The developers behind the parody game No Mario's Sky rebrand their game with a new title and graphics after receiving a DMCA takedown notice from Nintendo.

Last week, a small group of artists and developers surprised gamers with a pleasant gaming experience called No Mario’s Sky. The simple 8-bit game was a mashup of the ever popular Super Mario games and the recently released No Man’s Sky.

As expected, it wasn’t long before Nintendo issued the No Mario’s Sky developer a DMCA takedown notice, causing the crew behind the game to pull the game. Fortunately, it seems the No Mario’s Sky team expected the takedown notice and already had plans to carry forward with the game, albeit with new, original graphics and a new name: DMCA's Sky.

According to Ben Porter, a member of the group that built No Mario’s Sky, the development team was aware they would likely receive a takedown notice from Nintendo and had already started working on new sprites for the game. The game has been rebranded as DMCA’s Sky, a quip at the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notice the developer received from Nintendo.

Despite expecting a takedown notice to be sent, both Porter and designer Max Cahill shared their disappointment that the takedown was issues. On Reddit, the duo expressed their feelings about the takedown and Nintendo. Cahill said:

It's definitely Nintendo's right to defend their IP. They've worked hard on cultivating an air of quality and Mario is at the heart of that. We respect their wishes and as they don't want folks playing it, we've taken it down.

However, NMarS was a clear parody released for free. Mario was included because we're fans. It was in no real competition with any of their products… I personally (can't speak for the other devs) think that Nintendo's protection of their IP can be heavy handed. It's disillusioned many devs starting out making fan games.

Porter expanded on that sentiment, saying he is disappointed that fans of Mario can’t make games, even if they’re clearly parodies. Needless to say, Porter and the rest of the team won’t be making any more Mario or Nintendo mashups in the future.

Despite the takedown and the development team’s disappointment, they’re vocally humbled and surprised by the massive amount of support they’ve received in the last week. Before it was shut down, No Mario’s Sky hit almost 100,000 downloads, and received much higher initial praise than the struggling No Man's Sky.

There’s no official word on where the development crew will go from here. No Mario’s Sky was originally created in 72 hours as part of an accelerated game development competition called Ludum Dare. According to Porter, the team enjoyed their time creating the game and are happy to see that so many thousands of people enjoyed it. Hopefully, gamers can look forward to additional games from the team now that they’ve established themselves as an able, creative group of artists and developers.

What do you think about Nintendo’s takedown of No Mario’s Sky? Are you planning to pick up DMCA’s Sky?

Source: Reddit