I need some advise here.

[Daggett]

I found these Touhou sprites on spriters-resource.com for downloading, and they were made by a "SUIKAYASAN" and they were off "Shin Gyakuten Touhou". I downloaded them and I have been trying to make sure that these sprites are copyrighted or not. But, I can't find "SUIKAYASAN" to contact him/her to ask. I have found the original game for download off vocaloidotaku.net, but I don't know if that is a pirated game link or not.

So, in a nut shell, I was wondering if anyone knows if "Shin Gyakuten Touhou" is a free fan game and if the sprites are free use or not. It's listed here, http://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Fangames#Visual_Novel, right by "Touhou Mecha: Hell's Rising". Which is a really cool game so far. But anyway, if someone could help me out, I would greatly appreciate it and I'll even list you in the credits. I wish I was just good enough to draw them myself, but that ain't gonna happen.

[Graph]

While I don't know Japanese well enough to find suikayasan's contact info, here's what I gather:

1. Following the links on the group's homepage, I found this. http://shop.melonbooks.co.jp/shop/sp_koug_c77.php
The game is(/was? Don't know if it sold out) being sold on MelonBooks for about 900 yen. So, the download you found is assuredly pirated.

2. spriters-resource.com is all gamerips. Most likely without permission as well.

So no, it's not free use. I feel your pain though! Touhou Project has such an enormous cast, which often makes it tough to make a fangame of decent quality. But I think that's just more reason to respect the creators.

[Daggett]

Wow. Thanks for looking.

Yeah, "©すいかやさん" doesn't look good for me. Now I wish I didn't invest over six months into this VN of mine. Maybe I could try my hand again in Paint.

I'd still like to try to find him or her. And tell them about the rips and maybe they could stop it? I don't like to be a fink, but it seems wrong to rip off an artist like that.

You know more Japanese than I do for sure. Do you think that this* is Suikayasan's twitter?
*http://twitter.com/intent/user?screen_name=suicaya

[Daggett]

Nevermind. I still can't draw at all. I just spent over eight months on a game and it's sequel that can't be released, even for free. I have no money, so I have no artist. All I am is that guy that co-released a VA about a religion that I don't even believe in that got a bunch of bad responses and lost face for it.

Letters: 1,106,330
Words: 189,544
Lines: 59,013

All for nothing. What a waste of time. You should have thought about all this before you invested so much time and effort, Daggett.

[Gear]

There are artists on this forum who will do work for free if the project interests them.

[Daggett]

There are artists on this forum who will do work for free if the project interests them.

Thanks, Gear. I'll check that out. I may have to cut some parts, but why not?

[Auro-Cyanide]

Nevermind. I still can't draw at all. I just spent over eight months on a game and it's sequel that can't be released, even for free. I have no money, so I have no artist. All I am is that guy that co-released a VA about a religion that I don't even believe in that got a bunch of bad responses and lost face for it.

Letters: 1,106,330
Words: 189,544
Lines: 59,013

All for nothing. What a waste of time. You should have thought about all this before you invested so much time and effort, Daggett.

Aww, it's okay. At least you proved you could get something done and you did handle yourself very well. It is true that there are artists around who are willing to work for free and there are some free sprite sets floating around here and there. Maybe start with something small that only requires one or two sprites since that isn't a very big commitment for an artist and something they are more likely to take on for free?

[Taleweaver]

There's something else you can do with your project: crowdsource it. Find an artist who is willing to make some high-quality promotional artwork for you, produce a nice trailer showing off the strengths of your writing and then get the funding for the rest of the artwork and music online with a Kickstarter or something like that. Even at 181,000 words, I doubt your project will need more than a few thousand bucks of budget.

[Daggett]

Well, Auro-Cyanide, I initially started doing that, but it just grew into what it is today. And yes, I did learn from making it. So, technically, I will still gain something from it, eve if it never gets released.

Thanks for the suggestion Taleweaver, but I don't really have the money to pay someone to make an ad and I really don't consider my writing skills something to brag about. In fact, the one of the only reasons why I haven't released it, or even talk about it, was because I think it isn't that great in some ways.

[Gear]

Well, bear in mind that an artist of any kind is always their worst critic.

[Daggett]

Well, bear in mind that an artist of any kind is always their worst critic.

Thank you, Gear. I'll try to keep that in mind.

[Auro-Cyanide]

Well, Auro-Cyanide, I initially started doing that, but it just grew into what it is today. And yes, I did learn from making it. So, technically, I will still gain something from it, eve if it never gets released.

Thanks for the suggestion Taleweaver, but I don't really have the money to pay someone to make an ad and I really don't consider my writing skills something to brag about. In fact, the one of the only reasons why I haven't released it, or even talk about it, was because I think it isn't that great in some ways.

Feature creep it definitely something you have to watch out for XD Have you thought about maybe just creating a small part of it to begin with, something like a prologue? Something that is short and in itself complete, but connected to the bigger story you want to do. That would be a good way to attract the attention of anyone who might be interested in the story.

[Daggett]

[/quote]Feature creep it definitely something you have to watch out for XD Have you thought about maybe just creating a small part of it to begin with, something like a prologue? Something that is short and in itself complete, but connected to the bigger story you want to do. That would be a good way to attract the attention of anyone who might be interested in the story.[/quote]
I have, but I really can seem to figure out how to do it. The game kinda centers around a bigger picture that isn't revealed until later. So it would be hard from me to make it. Does that makes any sense?

But I will try this weekend, if I'm not put to work.