PSA: Don't Use Cave Story+ Graphics In Your 2x Res Mods (etc.)

In light of recent modding developments, and with Switch Story on the horizon, I think it's worth making this clear again, particularly for any newer members popping in. Assets from Cave Story+ (graphics, music etc.), or any other monetised release of Cave Story, will not be accepted on the site as a part of any user-made content. Any mod or whatnot posted on here containing such assets will be taken down, ASAP.

This is turn raises the legitimate question of how different something has to be before it counts as an original creation. I'm not really sure where to draw the line here, because the CS+ sprites are obviously very convenient to take as a base but edits that are only slight (e.g. Curly with different hair) aren't really avoiding the issue. Personally-made upscales of the original freeware sprites invade a similarly grey area (unless you want to go to 3x or more, in which case you can (probably) knock yourself out ). For now I'll just say in general that if you want to make a CS-universe-based mod then you should probably stick to the original sprites and resolution.

If you want to use CS+ sprites as placeholders while you work around them, that's your choice, but any leftovers will need to be removed before you can upload your work here. Screenshots or videos should not realistically be a problem I think, they were not before this point and I don't see how we could feasibly police them regardless.

 

You don't know how happy I am to see this.

Anyhow, something kinda popped up in my mind; what about usage of the quote facepics?
We already have quite some mods that use them and I don't remember it existing until CSWii.

 

A lot of people already know this, but I think this is a fairly appropriate situation for a bit of shameless advertisement.

For those of you making Cave Story+ ports that need to partially utilize NICALiS' 2x resolution graphics, Plus Porter will enable you to share most mods with double resolution graphics without actually posting any copyrighted content on this site.

 

We're free now.

 

Thanks I'll add that straight to the OP _{I won't actually do that}

 

In light of recent modding developments, and with Switch Story on the horizon, I think it's worth making this clear again, particularly for any newer members popping in. Assets from Cave Story+ (graphics, music etc.), or any other monetised release of Cave Story, will not be accepted on the site as a part of any user-made content. Any mod or whatnot posted on here containing such assets will be taken down, ASAP.

This is turn raises the legitimate question of how different something has to be before it counts as an original creation. I'm not really sure where to draw the line here, because the CS+ sprites are obviously very convenient to take as a base but edits that are only slight (e.g. Curly with different hair) aren't really avoiding the issue. Personally-made upscales of the original freeware sprites invade a similarly grey area (unless you want to go to 3x or more, in which case you can (probably) knock yourself out ). For now I'll just say in general that if you want to make a CS-universe-based mod then you should probably stick to the original sprites and resolution.

If you want to use CS+ sprites as placeholders while you work around them, that's your choice, but any leftovers will need to be removed before you can upload your work here. Screenshots or videos should not realistically be a problem I think, they were not before this point and I don't see how we could feasibly police them regardless.

Okay well that's fine it's just that I thought I was being creative when I had the face sprites as cs plus face sprites....

 

Okay well that's fine it's just that I thought I was being creative when I had the face sprites as cs plus face sprites....

that's actually basically the opposite of creative

 

Jenka's Nightmare (ZarroTsu) and the newest version of the Curly mode mod both contain Quote's face picture from CS+ scaled down.

 

Jenka's Nightmare (ZarroTsu) and the newest version of the Curly mode mod both contain Quote's face picture from CS+ scaled down.

It was also modified so it can be given a pass. If you can compare the two, ZarroTsu did more than just downscaling it.

 

I'm not a lawyer, but the way I understand it, that counts as a derivative work, so it's technically still a copyright violation.

 

Oh yeah, I just thought, where did this idea of not using sprites from a game that is being sold come from. Did Tyrone ask us not to or something? I'm asking because sites like mfgg.net show that the idea "oh, they're from a SOLD GAME, best not use them" is not universal

 

Oh yeah, I just thought, where did this idea of not using sprites from a game that is being sold come from. Did Tyrone ask us not to or something? I'm asking because sites like mfgg.net show that the idea "oh, they're from a SOLD GAME, best not use them" is not universal

To those that were around when the original 2x res hack was available, you may add on to/correct me on this, but I hope the stuff in the spoiler was the general idea.

Spoiler: The 2x res backstory

Idk how the legalities work for websites like spriters-resource and mfgg work, but long story made short, there was a 2x res hack that was distributed upon request for 2x res mods to be made (alongside some conditions that had to be met, since the hack was made while the Nicalis ports are around). However, some people wanted it so they can slap the Nicalis graphics onto them and redistribute it as the "free" version of CS+, and things had to be done to avoid any legal issues with Tyrone himself.

There were workarounds for the more original 2x res mods like making your own 2x res versions of the vanilla graphics, but not everyone was good at pixel art and people were taking the lazy route anyway.

Note: While there are now many modders here and in the CSMC who are aware about the consequences and are working around by producing their own open source graphics for anybody to use, there's still that fear that someone will want to use the Nicalis graphics instead.

 

basically you can't because we say so