In Gabbuchi, the blocks have the face of Cubix (Ofihombre)

[ofihombre7]

Have you heard about Gabbuchi? it's a game developed by the japanese developer h.a.n.d., that develops exclusive games for Nintendo consoles lately, and this one is released for Nintendo Switch at the end of January of this 2019. But getting to the point, one of the points that most caught my attention, was that the white and red blocks that the Gabbuchi character has to eat, have exactly the same simple face as one of my own characters from my original games.



That's right, I mean Cubix (Ofihombre), it's from that free indie game that I made in Game Maker for PC in 2015, The one that was known as "underrated misunderstood classic" in the thread where I called erroneously as "5 of the most underrating platform videogames" (I called them that because I liked them, and I wanted others to like them too): https://www.vg-resource.com/thread-29793.html



As he saw that the faces of the blocks were as accurate as Cubix (Ofihombre), that between is his official website for contact the developer to send it a message of small demand for the content, but in the end there wasn't response, and it made me reflect that I made it to be free because I don't earn money on that very simple face. The face of Cubix (Ofihombre) is a content without a registered license, that's why anyone can use it (including h.a.n.d.), although it's very possible that the accuracy of the face of the blocks is only a simple coincidence, and not a mere intentional plagiarism.

(Bottom image to watch carefully the exactness of the faces from Cubix and the blocks)

[Paraemon]

So let me get this straight.

You're upset that a game designer is using the same smiley face design that you used in a game you made, and didn't get your permission for it?

Looking at the layout of the face design, literally anyone can do it. It's not special, it's a non-issue. Yeah, coincidence may be in play but that's it, they probably made them up on their own. It's just a set of pixels arranged to make a shape. Look at Tamagotchis, they work on the same principle.

There really is nothing here to take sides about.

[ofihombre7]

Yes, at the beginning, but then I start thinking. And you are right, it's just a coincidence that the Gabbuchi blocks have the same face as Cubix (Ofihombre), besides that it's just a simple face without a license that anyone can use it. But seeing the game, as it was something that I did before them, it was the first reaction I had.
In the week before the launch for Nintendo Switch, I contacted the company of h.a.n.d. to make a small demand on my character content, and the following week, this was the answer they gave me:
〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜
Dear Mr. Alexandre Monfort Ferrer,
I am Takahiro Suzuki, the operating officer of h.a.n.d., Inc / producer of Gabbuchi. After we have received your email dated Jan 24th (JSD), 2019 regarding Gabbuchi, we checked your Cubix gameplay video. We are very surprised to learn that the blocks in Gabbuchi and the character Cubix are partially similar.

Gabucchi is the game which has been originally designed and developed by our development staff, and so are characters and designs in the game.  As you mentioned in your email, we didn’t know the existence of Cubix earlier and therefore didn’t refer to or imitate Cubix. Unfortunately, this is the result of coincidence. Also, the Cubix character is a modeled person which is expressed as a face with two legs. On the other hand, our block is just a block with a simple face drawn.

In such a case, we believe copyright infringement doesn’t apply to both Japan’s and Spanish legislation. If you still insist that Gabbuchi which we have developed infringes your copyright, you will be required to prove that we infringed your property. In other words, you must prove that we introduced or imitated your Cubix character with enough evidences. However, since we didn’t perform such acts, we believe it’s impossible for you to find such evidences and prove infringement.

For all of these reasons, unfortunately we cannot accept your claim.
I pray for your future success.

Best regards,
Takahiro Suzuki

〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜

[ofihombre7]

I think I haven't learned from the Cubix case in Gabucchi. I have made the same mistake in another game with another coincidence called "Cursed Cruiser" (link: https://luisquid.itch.io/cursed-cruiser), when I was looking the emote with the smile , i said this: "Lol, Kenney was used the Cubix (Ofihombre) as an emote. Although it is based on an HD version of this" (I don't know if it was exactly like that, because I had deleted the original comment about it), and therefore the creator of the game for the Kenney Jam 2020 (Luisquid) he let himself be believed in what he said and put me the link to my Cubix game to credit me.

And it is from there when that things got ugly. Kenney came very annoyed that one of his assets was posing as something of mine, apart from that he had affirmed saying that Cubix's face it's a simple arrangement of a few pixels so basic that multiple people could accidentally draw the same thing, and he never seen my game before creating the asset pack. The truth is that he was right, but I was ignoring him in the middle of the argument.

Hours later, It seemed that I had understood my mistake, I asked Luisquid to remove the link from my game because I told him by mistake that it was for "identity theft", but it was actually because "I claimed that he based my sprite on his game sprite" (as Kenney said), so I corrected my mistake and apologized to Kenney. But sadly my apology turned to hypocrisy when Divivior saw what I was doing in the meantime.

Anyway, the only thing I have achieved is that they saw one of my games with very bad eyes. In conclusion, the face of Cubix is so basic that it is the reason for being a free game and it doesn't make sense to give claims to such a degree.
Also, It gives me very bad in the Game Jams (I was once banned by putting several of my games on jams that have nothing to do just to promote).