Hi Dark, Yes, Count Dracula is public domain, but a character like Simon Belmont is not. The Belmont family is strictly tied to the Castlevania storyline and is copyrighted. So assuming I did a Castlevania clone there would still be elements I'd have to change. Although, that's not really the issue here.
It has more to do with trying to branch out and create something equally enjoyable, but that is my own creation. I'm beginning to realise that although cloning a favorite game can be rewarding and fun its also something of a pain too for a number of reasons. First, there is the almighty copyright problem. As I intend to sell my games to cover the expense of buying sounds, purchasing music, licensing voices, etc needed I have to be careful about how much copyrighted content I can legally use without it coming back to haunt me. Since that is the case I can't just pick a game I like such as Castlevania and clone it down to the smallest detail. So whatever I make won't be the same game as the original anyway. Second, is the purest vs casual player view. I remember when I was trying to make a fairly close clone of Montezuma's Revenge there were plenty of people who didn't like this, didn't like that, wanted this or that changed, and I was constantly put in the position of deciding to be a purest or not. I didn't like being put in that position because there are strong pros and cons from both sides of the argument. A purest like myself wants a game to be as close to the original as possible. Anything else isn't the same game, and perhaps loses some special quality the original had. That's why I was considering making Montezuma's Revenge as close to the original as possible. A contemperary player has no issues with changing elements in said game because perhaps they never played the original. Therefore they may compare the game to newer games they played, feel it lacks some feature game x has, and will ask for different features than the original game had. There's certainly nothing wrong with updating a game to a certain point, but the question is, "where should we draw the line between necessary updates and maintaining origionality?" Finally, there is the matter of creativity. A lot of writers fall back on existing universes Star Trek, Star Wars, Harry Potter, etc because it saves them a lot of work creating a unique storyline, characters, etc on their own. I call this the sandbox approach to creative writing, because they are basing their work on someone else's ideas and building up from their. The fan fiction websites are filled with writers, some good and some bad, who like to play in someone else's back yard so to speak. That's not necessarily bad, but its not engaging their own ability to create something new and original. Well, that's the difference here. Sure I could make a career of cloning and copying game ideas like Tomb Raider, Castlevania, Megaman, etc all my life, but that's still like playing in theirback yard. I'm beginning to think more in terms of perhaps trying something new, and put my mind to work to creating something that's totally my own creation for a change from start to finish. I can certainly do it as I'm capable of doing some original creative writing on my own. What a lot of people probably don't know about me is that from roughly age 14 on I use to spend many many hours writing short stories. Some were certainly based on existing universes like Star Trek, Star Wars, etc, but I also did a fair amount of my own creative writing. I'm not saying it was very good at that age, but I did get some creative writing awards in high school so I guess you could say I have some creative writing skill. So now instead of writing 50 to 100 page short stories I can apply that creative monster to games. Which is kind of better as its more interactive than reading something I wrote. Although, I've certainly thought about getting back into the creative writing thing as well. Cheers! On 8/8/11, dark <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Tom. > > I could be wrong, but I thought Dracula is pretty much public domain now so > if you wanted him as an enemy you could have him, though i freely admit I > may be wrong here. > > Then again, no need to redo things and you could have lots of fun with an > evil wizard instead, especially in terms of story sequences and maybe your > hero gaining some magic powers, maybe even with extra characters thrown into > the mix, eg, maybe the wizard has a right hand man who's out for power, or > has disolutioned someone else into helping him. > > There is also the possibility of using a real world historical figure as a > basis, rather the way that Dracula was based on Vlad dracule the hungarian > prince. > > For instance, have paraselsus, or elifus levi, and say that they really did! > discover the elexia of life, but that it involved undeath instead. > > Beware the grue! > > dark. > > > --- > Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] > If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to > [email protected]. > You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at > http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. > All messages are archived and can be searched and read at > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. > If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, > please send E-mail to [email protected]. > --- Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected]. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to [email protected].
