OK, so you
Re-tooling old games
Fri, 03/07/2003 - 18:52
Tue, 02/11/2003 - 14:32
#1
Re-tooling old games
Scurra,
It sounds very doable. After your analysis of the game, it does seem like a lot of different themes could be applied to the LOTR engine. Star Wars, The Matrix, Indiana Jones, X-Files, they all seem like likely candidates. If I were you, I
Fri, 03/07/2003 - 11:32
#2
Re-tooling old games
Seems like a great idea!
How is the legal issues of using someones game engine ?
Lets say i used the LOTR game engine or maybe the Settlers engine and added a little spice like described by scurra, would that get me behind bars or could i freely distribute it under my own name with some inspirational credits to the game engine author ?
Fri, 03/07/2003 - 14:29
#3
Re-tooling old games
Game mechanics cannot be copyrighted, so feel free to incorporate them into your own games.
Of course the exact appearance of any game is always copyrighted. The copyright extends to some extent to derivative works and is in effect for some period after the death of the author. Nevertheless, this protection is rather limited in its effect and would not have much impact on a re-themed game.
The mechanics can sometimes be protected by patent (and some games do have patent protection). My game (Sunda to Sahul) has some limited patent protection over the tiling mechanism. However most patents associated with games are very limited in their scope and are easily circumvented in an adaptation.
Mind you, legal issues are not the only consideration if you are trying to get the game published. If you approach a company with a game that is an obvious rip off of another company