Mirage Source

This topic should help clarify all you new "Game Developers" who are thinking of making a new Zelda, Pokemon, Naruto fangame. I don't want people to stop making fangames, but these are just some things you have to accept and understand beforehand.

Firstly, your fangame is illegal. Whether you like it or not, the copyright holders of the original series/game has the right to shut you down anytime they like. If you recieve a cease to desist from them, you will have two choice, stop or face legal action. You probably won't recieve anything like this unless you're trying to earn money off your game, or the company which owns the right to the original series/game finds your game is stealing attention away from their original games, which is highly unlikely, since your game sucks.

If your game is lucky enough, it may never have to face these problems. At times, idiots will try to forge these letters through email, they may seem legit, but don't give in to this shit, their likely to be stupid kids using fake email senders to scare you into closing down your project. Remember, this will most likely not happen, and the only occasion I've heard of that a Fangame has been given a legit one, is Chrono Resurrection, a Chrono Trigger remake, which shows how serious Square enix is about enforcing its copyrights. So maybe this is a warning to steer clear of Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Chrono Trigger fangames.

Some common misconceptions about fangames,

1. I don't earn off my fangame so its legal.
Wrong, any kind of fangame, is illegal, as long as you don't have permission to use the game's title, characters etc. it is copyright infringement.

2. If I state its a fangame, I can avoid a C & D Letter.
Nope, its still illegal, it probably doesn't even help.

3. if I contact the copyright holders, they may give me an 'okay'.
Highly unlikely, companies who own these copyrights, will hardly ever bother about your game project, let alone acknowledge it. Just give up this idea. Some games claim to have permission, which will probably get them into more trouble if they ever have to face legal action.

But if you ever face such a letter, and your game is well underway, my advice is not to completely give up your project, but scramble stuff up. Don't include any characters from the original series/game into your "New Game", if you have a title containing obvious reference to the original series, change it. eg. a naruto fangame called "Naruto Online" change the game name of Ninja Online! What you can keep is concepts, which the original game had, as long as you mess things around and make it not-obvious, your game is a copy as theirs, you can claim its a coincidence. Remember if you make a Ninja game, the Naruto Copyright holders cant claim you stole their concept of Ninjas. Nor can Pokemon claim you stole their concept of catching monsters, unless you have pokeballs, probably.

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Good article for everyone that is working on fan-game indeed, many people don't realize that but I hope they'll read that.
I can give few examples about fan-games that were made "Free-to-play" but canceled because of copyright issues

-Crono Trigger (made from scracth with same storyline and everything just in 3D view)
-Dragonball mod for Quake III

Everything was free but canceled because of copyright owners.

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If your game gets good, take your game down for the moment and bargain with them.

Add in some pay for items/features and tell them 75% profit goes to them.

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Yes, I've mentioned the Chrono Trigger remake in my topic. Its Chrono Resurrection.



I reeeaaally doubt that will ever happen.
Most companies wouldn't even bother to open your letter.

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And Rory knows all this because he works for Nintendo.

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Don't act like he's wrong. Just because YOU didn't make this post and inform everyone, doesn't mean he's wrong. He's absolutely correct in all of this. Examples are all over the net on how this shit works.

Sorry, no use of quoting. Was referring to his comment on what his reply was to Tony in his post before mine.

Meaning, Rory doesn't know what each company may or may not do...

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Ah, okay then. I apologize for my above post.

Rory was taking a guess though. And, in all likelihood, he's right.

Yeah that's true. Just trying to give some optimism

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What company earning millions a year would bother about your $10 a year.

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Me! Not because of 10$ per year but because of advertising. Fan game some of us make, can get some players
that doesn't know Zelda, Pokemon...etc (maybe) and after playing this fan game, they may get interestin in new
games of that style, game that are currently on the shop shelfs, if you know what I mean.

Anyway, ye, maybe, maybe not

PS: Sorry Rorry, it looks liked I skipped Chrono Ressurection part

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That depends, a fangame may give the opposite effect and give people who don't know about the series a bad impression of the series/game/franchise w/e. But I doubt a company would go all out to shut down a fangame which sucks and doesn't have potential. Because its unlikely that sucky game would steal attention away from their original games or be a threat to their revenue.

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