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[MooCowG]

So in a nutshell, I made a game this past year that was inspired by Asteroids. It started off as a clone to educate myself, but then I reworked a lot of the game play and added some stuff to it, yada yada yada: I do not think it infringes on the Asteroids IP.

But, it isn't always as simple as that. I didn't intend to sell this game when I released it to Kongregate in December, but I've decided that it could easily be reworked and adapted for the Ouya.

I honestly don't think I'm at legal risk, but we all know that doesn't really stop large corporations from at the very least sending a C&D and I have no resources to defend myself with.

Here's a link to the game: http://www.kongregate.com/games/MooCowG/jupiter-jerrys-tour-of-the-kuiper-belt

What do ya think, Tig Peeps?

Gerald

[CowBoyDan]

Your legal status doesn't change whether you release on kongregate or a console.

That said it was kinda awful, I'm start something new instead, this is ok for a "hey I made a game!", but I can't see anybody buying this.

[MooCowG]

Thanks for the response, but that's not my question. Quite frankly, that was unnecessary.

[deathtotheweird]

I seriously doubt it, there are numerous asteroid clones on various services and platforms. It wouldn't be worth the time or effort for them.

As a game that you used to educate yourself, it's functional. If I were you I'd take that experience and knowledge and make a new game. After all, it is an asteroid clone. An asteroids was never fun.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

Clones and bootlegs

There have been many unofficial ports of Asteroids produced. These include near-copies such as Acornsoft's Meteors and Ambrosia Software's Maelstrom, as well as those with expanded gameplay and background, such as Asterax, Astrogeddon, Stardust, Spheres of Chaos and Astro Fire. The Vectrex had a built-in similar game called "Minestorm". Even on the Sony PSP, homebrew Asteroids were made on that platform when hacked.

i've played a ton of astroids clones; some of them commercial. i think you're fine. take a look at this asteroids clone:





it's for the xblig, clearly inspired by astroids, yet atari never did anything

that said, it all depends on how similar it is and how high-profile it is, and whether you actually include the word "asteroids" in your name, and other such factors. i can only see atari caring at all if your game hits the top 10 on iphone, has "asteroids" in the title, and isn't so much "inspired" by asteroids as actually a clone of it (with very little added or changed). otherwise it's fine

i also agree that the game is very "my first game". for example, use your browser's zoom function, and notice that the gui no longer matches up with the game. it looks like it's made up of clip-art and clip-sounds

i mean for serious, compare that echoes game to yours; why would anyone play your game over that? and that game's from 2006, and isn't even itself very impressive

and you have to realize we aren't trying to be mean, we're just tired of seeing games with very little work trying to be sold commercially. the time to sell commercial games is after you make games that impress other game developers and have an established audience, after your games are so popular as freeware that the fans are saying 'you should go commercial!', not when you're first starting out and are learning. making indie games isn't a get rich quick scheme, it's something you should care about and put years of time and effort into

[moi]

make sure you don't use the word asteroid anywhere near the title of your game and it should be fine.
By "it should be fine" I mean that noone can guarantee that atari won't issue a CD, but the chances are small

[MooCowG]

Thank you everyone for your responses. I really do appreciate the perspective.

A few points to explain my intentions:

1) I mostly wanted to bring it to Ouya as a way of learning how to bring a game to a marketplace. I didn't intend to get rich off of this.
2) I understand there are some major flaws in various aspects of it. This is why I would have reworked the UI, enhanced the gameplay, etc etc.
3) This isn't my first project. I have great respect for the indie community. I learn from throwing myself into difficult situations, regardless of the results. As long as I learned something from it all, I would have counted it as a success.

The game as it is right now is not worth spending money on, I agree. I was going to spend the next few months making it into something I would hopefully feel proud to sell.

Regardless, I've decided to move on. I've gotten a little too much push back from a variety of directions to feel this is worth it.

Thanks again and I hope to hear from you guys when I have more to show in the future.

Peace,
Gerald

[SterlingDee]

I know you didn't ask for feedback, but I am just going to give it anyway 

I thought it was fun, but honestly the graphics on the loading/start screen were ooogly as hell and I almost didn't want to play. Once I played it was fun and better than other asteroid clones I've played. I liked the voice sound effects too.

[MooCowG]

Thank you as well for the feedback.

What I tried to go for with the art and sound was the feel of an 8 year old making a home movie with his dad's video recorder. Not too surprisingly, that didn't work out as well as I had hoped it would. It's actually been really difficult to get good feedback on this project. Most of the people who were willing to look at it and give comments didn't supply much detail or critique in those comments.

Ironically, all art and sound were done by me. There was no clip art/sound used here. I was trying to go for a feel that may not be appropriate for the medium, or I'm just not skilled enough to pull it off, yet.

Oh well. Lesson learned. I guess I'll try for something a bit more straightforward on the next project.

Peace,
Gerald

[SterlingDee]

Thank you as well for the feedback.

What I tried to go for with the art and sound was the feel of an 8 year old making a home movie with his dad's video recorder. Not too surprisingly, that didn't work out as well as I had hoped it would. It's actually been really difficult to get good feedback on this project. Most of the people who were willing to look at it and give comments didn't supply much detail or critique in those comments.

Oh I definitely got what you were going for in your art style, but it's not obvious until one gets past the start screen. When it first loaded, I thought it was just really mad MS Paint art, but once I got past the start screen, I understood! Some things I would change if this were my game:

-The planet and asteroids are visually offensive lol - I would model them to look like they are made out of clay or plastercine. It took me some time to realize the asteroids are little paper balls (right?).
- Just for the start screen, could the asteroids be hanging from strings? (that would help communicate the arts & craft style)
-I would change the space shuttle illustration on the start screen. Either make it more hand drawn style or replace it so the player knows it's not just bad MS Paint
-include the paper clip motif on the start screen again to communicate the homemovie/arts & crafts premise
 
I'd probably try to simplify the colour scheme as well.

[MooCowG]

Those are some good ideas! Thanks! Also, glad to hear it worked to a certain extent.

If I ever do another game with a similar art style, I'll keep your advice in mind.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

to be clear, when i said clip art i didn't think you actually used clip art, just that it has the feel of clip art, where all of the different art assets in a game have a totally different style and nothing is visually consistent. it's like those rpgmaker games that use some tiles from zelda, some from lunar, some from final fantasy, some from dragon warrior, some from suikoden, and mix them all up into one game: as if everything in the game had a different artist. but if you're just beginning at art that makes sense since when you are just starting out you're still figuring things out and trying to find a style and trying new stuff and developing as an artist with every single object

[MooCowG]

Not new to art, but that just illustrates the failings of the overall style I went for. I've gotten quite a few puzzled looks at it, but few people have been willing to comment besides trying to be encouraging. The art was not intended to look polished. It was intended to look rough and naive while still conveying adequate UI design and set a mood for the player.

Again: It was not too successful.

I will admit that I'm still trying to get the hang of working with game art. Just about every project I get into I try to do something different so I don't establish too much of a comfort zone. If you want to see something else I was involved with, check out A Night Forever: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/603561. I did the art for that "game".

Anyway. This has strayed pretty far from the actual topic, so if you have more to add I actually set up a feedback thread to this that didn't get nearly as much feedback: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=30307.msg827016#msg827016

Peace,
Gerald