I was on one of my random google searches for sparse news about my game, when, lo and behold, to my shock and surprise, I found that the ludum dare edition of the game had been stolen and placed on another web portal. That's right. My game? My less then 48 hour piece of work? Really? I'm almost tempted to let them keep it. But I'd really liked to have had those views on newgrounds. Heck, even here on IndieDB! But, that begs a question. Are things are desperate enough for thieves to steal from lesser or even unknown devs? I hope not.
Though I am not surprised about one thing. The game on Newgrounds recieved 2 stars for it's effort. The game on v7games is showing one and a half stars but their rating number says 3. I guess it's partially my fault for not setting site lock, but the game was done in less then 48 hours and I didn't have time to look that up. The game looks and plays exactly like the one on Newgrounds, except for the v7games start up splash screen. The game has only 108 playtimes though the one on Newgrounds has 1161 views. I just hope the theif wasn't planning his retirement around that theft. I'm still trying to take it in.
When your a small dev, following the scene, being a fan, buying the bundles, beating the average, cheering your contemporaries, you feel a little left out. You see and hear the stories of games getting stolen and are thankful that it doesn't happen to you. And then it does. Just like that, in the blink of an eye, you become a victim. It just goes to show that nobody is safe from game theft.
I'll be attempting to get in touch with the v7games and inform them of the theft. In the meantime, if you want to help me out, I would really, really love some feedback on Missense! Which, you can take a look at here:
http://www.indiedb.com/games/missense
I will keep this article updated and let you know of any developments! And please spread the word!
Thanks for reading!
Oh, one more thing, the actual game on Newgrounds:
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/604787
And the one on v7games:
http://www.v7games.com/Puzzle/71143_Gene_Binder_
v7.html
Any help would be appreciated! Thanks again!