Tribute RPGs and cpoyright

[DankRat]

We've all seen tribute games before in the RPG genre, like the tribute to Jacksepticeye "The Boss" made in RM. I'm working on a tribute game myself in which characters in the game are warped inside a Space Invaders inspired RPG. Though the hard part is finding a title for the game so that there's no copyright infringement. I can't call the game something like Space Invaders the RPG without risking a cease and desist.

 

[BK-tdm]

It depends on what are you making a game of and how it ends up looking, some companies dont mind even if you use a similar or even the same-name title, some dont (avoid making silent hills (´=ω=`) ).

If your project ends up looking a lot like the thing is based on it may call unwanted attention which could result on a C&D to avoid "confusion" meaning "your project looks too much like ours and we dont want our consumers/fanbase thinking this is an official thing" so try to not make it too similar (or worse yet rip game assets).

The only 100% way to get a C&D is to monetize the end result if you explicitly say its a fan game/based on, so no monetized "Final Fantasy VII MV" fan remake will fly.

Doubt CAPCOM will ever care about my little Monster Hunter fan project as long as its not for sale, afterall its their idea.

You can call it "Invaders From Space - The RPG", thats totally "not" the original title and its perfectly safe. Name copyrights apply to the exact name, not similarities, check the huge amount of "knock-off" games for mobile that use this approach, it may be obvious but you cannot C&D or sue because "his name sounds like ours!" (unless of course you copied everything else and changed the title, but thats another story).

 

[Kes]

Please note that this section of the forum is for General Discussion, not project specific discussion. Therefore, while you can use your game as an example, the conversation needs to be far wider than that. So really a discussion about names and copyright.

If you want suggestions for your particular game, you need to post in Ideas and Prototypes.

 

[JosephSeraph]

I think you should strive to find an identity for your game beyond the 2 parts that make it (space invaders + rpg), and that will blossom into a new, non copyright-infringitive name. After all synergy is when the whole is beyond the sum of its parts, and the interesting thing about these sorts of parodies is how these separate elements merge into something new and affect eachother.

So i'd say to kind of force yourself out of wanting to use any copyright-infringing name not for copyright reasons, but for allowing your project to bloom.