[Gardon]

I've always wanted to create my own video game after playing this awesome game online. Everything about it I love, and I wanted to make something just like it.

But how many ideas (ie. combat system, healing process, items in the game, etc.) can I take and use in my game before it's considered infringement? I love these ideas and I find it hard to think of my own. It would be like running a business and realizing that renting a building would be more beneficial than buying a building short term. Company XYZ down the street did it, and it's such a great idea that I want to use it too because it makes sense. Does that mean I'm stealing their idea?

I'm trying to think up my own ideas but I think the ones already implemented would work a lot better. Also, when I think about games out today, there has to be some similarities, or nothing would sell.

Any help would be appreciated.

-Gardon

[RedSlash]

Copyright protects rights to works, not ideas. Thus stealing someones idea does not infringe on any copyrights. Excessive stealing of ideas may be considered plagiarism, which is usually frowned upon.

[Hajo]

In some countries there are "registered designs", that is, while the idea cannot be protected, a certain design using an idea can be. This can include shapes, colors, fonts and such ... for example one of the bigger telecommunication companies here has registered a big magenta T as their protected design so no one else can now use big magenta T's without risk of being told to stand back from that at the threat of a huge fee if one does not.

Also you need to watch out for registered trademarks. And there are some silly patents our there, like a patent for blinking cursors using XOR and such ... if software patents become more common I fear they will be a big problem for hobby programmers who want to release their works.

You usually can reuse ideas, but you cannot name the things in your game the way they were named in the original, and you need to give them different designs.

But looking at all the clones of games out there, it's easy to make a game similar to an existing one without getting into trouble.

[RampantCoyote]

Just make sure it's not a carbon copy, and that you aren't using someone's I.P. without permission (except by parody).

But otherwise - everybody is influenced by everyone else's games. There are some pretty blatant rip-offs of gameplay out there that I don't condone, but they get away with it.

If your RPG has characters named Tifa, Cloud, and Sephiroth, you are likely to get in trouble if it gets noticed. But if you borrow a lot of the style and gameplay elements from some game that uses those characters, you should be okay. Particularly if you only used that system as a foundation that you built on.
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Tales of the Rampant Coyote - Old-School Game Developer talks Indie Games, RPGs, and the Games Biz

[cowgod]

Whenever a really original game comes out, there's always a whole bunch of copycat games that steal pretty much the whole game system.

Basically, I think you can rip off any game's system completely so long as you don't use any of art, music, code, etc resources and have a different storyline.

You can put all the Final Fantasy 7 characters in a game, so long as it's a parody of Final Fantasy 7. Otherwise, it would be best to change at least some of the names.

But you can get away with alot. Septerra Core has a character named Marduk who is the son of God. But you can still have a character named Marduk who is the son of God because that's from Sumerian/Babylonian/Mesopotamian religion.

You can completely rip off anything where the author has been dead more than 70 or so years. That makes all the "classic" stuff like mythology and Shakespeare completely up for grabs.

[Mattias Gustavsson]

[BadMrBox]

I would say you are violating copyrights if you should do so as Conan is as a 'object' quite alive. I dont see anyone care much thought as long as you dont earn money on it.
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[Gardon]

Thanks guys.

[Mattias Gustavsson]

But this is what I don't get, if things fall into public domain 70 years after the authors death, then why wouldn't it apply to something like Conan?

And not making money from something doesn't mean you're free to use it. A lot of companies defend their copyrights even when there's no money being made.
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www.mattiasgustavsson.com - My blog
www.rivtind.com - My Fantasy world and isometric RPG engine
www.pixieuniversity.com - Software 2D Game Engine

[BadMrBox]

Yeah, but well... they usually dont care much about what the fans do.
One guess I have is that it falls in public domain after 70 years if nobody owns the rights to the work? That doesn't sound right either thought.
I have a lawrider friend who I discussed this with once upon a time and he cleared things out for me but that was so long time ago so I have forgotten it, or maybe - I was to drunk.

I found a link with some US copyright laws
http://www.copyright.cornell.edu/public_domain/

Edit: and that's a damn jungle of paragraphs.
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[RedSlash]

[Hajo]

[RampantCoyote]

From their FAQ:

[cowgod]

It looks like Conan isn't in the public domain yet then. I didn't know that the law used to be different.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conan_the_Barbarian seems to indicate that there's some dispute in this particular case, but I would avoid situations like this where its unclear. It seems like there are people who will sue you if you use Conan the Barbarian material in the U.S. This makes sense because it should still be copyrighted, though some people seem to think it isn't.