Hey! I am making an RPG that is VERY different from any others out there. If you''re an artist who can make people walk and move around, PLEASE e-mail me at gryc@rogers.com! You will not be disappointed, and there might be $$$ involved. So please help me out! Details will be given upon request. -Voytek http://www.liquidsoftware.cjb.net Games, apps, and more!

No offense, but how "different" from everything else out there, can it be. Are you referring to the past 1-2 years or the past 20 years. There has been every rpg type imaginable and I''ve probably played it, so I''m really curious what your idea is...

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I think I read your design doc some way back, how is it coming along?

btw: your "evil shooter sim" REALLY does not warrant an installer.

"There has been every rpg type imaginable"

Really? Don''t you think it just seems that way? Didn''t someone once say that "everything has been invented" too?

Ahh, but that''s why I want to hear his idea. If it''s similar to something that was used 15 years ago, then that''s better than one from more recently, but it''s still not very different from the others. Anyway, never mind me, I''m always skeptical when someone makes a post like this.

Oh, and if it is very original, then good luck and copyright it quickly.

quote: Original post by Garott
Oh, and if it is very original, then good luck and copyright it quickly.

You dont have to, copyright on ideas is something you have automatically.

Hase and Garrot, you cannot own friggin ideas. It says in the begiiner''s section of this site. http://www.gamedev.net/reference/design/features/makegames/page2.asp

You own the copyright automatically only in some countrys, ie England, i am fairly sure the US does not recognise this. And then it is only if you can prove it was your work in the first place.
The above statement is purely based on my music experience

So how do you make your game idea safe? Do people take risks sharing their ideas in public forums?

I could''ve sworn you could copyright or somehow protect your idea, maybe not then...

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AP, it´s not as easy as that. As already mentioned it does differ from country to country, as well as from case to case. Here it depends a lot on who you work for and what kind of contract you have. If you do it on your own time, then the basically idea is yours.
I would have guessed that it runs similar in the US, at least by looking at the more or less recent Hasbro Copyright lawsuits.

I suppose it would also be a question of definition. Even if you can´t copyright an idea in the US, you still have the copyright on your GD, so if someone produces a game from that, it might be argued that this is a derivative work, which is prohibited by copyright law.

the section you were referring to is:

[The follwing are not protected by Copyright ... ]

"Ideas, procedures, methods, systems, processes, concepts, principles, discoveries, or devices, as distinguished from a description, explanation, or illustration"

[...]

so I would assume that if you had the idea of bricks falling down you could not claim Copyright, but if you wrote up a GD describing this concept, you have copyright.

I´m not really familiar with US law, so correct me if I´m wrong... it seems to be the same with international copyright.



So I guess the only thing you *really* can do is shut up about it if it´s really good. But imo those killer ideas are usually years apart, because if you can come up with something good, someone else can too....