Hello everybody Now just hypothetically lets say you have an idea for a game. You think its revolutionary and will shake the market to its very core! You are so precious about the idea you hide it from everyone and soon realise you going to have to go for one of the following options. 1. Copyright the game (like the format for the Big Brother Tv show is copyrighted) although I have been told this is not possible (I believe otherwise) 2. Develop it by hiring freelance software designers (you have no idea of the cost or skills and also the difficulty in coordinating teams of programmers from far away) 3. Take it to a games company (They may steal the idea or just want to do there own ideas because they have been waiting to since completion of there last game however at least they have previous experience) Could you help me with these issues. Mainly I am concerned with finding some sort of technical guru to manage production because I have only the front end design on paper (hypothetically!) without knowing how much it would cost. That is my final question... How much would it cost a company to make a online world game with features like building and destruction of buildings and say... integration with SMS?

1. Copyright - Sorry but you can NOT copyright an idea for a game only its actual implementation. You are right that people could not do Big Brother (people in a house) as that is how the idea is implemented. But Survivor is just Big Brother on an island. Same idea.... different implementation.

3. (before 2.) Unless you are going to pay the companies to develop it then forget it. They wont use your idea. If you are going to pay to make the game then.....

2. Forming your own team. Certainly not easy to do and also expensive. The cost will depend on what you actually want to do but for an X-Box/PS2 game most publishers are looking at $3million to $4million. To do a MMPOG would be much more than that.

Obviously if you go the cheap and cheerful route then the cost could come down to a couple of hundred thousand $. Just depends on how much interaction will be needed, what type of game etc.


Dan Marchant
Obscure Productions

About the copyright thing, you can copyright it if the game is written in a tangable form, correct? :-) Example, I could copyright my Development Docs on my games, because its something I could actually submit to a copyright office if need be. (course I''m going to wait until the game itself is done then copyright that... waste of money to copyright Docs that no-one but you and very trusted people will see)

(Correct me if I''m wrong though)
Alex Ford
PointSoft EA Co., Ltd.
http://www.pointsoftonline.com

You''re partially right.
Copyright protection is extended to original works in a tangible medium.
Copyright law states that:
Copyright protection subsists, in accordance with this title, in original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression, now known or later developed, from which they can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a machine or device.
(USC 17.102(a) )

The only problem with your statement is USC 17.102(b), which states that no idea or concept can be copyrighted in any form.
A design doc is still just ideas and concepts. The game is the tangible implementation of those ideas and concepts.

If you have any other questions PointSoft, ask away.
Hope this helps

The question is could you pay the lawyers needed to bring such a case to court? And do you want to risk the money? If not, you maybe should not worry too much about copyrighting.

Uh... heh..

>>If you have any other questions PointSoft, ask away.<<

I never really asked a real question... Any that I did ask, were technically hypethetical... =) But thanks for the insight, anyway =P

Alex Ford
PointSoft EA Co., Ltd.
http://www.pointsoftonline.com

One thing being missed here, is that you don''t actually have to do anything to gain copyright on what you make.

You automatically have copyright over everything you make. The only thing is that it might be hard to prove in court that you already had that game before the company that stole it. This is the reason copyrights can be registered, so you have a place to turn to and can say: see, it''s registered at such and such date, so I had it then.

Kind regards,
Maarten Egmond.

Also, actually registering your copyright gives you the ability to recover for statutory damages and attorney''s fees. If you dont register your creation, you can only sue for what amount you can prove you lost due to the infringment (have fun trying to prove how much you would have made).

From the US copyright office web site(http://www.loc.gov/copyright/circs/circ1.html#cr):

"If registration is made within 3 months after publication of the work or prior to an infringement of the work, statutory damages and attorney''s fees will be available to the copyright owner in court actions. Otherwise, only an award of actual damages and profits is available to the copyright owner."