Legal issues/protecting assets and game mechanics
by Aaron Wright · in General Discussion · 10/29/2011 (5:36 pm) · 3 replies
This may or may not be the right section for questions like this, so my apologies if not. I'm fairly new to this community. So far, I've seen lots of great people on here, so maybe you guys can help put some of my fears to rest.
I've recently started a project and invited local developers in my area to join me for kind of a "beginners" project that will help anyone involved learn some of the gaming industry trades. The ideas is to work on putting together a game with the goal of learning, more so than shipping a product out the door to make money.
My questions is this: Although I haven't done any research on starting an official business of any kind, what do I need to do to protect my team from any kind of theft? Regardless of if that is idea theft, or actual art assets... I'd like to protect both.
Aside from doing my own research on copyrights and trademarks... Are there any suggestions?
How do most "possible future profit" game projects generally run from a business perspective? What steps are taken to protect all involved? Should we be discussing money now, even if we aren't sure that we will sell the final product? (That is, aside from telling everyone that we can't pay and this is a hobby-level project that we may decide to put up for sell later...)
I hope this is the right place to ask these questions. I tried searching the net a little, but most of the things I find aren't very reassuring. Most of it just says that trademarks are protected, but copying of ideas for game rules and mechanics are not... seems like a pretty big couple of things to have no protection of, since mechanics are often times what produces the fun. :P
I've recently started a project and invited local developers in my area to join me for kind of a "beginners" project that will help anyone involved learn some of the gaming industry trades. The ideas is to work on putting together a game with the goal of learning, more so than shipping a product out the door to make money.
My questions is this: Although I haven't done any research on starting an official business of any kind, what do I need to do to protect my team from any kind of theft? Regardless of if that is idea theft, or actual art assets... I'd like to protect both.
Aside from doing my own research on copyrights and trademarks... Are there any suggestions?
How do most "possible future profit" game projects generally run from a business perspective? What steps are taken to protect all involved? Should we be discussing money now, even if we aren't sure that we will sell the final product? (That is, aside from telling everyone that we can't pay and this is a hobby-level project that we may decide to put up for sell later...)
I hope this is the right place to ask these questions. I tried searching the net a little, but most of the things I find aren't very reassuring. Most of it just says that trademarks are protected, but copying of ideas for game rules and mechanics are not... seems like a pretty big couple of things to have no protection of, since mechanics are often times what produces the fun. :P
#2
You should focus on making this idea a reality because as long as it is just in the corner of your head, it's as good as no idea at all.
10/30/2011 (5:11 am)
I don't have much to say because i'm not a lawyer (that's a good thing) but ideas are a dime a dozen, don't even think you managed to have a truly new idea before anyone else because it's probably not true.You should focus on making this idea a reality because as long as it is just in the corner of your head, it's as good as no idea at all.
#3
-And as far as ideas go, I realize that they come and go; often times never seeing creation.
But that doesn't change the fact I'd like to keep our mechanics safe until a little closer to release. ;)
10/31/2011 (7:36 pm)
Thanks for the replies. -And as far as ideas go, I realize that they come and go; often times never seeing creation.
But that doesn't change the fact I'd like to keep our mechanics safe until a little closer to release. ;)
Torque Owner David Jauregui
Curiosity Killed the Cat Productions
makeitbigingames.com/2006/06/five-realistic-steps-to-starting-a-game-development...
makeitbigingames.com/2009/01/one-way-to-divide-your-company-equity-at-start-up/
makeitbigingames.com/2009/01/how-much-work-does-it-take-to-become-a-great-game-d...
You can use the search to look for protecting assets, but truthfully you are at such an early stage I would put that much lower on your priority list.
Good luck and don't try an mmo on your first outing...