Thank you for this explanation! I thought that once something was used from the Public Domain, it got copyrighted (if the person was smart) and then couldn’t be used by anyone else. XD
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I’m… reasonably certain that you can’t un-Public Domain something.
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In fact, CoG and HG have published several games based on public-domain material that has also been adapted by Disney or others, such as @hustlertwo’s The Day After Ever After, which is a sequel to the traditional story of Cinderella, and The Dragon and the Djinn, which borrows from some of the same source material as Disney’s Aladdin.
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It’s almost impossible. It’s been pulled off on a technicality a few times, like the film It’s a Wonderful Life, which went into the public domain because the creators forgot to renew the copyright. The courts ultimately decided that, while the material elements of the film were irrevocably in the public domain, the story on which it was based was still under copyright, which effectively restored the requirement to obtain permissions and pay royalties for showing the film.
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Yep yep. And I had to be quite careful to only use the elements that had not originated with the Disney films. Hewed close to the original fairy tale. That’s why you see no talking mice, for example (and I had a fun idea with them, too). Similar to the guy who made that Winnie the Pooh horror movie. He had to be very, very careful.
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That’s an especially fine line to walk with relatively recent properties. People had to be careful when Baum’s Oz series started coming into the public domain, to only draw on material from the books up to a certain point - and of course they couldn’t (and still can’t) use anything that was created for the 1939 movie.
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As an example of that kind of thing, the books had silver slippers. The movie changed them to ruby slippers to show off their fancy new Technicolor. So you can’t use the ruby slippers if you want to do an Oz thing, those aren’t public domain yet.
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Precisely. Perfect example.
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This is, once again, a sensitive topic.
The base material has been used repeatedly by different people and organizations, to the extant that one has multiple different interpretations. Traditional fairy and folk tales (e.g. Cinderella, Snow White, Aladdin/Thousand and One Nights, Little Mermaid- Hans Andersen, Journey to the West?) are often such material. Some novels also come under this case. The good thing is, one can come up with their own interpretation. See for example, The Day After Ever After, Pride and Prejudice and Murder.
Now here is when things get even more hairy. There are authors like me who are basing their material on something that is not from the public domain, e.g. JK Rowling’s Harry Potter, or existing video games. I am using Hannah P S’s Creme series and other existing games from CoG (the company) as well as Capcom’s Mega Man X series as my base. At this point, you would wonder if there would be a ‘cease and desist’ notice. But if Mega Man X: Corrupted wasn’t shut down, I don’t think mine would, either. However, the many interpretations issue still exists, even if you are not releasing it for profit.
What I am doing is to merge both stories, characters etc and create my own version of it. This is to clarify for anyone who thinks it is just another fangame.
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Fanfic, including derivatives, such as @RockmanX 's, are allowed to be posted in the Hobby topic here and hosted on DD and Ink under the fair usage laws, as long as they do not break Choice Script and Hosted Games rules.
Personally, I feel, a person should get permission from the origins author(s) before pushing fanfic into the wild.
So far, I have drawn the line between stuff I have published and stuff I have not published, but each author’s wishes (in my opinion) should be the controlling authority.
As a rule, I will not also read or even glimpse any fanworks based on my writing. More on this below.
Regardless, the following should be of interest to anyone writing fan-works:
and one of the most important resources (thank you @rinari, we miss you here):
https://fanlore.org/wiki/Professional_Author_Fanfic_Policies
The attitudes of professional writers and creators of source texts to fandom and fanworks are as varied as their understanding of copyright and Fair Use. Some are vehemently opposed to fanworks based on their texts, and some are actively supportive. Still others are fine with fanworks but believe that reading or seeing them constitutes a threat.
The lists in that article are not exhaustive, but do attempt to list the publicly stated positions of novelists and other writers (including television and radio producers) who have earned fannish attention.
The reason I will not read fanfic based on my writing, or even discuss it, is because I do not want it to influence me, subconscious or conscious. I want my storyverse to originate wholly from what I write, especially if it is an ongoing storyverse.
In RockmanX 's case, I hope he went to the original authors and listened to what they had to say, because that is what I would wish he would do if using my writing for his fanfic.
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I feel the same about written fanwork. Although I’m deeply flattered by people being inspired by it and fully support it if it’s not monetised, I don’t read or respond to it at all for legal and personal reasons. I don’t consider it my place to allow or disallow which fanfiction is written - I prefer to be very hands-off about it - but I keep as much distance from it as I can, both for my own comfort and so that fan creators can do their thing without feeling like I’m overseeing them. (That applies to the IPs I own. For the IPs I’ve worked on and don’t own, like Elite Status or indeed other studio work, the details are for the IP holders to handle but I still don’t look at it.)
Fanart is slightly different for me because it isn’t a narrative in the same way, but if someone, say, made a webcomic telling a story using my IP, the same would apply - people can and should feel free to write it if they feel inspired, and that’s fantastic, but I don’t want to risk any real or perceived influence on my own work and that boundary is important to me.
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Okay, so in respect of keeping my small little tweak of a regular mechanic a secret, but still being too excited to share what I’m working on for the Halloween Jam, I do want to give a small cryptic description.
A short story with branching paths and different scenes, but hardly any choices and no stats. That’s kind of the feel I’m going for mechanically.
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Thank you Eiwynn for clarifying your position. I appreciate your desire for originality, and I’m sure the writer community does the same.
Thank you Hannah for clarifying as well. I was surprised that the regulars here will try to exclude me from the forum, since what I’m doing isn’t the norm. But rather than try to leave my stuff to die, you not only allowed me to stay, but welcomed me to take a slice of the pie.
Now to clarify what I am doing: I have no intention of any of you to read my work (if this sounds not tactful, I can’t think of any other way to say this). My rationale is not that you read my work- I do not want you to read my work, and if I end up doing what you and so many others do, I’ll probably adopt a similar approach. My rationale is that this is for myself and the various fanbases I’m targeting my work at. So if I have stepped on your shoes, I’ll wipe the dust off. I’m still very inexperienced with the interactive fiction community at large, and it would be my pleasure if you could suggest ways to better interact with said community. Thank you once again!
Edit: I think all of us need to be more patient with each other, to minimize misunderstandings and tension flare-ups. I will still support all of you from behind the scenes.
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How do you have branching paths with no choices? RNG?
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Nope, and I will be very happy to see how people respond when they see it! No RNG needed. The player still has full control in where the story goes.
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What’s your strategy for explaining what it is you do here?
My go to is:
BOOMERS: “Remember those Choose Your Own Adventure books? Imagine those, but the book actually remembers all of the choices you’ve made.”
Usual response: “But weren’t they kind of … bad?”
MILLENNIALS: “Remember TellTale Games, like The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us? I do something similar to that.”
Usual response: “Among Us?”
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I usually explain it as: “a text-based blend between the VN and the RPG genre of games” … most of my friends are more gamers than readers.
For those that are not gamers, i try both the CYOA route and the TellTale route too.
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Depending on who I’m talking to I say “text games” or “choose your own adventure but on the computer”. If I’m doing more casual small talk with strangers where it’s not as much of a social thing (like at the dentist or something) I just say “I write games”.
Most of my social circle and people I meet through friends are into games in some way so it’s normally pretty easy to explain as a lot of them know things like Fallen London/80 Days/Twine games/visual novels/other kinds of interactive fiction. Some friends independently knew about CoG games too before I started making them, which was really fun to discover!
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Do you mean the good old days where you could cheat turning back, skipping pages, ignoring dice rolls, or reading only what you liked just because?
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The reason I write ChoiceScript is because of how much I loved those old CYOA books.
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