A drive for Overdrive

Discuss and distribute tools and methods for modding. Moderator - Grognak
John Luke Pack Hard
Posts: 112
Joined: Thu Nov 15, 2012 8:45 am

Re: A drive for Overdrive

Postby John Luke Pack Hard » Sat May 13, 2017 7:48 am

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Last edited by John Luke Pack Hard on Tue May 16, 2017 4:46 am, edited 1 time in total.
John Luke Pack Hard
Posts: 112
Joined: Thu Nov 15, 2012 8:45 am

Re: A drive for Overdrive

Postby John Luke Pack Hard » Sun May 14, 2017 5:27 pm

Here's the final response:

Hello,

I'm sorry to disappoint but we cannot condone your plans with FTL: Overdrive.

As you know, we have an obligation by law to protect our IP. That means we cannot allow the unauthorized distribution of a replicas of FTL. We cannot allow anyone to sell expansions, mods, or anything else related to FTL. And we can't allow distribution on storefronts like Steam under the FTL name. We also have no plans to make the FTL IP available for licensing.

I appreciate the amount of time and effort that you've put into the project over the last couple weeks, as shown in the thread I found on our Forum. As you're clearly a talented developer, it might be better to put your energy towards something wholly original instead of burdening yourself with any dependency on FTL. You're welcome (and encouraged!) to create a game inspired by FTL but you would need to provide your own assets and any other copyright-able material. This includes art, music, sound, writing, world/story lore, characters, etc. Game development has a long history of building on the designs of other games to make cool new things. Metroidvanias and Rogue-likes are obvious examples, but even FTL wouldn't exist without taking inspiration from hundreds of titles before it. I think it'd be lot more rewarding (and fun) to strike out from FTL as an inspiration point rather than pursue replication.

It appears you hired an artist to replicate our assets (https://imgur.com/4aBEERU). On the forum you describe this as "completely different from subset games's background, meaning it belongs strictly to our team". That image is nearly identical to the one in FTL. Modifying the layout selection box, and removing the Advanced Edition box, does not qualify as "completely different". Nearly all of the hangar art is the same, and the UI design is still nearly identical. If you were to pursue a project without any ties to FTL, it would have to be dramatically more unique in its visuals.

I hate to send such a negative email to someone who clearly loves FTL enough to want to expand on it. I hope I've made our stance on the issue clear, but let us know if you have anymore questions.

Cheers,
Matthew


As of now, Project Overdrive has been shut down. Given this official response from the developers, this means permanently.

To the members of the modding community: I'm not sure what legal area the hardcoding mod follows under, but BFrizzle decides to pursue it, you'll likely get the increased modding functionality from there.

To NarnKarn and FallenAngel, given I know you volunteered out of interest in FTL and not video games in general, I am releasing you from service.

As for the rest of our team, I have an obligation to them. Most likely I will be making my leave from this community, once again.

For the sake of the developers, I apologize. A lot of good ideas came out of this project, a lot of potential was there. All wasted.
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fdagpigj
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Re: A drive for Overdrive

Postby fdagpigj » Mon May 15, 2017 5:30 pm

You'd have known this if you'd have done even a little bit of research into why previous similar projects failed. Admittedly this isn't the only reason (or even the primary reason), but at least in the thread of Operation: Clonebay, there was mention of how the recreation would not be permitted to redistribute FTL assets and therefore would need to require users to either: Obtain the assets by manually (or with a provided script) copying them over to the new game's directory from their FTL resource files on their computer, requiring them to have bought FTL; or else play a different experience with no assets from the original FTL (eg. a modpack with all custom assets, made to function as a complete standalone game for anyone who doesn't own a copy of FTL). But if you are not willing to go for either of these options, then you should never have spent as much time on this project as you already did.
John Luke Pack Hard
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Joined: Thu Nov 15, 2012 8:45 am

Re: A drive for Overdrive

Postby John Luke Pack Hard » Tue May 16, 2017 1:42 am

fdagpigj wrote:You'd have known this if you'd have done even a little bit of research into why previous similar projects failed. Admittedly this isn't the only reason (or even the primary reason), but at least in the thread of Operation: Clonebay, there was mention of how the recreation would not be permitted to redistribute FTL assets and therefore would need to require users to either: Obtain the assets by manually (or with a provided script) copying them over to the new game's directory from their FTL resource files on their computer, requiring them to have bought FTL; or else play a different experience with no assets from the original FTL (eg. a modpack with all custom assets, made to function as a complete standalone game for anyone who doesn't own a copy of FTL). But if you are not willing to go for either of these options, then you should never have spent as much time on this project as you already did.


I came back to this thread to retrieve the email contents since I accidentally deleted them from my inbox. I come and someone's telling me "I told you so".

In the time I spent, I have gained a following, not just the ones following this project on this forum whom have come and gone. I have people, developers, artists, men and women who believe in my character to take ideas and execute upon them. We are set to pivot onto a new project and make it into a reality. The effort spent was not a waste, merely a demonstration of my ability. In the time I have spent I have gained experience and a cadre of followers.

In the time you spent to type up this post, what have you gained? The arrogant pride of telling me "I told you so"? If that's it, then take your pride! What I have gained is worth far more than what your insignificant feelings could ever accomplish.
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fdagpigj
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Re: A drive for Overdrive

Postby fdagpigj » Tue May 16, 2017 10:47 am

John Luke Pack Hard wrote:In the time I spent, I have gained a following, not just the ones following this project on this forum whom have come and gone. I have people, developers, artists, men and women who believe in my character to take ideas and execute upon them. We are set to pivot onto a new project and make it into a reality. The effort spent was not a waste, merely a demonstration of my ability. In the time I have spent I have gained experience and a cadre of followers.

In the time you spent to type up this post, what have you gained? The arrogant pride of telling me "I told you so"? If that's it, then take your pride! What I have gained is worth far more than what your insignificant feelings could ever accomplish.

Dude, you're overreacting. I just told you you would've known if you'd have done the sensible thing (I never even told it to you directly) since you seemed so surprised/discouraged by Subset Games' response, while also providing you with an alternative other than abandoning. I didn't try to gain anything from writing that post, I wanted to tell you and others in the future to please invest the time into looking into the history of previous, very similar projects.