Developer's Past History

So I used to work with RPG Maker 2k3 as a hobbyist, completed a few games (obviously free), and didn't pay much attention to the legality of the resources that I used (rips, music from sites w/o permission, nevermind that 2k3 itself is illegally translated.)

 

Now I'm working with VX Ace and thinking of going commercial. If I do that, should I expect anything bad to happen with regards to my past history?

 

I asked this question over at another RM forum that I frequent, and pretty much everyone said "You got nothing to worry about", including listing some previous developers who made the same/similar jump with no backlash. But since this place specializes more in commercial works, I thought I'd ask here too, just in case.

Psst. There should be no problems.

I think most of people coming from rpg maker 2000 / 2003 are in the same situation than you :D

Well I'd better first start by saying that this post isn't going to be in regards to your use of rm2k/3, but more on your past history of completed games and going commercial.

Firstly, given that this is the official website, you probably won't be seeing many people disparaging the notion of going commercial here. If you're truly that worried about all the history with AA getting bad press, you can always just use a different alias/pseudonym for your new project and I doubt many people would be able to link the two.

But to play devil's advocate, I seem to remember going commercial garnering some rather negative attention for people who've released projects for free before - the most recent incident that comes to mind is Dark Gaia, but there's also Sailerius' infamous attempt at launching VS: Awakening a year or two ago (which was pretty big on the other forum you mentioned, so you probably know about that).

Now I'm quite aware that trying to solicit a couple of thousand on Kickstarter is not the same thing as just selling a game commercially, but back when he first announced it, it was also baked in with the fact that Awakening was planned to be commercial and I think one of the points that seemed to rub people the wrong way was that the previous games were free. The dissonance between the two, along with the fact that the promised sequel volumes of VS had, and still have, yet to be released likely had an effect on people. Probably not as much as asking for twenty grand, granted, but probably enough on its own to make people feel slightly doubtful. That said, Sailerius does seem to have been relatively successful on his relaunch, and I will concede that public perceptions to these things are probably not the same today as they were back then.

Additionally, if you do actually start a brand new project with no relation to AA whatsoever, the above situation won't apply, so it probably won't matter. That said, this also probably won't stop you (or anyone else) from running into the same problem as Dark Gaia: Living up to the hype and pleasing the customers with their purchase. In his case, it seems the attention from having released previously for free generated too much hype and set a bar that he couldn't exceed with his sequel that could, in the eyes of at least some of his audience, justify the monetary cost they had to pay. By no means would I single this out as the only issue the critics had with that particular product, but I'd say it at least played a role.

Again, if you're really that afraid of your history interfering with whatever commercial plans you're considering and if those plans are distant enough from anything you've done before, you can always just use a different pseudonym and avoid all the strings that have become attached to Neo Kuriyo.

Of course, all that said, having a track record and reputation that precedes you can also be a valuable asset... but that's a subject for another thread, perhaps.

Don't let your past games being free stop you from going commercial.


As far as makers goes - it's what you're using NOW that matters, and what you use for the commercial games.

Your past games, even if you used ripped graphics(lol like who doesn't in a game that is planned to be free from the beginning anyway) for non commercial games, shouldn't effect how your commercial games sell. Nor should using a fan translated version of RM 3k(frankly no one cares lol, serves the company right for not releasing a translated version of the engine them selves)

The only thing that would potentially effect the sales of your commercial games, is if your games in the past were just really bad(Bad mapping, buggy as hell, really basic/bland systems like It's clear you put little to no effort into it, bad story, ect). Then people would hold it against you, because rather It's a free game or a commercial game, there's no excuse for bad game design.

As long as you make sure you're using current, legal resources for your commercial project, I don't think it will be a problem.  

Now, I agree with Zoltor here.  If your previously released games were poor quality and not well received by the players, that will hurt your chances to make a commercial game.  If they were well received games, it will help your chances of going commercial with your current game.

Most players don't know or care if the developer used a technically illegal version of RPG Maker, or illegal resources.  From the player's perspective, that is behind the scenes. They'll only really care about the quality of the game.  

And, if you never released any of those games widely, it won't make any difference one way or the other.

Thanks for the replies everyone. I did consider a new alias, but it's already hard enough to build a name for yourself that I'd like to use whatever credentials I can get. It's not people's impressions of me that I'm worried about, as much as something like the following situation:

 

1. Use pirated photoshop to draw a free webcomic.

2. Pay for photoshop and start using it for selling comics.

3. Someone from adobe notices that I used pirated photoshop before, and dings me for it.

 

Granted 2k3 is pretty small-time and I'd have to hit it really big to get noticed like that.

I think you're worrying too much... way, waaaay too much.

Just forget about it and move on with your life.