STATUS

What happened?

Imitation is the highest form of flattery, but this looks more like theft to me.

Unity: someone made a *ahem* spiritual successor to Dreaming Mary.

I'd like to think that if they did try to put it on RMN, I'd notice the similarity and question what was going on.

It's not on the site is it? >.<;

Stealing is a part of life. Maybe they stole that game to feed their starving family.

You should at least post a link to it so we can dish out some digital shame.

That really sucks, accha... Sorry to hear it :/ I can imagine it'd be really frustrating to see someone gank your hard work.

Link: Yea, Ren'py is all visual novel... I suppose you could script it to add movement, but that doesn't look like that's the case here, there's just some point n' click stuff.

It got very defensive when asked why it's so similar to Dreaming Mary. Like damn, had that one planned.

The way he/she said 'unconciously' is like:

Oh, I'm sorry. I 'unconsciously pulled out my semi-auto crossbow and 'unconciously' shot you thrice in the knee. No biggie right?

If this was me, I’d probably feel a little bit flattered seeing something like this, and I probably would have no real problem with this if they at least TRIED a little harder to at least be a bit more creative to the original source and putting their own collective spin around the idea, but this looks and sounds like almost everything was completely ripped off word from word. Not cool, man.

The art and the engine that was used may be and look a little bit different from here, but, at the end of the day, it still looks exactly like Dreaming Mary to the tee.

Actually, speaking of that, I’m a bit surprised thus far that no one has tried to rip off Pom’s success yet compared to Dreaming Mary's. You would think that someone would have done so by now, judging by its popularity.

Accha, I feel for ya, man. What are you going to do about it?

author=accha
As in, their screenshots:

My screenshots:

(You can't see it well in this small size, but the table next to the bed has a radio and a flower in a vase... and the door is to the right... yeah...)

Sorry, I respectfully disagree.

Rip-off to a tee? Hardly.

Animals live in trees. Their game seems to have lots of animals so it's natural they live in trees. Sure it shares some rudimentary features, like having lights in the trees, but they did it in such a different way. The overall colors are totally different, the shape of the trunk and the dangling of the foliage. They look like glowing fruit, whereas yours has hanging lanterns? or something.

Lots of games have librarys. That one has a low wall with a glass ceiling. It's different.

And a room. Well, lots of rooms have beds. Alarm clocks and flowers are common things on night stands. I mean, you can't exactly say that you were the first person to do such a thing.

That person may have chose a few similar elements that you did, but they did it in such a visually different way that this doesn't qualify as stealing, ripping off, or outright copying. Those are the wrong words to use because they have negative connotations. Every single thing in those screens has different dimensions, positions and colors than your screens.

Sometimes people will make graphics by editing existing ones. It's pretty much accepted that if you change it enough, so that it doesn't resemble the original, you can legitimately call it your own. I think I heard Liberty say that about tilesets recently.

There is no visual similarity to those screens. Only basic design ideas, which since the beginning of time people have been reusing in their own way. I think you guys are over-reacting. Just because someone configures a room a certain way, doesn't mean nobody else can ever use it again without being called a thief. Even if there is more than one similarity(is there more than 3?) it doesn't mean the whole game is a rip-off. If these 3 minor similarities are the only thing, it's not a rip-off.

You want to talk rip off? I remember a recent one where someone took the exact game of an RMN user, without changing a thing, in the same engine, gave it a new name and called it their own. Made their own website claiming they made it. It was brought to our attention on here and people mass complained. I can't remember if it was taken down or not. That was the definition of stealing.

In this case, I think it's unfair to call that game a rip-off. This really does look like a text book definition of homage or inspiration, or maybe even just a coincidence. Not to mention that both creators site the same things as their inspiration. So you both are "ripping off" Yume Nikki. But we don't focus on that. We focus on the game and it's own unique experience, which I'm willing to bet both of these games are a unique experience. I'm not into the genre so I won't be playing them myself, so I can only speak about the visuals.

If you guys run that other creator out of town for this you should be ashamed of yourselves. At least accha isn't actively seeking that, while everyone else is, without valid proof. I would have been right beside you all had the evidence showed it. But it doesn't. So I think people should not be so quick to label someone as a thief, when we all take things from other games. Literally or just in basic ideas. Almost everything has already been done. How could we not start sharing many similarities in our games?