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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)."
I don't really agree with this. The best OSS games I've played are all "successors" of older games, with improved but not so original mechanics: OpenTTD, Freeciv, Hedgewars or any of the Quake3 clones.
I was also pretty excited to see development around a Theme Hospital OSS clone, but alas, it seems the movement lost some steam nowadays.
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Go with Hopper. It's better to ask forgiveness than permission.
Also, it's better to beg forgiveness than to ask permission. If you follow lhmhi's advice above, you're unlikely to get into trouble. However, if you go out of your way to ask permission from the original game developers and they say no, then what? You're screwed. If you go ahead and develop it anyways they could take you to court and show the judge that you anticipated possible infringement yet went ahead even after you didn't obtain permission.
If you ask, and they say "no", then don't make it. If you don't respect their wishes, and you were asking only as a formality, you're just being an asshole and the court deserves to ding you when you get sued.
Believe me, there are thousands of games that could work well if remade. Here's what you do:
1) Pick a game
2) Ask its creator if you can remake it (don't be an asshole)
3) If they say no, go to step 1.
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I look forward to the next new game that does not use any concepts that appeared in a previous game.
The Curse of Monkey Island I and Street Fighter II have recently experienced "remakes" on xbox live.
They both offer the option to "stick with classic view" or "shiny new remade graphics". They also offer the possibility of switching from one to the other.
I suggest you do the same: a "classic mode", with gameplay conserved from the original, and a "new mode" with improvements.