I'm working on a turn based hex game and when I planned the animations for the units its turning out to be a lot more than expected. 10 frames for movement in 4 directions, 6 frames for idle animations in again 4 directions and for the attacks more frames.  Its a 2d game and I have to sketch/paint/crop all these animations. But I thought I could greatly reduce my work load if I do it the same way the game Darkest Dungeons' does its attack style. All attacks and defense by all units will be one artwork. That's a ton of work gone and it would also look cool. 

I'm also not copying Darkest Dungeon's art style, only the zoom in profiles when they attack. What do you guys think?

Are you talking about this:

If I understand correctly, you want to not have animation, but instead just have a "zoom in - one attack frame - zoom out" transition. Moving static sprites around instead of animating them is common in games such as visual novels and older JRPGs. I don't think there is anything to copyright there.

I'm not a lawyer, but you can't copyright ideas or mechanics, only specific expressions. So unless you're literally copying the code that does what you want to do, you should be in the clear. I copy mechanics from other games all the time, as do AAA game developers. After all Nintendo didn't sue SEGA for controlling Sonic's jump height by how long you hold the button.

Awesome! Thanks for the reply! Now where did is that HB...?

Julie nailed it.

You cannot copyright an idea or a concept. The code to that mechanic can be copyrighted, so as long as your developing the same concept or mechanic without using the same code or assets generally speaking you'll be fine.

You may not be able to copyright a game mechanic, but you sure can patent elements of games. Some typical examples that are (or were) patented include "minigames during loading screens", "Mass Effect dialogue wheel",  "the Crazy Taxi arrow above your car that shows you where to turn", "Katamari rolling and picking up stuff" etc. Be careful when you say "Oh, it can't be protected, just do it yourself"  

6 minutes ago, 1024 said:

You may not be able to copyright a game mechanic, but you sure can patent elements of games. Some typical examples that are (or were) patented include "minigames during loading screens", "Mass Effect dialogue wheel",  "the Crazy Taxi arrow above your car that shows you where to turn", "Katamari rolling and picking up stuff" etc. Be careful when you say "Oh, it can't be protected, just do it yourself"  

Careful citing older patents, since Alice Corp. CLS Bank International was deiced getting a patent for software is incredibly difficult, and some of these patents you cited can be challenged and throw out because of the courts holding.

Please be careful citing any patents. Knowing about a patent makes you liable for triple damages should you violate it, so by citing patents you could be putting software developers in jeopardy. The only examples you should ever cite are expired patents, like the patent on natural order recalculation (i.e. permission to make a spreadsheet program that functions correctly).

There is nothing a software developer can realistically do to avoid infringing patents. There are too many, and it's too hard to tell what patents could possibly apply (e.g. that natural order recalculation patent was on the face of it about compilers, and yet it was used against a spreadsheet developer). All we can do is close our eyes, never look up patent information, and hope we don't get sued by patent trolls. And in the long-term, software patents need to be abolished.