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How Do I Create a Spiritual Game Successor?
An anonymous reader writes "I've recently been on a legacy video game binge, reliving the nostalgic days, when I realized that one of my favorite old games can be vastly improved with a few tweaks. This game is pretty much made for a controller, so I would love to get it done on Xbox Live, but doing it on the PC is just as viable. Unfortunately, I am pretty sure the game is not in the public domain yet. Based on previous stories covered here, some companies are all for community made successors while others choose to give them the crushing blow from the start. My question is: how far is too far when one is trying to make a spiritual successor? I do not intend to copy any materials, but it would be lovely if I could incorporate some game design ideas (very general level design, movement, and just one or two game features)."
If it is an individual who wrote the original game, ask them for permission. Both times I've asked, I've received permission.
If it is a faceless mega-corporation, avoid using images, music, or names from the original game, but unless they have a patent on the look-and-feel or game mechanics (never heard of the later), you can just code away.
For my platman (old Amiga game) remake for the GBA, you can get it on my web page. (www.greasybastard.com)
Also see freeciv, and any of the two-or-so decent Wing Commander Privateer remakes.
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Play Six Pack Man. I
Don't use trademarked names or logos or anything so close it would create confusion. E.g., PocMan, or PacMen or PacPeople are too close to Pacman, but ChomperMan, PelletEater, GhostEater, etc, are okay.
Don't use the original copyrighted materials. Artwork, exact text, etc, are all verboten.
Beyond that, you're basically okay. Game rules/mechanics specifically *can't* be patented (or copyrighted, of course) in the USA. That doesn't mean that there aren't patents purporting to do so out there. There is long-standing precedent in the courts to that effect. However, "software patents," which are method patents, and which are only enforceable in the USA currently, might cover any innovative bits of code in the original -- but basically not if the game was released before, oh, the State Street decision in 1998, to be safe.
As it stands, under American Copyright Law (and many other places), the "rules of a game" as it were can not be copyrighted (or trademarked, obviously). This is why you can have a blatant Tetris clone on your cell phone, but it can't be called Tetris (as that would be a violation of trademark).
So long as the code is 100% yours (and/or is all code that is from scratch), all of the art assets (textures, models, music, etc.) are created from scratch, and you don't use any copyrighted material (character names, game name (obviously), and perhaps even the "distinctive appearance" of a character) you'll have no legal problems. Well, you might get sued, but any competent judge would throw the case out as in this situation they'd have no legal standing.
Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
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Ask Slashdot about the law typically means "What should I know first to make the most of my first consultation?"
Authors can chose to release works into the public domain ahead of time, and sometimes things fall through the cracks, even though they are not all that old (see 'Night of the Living Dead').
"linux is just DOS with a UNIX like syntax" -- Galactic Dominator (944134)
Yep, this is mostly true, if you're making a clone of a game you don't need permission providing you don't infringe on their IP.
Infringement of IP might be using the same names of characters, graphically similar enemies and so forth.
Basically, if the original game is story based you're going to struggle to immitate it without infringing on their IP because their IP is so core to the game, but if you're going for a less story focussed game, let's say something like Streetfighter 2, then clone away, just change the characters, change the moves, change the name, and there's really fuck all they can do- you can still do a fighting game that resembles it and recreate the spirit of the original game without copying their IP.
The same goes for a game like, say Desert Strike or the games in that series- it's fine to make a roughly isometric viewpoint based game where you fly around in a helicopter blowing shit up as long as you change the storyline, and use a slightly different helicopter, or give it different weapons.
So really it comes down to how closely the IP is tied into the gameplay, with Tetris there was really little IP other than the name, it's hard for them to claim coloured blocks as their IP and they cannot class the gameplay as their IP hence why as the parent said, you can clone the shit out of tetris and give it a different name. The same would go for games like Asteroids as long as the name and spaceship aren't quite the same. But then as I say, if you take an platformer like Mario or Sonic then you can copy the gameplay- game mechanics such as jumping on heads to kill, the speed characters move, how high they jump, but you can't copy the characters or enemies so by the time you're done you'll be left with a game that might play like Mario or Sonic, but is otherwise completely and utterly different and just another platformer.
So overall the answer to the question is really just how much of the original game you want to clone- if you just want to make a game that feels like the original, but has fresh characters, storyline, name and so forth then fine. If you want to clone the original characters and storyline then you're out of luck.
As an aside, in my younger days, Valve came in heavy handed against a mod team I was in for trying to create a clone of the original Teamfortress for a different engine and told us we were infringing on their IP because we used the word Fortress in the name even though we didn't use the word Team, and we used the same class names. They told us we could carry on if we removed Fortress from the name, and if we changed the class names. I was 17 at the time so wasn't going to argue, but I suspect they had very little case against us anyway, even more so when you take into account the fact the original TF mod was available free with source code and listed as free to use as you want, even though Valve later removed it and claimed that agreement was no longer valid, something I'm not sure they can retroactively take back anyway. So companies will try it on, if you believe you've done nothing wrong seek proper legal advice, they may just be trying to strong arm you when you have absolutely no case to answer at all.
I would say in the face of modern strengthening of IP laws, the laws surrounding computer game development are actually some of the fairest and most liberal, and I'd argue this is why computer games technology move so fast- we'd probably never have had Call of Duty MW games if Valve had been able to use say Counter-Strike to claim rights to modern warfare FPS games for example.
Far better:
1:Just make the game.
Don't take their artwork or story or character names and you're fine.
there are enough games out there anyway which are carbon copies of each other.
Asking the creator of the old game is stupid unless you want to use their code or artwork.
if you really feel the need to reference them then you might want to add an "inspired by" section and just make sure there's a decent list of other games in there too.
Stealing from one source is plagiarism.
Stealing from many is art.