I think Shaddy put it better than I could. I don't think our criticism is solely because of the Dev's behavior though it certainly doesn't help. Looking at the game critically shows some major flaws.
Even putting aside the entire rest of the argument vis a vis the ethics of it and looking at it from a pure canon view: does anyone seriously think Maria of all people would wear something like that? The entire thing is stupid.
It seems the Oroborous staff has released an official response to that document that's been floating between the two threads. You can find that here. I am a bit encouraged that they seem to be considering fan feedback and did talk with Katie regarding the monetization issue.
This is why it is so important to reserve judgment until all the facts come out and both sides have told their story.
I dunno, I'm not really seeing a lot of big revelations in that document, just a lot of focus on the guy who made the other doc and excuses or downplaying of the things they were criticized for. There's a lot of weird stuff in here, like "we only NOW realized we were making money off gamejolt ads" and "we never got money for the game through boosty, but also we've updated Boosty to not make money off Sonic Omens anymore". We've had multiple sources of testimony about their behavior, and them just saying "nah" in a document doesn't really disprove anything about that. The Cars 2 thing is a little more justifiable (which is why I never went off on them for it in the first place), but the twitter DMs they show are from two years ago, and I'm certain the boosty screenshots aren't. This reads like them covering their ass and they're not doing an especially good job of it.
I did kind of get the impression it was downplaying certain things as well. While it does seem the monetization issue was seemingly addressed a while ago, there are other issues still at play such as the level design, the questionable texture, ect. The music I never had much of an issue with either since reusing music from other sources was essentially the norm until Before the Sequel went out of its way to create its own soundtrack (its first release still reused music). The real question to me is how they follow up on certain criticism. They said they're going to remove that texture even though it's not visible, fair enough. They said they would address certain bug issues, also fair enough. How they follow through here with stuff is what I'm curious about. Their behavior towards certain criticism prior to this is still kind of questionable.
I had no idea this project existed, and my life hasn't improved since I learnt this morning. Monetising a fan game is silly but I'd be lying if said I wasn't curious to see what it would produce. Turns out, not much! The product's much the same as any other completed fan game - admirable that they managed to finish it, but janky as all hell. Except in this case, because it's 3D (and based on a series I'm still not convinced even works in three dimensions), the jank is front and centre and a lot harder to ignore. Well I say "admirable" but if these Twitter stories are anything to go by, it's probably not worth giving this project any screen time. Not entirely sure why you'd go to such lengths to silence your critics on this on either - nothing I've seen in gameplay footage looks outstanding. I wouldn't call it "low effort", but it's very much "good start, practise some more" material. Buy hey, marvel at our relative mediocrity, worms! p.s. any noise about reycling assets is moot - fan games have been doing that since time immemorial. There may have been money involved, but don't confuse kids in their bedrooms for great AAA expectations. Especially when they don't believe in the feedback loop.
I think the argument wasn't necessarily that they "recycled assets" but rather that they plagiarized it and claimed it as their own. I don't believe they did plagiarize the Cars 2 track, as they make a strong argument for how they didn't, but had they taken the Cars 2 theme as-is and dropped it in the fangame, nobody would care, especially if they listed it in the credits. Where the controversy comes in is them possibly spinning a ripoff of it as original music and hoping nobody would notice. That's what people mean by "they stole music".
To my knowledge, there's not an explicit rule against necroposting... I played and beat this game cuz a friend told me to. I had some fun with it, but in terms of gameplay (and visual) critiques, @Shaddy the guy's post basically gets it right. As for the story, it's hard to like because the emotional weight of it revolves entirely around Chris, someone that few people actually like. I'm not sure if even the creators like Chris, or Sonic X. Chris is killed off-screen and The Exiled looks nothing like the Metarex. Tails having little involvement in the finale is strange considering that his relationship with Cosmo is one of the biggest aspects of the Metarex arc. It feels like the Sonic X connections are there not out of genuine love, but rather to stick it to the "Meta Era" and its lack of continuity. "Look at us, we have so much continuity, we even take elements from the anime!" I don't wanna jump in on the hate bandwagon against this game or its creators (there's a rather obsessive Twitter account about them, yeesh) but I admit, it's a bit hard not to pick a fight with this game. It's very easy to make fun of. At least the music is good though!
I'll be the first one to admit that the game has quite a lot of promise. With the first demo of "Project 2020" I was actually very intrigued with the greater emphasis on presentation for the story. The levels lacked a certain amount of polish but I figured that might get solved in time. I've not played the final game so I can't say if they met that bar or not. From what I heard of the story, it sounds kinda silly, but again I'm in no position to accurately judge since I've not experienced it. Where I had a problem, and the reason I began this thread, is because of the monetization (which they may or may not have used to jumpstart their own studio's original projects), the blatant plagiarization of the engine & music (in that they outright ignored the original creators of each and attempted to pass them off as their own), and the rather harsh reaction to some valid criticism. While the whole thing with the Maria bossfight may not have been intended to be seen by the audience and was intended as a joke, I think it speaks volumes to the caliber of people behind the project. In my opinion, they are the epitome (thusfar) of the worst the fangame community has to offer in terms of behavior. That's why I won't support their project. Anything else is kinda irrelevant and rather pointless to use as a point of contention. Feel free to critique the game, artistically it's impressive for such a small group of people even if it could use some more work. That said, using those critiques as a justification for continued vitriol against the developers is pointless, petty, and honestly not healthy. It's probably just best to move on. A whole Twitter account, really...?
