A free demo to commercial.

[bgillisp]

C&D is cease and desist, or in other words, stop production and abort the game. You *don't* want to get that, as it means your game is dead.

 

[Gothic Lolita]

I know that, would be a huge bump. :/
And thank you for telling, need so much to learn from the english language. (\s/)

 

[Andar]

I also seen a lot of free stuff disapear, but there are a lot of free MLP RPG's out there. That's why I thought free is okay.

No, it just means that the copyright holder hasn't seen them yet.
Fangames are always and automatically illegal for copyright breaking and/or trademark infringment.


The only difference between commercial and non-commercial is that you automatically have to pay damages and fines (several thousand dollars and up) if you're commercial, while being non-commercial you have a chance getting away relatively cheap (that means you only have to pay a few hundred dollars or so) in addition to being forced to delete and abandon all work done on the fangame.


As long as it stays unknown, a fangame might even stay on the internet - but as soon as you get good critiques and people talk about your game on the internet, you will not only get more links to your game's page but also a higher chance of getting caught.


Search this forum for "fangame" and see the previous discussions about this.


The only way to escape problems when writing a fangame without having a licence is to hope staying unknown - or in other words, hoping that your game remains bad enough not to attract a lot of gamer's.


Not exactly what you want, right?

 

[Gothic Lolita]

Nah, I wanted my game to be good.
But not sure if I can reach it. :/
It's easier to judge about the games, then making your own. (\s/)

 

[bgillisp]

My advice then is to either fill out that form and get permission, and halt work until you hear back, or, change it over to a non-fan game. Maybe you could do the same story with kittens instead of ponies (and in a different world too)? Or, maybe even your own breed of creatures?

As it is, about the only way to get away with a fan game is to either have permission or the game (or material) is so old that the copyright holder no longer cares (and in the 2nd case, it is not necessarily legal, you just got lucky instead).

Another thing that makes this interesting is how copyright law differs from country to country. I'd suggest finding that post Ander suggested, there was a *long* debate on that back there.

 

[Gothic Lolita]

My advice then is to either fill out that form and get permission, and halt work until you hear back, or, change it over to a non-fan game. Maybe you could do the same story with kittens instead of ponies (and in a different world too)? Or, maybe even your own breed of creatures?

For this I need to redo all the allready existing characters and on I got. :/

Also made allready the title and storyline is pretty much themed for those...

And it would be also stupid, if I ask first for a free game permission and later on for a commercial. 

Now it's getting really complicated... (\s/)

 

[whitesphere]

To add to what bgillisp said:

The age of the material isn't always a barrier either.  Disney is very protective of its IP, even though some is almost 100 years old. 

That's why I always avoid trying to make a fangame from the start.  As much as I love certain games, I have no desire to ever get a C&D letter if I make a good game.  Granted, I might still have a tiny chance of problems (if I subconsciously take someone else's ideas) but a fangame is a 100% chance of problems at some point.

But, it really depends on the copyright holder's attitude towards fangames.  Even if they give you official permission to release your fangame for free, you really need to see how the game changes if you try to go commercial with your game.

I know it would be a lot of work to rework your game, but I'd take that as a creative opportunity.  If you make, say, Kittens or some other adorable animal the base instead of the Ponies, and craft your own world, it's guaranteed you won't be treading on someone else's IP.

 

[Gothic Lolita]

IP?
Readed it so often or is the IP you log into the internet meant? 

I could change it to kittens or other stuff, but may make it a bit problematic with the story itself.
If I do some rip offs from MLP, they would know it anyway. May get trouble anyway. :/

So I might should try to get a free licence. They are easier to get... 
I'm actually a bit scared, beceause my Steam object has allready over 200 users, same is for the YouTube video... (\s/)

 

[Sharm]

IP means Intellectual Property.  Your Youtube thing might be fine, Hasbro knows that the fan art and fan videos are great advertising so they usually leave those alone.  It's the games where they really defend their rights because they make their own games.  Fan games would be competition.  Also you can actually lose rights if you know about violations and don't do anything about them.

 

[bgillisp]

What Sharm said. In the US, many times if the copyright holder does *not* go after you, they lose the copyright. So you will probably be unable to release the game in the US regardless of whether the game is free or not, unless you get the permission from the company.

Edit: Don't feel bad if you do have to edit or change the game. Most of us threw out our first projects in RPGMaker (I know I did with mine, though the title didn't change when I started over). Look at it as a time to learn and practice if nothing else.

 

[Gothic Lolita]

I changed my project allready 3 times... :/
The first version was that:

Spoiler

[yt]



[/yt]

 The second one is here:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=289815558

The third one is here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4akh5ySzEN2WFZpdWRkSUFsVk0/edit?usp=sharing

The should be adonndend too...
That starts to suck really bad... :'( (\s/)

 

[Kes]

You have a straightforward choice:

1)  Change your existing game so that it no longer breaks copyright.  That will involve a lot of work by the sound of it.

2)  Carry on as if you have not read the advice here.  Your game will then be taken down by the lawyers and you will lose not only the work you have done so far, but also all your future work.

No one can take the decision for you.  People have given you clear advice about what you need to do.  If it were my game, I would choose (1).  But only you can choose what to do about your game.

 

[whitesphere]

@Cheeky Moon

If you change the characters to Kittens, change the character names, and change the world, I don't think it would be a copyright issue.  The story might be the same, but a storyline is probably harder to copyright.  The real issue, as Sharm pointed out, is if your game would be competition for a game from the holder.

If you change the characters, game world and names, it won't be competition for their games so it won't be a problem.  Of course, you might lose fans of the My Little Pony world, but you REALLY do not want to get into a legal mess.   And, if you ever plan on making your game commercial, even if they grant you permission to make a free fangame, it WILL be a legal mess if you're still using the My Little Pony copyrighted material.

 

[Gothic Lolita]

No one can take the decision for you.  People have given you clear advice about what you need to do.  If it were my game, I would choose (1).  But only you can choose what to do about your game.

I would do so the same, because losing all of the thousands of hours I spend with it, is for sure not what I intended. :/

@Cheeky Moon

If you change the characters to Kittens, change the character names, and change the world, I don't think it would be a copyright issue.  The story might be the same, but a storyline is probably harder to copyright.  The real issue, as Sharm pointed out, is if your game would be competition for a game from the holder.

If you change the characters, game world and names, it won't be competition for their games so it won't be a problem.  Of course, you might lose fans of the My Little Pony world, but you REALLY do not want to get into a legal mess.   And, if you ever plan on making your game commercial, even if they grant you permission to make a free fangame, it WILL be a legal mess if you're still using the My Little Pony copyrighted material.

1. I think then it might be a cancel one instead, don't want thousands of dumb comments below like:

    "Cheap rip off", "Why not buying a Hasbro licence?", "**** those brony haters", and on and on

    I'm pretty long with the community of MLP, but if you change or borrow things from there, they can get really nasty. :/

    As long as you stay straight to the community, the community is awesome. But even if you only start to make a crossover with an anime, they get really angry.

2. I don't want to get there either. If I really still want to do it, I should go straight ahead and make it commercial instead of first free, then commercial.

    But probably I will stay with the second huge project, where I allready writen over 100 Din A 4 sites of story.

   But this will lead to an other question here. (\s/)

 

[whitesphere]

It sounds like cancelling the project is a better idea then switching things around, especially if the MLP community will react badly to the changes.  Sounds like they're very conservative in their own ways.

At least you've learned a lot about making an RPG Maker game, which I'm sure will help you greatly, going forward.