Is it illegal to make a video game clone

[jediaction]

Well, if they are intentional copies of games it doesn't count because that's a "fan" game, but if it's your own idea "claimed to be yours" but can clearly be counted as some other game than that's different.

[arty-fishL]

Its certainly illegal to make a definite clone and should the original dev company wish to sue you, they could, I highly doubt they would unless you threatened their sales.

To make a similar game, that is clearly a copy, but does not steal elements unique to the original game, is perfectly legal. Take "Driver" or "Saints Row" for instance. They are blatant, but not explicit, copies of GTA and are certainly legal.

I reckon making and selling a free-roaming game where you run around committing crimes, killing people and running from the police is legal, just as long as it isn't called GTA, or doesn't have a "Niko", "Area 59" or "Liberty City" in it.

[David B]

Originally Posted by arty-fishL

I highly doubt they would unless you threatened their sales.

That is another good point that I never considered before either. To sue you, they would have to pay, and in doing so, unless they think you are threatening sales, they will be losing money.

Originally Posted by Mr Kidnapper

He's full of it. He doesn't understand legal terms.
Royalties are a fee paid in licensing—that is when you've been given permission to use their product or an asset of their product in yours, and you pay a percentage of your sales to them like a tax.
They cannot give you "thousands of fines" or any fines at all. They can sue you, and the government will give you one fine. That fine may be in thousands or millions though. This is assuming that what you were doing is illegal. It isn't.
A registered trademark is the idea that the government will punish people when they try to use your product's name in anything. For example, Harry Potter is a trademark therefore no one but the publishing company that produces Harry Potter can authorize a game called "Harry Potter", or any character within the series of books.
A copyright is a right immediately given to you once your idea has been published. Posting the idea on the internet is also a form of publishing. It is the idea that no one can legally copy and distribute your works without your permission, and you hold it for as long as you live +~70 years. Permission can mean a lot of things. ZUN, for example is extremely relaxed and has given people permission to use everything that he makes so long as you credit him as the original author. It's probably the reason for his success.

Now, I have no idea how a GTA-Minecraft game would work, but it's fine as long as you don't use their names or assets in anything except your own speech, "I thought I'd create a game that was like GTA and Minecraft." If everything in the game can be proven to be made by you and your team, then you're OK as I said in the last post.

Yea w/e. I run a website and if i didnt know some of the legal terms then id already be copyright infringing and would have had my site shut down. Yea sorry but im not an idiot either.

I am the one who told Beachbum about this and he originally told me that he wanted to make a game that was basically merging these 2 games togeather. He did not tell me originally that he was going to code the games by himself and not use their game code. Im pretty sure that you are suppose to get permission from both Rockstar games and Minecraft to merge the 2 games because he did not tell me that he wanted to make any different textures.

He then later came to tell me that he was going to code the game from scratch and then i told him that he could not use their textures, models etc. then he told me that he wasnt going to but he wants to use Unity like he said. I know that you do not have to pay royalties to anyone for making a game from scratch between 2 games.

Now lets just finish this argument over your stupid game idea and leave me out of it.

I dont want to help with your garbage game ideas.

[x2495iiii]

Originally Posted by alex809

Yea w/e. I run a website and if i didnt know some of the legal terms then id already be copyright infringing and would have had my site shut down.

Except that those two things have very little (if anything) to do with each other.

Originally Posted by alex809

I am the one who told Beachbum about this and he originally told me that he wanted to make a game that was basically merging these 2 games togeather. He did not tell me originally that he was going to code the games by himself and not use their game code. Im pretty sure that you are suppose to get permission from both Rockstar games and Minecraft to merge the 2 games because he did not tell me that he wanted to make any different textures.

What? So what exactly DID you assume he meant? That he was going to use black magic to somehow merge the two games and sell it as his own? And why would he tell you about something as obscure as textures when the game is still in the conceptual phase?

Originally Posted by alex809

He then later came to tell me that he was going to code the game from scratch and then i told him that he could not use their textures, models etc. then he told me that he wasnt going to but he wants to use Unity like he said. I know that you do not have to pay royalties to anyone for making a game from scratch between 2 games.

"From scratch between 2 games"? That makes no sense. What happened to you?

Originally Posted by alex809

Now lets just finish this argument over your stupid game idea and leave me out of it.

It's not an argument. He asked a question, and it was answered. And he didn't name any names, smart one. We would never have known that it was you if you had kept your mouth shut.

Originally Posted by alex809

I dont want to help with your garbage game ideas.

Judging by your poor grammar, abysmal reasoning skills, inability to do research, and lack of anything resembling competence or common sense, I'd say he's better off without your "help."

I don't have poor grammar i just choose not to use grammar online.

I don't really care if you guys knew that it was me or not so i really just don't care.

He wants to make 2 games from scratch as in code everything from scratch for this game.

And we turned it into an argument in person not here so how about you just your mouth cause you don't know what we say to each other in real life so you just stfu.

I didn't ask for your two +++++++ sense.