Apology and explanation about All Quiet Roads

[Dinosaur Polo Club]

Hey folks,

We’d like to talk about the recent events with the developer of All Quiet Roads and our own studio to give everyone an understanding of what’s happened and where things are at now.

Some time ago, the developer of All Quiet Roads reached out to us to propose a business collaboration between our two studios, and we declined as the offer wasn’t something we could take on. During this communication, the subject of the game being potentially sold to a different third-party publisher or studio came up, and this is where we made some hurtful mistakes. Our lawyers advised us that if the game was sold to another party and we failed to raise objections right now about the superficial similarities, we would be waiving our right to raise anything with the hypothetical new owners if they chose to turn AQR from what it is now into a deliberate clone of Mini Metro or Mini Motorways. It was our reaction to this advice that kicked it all off, not any prior concerns.

Ultimately, a lawyer is there to provide counsel while the studio makes the final decision on how to handle these things; the lawyers were outlining a worst-case-scenario situation that wasn’t at all likely to happen, and we should have taken a moment to consider this. This was a big lesson for us and one we will carry into the future. We then reached out to the developer through our lawyer rather than directly from us, which was the wrong call and probably quite stressful to be on the receiving end of. While we never wanted AQR to be taken down, we can understand why the dev decided to, given the tone of our communication.

When the dev announced that AQR would be pulled from Steam, we went back through all the emails and realised that we had seriously misstepped. We’ve course-corrected, reached out directly to the developer, retracted all the legal requests, and apologised for how we’ve treated her. Thankfully she’s very patient and forgiving, and AQR will remain on Steam.

This is the first time our studio has been involved in such a situation and we’re putting processes in place to make sure it doesn’t happen again. We try to learn from our mistakes, and we appreciate your passion for upholding an ethical games industry.

Additionally, we’d like to say sorry for the lack of response and for not sharing this with you sooner. While we were talking with the developer of All Quiet Roads to resolve things, it seemed the right call at the time to respect everyone’s privacy. But we are aware of how a wall of silence can be interpreted, and it’s our goal to always be upfront and transparent with our players. We hope you’ll give us another chance.

In the meantime, please do check out All Quiet Roads. It's a great game and we want to show the developer some love.

[Shore2345]

Thanks for the update:)

[ahydra]

Thanks for the post and clarification. Assuming all is accurate, many props for making the apologies/amends and laying things out publicly like this.

[coenvijge]

Thanks for this explanation. If fully understand that you couldn't share this earlier. I'm glad that it all ends in a good way.

[Soobtitlays]

Thanks for the update!
All good in the end <3

[J0D-M1nSt3R]

Not gonna believe one single word of your "apology". If you didn't get so much backlash you would've pushed through with this crap. Unfortunately for you you're not AAA studio that can just buy or wipe out any competition. And now you're just doing damage control. But the damage is done and all trust lost. At least from me. Can't refund your games anymore, but at least delete them from my library to get the stain off. Bye.

[Gwenanne]

Dinosaur Polo Club is a nice company that made an understandable error. We should all practice forgiveness because, being human, we all make mistakes. (I know that I am a forever flawed human being.). Of course, it could just be "damage control" but I cannot let my cynicism take me there. It seems best to think good things about others.

If it suits your pocketbook, then show your gratitude to this developer by purchasing Mini Metro or Mini Motorways. Or, maybe gift a copy to a niece or nephew. Their games are massively polished and fun.

It seems that we should celebrate the sincerity of Dinosaur Polo Club as way to recognize the humanity that we all share.

[10+4]

This is really nice to see. I had some pretty harsh words for you and you reacted with grace. I'm really glad you reached a point where you can coexist with AQR because the best thing for all gamers is to be able to enjoy both your games and AQR. Much respect to you for doing what many do not- admitting your mistake and making right.

[TheGaymerBear.ttv]

It states in the Apopogy: "Our lawyers advised us that if the game was sold to another party and we failed to raise objections right now about the superficial similarities, we would be waiving our right to raise anything with the hypothetical new owners if they chose to turn AQR from what it is now into a deliberate clone of Mini Metro or Mini Motorways."

So you still thought you'd have a legal right to sue a superficial clone of your game, wich is not the case.
You cannot copyright a game genre or mechanics, otherwise the Dev's behind Cities: Skylikes would have legal rights to sue you as well, they have cars that go from point A to B, deposit people or wares and have traffic in their game.
Path of Exiles would be in huge trouble, since they openly admitted their game is essentially a Diablo clone and Fortnite would have never happend because they copied PUBG.
It would be something different if they would have used your code but that is not mentioned anywhere as a concern.

I think you just got called out and are now forced to backpaddle since you're no AAA Dev-Studio yourself. Plus, I would fire your legal team, it seems as if they got their degree from Trump University

[NolieRavioli]

Good stuff, good stuff. Cool, transparency there is appreciated. I loved mini metro even tho im no good at it

[duckwerks]

I am glad this has worked out. I have both MM, and AQR and enjoy them.
I hope you now have learn to communicate better before getting your lawyers involved.

[Alpha Dominante]

I'm glad the situation ended happily.

[Skyebee]

I'm so glad you addressed this!!! Thank you!

[Regis IV]

Thank you very much!

[Smouv]

Very glad this has resolved the way it has. Being a fan of both Mini Metro and Mini Motorways, but also of AQR, all three games offer a unique and distinct enough gameplay loops from one another that they can absolutely happily co-exist. I can wake up to a craving to play any one of those three games over the other two, highlighting how different they feel to play despite sharing a similar simplistic approach to its visual design.

The original decisions to pursue AQR for legal actions, while the reasoning behind it makes sense, did not sit right at all with me. Since AQR is notably a product of passion, passion for your own games on top of that, and with a large part of AQR's audience being shared with your own, I can only imagine it would have made for a situation without any winners all around.

Had those actions persisted, I'm not sure I could have justified to myself to continue playing Mini Metro or Mini Motorways anymore. Thanks for this clarification, justification, and ceasing of legal actions.

[spielerinchen]

thanks for clarification. i never doubted your good intentions. we are human, we make mistakes. what i didn't like was the harassment, hatred & drama from the fans of AQR. even in the worst case scenario, where the dev would have been in the absolute right & you in the absolute wrong, it's not at all right to drag the drama through the players' base, it just exacerbates the whole thing & makes it more difficult to solve. i play MM because it is not dramatic but needs consideration. if i wanted to play drama games, i'd be playing RPG & FPS.