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Via Twitter, Boardgame Minimalist asks:Quote:Do you ever worry about ripping off other games? I mean sometimes a game inspires me with an idea of a simplified version or a smaller game taking one element of the larger game - is that considered ripping off?I tried to tackle this in my FB AMA/diary/vlog (starting at 19:30) but wanted to explore the question a bit more.
I think there are 5 ways you can consider this.
LEGALLY
You can pretty much do whatever. You can't have the same 'look and feel' and can't copy graphics/entire lines of text. However, mechanics can't really be protected.
ARTISTICALLY
If an artistic creation is an endeavour for self-expression, then it's entirely up to you to decide whether your creation is an expression-of-self sufficient for your desires.
Maybe you don't actually see it as an artistic project, but a creative one. Working on a new reskinning of a popular brand at a big company still has a lot of creativity involved, even if you aren't able to express yourself. And you get paid.
Look at your own desires and decide what you want to do. I feel only you can answer this.
ETHICALLY
Is anyone being hurt?
Are you using the money and time they've spent building a brand, and then releasing something that could confuse the market? That's both 'wrong' imo and also illegal (i.e. copying 'look and feel').
Assuming some bigger changes, are you making something that takes all the creativity that someone else has put into game design, and then taking sales away from their thing?
Maybe Gigamic could have remade IAB without paying me money. I think that would have been 'wrong'. Whether it's illegal or not (it probably would be if they were copying all the text exactly but they might have been able to change it enough to get away with it), it would have certainly been 'wrong' imo.
SOCIAL REPUTATION
I think that this is the main reason that companies license games.
I think this pretty much aligns with the 'ethically' part of it.
BUSINESS-WISE
You have to ask: is this game different enough for someone to buy both games? Is my new game better than the old game for some folk?
These are questions you need to ask regardless.
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My current conclusion:
It doesn't matter what your inspiration was, anyway. The end result is all that will be seen by most folk, and so that's all that you really need to worry about.
If I start a game wanting to make Agricola but only with cards, that will end up different enough that I think I'd be artistically happy with having made a cool new thing, it'd certainly be legal and ethical to publish, and I don't think it'd harm my personal reputation, or business.
The key fact is that you don't just swap in/out a bit of content, or reskin it. You will go through a process and the game will end up as its own thing.
Even if your design goal is 'exactly like Twlight Imperium but with 10% of the components' then by virtue of your new restriction/change, it will end up different.
If your design goal is 'exactly like Twlight Imperium but with 99% of the components' then that's a different matter.
I am a full-time designer/artist/self-publisher and I am available for freelance work. I go to cons as a trader and help run the all-day Friday playtest sessions in London. I left my last 'real' job in 2014. I was getting benefits for a few years.
I'm currently writing sporadically, but getting back into the habit of daily posts.
If you have any questions/topics you'd like me to address, send me a geekmail and I'll probably address the topic within a week.
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