Copyright?

Given the fact just about every game is based on some game that has gone before and many clones have appeared. What differences would have to be made to graphics or gameplay to avoid the wrath of the original programmer/company?

For example, a person wanted to produce a commercial Pacman-like game (no I'm not writing one) and just changed the graphics - would that be ok? By how much would the graphics have to change? What about gameplay changes and storyline?

Thanks, Steve.

definitely avoid a PacMan shaped main character. Make the level layout and ghosts differernt, but you can have the same fruit as that's in loads of games. Not the same music or soundFX either. If it feels the same game, it's dodgy, if it feels different, your OK imho.

This is an extreme example because PacMan is such an iconic game, so avoiding the Pacman shaped character sounds fine - but surely a big mouth of sorts can't be copyrighted?



But the simplistic nature of a maze game is going to feel the same anyway - weither your collecting gold or dots.

I'm not so sure. YEs it will feel like a maze game involving collecting things, but if it doesn't have the same colours/look/sounds it will have it's own vibe and will be distinct enough, hopefully.

I'd use a butt in place of PacMan's gigantic yellow head.

Imagine that... a butt sucking in pills...

They could be laxatives!

Or maybe the object should be to go round and empty maze and lay down, um, turds. Not sure what kind of audience this would attract though. Noel might play it however.

Nah, just start with an empty maze and have the character puking pills. Puke-Man! :P

that's pretty good.

Or, in a tribute to Puki, you could use the giant butts and make it a "hide the sausage game".

LOL! Actually, when you really think about it there can be lots of variation - just thought of one that I might make myself - doesn't involve laxatives though!

see you wanted to make a pac-man game all along and didn't know it.

You can steal the gameplay outwright, something as abstract as gameplay can't be copyrote. copyrote? copyritten? copyrighten? copyrighted?

only the media can be. Graphics, Sound... and most of the graphics are also trademarked.

Here comes the fun bit. You can re-create the sprites exactly changing most of the pixels, and it is not a breach, you have to change the ghosts and pac-man more because they are trademarked... you prolly shouldn't use any shapes... but make it a pizza and it is perfectly legit, so put 6 dots on pac man and it is suddenly ok.

Don't ask me, personally I think you shouldn't just rip off a game entirely. Whats the point? other than to fatten your wallet. Where is the fun in it?

Screw fun, give me da money! :P

Actually it can be a) educational b) a portfolio item and c) fun after all :-)

Just wanted a simple example game as part of another project. ;-)

Copyright it's a total crap from the big companies.
As you are not using any method to steal the actual graphics from the software or the hardware you can create anything.
A circle with a mouth was a great idea for the hardware of the 80's also a triangle for a spaceship was the minimmum and the best for asteroids.
You cannot create a circle with a triangle for mouth and call it pac-man... after all the copyrights goes to the name.

all you have to do to avoid prosecution is to show a previous use of the same components... similar to the way Apple anoided MS years back with their attempt to copyright the Windows look and feel...

and the originating company would loose if they tried to sue you due to the fact that they knew of and allowed without interference or license, another use of the same look and feel...

why do ya think theres been so many Tetris clones made...

--Mike

Apple have a bloody cheek! They nicked the idea from Xerox Parc, in the first place. I believe Steve Jobs admits as much.

Why we're not all using Xerox-compitible PCs now, instead of IBM-compatible PCs, is beyond me! Xerox were leaps and bounds ahead of anyone else, at the time.

yup...

--Mike

Amen!

No bitter and twisted responses please - let it go! ;-)

Just examples of commercial games that were made and resemble previous ones.

How about the daddy of them all? X: Beyond Frontier. It's a blatant Elite ripoff, albeit with technical improvements in all areas, and moreover they thumb their noses at the original developers by calling it Beyond Frontier, inferring that it's an unofficial sequel to the Elite sequel, Frontier.

Xerox gave Apple complete and unrestricted access to PARC researchers and the Xerox Star Prototype. You should read Fumbling the Future for more insight into exactly how badly Xerox did.

Ah, so Apple did what Thomas Edison did with the light bulb.

Except in this case, the people that sold the concept got a lot more credit for it...