Modding an existing game property sure is fun. Nothing beats being able to go back to a game you enjoy and spice it up with additional characters or levels. Too bad it’s not a lucrative hobby since you can’t monetize reskins of characters you don’t own in games you don’t own. Too bad there are still people out there who try to get around this fact.
Modder Aaron Camara is the latest scampaign creator to attempt to raise money on Kickstarter. Camara is trying to raise $10,768 to release a game patch for the N64 version of Super Smash Bros. The mod adds 12 new characters (all lovingly jacked from other properties) and 8 new stages. Camara says he will release the completed Smash Overload patch to the “whole community” once it has been completed. That’s because, as he insists in the campaign’s FAQ section, this is not a commercial product.
“If you support us it’s really important you know that you are not giving us money in exchange for anything in particular. We hope you’ll support us because you believe in our work as modders.”
He claims the $10K funding goal will go towards “research and development expenses,” which he somehow believes gets around the whole Copyright violation thing. Sadly, Nintendo is unlikely to feel the same once way. They are the same company that readily shuts down passion projects that haven’t taken a dime for their efforts. Expecting them to sit idly by while someone rakes in a profit to dick around with their old game code is pretty foolish.
https://youtu.be/3O_4rgu9uHw
Perhaps the most amusing part of the campaign is how Camara justifies the sizable “donation” he’s seeking. “Modifying the game files is a long and tedious process,” he insists in the FAQ. A process he’d like to be compensated for, unlike the developers who made the actual game he’s attempting to rip off. Yes, he’s really this oblivious. But wait, there’s more!
The Best Part
The screenshots on the Kickstarter page have an obnoxious overlay with the project’s name plastered across them. You know, so nobody steals HIS WORK. To be fair it would suck to put so much time and effort into something only to have someone else come along and try to profit from it. Yup, that would pretty much be the worst.
[…] SOURCE […]
I always love it when people try to make something or mod something like this.
However, asking for money?
Lawsuit or not, that’s a no go.
And I am not saying you shouldn’t be paid for work.
Problem is, modding =/= work in the traditional sense. You mod or edit out of love for something.
Also, no matter how hard he may push the copyright laws (and while I don’t like that Nintendo is doing it in the first place) because of how they work, Nintendo still holds the rights to that game, ergo they are in their legal right to do so. Nintendo is known for this. Remember Pokemon Uranium? A Pokemon game build from the ground up even, but forced to stop any further development due to Nintendo’s C&D.
Again, they are in the legal right and it sucks but that’s just how it goes.