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Making a pixel art game today invites comparisons to SNES and Genesis in reviews. Things like "I felt like I could be playing this on my SNES" are (generally) considered compliments.

Is the compliment specifically that a game looks and feels like the fourth gen (Genesis and Super NES), not the third (NES and Master System)? Because some 2010s pixel art games, such as Lizard and The Curse of Possum Hollow , can also be purchased on an NES cartridge.

(Disclosure: I contributed to Curse.)

So instead of copying a ROM let's just copy the idea of the ROM. Create new games that play like Mario or Donkey Kong but don't use the copyrighted (copywritten?) characters. Let's build an "app store" for old 8 & 16 bit style games that aren't custom written.

We already have one: Itch Direct. There's already a platformer inspired by Mario and Kirby titled Nova the Squirrel by Joshua Hoffman, distributed by its author as an NES ROM that runs in an emulator or on a PowerPak or EverDrive. If you like it, you may also like The Curse of Possum Hollow by Retrotainment Games (also on Steam) or Lizard by Brad Smith.

And if Nintendo or some other company tries to say their "idea" was stolen, simply point to Facebook and FarmVille that was copied.

Until the victim of this "copying" lawyers up in earnest. Then you get things like Tetris v. Xio (2012).

So instead of copying a ROM let's just copy the idea of the ROM. Create new games that play like Mario or Donkey Kong but don't use the copyrighted (copywritten?) characters. Let's build an "app store" for old 8 & 16 bit style games that aren't custom written.

We already have one: Itch Direct. There's already a platformer inspired by Mario and Kirby titled Nova the Squirrel by Joshua Hoffman, distributed by its author as an NES ROM that runs in an emulator or on a PowerPak or EverDrive. If you like it, you may also like The Curse of Possum Hollow by Retrotainment Games (also on Steam) or Lizard by Brad Smith.

And if Nintendo or some other company tries to say their "idea" was stolen, simply point to Facebook and FarmVille that was copied.

Until the victim of this "copying" lawyers up in earnest. Then you get things like Tetris v. Xio (2012).

This "Aliens" themed one was released yesterday:

https://psytronik.itch.io/orga...

I have my game Blade Master of Mibu on both mobile and desktop. I find no one is willing to spend a cent on mobile but still make the occasional sale for desktop.

After the release of this game there has been a fair amount of incidents of bald people getting slapped in the park

Not gun violence but there has been an influx in incidences of bald men being slapped in the park because of this

Of violence against bald men in the park ever since the release of this game

As a bald man I can say this is fucked up right here

this game

You consider [Sony's company registration process] EASY?

You need the LLC or S corporation and the tax ID anyway so that you can organize revenues and expenses of your game business separately from your personal revenues and expenses. There are NDAs associated with any semi-curated store, even Steam or iOS.

By the time I'm done jumping the hoops here I have developed, published and already forgotten an indie game on any other platform.

Including Microsoft, Nintendo, or Apple iOS?

Oh, and by the way, GOG does actually distribute other games, too. Not just ancient ones. It is basically Steam's smaller brother.

That and Itch Direct, which I've seen mentioned elsewhere as a stepping stone before an indie developer is "tall enough" for Steam.