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Zack Bell
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« on: December 17, 2011, 11:35:19 PM » |
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Hey guys, I'm not sure if these are stupid questions, but I feel like it's better to play it safe than to just wing it. I want to know a little bit more about games and copyright laws. I apologize if this has been mentioned before.
One of my prototypes has morphed into somewhat of a Megaman-like game. I wanted some clarification about design, gameplay, and copyrighting such things. From what I've heard, you can't really copyright a design pattern like "level, boss, gain boss weapon, repeat". Am I right to say that?
From there, what about names? I don't believe something like "Fireman" could possibly be owned by Capcom. I mean heck, it's a job, haha.
Where do the boundaries lie for such things? I'm not even planning on finishing or selling the game, but I just wanted to clarify and make sure that I know what I'm doing. I don't want to copy anything, but having the elemental boss structure works very well with what I've got.
Thanks again.
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dustin
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« Reply #1 on: December 18, 2011, 11:49:56 AM » |
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Yeah you can clone megaman as much as you want as long as you don't use any of the art, or call it megaman. It gets a little more confusing with something like tetris were people literally program the exact same game from scratch but with something like megaman that's not really going to happen.
As far as what names you can get away with it depends if your work would be viewed as a satire of megaman or not but in general getting a letter requiring you to change the name is not such a big deal.
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Zack Bell
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« Reply #2 on: December 18, 2011, 12:47:31 PM » |
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Thank you! That's about what I assumed, so it's not a big deal. I'm not planning on copying the names, I just wondered because the names were so ridiculously generic that they sounded tough to copyright.
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Hangedman
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« Reply #3 on: December 18, 2011, 12:55:22 PM » |
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As long as it's not an actual ripoff of content (gfx/music/level layout down to the brick/etc), it should be fine.
The line where it can start to become a dispute about intellectual property if it gets to be altogether too similar in a great many ways (say if you copied not only the structure, but also the boss names or themes for each level) but even still capcom would be unlikely to care, as it's just some game.
General game design and structure are up for grabs, but everything else can be disputed, so better off ensuring that it's original content.
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Zack Bell
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« Reply #4 on: December 18, 2011, 01:03:33 PM » |
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I'd say that it is recognizably "inspired by Megaman", but it certainly is NOT a Megaman clone in any way.
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Gimym TILBERT
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« Reply #5 on: December 18, 2011, 06:10:44 PM » |
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It's free or commercial?
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thatshelby
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« Reply #6 on: December 18, 2011, 06:17:12 PM » |
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It's free or commercial?
Free: I'm not even planning on finishing or selling the game,
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Zack Bell
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« Reply #7 on: December 18, 2011, 10:32:43 PM » |
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As of now I'm working on it constantly and liking it more and more. So yes, it will be finished. I'm not sure about free or commercial until I can tell more about the marketability of it. It's almost too hard. Harder than the original megaman games, I think.
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C.A. Sinner
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« Reply #8 on: December 19, 2011, 11:11:12 AM » |
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I'd say that it is recognizably "inspired by Megaman", but it certainly is NOT a Megaman clone in any way.
If Gameloft can get away with releasing something like this (on a Nintendo platform no less!), I'm sure you'll be fine with a game loosely based on Megaman. |
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Zack Bell
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« Reply #9 on: December 19, 2011, 12:18:41 PM » |
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Holy shit, is that real life?^ I now feel 110% confident that I'll be ok.  |
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copernicus
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« Reply #10 on: December 19, 2011, 06:31:11 PM » |
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Don't forget about Megamari. I've also played demos of other "it plays just like Mega Man but has girls" games. Can't remember the names at the moment. I wouldn't use names that are too similar to Mega-names, because there are over 200 bosses across the Mega-franchises and you might accidentally use one without knowing it (Fire Man, Flame Man, Heat Man, Burner Man, Napalm Man...).
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Zack Bell
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« Reply #11 on: December 19, 2011, 06:50:03 PM » |
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Megamari looks pretty cool, actually.  But yeah, I see your point. The names probably won't even end up being similar. It won't look anywhere to close to Megamari. It will NOT be a rip off game. |
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Gimym TILBERT
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« Reply #12 on: December 19, 2011, 08:09:19 PM » |
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I'd say that it is recognizably "inspired by Megaman", but it certainly is NOT a Megaman clone in any way.
If Gameloft can get away with releasing something like this (on a Nintendo platform no less!), I'm sure you'll be fine with a game loosely based on Megaman. Customize them with the inner camera  |
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C.A. Sinner
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« Reply #13 on: December 20, 2011, 12:22:35 AM » |
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Customize them with the inner camera what |
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gambrinous
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« Reply #14 on: December 20, 2011, 03:50:47 AM » |
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I'd say that it is recognizably "inspired by Megaman", but it certainly is NOT a Megaman clone in any way.
If Gameloft can get away with releasing something like this (on a Nintendo platform no less!), I'm sure you'll be fine with a game loosely based on Megaman. That's freakishly similar! |
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Developer
