and giving you even more of a name).
Totally agree. I mean, look at what Toby Fox did with Undertale, he based it on Earthbound making his own original game that was extremely successful.