Make up your own damned IP!
There’s something that’s been bugging me for a long time, but it wasn’t until Derek Yu posted about a shining example on TIGSource that my thoughts on the matter really coalesced. The article talks about a group who spent 3 years making a Halo mod for Command and Conquer, and had to recently stop working on it because Microsoft sent them a cease and desist letter. Contrary to all the bleeding-heart compassion for “the poor mod team, crushed under Microsoft’s tyranical corporate bootheel” that I’m seeing on most other video game blogs, Yu says:
I’ll never understand why people try to make mods like this. Three years spent working on a game (for free, no less!), only to have the project canned with a single email. It’s like taking your neighbors’ kid and then raising it as your own for three years, only to have them be like, “WTF, that’s MY kid!” and then take them back. And there’s nothing you can do because it really isn’t your kid, even though you invested three years’ of time into it.
You should have had your own kid! Or “licensed” one legally through an adoption center. You know what I mean?
…which I agree with absolutely. Why have so many people spent so many hours, days, YEARS on projects based on someone else’s IP, especially when it would take them a whole 30 seconds to come up with their own damned IPs? Seriously, people, it’s not that hard! Look at the concepts behind some of the most famous video game IPs: “plumber”, “hedgehog”, “space marine”, “kid in a pointy green hat”. Surely you can also pull one random concept out of your ass and create an entirely new IP in less time than it takes to read this sentence. If you wanna have a REALLY catchy IP, you can combine TWO random words! “Gypsy” + “Sandwich”! There, I’ve just invented the IP “Madame Pastrami: The Gypsy Sandwich”, who I can now proceed to put in whatever kind of game I want to make. How hard was that??
Obviously, the answer to my question is going to be “fanboyism”; people ♥ Halo so much that they want to put Master Chief in an RTS, or ♥ Link so much that they want to put him in original adventures on their old graphing calculator. Imitation IS the sincerest form of flattery, but there’s a fine line between “imitation” and “trademark infringement”. It’s obvious to anyone who’s played it that Cave Story was heavily influenced by Metroid, and Guardian of Paradise was heavily influenced by Zelda, but the fact that they used their own damned IPs means that:
#1: They won’t get sued.
#2: They get additional praise for creativity.
but
#3: Their “roots” are still obvious, so they have the benefit of attracting Metroid/Zelda fans without any of the drawbacks of infringement.
If you’re considering working on a fangame, please spend the 30 seconds coming up with your own IP. Everyone will still be able to see where you’re coming from, but you won’t have the “C&D Letter of Damacles” hovering overhead to swoop down and end your project at some nebulous point. (Actually the point isn’t that nebulous; the C&D letter will come once your game becomes complete and popular enough to attract the attention of the IP holder. You know, right when it’s finally nearing the end of beta. So if you delight in watching your babies get hit by trucks the moment they learn to walk, then by all means, invite that wrath.)
If you’re already elbow-deep in a fangame, then please consider switching out the IP now before someone takes notice and makes an example of you. Yes, that means making your own art to replace all those sprite rips, but down the road when your game is receiving accolades for being “an awesome original platformer in the spirit of Super Mario World” rather than a stern letter from Nintendo’s lawyers, you’ll be glad you made the effort.
September 13th, 2006 at 4:00 pm
Well, other than love of the original IP (a perfectly noble if obviously problematic motivation), one other reason people might use a protected IP in a fangame is for the noteriety. Provided you get away with it, getting your project out the door before the C&D, you might get instant free word-of-mouth from blogs and message boards about your “cool new fanmade Metroid game, Samus Aran: The Lost Chronicles!”, while the same game as “Ruth Baker: Alien Hunter” would have to struggle on its own merits. I’m not saying that’s a -good- thing, just that that’s the reality of the situation (and another reason companies want to protect their IP).
Myself, I do wonder why most of these people don’t just change the offending names/graphics/models after the Letter of Doom arrives and carry on. The Silver Lining could’ve saved itself a lot of trouble that way (though I approve of how they got a special King’s Quest license in the end). That way you can get the ill-earned press by getting shut down, then get even more a few months later when people talk about “that mod that used to be Halogen!” Maybe all independent development should work this way. (I’m being cynical, mostly.)
September 13th, 2006 at 5:03 pm
Honestly, I’d be more inclined to play “Ruth Baker: Alien Hunter” than “L@@K I MAED SPRIT RIPED METRO1D GAEM IN FLASH U GET 2 SEE SAMUS B@@B13Z!!”
X
In my experience, fangames (and porn games) tend to be total crap, coasting entirely on the popularity of whatever they’ve ripped sprites from (or porn) and tacking on absolutely awful gameplay. The only exception I can think of off the top of my head was the “Megaman vs. Ghosts ‘n’ Goblins” and “Megaman vs. Metroid” flash games, which were short and sweet little tributes rather than trying to be entire games.
If Halogen is a good enough game to stand on its own merits (which, from all the outcry about its getting C&Ded, it sounds like it is), then I’m sure the team will just re-skin it and release it without the Halo branding.
September 13th, 2006 at 7:06 pm
I feel I should say something about this team in particular. This may have come a bit out of left field because Bungie has always been pretty lax regarding fangames and their IP. They’ve more or less publicly stated that their old IP is fair game (granted, the remaining active members of the Marathon community are all hardcore enough that Bungie probably figures they’ll give it fair treatment, but still); as far as Halo goes, this won’t be the first fangame. Halo Zero has never, to my knowledge, had any legal troubles with MS.
Of course, there are a lot of details as to who did or did not get in touch with who else’s legal department that may be different between the two projects, explaining why one was shut down and the other was not.
- HC
September 18th, 2006 at 5:32 pm
Seconded. In fact, there are so many creative people out there and so few opportunities for original characters to actually get games of their own, that even if you can’t put two pixels together you can probably find someone willing to donate characters and worlds they’ve made themselves, for Cheap or even Free.
I mean… really, what is it that makes Mario “cool?” He’s a plumber in primary colors, and that’s really all. The genius of the character has never been his look but the games he’s been in. If you make a genius game, then so long as the character is personable at all (which, admittedly, is harder than it looks) he’ll work.
I hate to be down on those budding programmers, but I think this is really why there are so many fangame projects. They’re not homages, they’re actually trying to use the original game’s popularity as a way to give their own game a leg-up over the sea of other games.
December 2nd, 2006 at 1:12 am
There might be one quite practical reason for using existing IP: keeping a creative team together. If someone makes a game alone, they can of course stay committed to their own vision, so the above reasons for making up IP, even if very derivative, apply completely. (As far as I can tell, both Cave Story and Guardian of Paradise are made by a single person.) But the problem with team and original IP is how do you get the entire team behind the new concept for the game. People are much more likely to work to on a game based on a polished existing game which they like than a sketchy world concept made by their teammate which will only be finished when the game is done. All team members in a Halo fan project will probably agree that they like the stuff in Halo, but if they should make their own derived concept, it would be much more surprising if they were in agreement on exactly what they like in Halo and how they’d like it to be derived.
So I’m guessing the fact that we keep seeing these big fan projects that get in trouble with IP is that that’s despite it’s inherent problems, that’s a pretty good way of keeping a larger free game team together. Original IP in development, a team of people and a free game are a difficult combination. One solution might be to develop the original IP in a small project that can be finished by one or two people and then use that game as the motivational focus to get a bigger team behind a really impressive project.
December 2nd, 2006 at 2:14 pm
That’s a good point, Risto, thanks! I don’t think it validates using an existing IP, but it certainly helps explain why it happens.