Dropping out (was: Ghostbusters / Aliens)

[Caoimhe]

I'm doing this one. I'll start once I've finished rewatching both movies.

[koipond]

Welcome to the forums and I can't wait to see this one. ^_^

[Caoimhe]

I'm gonna start on this either late tonight or tomorrow morning. Done with my research.

[Caoimhe]

Okay! I ended up starting on Saturday night. I've done 4 hours so far, I'm about 1/3 done. It's coming along just fine. Gonna get some sleep now and work on it tomorrow morning! I'm tweeting away at my dazedsaveends twitter account (link below).

[shinobicow]

Cool! already following you. Gonna go check out your progress.

[Caoimhe]

Eh, I am withdrawing from this. The more I think about it, the more I feel that a literal mashup of GB/Aliens is probably a waste of my game development energy that could be spent on doing something more productive. The whole point was brought into focus for me when shinobicow pointed out that I can't toss in a few images from the movies.

Makes me wonder why I'm spending so much effort on developing a game that I can't really do much of anything with, since it's against the rules here (although I guess I could fix that) and it's someone else's intellectual property anyway. I'd be better off doing my own IP and avoiding the problems that are inherent in any "movie mashup" competition.

[Chainsaw Aardvark]

[NewBigDragon]

It's interesting that this topic has come up in this manner as it has been something I've been preparing myself to confront as I keep my eye open on an upcoming weekend that will allow me to throw my hat into this ring. But it's never been anything I've worried about, and here's why...

1) I've always planned on approaching this project as satire, which seems a natural both for this particular genre (movie mashup) and the contest in general (just look at last year's winner, "Keeton Must Die"). And satire is protected (when done correctly). Maybe "The People vs. Larry Flynt" should have been on the list of movies for this year's contest.

2) I've never planned on using copyrighted images in my game. As a graphic designer that deals with this on a regular basis, I've always planned on either drawing my own or searching out confirmed public domain or royalty-free imagery. And if I draw anything or use an image that looks similar to a copyrighted image, if I approach it from a satirical POV, I should be protected...

As an example, take Caoimhe's logo from his character sheet for "Game Over Man" ... yes, using the Ghostbuster's logo would technically be copyright infringement, but if you'd slap together a drawing of the alien beast inside the Ghostbuster's strikethrough circle (instead of the ghost)-BAM! satire - generally protected from infringement. And truthfully, pretty funny in the context of the actual game.

Mad Magazine (and now the Mad cartoon TV show) are perfect examples of using characters SIMILAR TO and INSPIRED BY the original in a satirical way. For example, if Mad were doing Alien, they might change Ripley to "Rippedlee" or "Wrigley" or maybe even "Ridley" (as a poke at the director Ridley Scott).

Maybe as part of everybody's research before beginning their games, they re-acquaint themselves with some good satire, and then make sure as they develop their games they stay away from the actual names of characters and the actual images that are copyrighted by the movie companies. And I'm most serious about that last one. I've recently had the chance to work on a promotion for a client of mine doing a tie-in with the upcoming Red Riding Hood movie and this was in the vendor contract...

"(c) Warner Bros. and its assignees may exploit fully Contributor's services and name and likeness in all media and manners, in perpetuity, throughout the universe..."

Yes, people, they're serious. Anything they own is protected throughout the universe.

Just some thoughts.

[Onix]

The issue of copyright was never an issue to me. I imagined the effort here was to take the core ideas of the movies and mash them together. Matching details as much as possible in individual movies is encouraged but as NewBigDragon said, the spirit there was to parody.

I just missed my window to jump in here because just when I had a chance I got sick (stupid virus and or bacteria!)