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Game Design > Is it possible/legal to rip sprites from a game? [Renamed]

#104024 - Flam - Tue Sep 26, 2006 1:59 am

I don't know if you've heard of the game Dragon Quest: RocketSlime (DS) but it came out a few days ago.

Surprisingly, I'm really interested in this game and I'm wondering if it would be legal and/or possible to rip the sprites and make the same tank battle part of the game for wifi as a homebrew game.

#104025 - tepples - Tue Sep 26, 2006 2:03 am

In general, it's not an infringement to copy game play processes (see all the Hustle clones and Tetris clones), but it is an infringement to copy the actual sprite images.
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#104026 - Flam - Tue Sep 26, 2006 2:05 am

Hmm thanks...
I guess I'll start figuring out some coding then worry about the sprites later :/

#104044 - sgeos - Tue Sep 26, 2006 3:39 am

Feel free to use dummy sprites for now.

-Brendan

#104097 - Lynx - Tue Sep 26, 2006 4:14 pm

You could always liscense them.. :D
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#104103 - thegamefreak0134 - Tue Sep 26, 2006 4:52 pm

Its a rather grey area. Yes, that is very illegal for all intents and purposes, but Ive never heard of nintendo actually fining someone for using their sprites in a game. Think about all the mario clones floating around the net that have the old (and sometimes not so old) mario sprites in them. Although you shouldnt use them for the final game, I dont think there is anything wrong with developing with them and then using your own sprites in the final product. Thats what we are doing anyway.

-gamefreak
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#104119 - tepples - Tue Sep 26, 2006 6:03 pm

Lynx wrote:
You could always liscense them.. :D

I would bet money that developers of a commercial game will decline all such requests from homebrew developers. Most people don't have the billions of dollars needed to buy the plurality of Square Enix's stock in order to get enough people on the board of directors to force management to accept a license.

thegamefreak0134 wrote:
Ive never heard of nintendo actually fining someone for using their sprites in a game.

Didn't some Super Smash Bros. clone (not HCF) get cease-and-desisted?
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-- Where is he?
-- Who?
-- You know, the human.
-- I think he moved to Tilwick.

#104132 - thegamefreak0134 - Tue Sep 26, 2006 6:43 pm

Yes, but they were making a clone of the entire game, imcluding characters, concept, game name (smash bros) , Sound, I can only assume. They were crossing lots of lines. For a different game concept however, you should be able to use the placeholders no problem.

As for our version, we are justifying it by changing the game concept fundamentally (we are adding an entirely different 1P mode. The only real simipar thing will be the battle engine, because it has to be.) We are using original graphics (eventually) and sounds, and original music which I will personally be composing. We may even take the original characters out of the final release, although I would like to not have to do this myself.

So sprites, yes. Tank battle clone, yes. Sprites+Tank Battle clone = No. One or the other is sort of ok and grey, but cloning that entire part, especially cloning a large part of an actively sold game, is a huge no.

-gamefreak
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#104206 - Lynx - Wed Sep 27, 2006 4:43 am

Quote:
billions of dollars


If you had billions of dollars.. I'd bet they'd give you a license.. :D
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#104222 - sgeos - Wed Sep 27, 2006 6:20 am

Lynx wrote:
Quote:
billions of dollars

If you had billions of dollars.. I'd bet they'd give you a license.. :D

Let's assume a person at 50K a year really costs you 100K a year, and you spend 100K to set up, and you want 1M or 2M for "everything else". You now have a 9 person person that can run for a year. I just made the numbers up, but my point is that you can get by with far less that "billions of dollars".

Another way of looking at it... games that sell 10M copies in Japan are considered to have done very well. If $30 of that are profit (silly over-estimate), $30 * 10M = $300M. I feel safe saying that I'm sure billions of dollars are not being spent on licenses.

The reason you can safely use placeholder graphics, is because they never leave your hard drive. If you want to distribute your game- even over then net- then you want safe placeholder graphics. Anyone can "draw" a big brown box. =)

-Brendan