Denying Fan Game Avoided By Square Despite Official Contest Win

Cogito is the Deny game Square Enix doesn’t want you to know.

Deny has always been the intruder in Square Enix’s JRPG stable, but the latest (unofficial) addition to the franchise is so present that lawyers have had to get involved.

Earlier this year, developer Applibot and publisher Square Enix appeals to fans to celebrate the launch of NieR: D[in]eyelet via a content creation competition. The winners were promised a unique title on the official Discord server and recognition for their work via NieR: D[in]eyeletsocial feeds from.

The contest itself drew a ton of big fan art, cosplay and animation of Deny community, showcasing both the talent and passion of the show’s fans. An Australian fan of the game took it a step further by creating a fully-fledged game inspired by Yoko Taro’s sprawling sci-fi universe.

In NieR: Cogito, players initially assume the role of artificial intelligence (AI) designed to help machines discern between threats and non-threats. Things escalate with each act, but the core gameplay loop here does a great job of taking what’s familiar about technologies like image recognition and using them as a ramp out to questions. broader on existentialism.

Cogito determines if machines have a soul in a way that feels comfortable with questions posed by previous NieR games such as Automatons and Replicant.

Cogito won the competition, but that victory was quickly marred by intervention from Square Enix’s legal team.

As a result, developer Matthew Lucis is in the odd position of winning a promotional contest that Square Enix and Applibot no longer want to promote. Their work is still live and playable on Itch.io, but it’s not the ideal end of what seemed like a dream come true for Lucis.

“Big AAA game development and publishing companies won’t often be promoting outside content or fan content, unless of course they’ve already produced workshops or modding tools alongside them. ‘a community eager to create,’ Lucis, a member of the Australian game developer cooperative Inflorescent Games, mentioned.

When Square Enix and Applibot announced the competition July 29, Lucis thought it was a good idea, but didn’t think too seriously about entering. Eventually, perhaps inevitably, the possibility of developing and entering a game into the competition began to “push” them.

“Games are content. You play games. 3 weeks is more than enough. You did worse, ”Lucis jokes.

“When an idea comes to my mind, it evolves, grows and I work on it. Do I always finish these projects? The stack of half-full jobs on my hard drives says no. But I love storytelling and making games, and with such a tight deadline it was absolutely an all-or-nothing job, ”they explained.

Lucis, who started making Flash games on Newgrounds, said their entry was a chance to make their own “officially unofficial” addition to a series they adored both as a fan and as a developer.

“From the transition to a textual adventure in Replicant to reflect a dream state, to the upgrade system of Automatons where you can literally turn off your UI to make room for character upgrades, the Deny games continually open my eyes to how I can be a better developer, ”says Lucis.

To be sure, Lucis rechecked the rules and went through all the fine legal print that Square Enix and Applibot had provided before moving forward.

“I feel like it’s a back-and-forth battle for independent developers creating content for fans; one day we see a big company hire an exceptional modder, the next day a very popular fan game is forcibly removed just because it was a non-commercial fan game, ”they said.

Lucis described the three weeks it took to develop Cogito like non-stop. Once they settled into the structure of the game as an adventure / interactive text novel, they immediately got to work.

“After 4 days of brainstorming and scriptwriting, I had finished the story and knew everything I had to do for the remaining 2.5 weeks.”

“Every day from that point on was writing code, drawing art, generating audio, contacting people for photos for Cogitothe intro sequence, get a voice actor for the character “Terminal”, work with the musician, and more.

Even though it’s not officially sanctioned by Square Enix, Cogito covers much of the same tone and themes found throughout the larger Deny franchise. Located in the non-specific period between Replicant and Automatons, Lucis chose that of Descartes “Cogito ergo sum– better known as “I think, therefore I am” – as the central thesis of Cogitothe story of.

“A perfectly simple idea about consciousness and existence, in this case within computers, and an idea that I already enjoy exploring personally.”

Lucis divided the play into different acts and endings, with each segment focusing loosely on a different aspect of Descartes’ philosophy.

A one-person development team, Lucis assumes they worked an average of around 12 hours a day.

“I was writing code in my phone while taking ‘breaks’, taking notes while trying to sleep, and even last week I was dreaming about the project,” Lucis said, adding that they were correcting always bugs, released the OST and release new versions even after submitting their entry.

Feedback from Deny fans, the D[in]eyelet community and Applibot themselves was particularly valid for Lucis.

“The people in the band loved it, comparing ends and ideas, while friends and streamers told me how much they appreciated it,” they recall.

After winning “the most votes of all nominations across the board,” according to Applibot, Lucis and all of the shortlisted candidates were shocked by Square’s legal team. The lawyers had to review the entire competition, ultimately making two requests.

The first was simple: the Deny logo, which was part of Cogitothe website, game and trailer had to be deleted. The second was a bit more difficult to resolve.

“The other major problem I was told was that because Cogito was a downloadable executable file, it could not be verified as safe, ”explained Lucis.

Lucis says they were given 24 hours to try to resolve both issues. It was a tall order, but they managed to do it.

“After a few hours of code tweaking, audio and artistic reconstruction, and solving countless new problems, miraculously I had a stable and beautiful version of the game that could be fully played from inside. [a web] browser, with no files or downloads needed.

“I sent all of this to the staff member who was helping me; they were excited to see this workaround and told me they would give this new build a boost.

“Unfortunately, a few hours later, I was informed that the legal team was simply refusing to link to a project that they themselves could not, with absolute certainty, confirm it was safe.”

At this point, Lucis said it’s clear that whatever they do, their work won’t be approved by Square Enix’s legal team.

“However, I was assured that my entry was in no way disqualified, that I was still officially the winner and that I would receive the Discord title,” they said.

At the end, Cogito wasn’t the only entry that Square Enix’s legal team struggled with.

Lucis noted that any entries the legal team had issues with were all replaced by the finalists, who were promoted on the NieR: D[in]eyelet social.

The initial winners, whether promoted or not, all received the Discord group titles in their usernames.

But Lucis doesn’t blame Square Enix – which was contacted for comment, but did not respond at time of publication – or Applibot for the way things have turned out.

“I fully understand and respect their choice, both from the point of view of safety and the prudent management of their products. Publicly promoting a game (or whatever!), Even if you strongly insist that it’s not associated with you, will still be associated with you in the public eye, and I understand that it cannot run this risk with my project.

Even though Square’s lawyers have assured that Cogito will never get the promotion he deserves, Lucis does not regret the three weeks of crisis it took to carve out his contribution to the Deny universe. They are not only proud of what they have done, they are delighted that they were able to do it.

With or without the weight of social media and the legal green light from Square Enix and Applibot, all art is fleeting. We can’t say the same Cogitothe warm welcome from the D[in]eyelet community, nor the joy it brought to Lucis.

“It’s the experience we offer our audience that lasts. “