We have for a while been having issues where other discords and their “games” have been leeching off our our game and stealing concepts, ideas, and tricking members into their discords, our discord introduction channel, even copying our owners looks and bio on roblox, even down to trying to get whitelisted on a private bot (which we got them removed from) (Copying our logos/having someone trace over it with a different color, and even copying our emojis + original ideas for our game) some of them even stole assets directly from the game we were originally inspired from (using cheating software/finding it in free models)
(and now even tricking actual builders/scripters to work for them)
If you had a honest opinion, what would be the hardest for them to steal, and is there anything we can do to make it more annoying for them to keep stealing from us, as there is nothing we can do it seems to prevent the mass idea/asset theft they do.
I think that keeping your project a secret is the best way to prevent people from stealing your ideas. If you don’t tell anyone about your project then how are they going to steal your ideas? Also, try to make a unique game instead of a game that you think a lot of people might think of making.
Here are some tips to keep your project a secret:
Make your game private.
Hire people that you trust.
Keep your Discord Server private until the game is finished.
Ban people who are stealing.
If they keep stealing your ideas, I recommend you to try to contact Roblox Support or Discord Support and maybe the people stealing could get some sort of punishment from the platform.
Unfortunately our game is already close to release, and has a huge playerbase thats rapidly rising, and the game is private and we have people already who are hired and trusted (its not a leaking issue), the thieves are going into our discord and just alting back in, ontop of the impersonation and now, using youtube to harass us and say that we stole from others/copied from other people so its only fair that they can.
They are copying us down to our emojis, our channel layout, were advertising their games in our members DMS at one point, saying we raided their server, turning people on us, and supporting hate videos against us, ontop of the previous impersonation of our owner with slightly changed colors.
That’s not even talking about the in game ideas being stolen.
I don’t think we should shutter our games growth as well for these servers by shutting the discord off on private so close to release.
(This is also a multi server thing now, multiple doing similar practices)
Note: I am not a lawyer and my advice may not be correct.
Game ideas cannot be copyrighted so that means that they’re allowed to do that. And for the inventory gui, it’s probably too simple to be deemed copyrightable. If I wanted to make a custom inventory system it would probably look similar to yours.
It’s not a inventory system, our game is inspired by a old game that we eventually spinned off and made our own game with newer features/ideas (from faithful recreation to full on new game situation), then they found it and copied its exact layout, even trying to copy our guis other functions as well and other ideas for our game, ontop of some of our assets being directly taken and used in some of their works, nor are we seeking legal advice, more like moral advice on what to do on the situation as its major enough that its been causing problems and its kinda saddening to see people get turned on you and working on a project that is stealing left and right, not just from us but from the original source content via cheating software, and not knowing what you can do to atleast make it harder for them from our game atleast.
We even saw they were copying some of our enemy layouts they saw before in their “map”.
The only things that can not be hacked into are server scripts. For in-game objects streaming enabled will make it harder for them since they will need to explore each section. If you start seeing server-side functions getting copied extremely accurately, then there may be an imposter amongst your developers.
Luckilly we are only a 2 dev group, so thats unlikely luckilly.
It’s a pain cause ontop of the asset theft we are also dealing with a alot of exploiter groups threatening to “ruin our game” b4 we’re even out, it’s chaos rn but the stealing and impersonation is really just annoying.
If the game is not playable it’s likely they have somehoe found your place file stored on your server. If they have they can access anything except datastores.
No, luckilly they dont have the actual placefile, they are just copying anything they see in our servers/videos from youtubers, but they tricked actual scripters into doing it and are trying to copy its functionality.
They even tried to get whitelisted on a private not so known bot that we even used, cause they tried to copy our servers features, I showed it to the handlers of the bot and even they saw how much it was trying, ontop of us having to deal with other games of a similar franchise with more success currently (more known) downtalking us out of spite in their servers, it sucks. Our devs been working hard and this stuff is just annoying.
They even sent death threats to our mods at one point, and tried to destroy their discord and blame it on us.
Sadly, once the code is out, it’s out. Also, you could report them to Discord for the death threats? But, as for Roblox, if something happens off Roblox, Roblox usually doesn’t take action.
It’s not a issue of stealing code directly (from us atleast), atleast not yet, we’re not worried about server code at all and we know that anything that is shown to the client is easilly taken, I’ve made smaller projects before.
as originally asked is there anything that can atleast make it more annoying for them to pull this stunt before the release?
For the videos you could make a specific function (such as the last area in a simulator or a specific minigame in a minigames game, etc.) not shown with-in future videos.
I have systems in place so YouTubers have access to my game before it’s released. However, I put a secret disabled button that has a locked icon over it. It builds suspense since not even the YouTuber knows what it is.
Yet another thing that is against the law, take screenshots of the threats and I will look to see what you can do to report this. (You should first try reporting it to discord)
Register one of your most important assets under copyright (USD $50): copyright.gov.
If they steal it you have paperwork that could seriously get Roblox in trouble if they don’t take down whatever things they steal.
Do what Tesla said. But don’t take them down right away. Wait until they launch their big ad campaign and slam down the DMCA. Compile a list of concrete evidence that definitively proves they’ve been stealing from you and send it to every scripter and builder who works with them. Get people to infiltrate their server and spread this evidence in every one of their public channels every day. Have a stockpile of alt accounts ready when they start kicking, post the evidence while their discord mods are sleeping. Is that ever so slightly rude? Perhaps it is, but these people have already gone nuclear with you.
The only thing that will really be effective is simply releasing an announcement, on your Discord. Tell people that all your assets have been made by yourselves, and to bear with you guys, because the game is almost out.
You have one advantage over these guys, and it’s that they rely on you guys to create content, in order for them to copy it. Right now, your goal should be to get the game released first. By doing this, all of a sudden, the copycats will have to rush their game to the finish line, in order to compete. Because you’ve made it first, just begin adding updates that add to the player experience. If you continue to put a steady stream of updates, these copycats won’t be able to keep up, and knowing these guys, will just give up and find someone else to steal from.
And as @ernakou said, you have the full right to your assets. Taking their games down is important, but only do it if you have the grounds to do so (e.g. don’t take them down just because of some spell mechanics, else they could come out and say that you are evil and doing it all for the money).
I’m sorry that you’ve been placed into this situation man. Hope you’re able to pull through.
