Game infringement
Ok guys and girls!
Here`s one for you, this idea I have for a game is similar to a game on a flash game website. It`s features are slightly different and some features aren`t included.
How do I know I`m not copying or breaking any copyright laws.
I don`t wanna get sued!!!!
Thanks for all your help
Here`s one for you, this idea I have for a game is similar to a game on a flash game website. It`s features are slightly different and some features aren`t included.
How do I know I`m not copying or breaking any copyright laws.
I don`t wanna get sued!!!!
Thanks for all your help
Comments
Clones are perfectly normal in the games business. Look at all the C&C clones for example.
Don't make it identical, add a twist.
(i'm not a lawyer, but i see them on tv)
Ok, so if a game on a flash website has a game on the net.
I think I can do it better for the iPhone?
Would you suggest I ask for lawyer advice before?
Personally I would be against creating anything close to an existing game...
Want to create a platform game? sure cool, but does it need to remind people of Mario... nope, don't think so... etc
And there's many examples of platformers still being 'original' although
platform games have been around since the beginning of computer games..
Be sure not to create similar characters, levels, colors even.. etc etc
I also believe it's a matter of being honest and respectful towards the original and truly creative developers.. You can totally be inspired by other people's work, but that's all it should be, an inspiration, not an easy copy/paste source to get some quick $ out off...
My 2 cents..
Ps. Peach, hope you slept well :-)
While I get where UP is coming from the reality is that almost every game concept that could possibly EVER be made already exists - it may not be famous, it might not be in English, but it's out there.
The Halloween game I'm making is one I've had in mind since two years ago, BEFORE I was able to make it - there's a VERY similar one already up - I'm still making mine.
Some might think that is wrong but I believe if you come up with the idea yourself and find it already exists so you decide to improve on it, then that is more than OK.
Just think how many songs are out there - there is so much music that if you listened to it from the time of your birth until your death you could never hear it all - lyrics and concepts, even the most obscure ones, repeat themselves almost endlessly.
I admit I felt sad that another game like my idea existed in the Halloween theme, I'm sure it exists for other themes too - but if you have your own vision and it wasn't a stolen idea, then I do think running with it is OK.
That said - the game it's similar to is not a GS game, nor am I going to call it XYZ! - so I think I'm in the clear
Oh, and thanks UP - I actually slept terribly and had violent nightmares, lol - that happens to me a lot, probably spurred on by my insane hours and the fact that I haven't really eaten much in 30 odd hours as I'm broke. I got paid around midnight, so in about 6 hours the fridge will have more in it once again than just a half empty/full bottle of soy sauce ^-^;
Also, I'm buying myself cookies tomorrow. Mmmm.... cookies!
I mean, you're right, keeping things in perspective, it all has been done before.. for 99.9% ;-P (I'm sure there's still undiscovered concepts, as there's constantly undiscovered organisms popping up as well.. etc)
And I know I'm pushing (myself in the first place) to be original as much as possible. in my creative work, wether it's graphics, music, hell cooking even.. but sure there's a limit to possibly being original..
I guess for me it's the amount of 'twist' being added to an already existing concept that counts.
And more then often I see copy/paste work that's just way too much on the edge of acceptable..
It's like; 'yeah, but my Dario character is freakin Orange with pink polka dots!! He has no moustache, those are just huge sideburns!! And the thing he's jumping on is obviously a cauliflower, not a mushroom, how's THAT even close to 'the original'!! (Plus he shaved his b.... ah man, ya, never mind..again..) ' ;-)
For sure there's a collective mind thing going on, and surely even the most 'original' peeps
bump into work extremely similar to their own without knowing it ever existed... Been there etc..
Nightmares..brrrr... I think I know what those were all about...
Too bad I'm kinda far away.. there's always left overs where I'm at...
Enjoy the cookies though :-) Take care!
Lol, the only way for a player to know if "Dario" shaved or not would be if they could see.... Yeah, never mind.
There is a big difference indeed between recreating a game and creating a game that is similar to one that already exists. Some Chinese rip off Gameboy type thing has a game called "Super Mary" - in the handbook they actually refer to "Mary" as "Mario" by mistake multiple times. It's pretty funny, really.
I'm still really disappointed there's a game like mine already out there for Halloween - but I'm working hard to try and make mine better and mine will be on the iPad as well, something this older game isn't - so that's something I guess. Still, it's sad - if I'd gotten into making games way back when I could have been first, at least for the iDevices.
Yes, nightmares aren't pleasant - but as I am nocturnal at least if I wake up in the middle of my "night" it's light so I'm not in the dark and confused about what's going on, lol.
No worries on the food front - it sucks at times but being poor encourages me to try and succeed at new things; if I had enough money to survive comfortably I'd probably never try to do better. As it is I want to do well, make money, roll that money into other things, etc. I want multiple streams of income eventually.
I'll stop commenting here now as we're thread hijacking, but I'm sure we'll continue chatting later in some other thread, lol. ^-^;
Just to say, yes please stick to what you're good at!! I never meant to say people are crap if they can't do it all by themselves!! Actually I S U C K at programming, there's my problem in the App business.. (Thinking hard to team up with good coders.. anyone doing this, or interested?? Food for a new thread I guess)
I think it's a big mistake for many people, trying to implement skills they simply do not (yet) master.. Causing lots of crap to be published..
And the same goes for many many people supplying free stock graphics, lots of them just don't have the skills... but supply graphics, being used by many... It's unfortunate I believe..
I really think teaming up with the right people is the key to great apps here...
HHhmm.. I'm off thinking... oh no watching the game wwhheeeee!!
Yeah, OK, let's stick to the subject... we can always start a OT thread some place else... :-)
Enjoy the game!
PS - I know you don't think it's bad to use free graphics and such, no worries there
You can use the name Paris, but probably not Paris Hilton.
You can use the name SONIC its public domain but Sonic the Hedgehog, not a great idea. It is protected.
Game concept, mechanics of a game the way something works can be protected but like said by someone else, a scroller or platform game, no protection for anyone.
If there is a patent on a product then you have a diagram of what the are going to protect, so you can attempt to break it, however if they are making tons of money and you are close, they will bring legal action, not so much to get the money you might make but the potential damage that might have been done to the property they are protecting.
Game play, that is even more difficult to define and in most cases is tied to the game mechanics and graphics. Back to Sonic, if you make a game called LIghtspeed, and it plays just like sonic but the characters are monkeys and elephants, no real lawsuit could be won.
Clones of games, they are all over the place, and for the most part are not going to be a law suit.
The issue with a law suit to be really tried is to show damages to the person who feels you have infringed on their property. They must in a court, in the US, show that your efforts damaged them in some definable manner that the entity bringing suit can prove in court.
Ok so you do the wrong thing and you get sued, what happens then, if you are Apple and you get sued and loose, Apple has deep pockets of money, they either pay, or counter and a big fight goes on for years and Apple has the cash to do that. If they in the end are going to loose the lawyers have a dinner, come to an agreement or settlement and Apple gives them a check.
If it is however Apple suing a indie developer, Apple can go to the judge and cry and they get an injunction for you to stop. Then if the want to continue they bring a law suit, however if you have 90 dollars in your bank account and are living in a tent in New Jersey, with power you are stealing from the 7/11 while they may get the award, you cant pay and Apple wins a moral victory, so what.
the best course to follow is, never take anyone elses art, dont use any gimmicks in the code, sounds or other goodies that are directly related to the game you are trying to emulate.
We have a game coming out that might test some of these issues in a few days, I will let you know, but my lawyer is ready for the fight so we will see.
Also if you are under 18 you can claim you did not know, roll your eyes, cry a bit and it will all go away, unless you made 10 million bucks, but then you can afford to hire your own big time lawyer who will be happy to have you pay him or her for the fight.
blah blah balh
@Peach
I sent an email to the address provided in the contact info on your site (gemmatyndall • com)
Not sure you're regularly checking it so.. Voilà, now you know! :-)
@Vegasmike 1
Some interesting points in your post..
If you have a link to a place where I can read more about this legal stuff I'd like to have a read,
especially concerning world wide copyright issues.
And yes please keep us posted about this upcoming game you speak off,
I'm curious to see how far you are trying to push the 'legal' limits... Since you have a lawyer at hand already, you must be up to something you already know is / could be kinda.. you know, a thing to shave your balls over.. ;-)
(Not judging you, just making an assumption, I won't say anything until I really understand what we're talking about. It's the word LAWYER that made me squeek. Not guilty until proven, right..?) :-)