Hi, i’m currently developping a game with a friend. It’s basicly a mix between Pokemon and Divinity : Original Sins. I am not planning to release it anywhere, i wan’t to keep it just for me and my friends to play on local network. The game is using Photon Network (free version with 20 players max) and it’s basicly peer to peer.
The game is using Pokemon assets (remade by a friend to fit the game but still it’s using pokemon names, attacks and artworks) so i know that it is not legal, but as long as i keep it for me and my friends on a very short and selected list of players then it’s no big deal.
But recently i asked myself : what if someone send the game to a friend to play with, and that friend send it to an other friend and an other one etc… etc… That way i loose control on who has the game.
And at the end if one of that person decide to upload the game somewhere publicly, can i be in trouble for that ?
I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice. That being said, I think it is very unlikely this would be a problem. Granted that all rights are reserved by the intellectual property holders of pokemon, i doubt they are concerned with fan made products.
Why don’t you use pokemon assets as placeholders until you can develop your own.
I think it’s good that you’re thinking about the legal risks, and once a copy gets out it can easily get distributed all over the place including pirate sites and then you have no control over it. So my opinion is that if you’ve done all the hard work in making a game, you might as well use original or legally-licensed art and avoid trademarked terms and then you can play and distribute the game without worry and maybe even sell/host and make some money off it.
As others have pointed out, it is highly unlikely you will get caught or get anything more than a C&D if at all. But as @ pointed out, the possibility exists that it get out there and get bigger. (not likely, but possible). There is a risk. If it is a personal project and you don’t share it, that is one thing. If you are sharing it, you might want to reduce the risk of legal issues. Sharing it “with a friend” is the same as sharing it with the internet as a whole.
Thanks for your advices, i was planning to make my own assets latter but i guess i’ll just wait a bit more and take time to make my own assets.
Last question : if i make my own pokemons ( and not copies of existing ones ), don’t call them pokemons but still use a pixel art style that is very similar to old school pokemon games is it ok? Or is it still copyright violation to make something that would looks like it come from an old pokemon game?