I'm a high school student trying to produce game for enterprise study which will be my school subject. The subject is available after 2 years and there's course to actually try running a small business. Actually I've done one this year with few months of time spent making it with 2 teammates who knew nothing about 3d modelling and programming. I feel lucky to have sold 17 copies,although my first goal was to sell 50 copies:o The game that I made was 3rd person shooter and it was arena type game with * singleplayer mod * 5 maps * 5 characters to choose, each characters got unique primary&secondary weapons. * crash when trying to play the game again after finishing all levels. * all the models and maps from HL mod called The Specialists (I feel guilty about this..) I will spend 1yr and 3 months of developing time which is all the time I have until the next of next market day. I'm looking forward to this, last time, I had no systemmetical plan with tight dev time without using other game engines. I'm planning to sell 200 copies this time for only $3.3 US I got my younger bro for 3d modelling and miscellaneous stuffs (just starting to learn about those stuffs) and one of the teammate who is now starting to learn programming. Any advice for this is welcome. [Edited by - Eric kim on December 10, 2005 7:20:12 PM]

You do know its illegal to sell those models and maps, or use them in derivive works to make money. Then again, taking up a multibillion dollar corporation in an IP case would probably get you top marks, or a $1 million dollar fine. either or.

Also, why do you need to go with a 3d game? If the goal here is to make money, why not nice polished puzzle game? Or a strategy game? If your already stuck on that path thats fine, but i would get new models and new maps in a hurry since your selling it.

Is it really true that it's possible to get fined that much for models and maps of one game's mod which is not commercial? (Edit: Is it because the game's commercial)
If it is, I'm too illiterate :(
P.S. I'm not selling the game anymore because the market day was over.
I also wonder who would buy that F- game and as I've said above, I'm
making my own this time.

If they want to get at you for damages, sure. whoever owns the IP can take your butt to court. Now with <25 copies and low publicity I highly doubt they would. Then again, they may do it just to make a case.

Since your starting on a game doing everything yourself, you know how hard it is to get everything done in time. Thats an aspect of this industry. If I were you I would create a 2d game, or simple 3d overhead game, that way you can get it done in time, and polished enough to produce something NICE. Presuming Market Day is targeted at adults, you would get alot more sales in the puzzle genre then you would elsewhere anyway (think CASUAL GAMES... how many parents do you know that play ZUMA????)

Market day is mainly targeted at students in the school.
First day for parents and 2nd day for students but way more ppl come on the 2nd day.
I think I can work out the upgraded version of the HL mod
using free engine like OGRE. I'm also making milestone and
this is the tricky part.
I'm not quite sure if I can finish gameplay system in 1-2 months.
But the HL mod doesn't seem to have taken much longer than 6 months IMO.
I'm *dreaming to contact a publisher if I get it done with good quality.

Edit: I saw a real nice racing game demo in GD showcase.
Surprisingly, the game demo was made by one guy and
he said he spent 2 years and few hours a week. I started
thinking about it and then I decided that I can do it!

Using someone else's models and maps is breach of copyright. It doesn't make any difference if you are selling your game or giving it away free. Using them without permission is a breach and they could take legal action against you.

As pointed out, if you sold just a handful of copies, it is unlikely they will find out. However, if your next game is more successful then there is a greater chance you will get caught.