I like that version 1,000 times more, that’s for sure. It doesn’t imply something negative that’s not true. Still, there should be a way for the user to get rid of it once they have looked at the info page.
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Thanks for your perspective.
I’m afraid this would hurt the users. But maybe it won’t? If we make the hard fork, then one of their sources of content would be gone. Seems sad for you guys. I guess there could be a wave of players hitting the steam version to get their Jason fix though.
Maybe it’s time for a divorce, I don’t know. This is all so sudden. We have never gotten in a single argument before and now it’s like “Mars Attacks”. 
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I understand. So really then it’s a matter of what your priorities are since there’s no way to predict the outcome of either path. What seems less damaging to me is to follow through with Jason’s proposed idea. If there is a negative impact as a result of this change then perhaps there will be a chance for further negotiations if your relationship with Jason remains in tact. I don’t think this will be the case if the whole story is readily accessible to players. It doesn’t change the game, only the packaging.
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The deadline has passed, and no clarification changes have been made:
http://onehouronelife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?pid=48341#p48341
Thus, I have no alternative but to take action at this point.
Also, I do like the idea of a gradual fork. I understand that you really want to be making your own game, and not just a port of mine. The problem is that right now, your game is almost pixel-by-pixel identical to mine. Someone looking at two screen shots might not be able to tell which was which. Same characters, same trees, same backgrounds, same animations. That is why it would be weird to NOT call it One Hour One Life at this point… it really is still OHOL, currently.
And it’s really not that hard to do. You have my engine (or your version of it), my server, and my editor. That was what I spent 2.5 years on. The initial content, in the version of the game that I shipped in February, only took me a few months, and I’m not even a trained artist. You have a trained artist on staff. I started making content in March 2017:
I shipped the first version to testing players in July 2017.
The first step would be to draw your own biome backgrounds. This is super easy… a 512x512 piece of seamless texture, and there are only 6 of them (and the snow one is blank white). Right away, that would make your game look totally different from mine. This could easily be done in one day.
Then, you could work on making your own character designs, starting with your own body shape. You already got a taste of this with Santa, so you know how to do it.
But in general, you could imagine using my engine to make your own game, pretty much from scratch, eventually. What is your take on this engine and this genre? What would your artist do with it?
Anyway, if enough changes were made, so that it wasn’t at all confusing anymore, then you could change the title, and stop calling it Unofficial, and stop needing to explain it to people, because everyone would see it as a separate game, and it wouldn’t dilute my legacy. And it would be full of YOUR ideas, not full of my ideas.
But right now, that is not the case, at all. It is pretty much OHOL. The Wiki lists the Peace Lilly as the only permanent change. Also, I’ve seen Santa, and weekend challenges. But other than that, it is pretty much identical in terms of gameplay, look, crafting tree, characters, etc.
Even 2HOL, which was made by one person with no commercial incentives, is way different from OHOL. There are mammoths and bee keeping and camels and shrines and you live for 2 hours, and…
So, for the time being, the labeling changes that I’m requesting need to be made. In the future, if your game became different enough, and the confusion was eliminated through those differences, that wouldn’t be necessary anymore.
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Well at least we can see the unofficial OHOL at every game lounch now. As far as I can see they are definitely working on it.
Also is on the app store description.
@jasonrohrer
This is the first time you have ever mentioned anything in this direction. Please clarify: is this a wish you have, that we depart from your graphics?
Thanks.
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@Christoffer this sounds like a lovely job for an illustrator or graphic designer. maybe you can hire someone from the nobrow press: https://nobrow.net/creators/ or one of the peachbeach agency: http://www.peachbeach.de/. if you need more links just ask 
i have a lot of them.
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Alexander Utkin from nobrow looks like he could make some cute sprites that would fit the 1hour1life kinda style while not being to similar to jasons work.
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Na! I still like Jason work better, nothing and no one will ever replace his place in my heart…
@Christoffer
You really can not understand what jason said?
Drawing or same working is not a point of it.
It’s mean, too early to you said “Official” ( of your game, same another name as onehouronelife).
OHOL for Mobile It’s still just OHOL of jason.
Engineering is not of all of creating game.
Can I say “I’m author of RION KING” when I duplicate book with my hand and pen (and sweat and blood)?
No.
Jason said “draw your own texture”, true mean is “Create your game with your resource if you want to said official”.(Maybe)
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i like your thinking mandrake :-)!
here are two of the nobrow press i find interesting:
Lorena Alvarez seems to have lots experience in drawing plants and wild life: https://nobrow.net/shop/hicotea-a-nightlights-story/
and Luke Pearson has an animated serie on netflix: https://nobrow.net/creator/luke-pearson/
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It’s like a first love, isn’t it? I love the girl with the carrots myself.
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That’s exactly the same as it was when they first added that screen. Nothing’s changed.
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Actually, I don’t think he said that at all, but it’s best if he himself explains.
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Which illustrates Jason’s point perfectly
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Lol theres a lot of posts that seem to be a misunderstanding caused by language barriers bringing extra confusion to the mix.
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I don’t specifically wish you to do that. I’m saying that, if you want to “get out from underneath my shadow” and make your own, “official” game, that would be what you would need to do.
Just switching the title, on the current mobile game (calling it “Eve’s Wilderness”) would be misleading, because it’s currently OHOL. It is an unofficial OHOL, but still OHOL.
This is a matter of degree, and there might be debate about how much it would need to change to become a different game, but any reasonable person would currently think it was pretty much the same game.
I understand wanting to have a sense of pride in your work, and wanting to claim something as your own, and wanting to go down in history known for something, etc.
Once your version of the game diverged from mine enough, it really would become your own. At that point, I would no longer have concerns about the “unofficial adaptation” stuff, because no one would be confused anymore, and my legacy wouldn’t be affected.
I don’t really see my legacy as necessarily “the guy who made that engine” or even “the guy who came up with the idea of an MMO with birth in it”—One Hour One Life is my legacy… the whole thing… the game, the characters, the ideas, the sounds, the music… the whole thing together. So, a different thing made with portions of OHOL would be a different thing. I wouldn’t feel like you were misleading people by claiming full authorship, because the engine used would be a footnote.
Likewise, when I say “100% Hand Made by Jason Rohrer,” that isn’t misleading, even though I did use some bits of code by others. I didn’t write my own SHA1 hash, or my own ZIP code. I didn’t write the gcc compiler, or the SDL library.
I try to give complete credit here:
http://onehouronelife.com/credits.php
But “hiding” those things on the website isn’t misleading. They are credited in proportion to their impact on the final work.
Anyway, this is not an immediate solution, but a long term one. Still, it may ease your pain over implementing the immediate solution that I’m requesting, if you at least have a plan in mind for the future.
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But I don’t have a specific preference over these options:
-
A clearly marked unofficial adaptation of the game that stays mostly true to the original game, with modifications made along the way (what is currently happening, except for the “clearly marked” part). A true “adaptation.”
-
A totally different and awesome/creative game based in part on the OHOL code base and maybe some of the content, loosely inspired by OHOL, but clearly a different game in everyone’s mind. A true “remix.”
(2 would probably be worse for me commercially, with less rising tide effect, but my concern is not a commercial one.)
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cudos to you for the music – i love it! it fits so perfectly in to the world you created and is a part of what gives the game its charm. i was thinking about that a few times: who made the music? who did jason hire for that part? nice to know it was done by you 
Yes, I went over to UC Davis campus with a mic and a Zoom recorder, and “borrowed” a piano in one of their practice rooms to record the music. The first piano they let me use was very old and very “squeaky” because the wood was loose. I went back down and asked if there was a newer piano that I could use… I had to practically beg them, because the newer pianos were meant for grad students only… but they finally let me.
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