Game programmers

[VitaDev]

Would it be bad if you make all the graphics?

Yes, it's bad.

Do donations count as making money from?

Yes.

Intellectual Property, Copyright and Trademark law are serious business in the US and you can bet EA has a legal team the size of a small state just ready to pounce.

[Stormhawk]

Would it be bad if you make all the graphics?

Do donations count as making money from?

1) No it doesn't. How would it be bad?... thats like saying drawing the picture for a story your writing is bad. The question you should be asking yourself is, Can I creating the graphics at the quality I want it to be made? Will it take me to much time to make it all myself or can I get it done in my planned time? stuff like that.

Ex. if it takes you 7 years to do all the graphics. Do you want to spend all those 7 years doing it. Remember this isn't a right or wrong question its all about what you want it in end.


2) It depends which country you live in. They all have their own laws. So you will have to look it all yourself, and the state/province laws too.

from what I believe if you live in USA and I could be wrong. If the money is donated to you to make the game. Then it will be consider invested money into your product. and that will consider part of your earnings. Which can be taxed at the end of the year.

- sorry for any typos :P

[VitaDev]

How would it be bad?

I believe he's talking about making the graphics for a fan-made game like OpenRA.

If you create the graphics that are similar to their existing intellectual property/trademark, or use EA's assets as a reference then you are still infringing EA's copyright unless you have a license from them to create derived works from it.

thats like saying drawing the picture for a story your writing is bad

Except in this case the "story" is a copyrighted work by an enormous corporation, and the drawings are recreations of their existing intellectual property.

[Stormhawk]

@ VitaDev

Ohh sorry I see what you were talking about then your absolutely right. should of read a little more. Sorry about that.

[chrisname]

AFAIK, it doesn't violate copyright to make an open source clone of the engine so long as you don't distribute the assets or copies of them. That's why most open source clones of old games require that you have the game itself as well. The new engine uses the old assets.

[VitaDev]

Yes. If you download EA's free version of the game, and plug those assets into the engine you are fine. It's when you start changing those assets and/or try to distribute them that you get into trouble.

[Cronnoc]

i find it amusing how posts can go off topic

[Superdude]

BTW, EA can't sue me. Or anything else for that matter. What would they profit? Besides, this isn't to sell. Who would buy when there is a free game out there already?

And, EA has like what, 0 control over fans? Red Alert is Freeware.

[3qX21hU5]

BTW, EA can't sue me

They sure can sue you if you violate their copyrighted material. To think otherwise wouldn't be a wise choice.

What would they profit?

It all depends. Usually they don't look kindly on people who break copyrighted material even if they aren't making a profit from it. They might not profit by shutting it down but they usually have to show that they are willing and are able to enforce their copyrighted material. Remember copyrighted material means nothing if you don't or aren't willing to defend it.

Another scenario might be you make a good game and it starts to gain a good fan base. You decide you want to capitalize on it even though it started out as a free game. So lets say you add some form of profit making into the game (Whether it be ads, paid expansion, in game store, paid sequel, whatever) and make a few hundred thousand or so.

Well EA could then come after that money and you just lost out on all that time you spent on the game, the money you made, your hard earned fan base, and more.

Either way it is not about "What would they profit" it is more about "What could you lose".

Besides, this isn't to sell

You might be fine then. But I would still be careful. Even if you aren't making money from it they can still shut it down and you just lost all that time on the project.

Who would buy when there is a free game out there already?

There is always a free game out there that is like a paid game but people still buy the paid games.

And, EA has like what, 0 control over fans?

Not sure what that has to do with using copyrighted material which is what I thought this conversation was about.

Red Alert is Freeware

It doesn't matter if it is Freeware or not. That has nothing to do with copyrighted material. This website is free and the tutorial here is free but that doesn't mean you can just copy it and show it off as your own.

[S6k9GNh0]

That's like saying because a game is under GPL or something more liberal like MIT licensing, you can claim it as your own. It just means you didn't read the fine print. :D

[fafner]

I'm working on a 2D-game right now, just for fun, called "Spodermen - teh serch 4 moar sweg". I think it's gonna be a hit!

[BHX]

fafner wrote:

I think it's gonna be a hit!

That sounds good until you realize can can be a hit in one of two ways. It can hit a home run and be a success (like you are hoping) or it can hit the fan and be a failure. Just kidding, I hope it is a success, I hate to see fellow programmers fail.

@Superdude
You are playing with fire. As Disch and computerquip pointed out, freeware means nothing as it is all copyrighted materials. You do anything wrong and you may get burned. So again I reiterate, just be careful with it.