hi guys, i've been contemplating porting my lemmings code base from palm to the iphone but in order to do an excellent job, i would like to change the artwork. there are a bunch of clones out there; but they suck - no offense to the developers, but if you are going to do it, do it right! the lemmings code base i wrote was done almost 10 years ago - and has stood the age of time. people still download it for the palm os (palm treo etc).. http://www.ardiri.com/palm/lemmings if you want to get involved with a cool project - let me know. i would like to release this either as a freebie (maybe give away the fun levels) and then look at DLC or paid versions for the remainder of the levels - i am open discussion as to how to handle it. i was working with an artist; however - due to other commitments it fell through. i have all the logic, levels, etc in place - it wouldn't take long with a talented artist and musician to make this project happen. here are some of the art samples (note: chuck jones style) if you remember lemmings - send me a buzz! i think i was on the right path in regards to artwork with the previous artist and i think it could be a great opportunity for anyone looking to get involved with iphone projects. i can be contacted via my website (i have a contact me form) - i think this could be a great game to have done properly on the platform and i think there must be someone out there who can assist me in doing it!.. it has been put on the back burner for so long now.
i realized i posted to the wrong thread after i clicked on submit, but most developers check both forums anyhow - if it gets out of hand, one of the moderators can move it - my bad.
This looks like an intriguing project. I'd really like to get involved in this, but I'm not sure how much time I have available. My schedule is about to change next week- I will be in school and trying to work. You might be familiar with my work on Snails (maybe not). I think you talked to the Snails developer about porting it to Palm back in the day. Hopefully someone nabs this opportunity.
I'd love to get involved as well (I mean, it's a Lemmings variant, what old schooler wouldn't?) but I'm knee deep in my own project, and doing it part-time (day job, yay). I do hope someone with some talent jumps in though, a Lemmings variant using your pitch-perfect Lemmings engine would rock hard.
My suggestion would be to release what you currently have using the original graphics and music. You can always add the new ones as an option in a later update, and even then it's worth giving the player a choice to use the original graphics/sound if they prefer - remember that the PSP version got a lot of hate from fans of the original because of the new music and graphics. Most importantly of all for music: please give people the option to play their own music. I've lost track of the number of games that have annoyed the hell out of me by needlessly switching off my music when I play them, and not even offering me any way of starting it again from within the app. As for DLC, selling level packs is a good idea - better still would be to sell a simple level editor and the ability to share and download custom levels. Might be a bit of work, but IMO Lemmings is popular enough that you'll more than make up for it in sales.
Licensing issues prevent him from doing that, hence the new graphics and sound/music requirement. (Also, naturally, it wouldn't be called Lemmings.) In other words, he wants to create a Lemmings variant, not release the original Lemmings -- unless by some miracle Sony or Take 2 find a 10-year-old E-Mail from Aaron stuck in a Spam filter during a spring cleanout and grant him a licensing deal.
Oh, I'd assumed that he already had the licensing side of things sorted out. In any case, I don't see any reason why Take2 wouldn't grant him a license for it, seeing as I doubt they're planning on releasing their own iPhone port. They'll want a percentage of the money made from sales, obviously, but I don't see how it's anything his company's lawyer(s) couldn't handle. The music in the original, incidentally, consists almost entirely of MIDI remixes of classical music.
Yeah, the music could be done easily enough since that's all public domain, but it would feel weird outside of an official port. I don't understand why they won't cut him a deal either, but basically they've just ignored his requests entirely. It's possible that they either only deal with certain companies or maybe they just don't like dealing with indies. Who knows? In the end they just don't appear to have the slightest bit of interest. I'd say it's their loss, but let's face it, real Lemmings on the iPhone would be awesome, so I guess everybody loses.
If you really have made all attempts you can to contact them over a reasonable period of time and they haven't responded at all, I'd seriously consider calling it abandonware and making the port without their consent (albeit releasing only the free part at first), since they obviously don't care. If they then sit up and take notice to try and take it down, then (aside from proving that they're complete hypocrites) it becomes in both your interests and their to work out an agreement. IANAL, but I do know that it's much less hassle for a company to grant someone a license, rather than waste time and money on a lawsuit which they're going to make no profit from. Since you're paying a legal team anyway, might as well pay them for more than just sending pointless letters that never get answered.
That would be illegal, not to mention irresponsible. The owners have a right to do with their property what they like, including ignoring people if they want to. It may not be the friendliest thing to do, but it's up to them. You can't take someone's stuff just because they won't talk to you. --Eric
wow - busy thread, sorry for not being here, in the netherlands this week. seems like a lot of interest - maybe i should drive a community initiative and keep this one very cheap or free for the end-user. could be a good way to get some exposure and there can always be revenues from it with level packs. i will respond to everyone who contacted me, i apologize for not being so speedy, a little difficult when your traveling i will get in touch ! they found the email - we were talking to people at sony a while back, but they didn't have the license back then.. it was in limbo.. who knows where it is these days i think that is part of the big problem, no-one wants to claim ownership of the brand. there was an official lemmings release for PSP - so, definitely not abandon-ware yet. however, there is a game in the app store called "lemmings online" - which is clearly a bad version of the DHTML version that has been around.. you can just see the number of 1-star reviews, and these are very unhappy users.. it is one thing to have a free period and get 1-star reviews, but this app has a lot and has never been free. i've dealt with this before - better and safer to just re-use my core engine and build a new game on top of it. nintendo left me alone with my game and watch games until i released on iphone - then look what happened we emailed a bit way back - when i originally was looking for an artist for this i remember snails, and yes - had a few emails back in the day with them as well i would actually not mind doing some form of community built version - would keep the costs down and i am pretty confident it would make it out (not like some initiatives here) i am also knee deep - i resigned from my full-time job to focus on fun projects, but i want to kick this one up very soon. i think the engine i have could scale well to the iphone - just a few changes to the user interface and interaction design are needed, the core logic remains the same.
