Lemma Soft Forums

It all started one day, when I was sat on the seawall.

Welcome to Feathers, where you play as Wes, a young man on a quest to find the "girl in the sky". He journey leads him to Oaka, a town where he finds the girl in the sky.

The problem? Well, he doesn't just find one girl.

Danii (Female - 15)

~ Naive ~ Clumsy ~ Ditzy ~ Friendly ~ Trusting ~
Danii is the first girl Wes meets. Naive, Danii quickly attempts to make friends with Wes, despite Wes' caution to her with talking to strangers. Eventually, Wes somehow finds himself stopping at Danii's house.
However, is there something behind her naive attitude?

Callie (Female - 15)

~ Quiet ~ Secretive ~ Calm ~ Peaceful ~ Trustworthy ~
Callie is the second girl Wes meets. Wes finds Callie a mystery, also being oblivious to the fact that she harbors a crush on Wes from the very first time they meet.
Is her calm nature for real, though?

Jax (Female - 15)

~ Aggresive ~ Unfriendly ~ Untrusting ~ Secretive ~ Sad ~
Jax is the last of the girls Wes meets. Jax hates Wes, refusing to talk to him pretty much, referring to him as "that weird man". She also never smiles, especially not in front of Wes.
But is there more than anger?

Features:
- An interactive visual novel, filled with many options to lead the player to a number of different endings!
- A detailed and colourful cast, each having a number of different expressions and even outfits!
- An impressive Point-Based relationship system - the nicer Wes is to the girls, the more they like him!
- A detailed and thoughtout storyline - try to understand the whole story after one playthrough!
- An incredible set of moving pieces of music, all powerful in meaning and effect!

As such, Feathers is based upon the anime/movie/manga/visual novel called Air (in fact, the music is from Air itself), but is not a direct copy of Air with different characters.

Comments? Suggestions? Questions? Want to help? As such, I'd really appreciate some thoughts on this. Screenshots will be added at a later date, as will a website, demo and the actual game (once complete).

(Some of this might seem strange - like the first part of the features - which will be because this was originally posted on another forum, which isn't for fan-made games as such, but I kept it in anyway =P)

Oooh! Looks pretty and the plot's got me interested. How far are you into development? Is it just you working on the game, or...

The music is from Air... Remixed tracks, or are they direct from Air? If they're direct, there could be a few legal issues concerning this game...

N0UGHTS wrote:Oooh! Looks pretty and the plot's got me interested. How far are you into development? Is it just you working on the game, or...

Not really far, I've just got to the beginning of the game (not as in I've just started, as in the introduction-type of thing is done). And yeah, I'm working on my own, but I've got a friend who's going to be finishing off some images, will hopefully be doing some artwork for certain scenes and is going to work on the website for me.

The music is from Air... Remixed tracks, or are they direct from Air? If they're direct, there could be a few legal issues concerning this game...

...eheh...a couple of them are "remixed" in the sense that they were "supposedly" created by other people for free use, but whether they were or not, I'm not sure. I'm thinking about creating my own versions, but my music-creating brain and Sibelius are screaming "NO!!!" at me at the moment.

EDIT: A quick check on the Key website gave me pretty much nothing (as I don't read Japanese), and Google Translate provides little help as such. However, if someone could translate this a bit better, that'd be great. As such, if Google Translate is correct, the section I'll need is 13 - 17 in the table at the bottom.

From the sound of Google, it seems like it's...err...alright. But my friend says he thinks it translates out as not being alright. So I'm slightly confused.

As such, we've pulled this from the above link:

"弊社作品に関連した二次創作物以外の創作物にて、弊社BGMの耳コピー（アレンジ含む）を利用する場合は、NGとみなします。"

As such, can someone roughly translate this out for me please, just to confirm it's what my friend thinks it reads?

EDIT: And no witty Google translations please, because they didn't actually help. =|

Well, I don't speak Japanese at all, but maybe this is helpful: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/20 ... -follow-up

It seems Sony had to remove music from shelves after it was found to be plagiarising Air, but that Key would originally have been happy had they acknowledged the original creator.

Ooo...thanks Showsni! That makes me feel better. To a degree, I wasn't planning on ripping off music from Air and claiming it as my own anyway (because that'd just be cheap - plus anyone who'd seen Air would obviously know that I'd took them from Air), so I'm happy about that.

As such, because I think that, at this point, it might be better if I cleared some stuff up before I plunge on (and, if anyone has anything to say about copyrights and stuff, tell me and I'll have a look at sorting it out):

- All characters were created using ALICE.NET, the dolls in ALICE.NET and the only change was a change of hue on the hair of most characters, plus the occasional t-shirt and shorts (maybe a bit more - not too sure).
- All backgrounds were submitted by BCS on this forum, in which he stated that they could be used without permission. So I've claimed some. XD
- Music is from the Air OST (I think), and was obtained on some random website I can't remember the name of. For free. As such, it's obviously not created by me (however, there are two remixs used which were "supposedly" created by other people, yet I highly doubt it - if only because of the fact that they've listed them as being on the OST).
- The program used to create the game was, obviously, Ren'Py.
- The text on the main menu screen (seen above) was obtained on a website I can't remember, but can find if anyone wants it. Meaning it wasn't created by me.
- The idea of the storyline is based on Air. However, it is not Air, the script is not Air, the characters are not Air, blah blah blah. Basically, it's an original VN created based on Air. But it isn't Air.
- As such, any pictures which you see in the game will not have been created by me (because my drawing skills are as good as a cheesegrater).

Credits will be up in the...err...Credits. Obviously.

If anyone has any objections, input, questions...comments...random posts...whatever, feel free to say and I'll respond.

i think that says something like "when using their original BGM or a BGM made based on theor work (includes remixes), you have to acknowledge the original creator..."

gwah im not that sure since my japanese sucks a bit...

and anyways, the moment i read "girl in the sky" i immediately thought of air...

good luck with your game, i look forward to it...

honoreixix wrote:i think that says something like "when using their original BGM or a BGM made based on theor work (includes remixes), you have to acknowledge the original creator..."

gwah im not that sure since my japanese sucks a bit...

and anyways, the moment i read "girl in the sky" i immediately thought of air...

good luck with your game, i look forward to it...

Well, thank you for trying anyway! Even if you're not sure, it still confirms what everyone has been saying (which is useful, because I'd prefer not to find myself in court in Japan...or in court with a Japanese sueee...or something...). So, yeah, thanks for saying that anyway! Really helpful! =D As for the "girl in the sky", yeah, it does make it a little obvious. I just didn't want to end up too far out of my depth with my first game (you know, an original story which might end up becoming too much for me). ^_^

As such, this is just to say that I've got plans to make the game last seven days (as in in-game days), and I've currently completed all of Day 1 at the moment.

As such, does anyone have any ideas for something to make this more interactive (like, mini-games and stuff, or should I just stick to a plain novel with choices)? At the moment, I've got a small memory game at the end of Day 1 with questions about the introduction, but that's it.

I think minigames add a lot of technical complications that you don't need in your first project. A seven-day novel is enough content -- and trouble. Besides, at least in my opinion, they are more appropriate for other kinds of stories.

Just a note about the BGM thing: although it's true that this is a non-profit project, and you are crediting the original authors, a problem still exists with the fact that you're freely distributing illegal copies of their property. I don't think using remixes would be out of the question though, just as long as you kept the original credit and the project remained non-profit.

Nicol Armarfi wrote:Just a note about the BGM thing: although it's true that this is a non-profit project, and you are crediting the original authors, a problem still exists with the fact that you're freely distributing illegal copies of their property. I don't think using remixes would be out of the question though, just as long as you kept the original credit and the project remained non-profit.

If, then, the tracks are remixed versions and thus not the original, does that technically make it legal (with the obvious original credit and the project being non-profit)? I assume that archiving the files so that you can't actually gain them isn't suitable enough (despite the fact that I wouldn't kinda be distributing illegal copies...).

I assume this would be a no, but if the copies are technically ripped from the offical OST by myself (as in, I had the OST in my possession), plus the files were archived so that other people couldn't get at them, would it thus be legal or not?

EDIT: Saying that...how can you legally use the music (so long as you give permission) on games without distributing illegal distributing copies? o.O

If you're using someone else's work without their permission, it's a no-no, even if you give credit.

If they *say* that you're allowed to remix it as long as you give credit, then it's okay. If they *say* that you're allowed to redistribute it, then it's okay. What matters is what the person who owns the work wants.

Giving credit in and of itself doesn't actually fix the legal holes, although usually most companies will not go after you for small things.

papillon wrote:If you're using someone else's work without their permission, it's a no-no, even if you give credit.

If they *say* that you're allowed to remix it as long as you give credit, then it's okay. If they *say* that you're allowed to redistribute it, then it's okay. What matters is what the person who owns the work wants.

Giving credit in and of itself doesn't actually fix the legal holes, although usually most companies will not go after you for small things.

See, the thing is, I don't think there is a legal message as such on their website. It merely says that the use of BGM files in their work can be used in other material. As such, I read that as saying you can use it, so long as you give credit. I can see, however, that you could read it as private use, but I'm not really sure. To be honest, I, personally, think that so long as I've given credit and I'm not charging you to buy the game, Key isn't going to mind that much - if at all. It's not like the production of my game is going to stop all sales of their work...

Well, it doesn't really matter whether Key really cares or not. What matters is what the law says. Using music that you didn't write yourself without the permission of its original creator is breaking the law, whether you're going to actually get prosecuted or not. How your use of Key's music affects their sales is quite irrelevant. So there's no point in denying that you're breaking the law, because you are. XD... But I doubt it really matters in the end. The mountains of Key related fan work that's been released on the Internet tell me that the chances of you actually getting prosecuted are almost zero. I mean, there's an English English patch in progress for most of their games, enough fanart to easily fill an entire fleet of cargo tankers, and years worth of AMVs on Youtube of all their animes, so Key's mostly been turning a blind eye (if not openly encouraging) to copyright violations. But I'm not supposed to be saying that, so ignore everything I wrote in this post. ^_^;;;

Oh, but the unoriginal sound track will keep your game out of the Ren'Ai Archives though. :3 Fufufu...