Hello again. :)

As some of you know, I'm just starting to toy around with the idea of shareware game development.

I've spent a little bit of time looking around to see what is commonly available at places like RealArcade and the like and I see a lot of stuff that is clones of games gone by (epecially Breakout/Arkanoid and Tetris).

My question is: how close can you come to borrowing from another game without fear of being pounded on by one of the big wealthy publishers/developers?

Personally, my own plans at a shareware game is admittedly inspired by games like Zelda and Final Fantasy (*). Although I by no means plan to do and out and out clone I do fear working hard on something that might get shut down by a bunch of lawyers.

(*) BTW, is there even a market for shareware games similar to Zelda, FF, Metroid and the like?? Judging from supply, it seems like only puzzle games are hot.

that really depends on the "pounder"

Anyone can be sued for any reason. That doesn't mean they will win.

So you would have to ask yourself, if you we're in the shoes of the person or company that holds copyright on a game, what would you do if some made a clone of your game.

So if somone has something they really want to protect and they have the means to do so ( say an lawer on retainer and/or a boat load of cash that out does your cash stash) you have to put that into your equation.

When in doubt, you might just want to aviod it. If you make "balloontris" you might be okay.... but if it's " Tetriz" you are likely to be one unhappy fella.

Also, be sure not to infringe copyright by using a screenshot of thier graphics. Thats happend to me before and to say I wasn't amused would be an understatement. Needless to say, it was resolved shortly. ;)

It seemed that the Tetris folks we're comming down on the clones that used thier trademark, and infact they have an obligation to defend it.

Patents I'm not exactly sure how that usally works out. It seems like there is a patent for everything noadays, and we are probably infrengeing some some just posting here [using a predefined set of charaters to convey a message electronicly via the internet ]


Game ideas are a little harder to defend. I wonder if that "Catopoply" game at the pet store is licened by Parker Brothers?

I'm sure a lot of folks that have stuff to say on this topic, there certainly is a lot more to talk about and ways to look at issues.

Er I guess the moral to that story was....

Build on the ideas so that it's not a ripoff clone.

So if you made a Zelda -like game, that in itself is probalby okay depending on how diffent you intend to make it.

"Zelda and the temple of doom" is not gonna fly. but " Peter and the Giant Dude" that takes place in a fantasy world with fairys and you have a staff you carry around with you, and rescue a princess, is a lot less likley to raise eyebrows.

This is not legal advice mind you, just my humble opinon. :)

Thanks, Jonas. I'm just toying with ideas right now anyhow. :)

I only want to build something that people like me will get excited about. I'm certainly not intending to rip off another game.

I imagine it's a delicate balancing act at times.

It's largely that RPG-style games take forever to make, so fewer indie people work on them, best as I can see. Spiderweb Software does them.

There's also a lot of (slowly developing) freeware projects in the old-console-RPG mode, especially with the existence of RPG Maker (even if it's almost always pirated, since ISTR it was never legally released in English). See http://www.rpgdx.net/ for some freeware RPG games.

Of course, most of those are pretty short.

I also know someone working on a 2d conversion of the Ocarina of Time (freeware, obviously).

There's definitely interest in the genre. How much and how profitable I can't tell you. :)