Skip to Content
 

Using well known game titles or not

4 replies [Last post]
Mon, 01/27/2014 - 04:51
svenne
svenne's picture
Offline
Joined: 01/06/2013

I am creating a game about making a gaming convention.
In the first step the players are going to create events by combining different cards.

There is two different cards.
1. Card with a adjective and a game category. Ex. Theoretical and Larp
2. Card with game titles. Ex. Settlers of Catan

They have to combine the drawn cars into an event like:
The Theoretical Larp Settlers of Catan

And then explain how this event is working and why it is the best event ever.

My question is if is okay to use gaming titles like Settlers of Catan, Tetris, Munchkin and so on?
Or will the publisher of those games go ballistic and demand money of me?

I can rewrite the titles like this, Settlers of Cardiff, Petris, Lunchkin but some games are hard to make a fun name of.
Like Quake.... Quaker?

Top
Mon, 01/27/2014 - 06:13
#1
devaloki
devaloki's picture
Offline
Joined: 01/15/2014
svenne wrote:I am creating a

svenne wrote:
I am creating a game about making a gaming convention.
In the first step the players are going to create events by combining different cards.

There is two different cards.
1. Card with a adjective and a game category. Ex. Theoretical and Larp
2. Card with game titles. Ex. Settlers of Catan

They have to combine the drawn cars into an event like:
The Theoretical Larp Settlers of Catan

And then explain how this event is working and why it is the best event ever.

My question is if is okay to use gaming titles like Settlers of Catan, Tetris, Munchkin and so on?
Or will the publisher of those games go ballistic and demand money of me?

I can rewrite the titles like this, Settlers of Cardiff, Petris, Lunchkin but some games are hard to make a fun name of.
Like Quake.... Quaker?

The theme doesn't seem interesting at all, but that's just my personal opinion

Top
Mon, 01/27/2014 - 06:20
#2
svenne
svenne's picture
Offline
Joined: 01/06/2013
No it is not the most

No it is not the most interesting theme. The game is made for a specific gaming convention and their 20:th anniversary.
There are some more steps in the game but the question was if it is possible to use other game titles with out getting sued.

Top
Mon, 01/27/2014 - 06:24
#3
RGaffney
RGaffney's picture
Offline
Joined: 09/26/2011
If it's for a particular

If it's for a particular event/party and you are not going to sell it for a profit i believe it falls under fair use as a sort of parody.

That said I like the idea of changing the names because I think it adds some interest and opportunity for humor. Maybe that's supposed to happen in the argument phase.

Reminds me of a game I heard about on Reddit. Draw a picture of a monster, and then argue about why it beats the monster the other guy drew

P.S. "Shake"

Top
Mon, 01/27/2014 - 12:39
#4
larienna
larienna's picture
Offline
Joined: 07/28/2008
From all the games I have

From all the games I have seen, I think they always changed the names. So I would go safe and do so.

About your game, it has some similarities with "The big Idea". In that game, you combine adjectives and nouns to create inventions. And then there is an investment phase and you cash in your invention.

Instead, your game, you could have Mechanics cards and Themes cards where player needs to make a game that they will kickstart. For example:

LARP (mechanic) colonisation (theme) game.

In that case, you use theme and mechanics from existing games, but not necessarily specific name.

Then you could have a "Pledge" phase where players decide which game to support. Then either you roll a die like in "The big idea" or if you have enough supporters, your game gets published. So I strongly suggest you take a look at "the big idea". Use different mechanics for pledging and resolution.

The theme of designing a game seem much more interesting than designing a convention about a game. Like in the big idea, you could combine mechanics or theme like:

Area of majority + LARP, Alien + colonisation game

We also like to do sale speech in "the big idea", it might be possible to do so in your game too.

Top
Syndicate content


forum | by Dr. Radut