Hello everyone, im a big fan of lovecraft, and i was interesses in creating a game bases on one of her stories, and possibly make it comercially available, my questions are:
-Is something legal or i need some copyright?
-If its free it chances anything about copyright?
-If its not based on one of her stories and its inspires by her creations it chances anything?
All of HP Lovecraft's work is in the public domain, you can see here (http://lovecraft.wikia.com/wiki/Copyright_status_of_works_by_H._P._Lovecraft). Legal minefields abound when you get into later works, especially stuff repurposed or portrayed by Chaosium for their Call of Cthulhu game (which uses stuff written by people other than Lovecraft). Lovecraft himself was very free with his creations and really wanted people to write stories about the Cthulhu Mythos, which is partly why it's so widespread today.
If you just use the themes of the Cthulhu Mythos, so long as you stick to ones mentioned in public domain works (most of them), you will be fine.
However, please, I beg you, do not do Shadow over Innsmouth. E v e r y o n e does Shadow over Innsmouth. There must be thirty different adaptations of that one book.
Lovecraft was a man by the way. Probably not the manliest man of all-time but a man nonetheless...
Thank you scavenger, actually i was thinking in cool air, i love that story, and i think it could be an awesome game with a weird ending :-) and yes lovecraft was the man, he was a step ahead of her time :-)
Quote from: LupaShiva on Fri 24/07/2015 16:00:58and yes lovecraft was the man, he was a step ahead of her time :-)
I believe Mandle was refering to you using "her" word in regards to him.
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/her
basically, lovecraft novels can not work the same way in any more visual medium:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DyRxlvM9VM
the medium changes the story so much, it is no longer the same, it is abridged/satire at best, and that barely works with lovecraft.
just by SHOWING "unspeakable/undescribable horrors" they are no longer unspeakable/undescribable, and even worse, by making them interactive, it is near impossible to not transform them into something like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOHJUrcVdJk
Quote from: ollj on Fri 24/07/2015 18:41:24
basically, lovecraft novels can not work the same way in any more visual medium:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DyRxlvM9VM
the medium changes the story so much, it is no longer the same, it is abridged/satire at best, and that barely works with lovecraft.
just by SHOWING "unspeakable/undescribable horrors" they are no longer unspeakable/undescribable, and even worse, by making them interactive, it is near impossible to not transform them into something like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOHJUrcVdJk
While this is all true to some degree I must disagree with stating it as solid fact.
If done extremely carefully it is possible to hint at the horrors just enough to leave the rest to the players' imagination. A lot of Lovecraft games do just thrust the monsters right out there in the spotlight and this is usually a mistake. But, much like the stories, just a hint of the monsters' true form here and there and the rest left hidden in mist or shadows has also been done, and has worked very well.
No time to search right now for examples though.
Yeah thats true, specially the first vÃdeo, but i aint making a Cthulhu game, i like other stories from lovecraft, but cthulhu too ;-)
Quote from: Mandle on Fri 24/07/2015 22:46:07
A lot of Lovecraft games do just thrust the monsters right out there in the spotlight and this is usually a mistake.
This is true, although few to the extent that Lovecraft's "Mythos" disciples were guilty of (August Derleth in particular).
"Lovecraftian" as a definition has, somewhat loosely, come to mean stories dealing with ancient gods and unspeakable horrors. While the "Cthulhu" stories are clearly his most famous works, a huge section of Lovecraft's output was more concerned with expressing the myriad reasons why we should fear and distrust that which is
different. Being a racist, this was really at the heart of most of what Lovecraft was writing about; obliquely in
...Innsmouth, more directly in, say,
The Horror at Red Hook.
Oh, and...
Quote from: Scavenger on Fri 24/07/2015 14:40:44
However, please, I beg you, do not do Shadow over Innsmouth.
Seconded.
What about a parser based Lovecraft game? Though It'd probably be difficult in AGS you may be able to pull it off in ADRIFT or some other parser based engine.
Quote from: mkennedy on Sat 25/07/2015 04:46:56
What about a parser based Lovecraft game? Though It'd probably be difficult in AGS
Why? AGS has a native parser support.
See this for example:
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/1059/
Quote from: Crimson Wizard on Sat 25/07/2015 11:22:11
Quote from: mkennedy on Sat 25/07/2015 04:46:56
What about a parser based Lovecraft game? Though It'd probably be difficult in AGS
Why? AGS has a native parser support.
See this for example:
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/1059/
Are there many other parser based games that use AGS? Trilby's notes is the first one that comes to mind, but I don't know of many others.
Rather than saying it'd be difficult in AGS I should have said that'd it may be easier in another engine that is specifically made for parser games. :-\
Quote from: mkennedy on Sat 25/07/2015 19:08:35
Are there many other parser based games that use AGS? Trilby's notes is the first one that comes to mind, but I don't know of many others.
Well, people are just not using AGS for that kind of games, because point n click is easier to design in general (or so it is thought).
What do those other engines have, in particular, that makes it easier to write text parsing games?
The main thing would be that for a parser game you may want to use an engine that is specifically designed for parser games, though that may not necessarily mean that they are any easier to program. The simplest parser engine I found was "World Builder" but it was only available for the Macintosh and wasn't very powerful, in fact it may not even run on more modern Macs. So far I've only really dabbled in other engines but haven't actually done anything with them, Then I've also only 'dabbled' in AGS to, but at least with that I was able to write a module to add primitive parser support to point and click games for it.
Quote from: mkennedy on Mon 27/07/2015 12:44:38Then I've also only 'dabbled' in AGS to, but at least with that I was able to write a module to add primitive parser support to point and click games for it.
I am not sure what you mean by "primitive parser support", unfortunately you speak very vaguely.
AGS itself has a built-in parser support. That's why I am interested to know, what it lacks in your opinion. Why did you have to write a module for this? What extra possibilities does this module add? Could you give an example of the problem you had that could not be solved using out-of-the-box AGS features?
Quote from: Crimson Wizard on Mon 27/07/2015 15:24:52
Quote from: mkennedy on Mon 27/07/2015 12:44:38Then I've also only 'dabbled' in AGS to, but at least with that I was able to write a module to add primitive parser support to point and click games for it.
I am not sure what you mean by "primitive parser support", unfortunately you speak very vaguely.
AGS itself has a built-in parser support. That's why I am interested to know, what it lacks in your opinion. Why did you have to write a module for this? What extra possibilities does this module add? Could you give an example of the problem you had that could not be solved using out-of-the-box AGS features?
Sorry, what I meant was that the module is for adding automatic parser interactions to games that don't have them. So for example you could load up a "Quest for Glory" type game and add this module, then type in "beer Homer" to use the beer object on the character Homer for example. Haven't really had any problems with the AGS parser though.
Hi there,
just throwing in my two cents of thought
First of all, i do not see why a parser should be superior to a normal point and click, unless i misunderstand parser, you probably would have to type stuff like "eerie, cycolpean" etc a lot ;)
Second it is true that Lovecrafts "unspeakable" horror is indeed more easy to write/speak about than to actually show it. This becomes most clear in my favorite story "Color out of space" Which i once tried to do a radioplay about, and then realised it was not a good idea.
BUT Storys like Charles Dexter Ward, or Mountains of madness could very well be done as adventure games i think. And always remember: Just because you can show something you do not have to. So even in a graphical medium the unspeakable and unshowable horror can become "reality" (Blair Witch as a more prominent example)
So yeah, if you are a genius, pls do Color out of space ;)
If you are like me just a normal person, try an easier one. And yes, shadow over innsmouth has been done enough times, but so has cthulhu i think...
greez Stromvin
I beg your pardon for respawning this old topic, but I recently read this old record about a H.P. Lovecraft's dream. It may be a base for a game.
The Thing in the Moonlight
by H. P. Lovecraft and J. Chapman Miske
Written November 24, 1927
Published
The following is based, in places word for word, on a letter Lovecraft wrote to Donald Wandrei on November 24, 1927. The first three and last five paragraphs were added by J. Chapman Miske; the remainder is almost verbatim Lovecraft.
In the letter, Lovecraft reveals that his "dreams occasionally approach'd the phantastical in character, tho' falling somewhat short of coherence." Many of his stories were inspired by dreams.
Morgan is not a literary man; in fact he cannot speak English with any degree of coherency. That is what makes me wonder about the words he wrote, though others have laughed.
He was alone the evening it happened. Suddenly an unconquerable urge to write came over him, and taking pen in hand he wrote the following:
My name is Howard Phillips. I live at 66 College Street, in Providence, Rhode Island. On November 24, 1927--for I know not even what the year may be now--, I fell asleep and dreamed, since when I have been unable to awaken.
My dream began in a dank, reed-choked marsh that lay under a gray autumn sky, with a rugged cliff of lichen-crusted stone rising to the north. Impelled by some obscure quest, I ascended a rift or cleft in this beetling precipice, noting as I did so the black mouths of many fearsome burrows extending from both walls into the depths of the stony plateau.
At several points the passage was roofed over by the choking of the upper parts of the narrow fissure; these places being exceeding dark, and forbidding the perception of such burrows as may have existed there. In one such dark space I felt conscious of a singular accession of fright, as if some subtle and bodiless emanation from the abyss were engulfing my spirit; but the blackness was too great for me to perceive the source of my alarm.
At length I emerged upon a tableland of moss-grown rock and scanty soil, lit by a faint moonlight which had replaced the expiring orb of day. Casting my eyes about, I beheld no living object; but was sensible of a very peculiar stirring far below me, amongst the whispering rushes of the pestilential swamp I had lately quitted.
After walking for some distance, I encountered the rusty tracks of a street railway, and the worm-eaten poles which still held the limp and sagging trolley wire. Following this line, I soon came upon a yellow, vestibuled car numbered 1852--of a plain, double-trucked type common from 1900 to 1910. It was untenanted, but evidently ready to start; the trolley being on the wire and the air-brake now and then throbbing beneath the floor. I boarded it and looked vainly about for the light switch--noting as I did so the absence of the controller handle, which thus implied the brief absence of the motorman. Then I sat down in one of the cross seats of the vehicle. Presently I heard a swishing in the sparse grass toward the left, and saw the dark forms of two men looming up in the moonlight. They had the regulation caps of a railway company, and I could not doubt but that they were conductor and motorman. Then one of them sniffed with singular sharpness, and raised his face to howl to the moon. The other dropped on all fours to run toward the car.
I leaped up at once and raced madly out of that car and across endless leagues of plateau till exhaustion forced me to stop--doing this not because the conductor had dropped on all fours, but because the face of the motorman was a mere white cone tapering to one blood-red-tentacle...
I was aware that I only dreamed, but the very awareness was not pleasant. Since that fearful night, I have prayed only for awakening--it has not come!
Instead I have found myself an inhabitant of this terrible dream-world! That first night gave way to dawn, and I wandered aimlessly over the lonely swamp-lands. When night came, I still wandered, hoping for awakening. But suddenly I parted the weeds and saw before me the ancient railway car--and to one side a cone-faced thing lifted its head and in the streaming moonlight howled strangely!
It has been the same each day. Night takes me always to that place of horror. I have tried not moving, with the coming of nightfall, but I must walk in my slumber, for always I awaken with the thing of dread howling before me in the pale moonlight, and I turn and flee madly.
God! when will I awaken?
That is what Morgan wrote. I would go to 66 College Street in Providence, but I fear for what I might find there.
_