Laura Bow 3 (was Laura Bow and the Mechanical Codex)

[goatmeal]

Perhaps it comes down to...

Hero-U has QFG references in it. While it's set in the same "world," are there enough references that the average player would believe it's a de facto QFG game? If all of the QFG references were removed, would it affect the Hero-U game in any meaningful way, or does it rely solely on those QFG references?

Is Hero-U merely 'disguised' as a pseudo-QFG game? Like the new Laura Bow game, where people say, "Just change some things, and it's okay to release!":

Main character is "Laura Bow" => Main character is "Maura Crowe"
Laura is a "reporter" => Maura is a "journalist"
Laura "solves mysteries" => Maura "uncovers riddles and completes puzzles"
The setting is the 1920s => The setting is the early part of the 20th century

See? It's all different!!!

It also probably doesn't hurt that the Coles were the originators of both the QFG & Hero-U worlds...

[Rath Darkblade]

But you could use use it in eight years, since that is the time that The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings fall in to public domain then. For all of that, they are already in public domain in much of the world and all you would need to do would be to publish in one of those countries.

Ahem. The Tolkien Estate would beg to differ.

It is true that some countries, especially those with weak copyright protection (and especially communist countries - Russia, China, I'm looking at you!), LOTR is fair game. But in those countries, other western IP (like Harry Potter and Warhammer) are also not protected.

To give just one example, there was a bizarre and infamous piece of literary history in 2002, when a Chinese counterfeit book was published, entitled Harry Potter and Leopard-Walk-Up-to-Dragon (a mistranslation of Harry Potter and Bao Zuolong). This bootleg novel is actually just J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit with the character names swapped so that Bilbo and Gandalf become Harry Potter and Dumbledore (frequently misnamed "Gandalf" in the text).

In the same year, the Chinese black market publishers also published Harry Potter Vain Porcelain and Harry Potter and the Chinese Empire, both completely false bootlegs about how Harry Potter would battle creatures from Chinese mythology.

Having said that, Terry Brooks's "The Sword of Shannara" and David Eddings's "The Belgariad" series were both very close to the LOTR formula without breaking copyright, so they're fine. There was also the earlier Bored of the Rings, which is fine because it's obviously a parody. But Chinese and Russian bootlegs like the above are not fine, because they simply copied the same text without doing anything original of their own.
============
As for Laura Bow ... I can tell goatmeal is taking the pi-- er, extracting the urine. But obviously, turning Laura Bow into "Maura Crowe" etc. doesn't make the game any different. But I'm sure NineZyme will be very respectful of the LB IP. After all, they strike me as dedicated fans of the LB games ... and yes, not all fans treat the original respectfully, but NineZyme don't strike me as "those" kinds of fans.

[notbobsmith]

As for Laura Bow ... I can tell goatmeal is taking the pi-- er, extracting the urine. But obviously, turning Laura Bow into "Maura Crowe" etc. doesn't make the game any different. But I'm sure NineZyme will be very respectful of the LB IP. After all, they strike me as dedicated fans of the LB games ... and yes, not all fans treat the original respectfully, but NineZyme don't strike me as "those" kinds of fans.

Changing the names might be enough to cover themselves, but it won't necessarily stop Microsoft from taking legal action. The former producers of "ER" are suing the producers of the medical drama "The Pitt". Noah Wylie wanted to produce a revival of "ER" with him reprising his role as Dr. Carter. They couldn't come to agreement with the producers of "ER", so they changed Wylie's character's name and placed the show in Pittsburgh instead of Chicago. The producers of "ER" thought this was copyright infringement, but what protects "The Pitt" is the copyright doctrine of "Scène à faire" ("scene that must be done"). There's only so many ways you can make a new medical drama (or police drama, or legal drama) so certain elements can't be copyrighted.

(really helpful "Legal Eagle" video on the subject)

Now that I think of it, changing the names might not be enough. There are a few specific elements of the Laura Bow games that, taken together, could cause problems for Ninezyme's game. Both have a female protagonist who is a journalist. Set in New York. Set around the time of Prohibition. Solves a mystery. The other thing is gameplay. Both "Colonel's Bequest" and "Dagger of Amon Ra" has the "clock-advances-as-you-progress"-thing. Will Ninezyme's game do the same thing?

[Tawmis]

There's a room full of statues of heroes and one of them is of Rakeesh. A liontaur. That pretty specifically references QFG. Maybe you could get away with calling it an homage or Easter Egg, but with all the other character (Uhura is there, I believe) and location references, it seems like they are crossing a line. Imagine what would happen if a fantasy novel had a statue of Frodo Baggins. I think you could get away with if it was parody ("Frodo Baggins... What was he famous for again?"), but if you keep it serious and stack other LOTR references on top of it, you are going to get in trouble.

Well, I wouldn't say Rakeesh or Uhura are main characters... and the main character of Quest for Glory is whatever you name it.

Like if you used the same name as some random hobbit named during Lord of the Rings, I'd wager you'd get away with it, because there's not much defined about the character, other than their name.

Where as Frodo, Samwise, Pippen, etc., are a core part of the story and quite developed.

[Tawmis]

As for Laura Bow ... I can tell goatmeal is taking the pi-- er, extracting the urine. But obviously, turning Laura Bow into "Maura Crowe" etc. doesn't make the game any different. But I'm sure NineZyme will be very respectful of the LB IP. After all, they strike me as dedicated fans of the LB games ... and yes, not all fans treat the original respectfully, but NineZyme don't strike me as "those" kinds of fans.

They could just call her LAURA and never mention her last name, too.

[Rath Darkblade]

There's a room full of statues of heroes and one of them is of Rakeesh. A liontaur. That pretty specifically references QFG. Maybe you could get away with calling it an homage or Easter Egg, but with all the other character (Uhura is there, I believe) and location references, it seems like they are crossing a line. Imagine what would happen if a fantasy novel had a statue of Frodo Baggins. I think you could get away with if it was parody ("Frodo Baggins... What was he famous for again?"), but if you keep it serious and stack other LOTR references on top of it, you are going to get in trouble.

Well, I wouldn't say Rakeesh or Uhura are main characters... and the main character of Quest for Glory is whatever you name it.

Like if you used the same name as some random hobbit named during Lord of the Rings, I'd wager you'd get away with it, because there's not much defined about the character, other than their name.

Whereas Frodo, Samwise, Pippen, etc., are a core part of the story and quite developed.

Well, I don't know. If you created a character called Lotho Sackville-Baggins, I'm sure lots of eyebrows would be raised at the Tolkien Estate.

As for Laura Bow ... I can tell goatmeal is taking the pi-- er, extracting the urine. But obviously, turning Laura Bow into "Maura Crowe" etc. doesn't make the game any different. But I'm sure NineZyme will be very respectful of the LB IP. After all, they strike me as dedicated fans of the LB games ... and yes, not all fans treat the original respectfully, but NineZyme don't strike me as "those" kinds of fans.

They could just call her LAURA and never mention her last name, too.

You mean Laura Doe (as it John Doe)?

[Tawmis]

A Tale As Old As Time
Happy August everyone, we hope that you're all doing well out there. We're not going to dilly dally around this month. It's just going to be a quick progress update on everything. So let's go!

Build-A-Pirate
Our new update for Tile Tales: Pirate is coming along nicely. We're in the process of putting together all of the various builds of the game for different platforms, including the new version for Nintendo Switch 1/2, which we will be submitting any day now.

The submission process could take some time still, but we're hopeful that everything will go smoothly. During that time, we'll continue testing the different versions of the game, and making sure that it's all ready-to-go! The actual release date of this version is TBD, depending on how long all of this takes. But we'll let you know when it's ready.

We're also planning to set up a Xsolla storefront, for anyone who would like to take advantage of discounted download keys on each platform. So keep an eye out for that!

A Cog In The Machine
Our games-for-science project, Neureka, also got a new game mode in August! Ok, it's actually just an updated version of a game from the older version of the app... it's called Cog Quest!

Having this game converted into the newer app means that the two now have feature parity, and will allow us to finally phase out the old version of the app entirely. I think we're all looking forward to that moment, as it will reduce overall support needs for the team.

Study participants in the old app will be able to continue their assessments until completed. And new research studies will be directed toward the new app. Hopefully this all leads to a new and exciting understanding of brain health!

Bow-Leave-It
Unfortunately there wasn't much time for Laura Bow this month, so we weren't able to make any significant progress there. But we're very much looking forward to getting back into it as soon as Tile Tales: Pirate is ready to launch.

We did, however explore the idea of getting the game onto Nintendo Switch 2, since we have everything we need for that. So once we're back into that project, we'll give it a try and see how it does! That wasn't originally a platform we had planned for, but we think it might actually play quite nicely on it.

For The Readers
The Dryad Stone novel didn't get much love in August either, except for a minor editing pass on a couple of chapters. However, we're hoping to see some new pages over the coming months!

[Rath Darkblade]

Hmm ... I can't find either Neureka or Cog Quest anywhere, not even on Ninezymes's website. Any idea what's going on?

Huzzah for Tile Tales: Pirate! I'm sure BBP can tell you more, as I'm sure she's been playing it!

I wonder if Ninezyme has abandoned or withdrawn the Laura Bow project.

[Tawmis]

Switching Things Up!
Happy November, everyone!

Yes yes -- we are a bit late again with this month's newsletter. This time, however, is different... because we are late on purpose! Something special is happening today. Keep on reading to find out what.

We hope you've had a lovely October, with just the right amount of spooky nonsense. Somehow we're already heading toward the end of the year - but we've still got a few things up our sleeves before we get there. We've got a pirate preparing to board a new platform, a familiar detective finding her feet again, and a little music to round things off.

So grab a warm drink, and let's dig in!


All Aboard The Nintendo Switch!
It's finally happening! Tile Tales: Pirate is setting sail on Nintendo Switch this November 19th. After plenty of testing, polishing, paperwork, and a bit more paperwork, we've made it through Nintendo's approval process. Ahoy mateys!

Pre-orders are open TODAY, with a bit of an early-bird discount for you coin saving landlubbers! If you'd like to join our hapless, treasure-obsessed pirate on his island adventure, just search for Tile Tales: Pirate in the Nintendo eShop.

Not playing on Switch? The updated versions are already available on iOS, Android, the Mac App Store, and Steam. We've put a lot of love into this update -- with smoother onboarding, improved difficulty progression, plenty of fixes and quality-of-life improvements, and translations in 16 different languages. There's even an entirely new character in there! If you haven't visited the island for a while, it's a great time to hop back in.

We've also created a new home for the game on itch.io! You can now pick up the Windows, Mac, and Linux versions directly from our itch.io page. Another little port for our mischievous pirate to call home.

If you've enjoyed the playing game, please reach across the bow to a puzzle-loving friend, or leave a treasure worthy review -- it would mean a great deal to our tiny team. Thanks for helping us get this little adventure out into the world! We've enjoyed working on it, and we hope to do more updates soon.


Back On The Case
We've finally dusted off Laura Bow and the Mechanical Codex and open the case file once more! First came a round of upgrades to bring the project's tools and technology up to date. Not the most glamorous part of making a game, perhaps, but it feels good to get everything ticking along again with all the latest bells and whistles.

Also, thanks to an idea from the one and only Ken Williams, we might have figured out a way to truly get this project back on track. It's still early in the execution of this plan, but we'll let you know how it pans out when we know more.

Then we got to tackling something a little more expressive... lip syncing! We've wanted to give this some proper attention for a while, and we're really pleased with the results. We might be a little biased, but we honestly think it's some of the best lip syncing in any game out there. Seeing the characters speak with that extra bit of polish has been a lovely reminder of why we're so fond of this project. And since up-close interaction with characters is such a vital part of the experience, we felt the time dedication here was well worth the effort.

We've also been putting substantial work into locomotion - how Laura moves around the world, turns, starts, and stops. It's one of those other key elements that we've never really been too happy with -- until now. You spend a lot of an adventure game walking around and investigating, so getting that movement to feel right is well worth the effort, and helps the experience feel better and reduce delays in player interactions. There's still work to do, but it's great to be 'moving forward' with our favorite reporter again. Literally, this time.


The Soundtrack To Your Life
Over on our games-for-science initiative, the Neureka project, we're working on a new music lyrics challenge! This one explores the music you listen to and how its lyrics might connect with your life and mood.

Ever had a song feel like it was written just for you? Or found yourself returning to the same lyrics during a particular chapter of your life? That's the sort of connection we're interested in exploring. The idea is to offer a little insight into your listening habits and a new way to reflect on the songs that resonate with you. It's still in development, and we're looking forward to sharing more once it's ready!