Hi there everyone,
I have designed a board game that is set in feudal Japan. The objective of the game is to become Shogun, which can be reached through several means. It is a game of strategy, diplomacy and conquest, that emphasizes the chaos of the 'Warring States Period' in Japan. Players take the role of Daimyo (feudal rulers/military commanders of that time) and look to either seize control over the capital or annihilate all other Daimyo in the game.
Some of you, who may have similar interests in such themes, may already get at where I'm going with this...
I had thought that this was a completely unique concept that was never explored with board games, in fact the initial reason I created it was so that I could simply have fun with family and friends in simulating these historical events from Japanese history.
Saying this, I was completely wrong there!! It was only recently, in trying to do further research on the theme that I stumbled across something that I still can't quite get my head around. It seems that the very year that I was finalizing the workings of my first prototype and rule book, that a very similar game was actually published and released to the public (2008). This game is called 'Senji' by Asmodee.
With further research, I have discovered that the mechanisms are quite different, along with the 'Rules' and artwork (which I have illustrated myself thus far). The concept of the theme is however very similar between the two, if not considered identical, and of course both use geographical Japan as the map/setting.
I would very much like to publish this game, that I have put a lot of work into, but believe that 'Senji' is protected with copyright. I would NOT want to run the risk of being fined for copyright infringement, especially for something that I consider completely my idea ^_^.
PLEASE HELP!! Can anyone tell me whether I may be breaking copyright laws, and if so what alternatives I could explore??
Thank you.
Thank you Corsaire. So, I guess it's not just the fact that the same theme, but there are also some other similarities eg. both use Daimyo as player characters, erecting castles, the fact that they both use a point system to achieve victory (ie, players must obtain a certain number of points accumulated in various ways to prove their worthiness as shogun).
If copyright/patents do not cover such components to the game, what do they cover?