Questions tagged [legal]
As a business, game development is fraught with legal concerns and issues, especially on copyright, terms of service, and licensing fronts.
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Can a game have characters named after video game franchises?
The video game Battlerite, a free to play team brawler, includes a hero called "Destiny", essentially named after the Destiny video game franchise. Is this legal, and why it is not a ...
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It is legal to create a video game that uses the name of MOBA heroes for another purpose? [duplicate]
For instance, let's say that a sandbox game has a biome called "Traxex Highlands", a biome named after the name of the Drow Ranger from Dota. Will this infringe on Blizzard/Valve's rights, ...
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Copyright/trademark protections of character classes
I want to create a game that uses character classes from World of Warcraft. Are the classes protected by copyright/trademark law? For instance WoW has a Warlock class that is essentially a spell-...
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What is the legality of in-game composed music?
Assume there is an MMO with a feature similar to Mario Paint Composer, where you can create music with original instrument samples.
Would the players be able to share and play (in-game) the music they ...
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In what ways do lawyers and others involved in the legal field impact game development?
Most people have a general idea about what programmers, artists, designers and musicians do in the industry, but I’ve seldom heard about how the law and lawyers impact game development.
I’m especially ...
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What happens if i create google play console if i am under 18? [duplicate]
I want to publish my game on google play, but i am under 18. However i asked my parents if they would pay for google play console with their credit card and they agreed.
My question is will google ...
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Is it okay to describe what software was used to develop the game in the credits screen?
I'm making a racing game, I've made my own game engine from scratch, but not the tools for building the game assets such as textures, 3D models, etc.
And I was thinking, I have this credits scene at ...
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How to get "popular" licensed music?
I know what to do to license music; in my case I fill out a form with GEMA and send them a pile of money and I am golden from the legal position.
Every advice stops here and kind of assumes you ...
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Looking to build a game that uses names of Premier League teams - what are the steps required to stay compliant
I am looking to build a game that users would play weekly. In order for the game to make sense, I would have to display the names of the 20 Premier League teams playing on a weekly basis. I will not ...
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Is attribution sufficient for a CC BY-SA 3.0-licenced font in a video game?
I'm creating a video game I intend to sell on computers, and I want to use a font that is under the license "Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0)".
Do I have to sell my game ...
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Is it a legal concern if a procedural name generator might generate the names of real people?
(This question is similar in spirit to this question, but I think this case is sufficiently different and specific enough to warrant a new question.)
Background
In one of my current side projects, I ...
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Can i remove the default splash screen of someone else project by publishing it using my unity plus? [duplicate]
If i use my unity plus to remove the default splash screen from someone else project (that person are using free version of unity) , then export the project also using my unity plus , what are the ...
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Would making a satirical version of someone else's character get me sued? [closed]
Licensing the rights to a popular character is definitely a hard process. Rather than licensing the rights to (insert hero here), what if I were to make a satirical version of the IP owner's character(...
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If I use someone else's idea (not work, an *idea*), do I have to give them credit?
Ideas are everywhere for games, products, algorithms, etc. In hypothetical terms, let's say user number x posts on (insert social media site here) that they would like to see a game about (insert game ...
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can I legally make a "RTX game"
I'm making a game called "karlson RTX", a remake of the game "karlson" by danidev, but it has "RTX" in the name and the game starts with a the way it's meant to be played ...
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Using name and 3d models of real product
I'm making tycoon game where you manage your shop. I'm not 3d modeler and purchase most of assets. I managed to find all 3d assets required for making game. All are having license to allow use for ...
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What is the legality regarding allowing players to mod a game with real-life players in a sports game?
Let's say I'm doing an Indie sports game, and ship it with fictional players, but make the game capable of reading a config file, so that players are able to edit in real names to suit themselves.
The ...
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Legal to make and sell a game engine made with Unity3D?
does anyone know if it's legally sound to create a game engine within unity, build it as a standalone and sell it as a product? The engine would allow users to compile their own games through it.
It ...
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Questions regarding using (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) and (CC BY-NC 4.0) music for a completely free game (not Freemium)
I am in the process of developing a small video game for a game-jam on itch.io.
The game-jam requires the developer to first make a github repository, upload all the source code and material (...
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Want to create pokemon fan-game, need advice on copyright [duplicate]
I want to create a pokemon text game. Obviously I will use various stuff that belongs to Nintendo, like pokemon, professor, region names and sprites from the games. Can Nintendo sue me or take down my ...
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How much of a game can be protected by law? [duplicate]
I want to remake an old multiplayer game in commercial way and I wonder how different my game has to be not to violate some IP rights. I know so far that name and logo are registered trademarks of the ...
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Can I publish a non-commercial game that uses assets from a 30 years old Konami game on Steam, Google Play and App Store?
Do major platforms like Google Play, App Store, and Steam allow apps to use assets without owner permission in case of 100% non-commercial releases? Do companies like Konami care?
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Workflow for accountable file transfers between freelancer and developer
I'm an indie game developer and I often hire freelancers for artwork. We sign an agreement to basically state that I'd get ownership of the resources they produce.
I'm a fairly picky person when it ...
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Can I bring features of an Android game into another Android game?
Platform : Android
Overview : Fifa 14 by EA sports has a manager mode, kick off and tournament mode in it, which was the last game of its series on android to have these features. Fifa 16 has great ...
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In my browser game's website description, can I use a title of another game?
For instance, if I think my game is a cross between Age of Empires and Minesweeper, can I have written on the description of my website "A browser-based hybrid of Age of Empires and Minesweeper&...
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Can I mention other games' titles, characters, maps, weapons etc. in my game?
Let's say I was about to make a quiz game where the questions are like this:
When was Fallout 4 released?
What is your first pickaxe in Minecraft?
Who do you have to kill as the last boss in Skyrim?
...
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what is the legality behind "openMW" ( an open source implementation of morrowind)
knowing bethesda those people probably sue hard....yet there is an open source implementation of morrowind which is actually quite good.
but that question remains, what is the legality behind all of ...
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I am creating a Tetris clone on Khanacademy, will I get into trouble? [duplicate]
For those don't know, Khanacademy is an education site that also has lessons on simple computer programming and allows you to publish your own games that are made on the website.
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Can i use the same name for a spell in my game that already exists in another game
what does trademarks and copyrights contain.
how similar can a name be to a name that already exists.
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How can I create an exclusive asset for multiple clients who all want basically the same thing?
This is more of a legal question than for example a coding question, but I hope that it's allowed as well. I recently started working as a freelance VFX Artist and do a lot of work with shaders and ...
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Game Similarity Legal Consequences [duplicate]
I'm already half a year into planning a Turn Based Strategy (4X) game for mobile phones.
Recently I tried to play Civilization 6 and while playing, totally horrified, I realized that my idea and Civ 6 ...
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When does a Reference become Copyright Infringement?
I've seen quite a few posts on here similar to my question, but I am still having doubts about my implementation of an Easter Egg.
In the background of my game, There is a bookshelf, purely for ...
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Is It Okay To Use Real Designs In My 2D Game? [Cars and Weapons] [duplicate]
I am making a 2D mobile game that includes cars and weapons (like GTA let's say). I am using real car and weapons designs to make 2D images, however, I use made-up names for the both cars and the ...
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My game got stolen, what do I do?
I recently released my first game on the Google Play Store (yay!), and a few days later I found my game had been reuploaded to two different shady-looking sites (Softonic and Fibonapps). Needless to ...
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Should I get an official content rating, like from the ESRB, or just rate my game myself?
I'm developing a game out of my garage basically with the intention of selling it on my own website and hopefully on Steam, and I've been wondering if I should try to get it rated by an official ...
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Legal status of games with similar titles [closed]
I've been working on a game for around a year and a half named Planetfall, in which you build a colony on a new planet.
I've bee working on it with that title since before the announcement of Age of ...
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How do I get rights to an game? [duplicate]
I' looking to get rights to an game called Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars for the Nintendo DS. I am a Nintendo 3DS Developer trying to make a remastered version for the Nintendo 3DS. How would I go ...
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Can I sample audio sources from others without asking?
As the title says, would it be considered legal if I take a part of an audio source (any media like music, dialog, video, etc.) to use in a project, whether it is for commercial or non-commercial ...
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How can I open source my Unity project when I use third party assets?
I know you are not allowed to open source a Unity project that contains asset store items that are either paid or under the default license. I am just wondering if there's any way to make my git ...
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Is it ok to remake a 2D game into first person and then releasing it for free? [duplicate]
I saw a video online where someone made a first person version of flappy bird, so I was wondering...
If I were to remake a 2D game into a 3D game and change the perspective to first person, and then ...
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Is it legal to develop a game using software which is unavailable in my region due to legal reasons?
I was wondering: what would happen if I published a game while the software I used is not available in my area?
I was planning to make a game using Unity Personal, and it just happened that it's not ...
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Can I give vehicles its real names? (e.g. Skoda, Tatra) [duplicate]
I'm working on a simulator of old USSR transport.
But my boss is telling me that I can't put real names on vehicles, but don't get me any proofs of it. I know that you can't put real human names and ...
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Is it legal to make a fan game but only publish the gameplay?
If I make a fan game that uses copyrighted material, sounds, dialogues etc. from other games but only ever upload the gameplay/walkthrough of the fangame to Youtube without publishing it anywhere else,...
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Now that Articles 17 & 11 have passed, what should indie developers do?
Since on the 26th of March 2019 the EU has voted in favor of Articles 17 (previously known as Article 13) and 11, what should an indie developer who is based in the EU do to setup a game and a website ...
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Can I legally use mechanics from a game that is removed from the store? [duplicate]
There was a mobile (android, ios) card game that I really liked playing. Last year, the game was removed from the store and noone were able to play it. The company is still up.
That game had a really ...
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How to handle a Google Play game's privacy policy
I am trying to release a mobile game (insert obligatory sellout statement for Chunk of Space) on Google Play, and I'm worried about their privacy policy system. Basically, if you mark your game as "...
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Is it legal to imitate a game without publishing it
If you're developing a game that's very similar to a game that's already published, both the game mechanics and the graphics but you're not publishing it, instead you're keeping it in your own ...
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Could I get in to trouble for "rickrolling" users in my commercial game?
Not sure if this question is too stupid but, theoretically speaking...
Could you get into trouble for using something like Application.OpenURL in a commercial game to rickroll a player or would that ...
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Converting copyrighted song to 8 bit. Is it legal? [duplicate]
I would like to get a copyrighted song, convert into a 8 bit song and use it in my game. Is that legal?
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Can I sell a game made with OpenGL?
I love creating games, and I've always made games using OpenGL and not with game engines such as Unity or Unreal. Can I legally sell the games I made with OpenGL?
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