Publishing

Started by Pfaber11, March 09, 2018, 12:23:50

Previous topic - Next topic

RemiD

Well, i can send you 1USD via Paypal right now if you want, but only when i have seen that you have added a gameplay / possibilities video (or animated gif) of what your games are about.  ;)

Pfaber11

To be honest I'm not much of an artist but I do try. Anyway as I said previously things can only get better.
HP 15s i3 1.2 upto 3.4 ghz 128 gb ssd 16 gb ram 15.6 inch screen. Windows 11 home edition .  2Tb external hard drive dedicated to Linux Mint .
  PureBasic 6 and AppGameKit studio
ASUS Vivo book 15 16gb ram 256gb storage  cpu upto 4.1 ghz

RemiD

#32
If you want to create a gameplay / possibilities video of your game, what i do is capture the area of the game window using "debut video capture" (free version), then i edit the video to keep only the parts that i want and to add some titles for each section using "video pad video editor" (free version), then i export in avi, then i can upload the result to youtube...

Pfaber11

Well I did manage to make and upload a video of wingfighterz . Used OBS I think it's called. Open broadcaster studio or something. Anyway all my games are free for the foreseeable future. Can't really complain if they're free. Gonna make my next one with a view to selling it though . The day I make a dollar out of this it will  be awesome. At leased I know what's involved in the process now and have tested the water. Happy at Patrick's Day.
HP 15s i3 1.2 upto 3.4 ghz 128 gb ssd 16 gb ram 15.6 inch screen. Windows 11 home edition .  2Tb external hard drive dedicated to Linux Mint .
  PureBasic 6 and AppGameKit studio
ASUS Vivo book 15 16gb ram 256gb storage  cpu upto 4.1 ghz

Derron

Do not forget that commercial games (ad or price-tag-based) are more suited to legal problems:
- taxes for your income
- if you get sued, the price tag might differ (as you had a commercial interest)

So make sure you tackled these issues before releasing something "for money".


bye
Ron

RemiD

Quote
The day I make a dollar out of this it will  be awesome
indeed, same goal here... (more for the challenge than for the money...) Keep trying !

Naughty Alien

QuoteThe day I make a dollar out of this it will  be awesome. At leased I know what's involved in the process now and have tested the water.

..do not lose your enthusiasm man..im sure it will work out, but im highly recommending word from mr. Derron, before money change hands..


QuoteDo not forget that commercial games (ad or price-tag-based) are more suited to legal problems:
- taxes for your income
- if you get sued, the price tag might differ (as you had a commercial interest)

Pfaber11

I have uploaded a video to you tube and put a link in the wingfighterz game page. Don't think it'll make much difference but we'll see. Thanks for all the tips .
HP 15s i3 1.2 upto 3.4 ghz 128 gb ssd 16 gb ram 15.6 inch screen. Windows 11 home edition .  2Tb external hard drive dedicated to Linux Mint .
  PureBasic 6 and AppGameKit studio
ASUS Vivo book 15 16gb ram 256gb storage  cpu upto 4.1 ghz

RemiD

Quote
if you get sued, the price tag might differ (as you had a commercial interest)
@Derron>>what do you mean by that ? (in the case that a developper creates a remake / clone of an existing game ?)

Derron

#39
At least in Germany the differentiate between a personal "crime" and a crime done by a business related thing. Eg. you have a website which is for just your hobby - compared to a website having some banner ads on it - or some amazon-referal links ("buy this book, its good").

The cease and desist letters might have a different price tag. But the most different aspect is: acting as a business man (even if you just impose to be one) allows some laws to be used against you which are not allowed against private persons. Eg. in Germany any "non private" website needs a valid impress. No problem isn't it?

Also one cannot sue everyone for everything. In many cases you need a "business opponent" doing similar stuff - so painters can sue painters, bakeries other bakeries, ... but as a "commercial programmer" it becomes harder to sue these dudes in very specific things. Most problematic are things like "logos". While you as a private person do not really care about your logo - doing it from your names initials or so, it becomes a bit of a minefield if you do this as a "commercial acting one". Then people with registered trademarks/picturemarks in the same nizza class will have to sue you (or make you otherwise "change your opinion") to not loose their mark on the logo - only counts once they know about the existence of your logo.

Nobody does such things? There are individuums around there just doing this stuff - they finance theirself and their buddy-lawyers by sueing people here and there.


On the other hand: I do not want to make everyone afraid of things which might never happen to them. I just wanted to make you aware of all the trouble you might get once you sell things - or earn something. 1 cent is enough... or even the "will" to earn something. So in Germany they could argument about you acting as a commercial one as soon as you add a "pay for my software"-link, or a referal link. Even with 0 sales, and 0 clicks the "will to earn" is there and makes you acting "commercially".


Things might differ in your country but I assume every "big country" has such more or less "odd rules".


@ Remakes and Clones
- do never (repeat: never) use images as provided by the original software (except for FOSS - or if you got the licence - of course :-))
- do not use the original name if that was still trademarked (in your country!)
- do not copy texts from the original as soon as they have a certain level or "originality" (eg. Quest texts, whole story passges)

Game plays/ideas are not copyrightable (yet - they tried already). You could write a similar story (in your own words). You could paint things looking very "similar" to the original ones - so same style, similar look-a-like but do not just take the original image, tint it in another color and add a black line on top. This is not enough.

Game titles, certain elements (I got such a letter for a "red rising sun"-image in a settlers-of-catan-freeware game - a decade ago. They had an imagemark on this kind of background for computer games - and this made me sueable as the Dutch author of the game was out of reach for the German lawyers around the board game distributor.)

If you do not earn money with your remake and they sue you, you will have a different pricetag than as if they see you as a company ("will to earn something") pirating in their product pond.

Price tag will correlate on the potential damage. Damage is here often incorporating download count. I got a penalty cost which tried to multiplicate with the download count the game had - and any further download would have cost me X euros. You normally strike that then and mention that a court will have to decide the price tag - and they accept it. But these price tags define how many money the lawyer can require for "the letter".

Privat persons get more and more "secured" (cheap - easy to overcome as I've read - so it seems just to calm down the "easy people" aka the plebs ). Just think of the "strike rules" in the US (first, second, third strike). Such things only are valid for private persons ... not commercial ones.

bye
Ron

RemiD

Well, you seem a little paranoid...

Create a similar game (not a clone or remake), create everything yourself or use things that you have a license to use, all good...

GaborD

It's generally a good idea to have a limited liability company to run your business through, so that even in a worst case scenario it gets targeted instead of your personal savings. A safety net to separate you from your external business stuff.
Lots of scammers and nutjobs out there, you never know what will be thrown your way. Better safe than sorry.

Derron

#42
@ paranoid
Yes - but I also have paid not just once for such issues. So better warn/inform people, than - as GaborD said - sorry.

And there are dozens of people out there doing their pong clones, pacman clones - to learn stuff. Plenty of old games are "cult trademarks" and heavily protected. Talking about Pac Man, Super Mario ...

As you already wrote in your reply: if you do everything on your own, and do not hurt their trademarks, nothing will happen. And NO just because YOU (and me ...and many others) are aware of some "clones" (copying trademarks) this does not mean the owner of the trademark (officially) knows about it. As said they need to fight such issues to not shallow their trademarks. That is why there seem to be "legit" remakes/clones around.

And no, I think differently to the current laws on this subject, but for now we will have to accept it. Just a side note: in Germany we cannot just use the original movie titles in my game TVTower. As the owners might (maybe - it is not strictly clear, but got responses from multiple lawyers on this question) sue one to not use them in the game. Why? Because our game would benefit from the "reality" ... and benefit means you need the allowance/right to use the title, name of the actor ... (as you're game gets "better" with these names. This is also why you cannot name your game "This is not Candy Crush" - except maybe in the US - as you would try to piggy-back on the fame of the name).
Another thing: if you are not creating "art" and a officially satiric reminiscence of a product, even things like "pun" - making a slightly fun name out of a real name - can be problematic as soon as it becomes a kind of revile).

In the US things can be a lot different (fair use etc.) but as far as it concerns Germany things are as I described.

bye
Ron

RemiD

#43
@Pfaber11>>well done for the gameplay video, even if these games are not liked, you have learned the process, so level up ! and it will be better for your next game. Keep trying !

( Oups! i have clicked the wrong button  ;) )

Pfaber11

Thanks remid much appreciated. Yes I've cirtainly learnt a lot from this experience and my next game will be much better and so will my marketing and presentation. Thanks for all the tips.
HP 15s i3 1.2 upto 3.4 ghz 128 gb ssd 16 gb ram 15.6 inch screen. Windows 11 home edition .  2Tb external hard drive dedicated to Linux Mint .
  PureBasic 6 and AppGameKit studio
ASUS Vivo book 15 16gb ram 256gb storage  cpu upto 4.1 ghz