Creating a Game based on Movie

At least you have the right attitude. Now, have you taken the obligatory vow of poverty required of all game designers? :wink:

As to your question, there has been a lot of discussion of late here (tip: check the search function, very handy!).

Essentially, if you are putting together a game to send to a publisher who will then do all the leg work to establish the proper licences for the movie name, characters, etc., then feel free to use and design. I am not a lawyer (a phrase that has been coming up a lot lately), but I believe this falls under the fair use act in regards to the intellectual property that you would be using. You don't own it, but you are not depriving the rightful owners of their due profits/royalties, then you are in the clear.

That method puts the onus on the publisher to secure the legal rights to the property since they are the ones who will be publishing the game and selling it to the public.

If YOU are the intended publisher (you intend to self-publish), the you are responsible for having the necessary licenses inplace before selling (or indeed giving away) you game. Before you write to the owner of the property, first take a quick look in either hand. If you're not holding a winning lottery ticket, then you may not be able to afford the rights to the property (that's under the assumption that you're not a well established game designer and/or producer in which case you probably already have a contact to all the licenses you want including the new Hillary Duff "I Can TOO Sing!" game).

I don't know what property you're talking about, but if you feel that it has the appeal to drive game sales, then you may find that the rights are either already bought out or very expensive. Either way I'd be very interested to hear what something like that goes for these days.

As for protecting your game, fully copyright the rules and any unique visual components (game board, etc.). Since you're using copyrighted material (the movie graphics and stills), you may want to leave them off and copyright a more generic layout. That will give you about as much protection as you can get. Don't worry about patenting the mechanics, it probably won't be worth the high cost. Just be sure to include a copyright symbol and you should be OK.

Best of luck!

Yes, you would license your game to the publisher who would then pay you royalties (though 5% sounds high unless you are well established). Take my advice with a grain of salt since I haven't published any games myself (I'm a relative newcomer). My insights are gleaned from the experiences of others.

Without revealing too much about your game, can you tell us something about it? Board game or card game or both? Light or heavy, etc.? Do you have the design finished or is it just an idea at this point?

Once you get the game designed, playtested (a lot!!), refined, playtested, refined some more, rigorously blind playtested (the single most important step for anyone even remotely considering self-publishing), then fine tuned and playtested some more (do you get the idea that playtesting—both while you are present and in blind playtests) is a very important part of the process?)... THEN you're ready for step 2 ;)

When do you copyright? Affix the circle-c and the word COPYRIGHT, the year and your name (or your company name, but only if your company is a legally incorporated entity) as soon as you have anything on paper. That will give you modest protection. As your rules get streamlined, then you can think about submitting them for official protection with the US Copyright Office (some may do that before the rules get to that stage, I'm not sure if copyright registration allows for revisions to the content after registration).

Before you can sell to retailers, you need to get the game printed (a step that is not easily rectified once overlooked). Then you may go directly to retailers or go through distributors or go to every convention there is and make as many contacts as you can. All of which are valid steps and have been discussed at great length in other posts (remember, there is a search function...). A lot will depend on your company's available capital and your business plan.

There are lawyers, agents, and various other contacts that can help you do just about everything (from negotiations to contracts and licenses), but they don't come for free (and may well cost you a percentage of a meager profit margin).

Good advice. I'm not putting anything into the development until I find out if the license is a viable option. I remain optimistic as I see small nic-knacks here and there from the movie. Luckily, it isn't as much of a blockbuster as Star Wars or The Adventures of Ford Fairlane!

I'll keep everyone posted and please be sure to post if you come across anything that might pertain to the topic.

-Beau