Basically I’m thinking about making a fan-game based on the Anime/Manga Bleach. For the game I will be designing all the models, textures ect. myself (so I will not steal stuff from the Official Bleach games). The only official stuff that I would like to use is the OST from the Anime and obviously the characters, location and story as well. Also I have no plans to sell the game, it will be free to download and play.
Please could someone explain the legal issues with this project and explain to me the best way to distribute the game without getting it taken off the web. Thanks
Also just so everyone knows I am not just a rabid fanboy with lots of ideas and no skill, I have been making games for about two years and I started working with Unity a little while ago.
99% of the time, especially with major productions, they will not allow this. Even referencing the characters in a non-parody light. However, if the game is relatively amateur and deemed as “not harmful” to their product, they will likely just ignore it – but if you ask, they will tell you no.
I think I will probably just make it anyway (I love the series enough), and I plan to use the engine for another game after so it won’t be work gone to waste if they take it down.
Be careful. The fact that it is free will make little difference. Any claims against you would be for the damage you did to them, not for the money you earned.
@koyima
I’m not trying to be dismissive here but the problem is that the Official Bleach games are owned by Sony (the Japanese ones) and SEGA (the English ones). So the chances of me even being able to contact them (never mind being allowed to do the game) are minute. =(
Man I want to make the game so badly… =(
@Moonjump
I know that, and I guess that’s why there are no good Bleach fan-games currently available.
I also picked a bad time to want to do this game, as Sony have recently released “Bleach: Soul Resurreccion” on PS3 and to put it simply it was an epic flop. So they would probably be even more likely to make claims against a fan-game.
Sigh… I guess I’ll have to keep the game for just me and my friends who also like bleach. =(
@koyima
Yeah… I suppose you’re right. I’ll probably still do a small version of it and keep it for me and my friends who like the series, and then I guess I’ll use the same engine to make my own universe with similar themes to Bleach. =) =) =)
And I guess I’ll have to keep playing my copy of Soul Resurreccion until Sony get their game on and make another Bleach game like Heat the Soul 7 (but English and for PS3).
The real reason their created is so you can instantly get a fan base that has taken years and thousands if not millions of dollars for the original owner to make .
This is why they ALMOST always get shut down when they get too popular .
@MABManZ
That is one thing I’ve been considering, and that is what I’ll probably end up doing.
@keithsoulasa
That’s true, but the reason I wanted to make this fan-game is because Sony have had the licence to Bleach for ages and all they’ve done is make a really shitty PS3 game. The only good Bleach game they ever have made was in Japanese only and on the PS2. Argh! All I want is a decent Bleach game that follows the actual anime story and that comes out in the UK. Get a move on Sony! So… yeah, that’s why I wanted to make the fan-game.
I hate companies that sit on great licences and do nothing with them.
@MABManZ
I didn’t mean to suggest that I could make a better game than Sony, it’s just that their Bleach games have no soul. If I make a fan-game it will probably be shit, but it would have more soul than any Sony Bleach game so far. Sony don’t love Bleach, so that’s why their Bleach games don’t have a soul.
I’ve never understood the logic behind this. It boils down to: “Hi! I love your TV series / game / book / movie so much, I’m going to steal big chunks of your work, and ride on the coattails of your success! You don’t mind, do you? I mean, it’s only your creation I’m going to be diluting, because I love it SOOOO much!”
Who gave you permission to play god in someone else’s universe—a universe that those people clearly spent a lot of time, effort and money into building and getting right?
Who gave you the right to draw a moustache on the Mona Lisa?
Creating a well-told story, with all the background and detail needed to make it successful, is hard. Those piffling little trifles you think are okay to steal? They’re the hard part! Making models and textures is—and I hope I’m not insulting any artists by saying this—just craftsmanship. If you have good drawing skills, chances are you can draw Mickey Mouse just as easily as you can draw any other cartoon character—including one of your own invention.
So why not just invent your own? Create your own back-stories, your own worlds, your own creation. Your own universe. Then you’ll have every right to play in that universe to your heart’s content.
Believe me, it’s one thing to work on a license—I did work on a TSR AD&D game design for a while—but there’s a lot more satisfaction in creating something fresh and original and seeing it get great reviews. I’ve been there. It’s a hell of a buzz. No drug can ever give you a high like that.
To say what someone in a big company told me: better do something and ask for forgiveness, instead than ask for permission
Fan games: they are cool to a certain extent; they are mainly a way to get the work from someone else, and show that with different ideas and mechanics, it can still work…not so different from what people do when they gotta make a sequel for a movie, or revive an old franchise (star trek, star wars, Galactica…).
The worst that can happen is that they will ask you to remove the game from the site where it is posted; if you make a crappy game you could get sued for ruining the IP; if you make an awesome game they may plan to hire you…it is rare but it happens.
Why don’t you just take what you like of that show and make your own story? Personally I couldn’t care less about a show, but if something is attractive to me (example escaflowne and their steampunk robots), I can always take that single bit of idea and put it in my personal and original context…in this way you have no problems about asking permissions and such.
I saw fan games based on mugen, and usually it is cool, but most of the time a fan game is usually sub sub par, and that’s why they are taken down quickly. As today I don’t recall a single fan based game (not mods, there is a difference) that were even decent to play.
Plus, if you do a fan game you take a lot of restrictions due to the story, characters and problems with consistency…why do you want to tie your creative wings? Look how many issues has directors porting books to movies
I want to echo this advice and let you know that it is what we did too.
My friend and I were working on a fixed deck card game. We were in talks with Capcom to use the Street Fighter license. All of the characters in the game were street fighter characters and the flavor of all of the abilities on the cards where appropriate to the characters.
Then the licensing guy quit and the new licensing person wanted nothing to do with us since we weren’t a 40 million dollar movie deal.
What did we do? We made all new characters and an all new universe. At the beginning the new characters used the same design data as the SF characters but over time the data changed to fit the unique flavor of the original characters. You can see the end result here:
Here’s what I think you should do:
Make your own characters who fills the role of Ichigo, Chad, Inoe, etc. Initially you can think of them as being identical in terms of abilities and personality (but different art). As you develop your concept you’ll naturally make changes over time. After a year or so your “ichigo” will really be his own character, maybe even a girl or an alien or black or whatever, with his own personality and even his own abilities (read as game mechanics).
In the end this will be a much more satifying endeavor. You can tell people it’s the “spiritual successor” to Bleach if you like, or say that it is an homage, or keep your inspiration to yourself. It will be up to you and you will control it and be able to sell it if you like.
