Comments on: Make up your own damned IP!

Comment on Make up your own damned IP! by: Hunty

Sat, 02 Dec 2006 21:14:23 +0000

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.

Comment on Make up your own damned IP! by: Risto Saarelma

Sat, 02 Dec 2006 08:12:58 +0000

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.

Comment on Make up your own damned IP! by: John H.

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 00:32:46 +0000

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.

Comment on Make up your own damned IP! by: Strider

Thu, 14 Sep 2006 02:06:05 +0000

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

Comment on Make up your own damned IP! by: Hunty

Thu, 14 Sep 2006 00:03:50 +0000

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.

Comment on Make up your own damned IP! by: Shih Tzu

Wed, 13 Sep 2006 23:00:30 +0000

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.)