MSR *WILL* be finished, come hell or high water... hell more likely.

[sunteam_paul]

I bet Rainbow Arts were just as confident when they released The Great Giana Sisters, which was on the shelf for all of about 5 minutes before Nintendo stepped in. Why tempt fate?

[nodtveidt]

Yes I know, they were bullied off the market by Nintendo. Nintendo also has a long history of doing such things.

[nodtveidt]

Anyone remember the Fighter's History case? Data East flipped off Capcom, it got dragged into court, and Capcom got their collective asses kicked.

[spenoza]

Anyone remember the Fighter's History case? Data East flipped off Capcom, it got dragged into court, and Capcom got their collective asses kicked.

Data East was a larger company than Rainbow Arts with greater financial resources, but then again, I do agree that trademark issues are less likely to hurt as much and easier to mitigate quickly and easily. The Rainbow Arts case was a while back and I haven't seen any cases of the sort in a long time, short of the Tetris look-and-feel C&Ds. Konami/Hudson couldn't argue look and feel for Neutopia because they pretty much ripped off Zelda and the like when they made it.

[Arkhan]

I don't think it is a good idea to tempt fate and throw yourself and everyone who'd be working on Neutopia 3 under the bus.  "They can't bully me" is a crock.  Yes they can.  You're not in any position to defend yourself if they bring up a lawsuit.  None of us are.  We're dipshits doing this in our spare time.  You lack the manpower and financial standing to go toe to toe with them in court.  It'd be like bringing a nerf gun to a tactical nuke fight.

They can hose you down if you even imply it's a Neutopia sequel.  Change the name.  Don't imply it's related to Neutopia in any way.  Let the players imply it.  It'll be everyones secret.

Golvellius and Neutopia got away with being released because they turned out to be different enough that suing them wouldn't do anything.  Golvellius had all those sideways action scenes, Neutopia had well, way better features than Zelda did.. including USEFUL TALKING....

Giana Sister's got f*cked because of this:



See that grafitti?  Yeah that's them saying "Hey look we ripped your shit off Nintendo, and now we're giving you the finger".  Add in the barely different sprites and map layouts, and yep, you get hosed.

If you put this out as Neutopia 3, and say it's a sequel, you're asking to get f*cked.

Global Games Company got sued out of existence by Games Workshop for Legions of Steel and PlanetStorm being so similar to Space Hulk and Warhammer 40k, respectively.

Sure you may get publicity, and you may feel like they are being made a laughing stock for bullying you, but, who's going to get the last laugh when you're flailing around dealing with court fees and all of that shit?  It sure as hell won't be you laughing, lol.

I'd just change the name and make sure you use from scratch artwork. 

[nodtveidt]

As Nintendo's first third-party developer, I do believe that the reason the Zelda/Neutopia bit was never pursued in court was because Hudson was still playing grab-ass with top Nintendo execs at the time. Had it been anyone other than Hudson, I think Nintendo would have shit a golden brick and used it to pay their lawyers to sue the "enemy" out of existence. The original Neutopia is such a blatant ripoff of the original Legend Of Zelda that it's not even funny... so if Nintendo can bully Rainbow Arts off the market for a game that is merely inspired by another game, then imagine what they would try to a company who directly ripped off an entire game concept...

The Tetris Company is pretty damn hardcore about going after lookalikes, and they are fiercely protective of the name "Tetris". I'd be more worried about them than Konami/Hudson.

[nodtveidt]

And no, they can't bully me. They can only try. Again, our game doesn't use ANY of their IP. AT ALL. So there are no copyright violations whatsoever. Aside from the name, they have absolutely nothing, so if we simply change the name, they have zero legal ground. Of course, if we can't have it as "Neutopia III", there is no actual point in producing it, so it's an all-or-nothing deal.

[nodtveidt]

Of course, people are also forgetting one other detail of this... once N3 is underway and we have a working game engine going, I'm going to contact Konami personally and work out a deal with them. Could go either way, but they're not an unfriendly company (not like Namco... ugh) and they have no problem sniffing out new revenue sources, especially if it means less work for them.

[TheClash603]

Well, there are examples that go both ways.  For example, Abobo's Big Adventure is still up, and this game steals every sprite on Earth.

http://abobosbigadventure.com/

If this game can stay alive (though, I suppose there is the "parody" aspect), then I figure anything can.

[arromdee]

Let them take us to court. It'll be fun. Then they will have to prove not only infringement but also profit loss.

This is untrue.

[nodtveidt]

Meh, f*ckit... we'll just shelve N3 and forget about it. We have other games to make anyway.

[Bernie]

Meh, f*ckit... we'll just shelve N3 and forget about it. We have other games to make anyway.

  NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!     Makes Bernie very sad.....

[lord_cack]

Off topic still, but I think that a game in the vein of Neutopia would be just as cool as Neutopia. Of course, I have another action/RPG concept (well two but I haven't fleshed the second one out much yet) that would be great to work on....

Call it whatever you want, the graphics so far are nice, the concept and story are great, the game will be awesome.

On the topic of copywrite/patent infringement and how far a company will go to protect its money/assets.... one word, one company, look it up if you don't know: Monsanto (evil corporate bastards) Two different worlds but same possibility.

[Arkhan]

Well, there are examples that go both ways.  For example, Abobo's Big Adventure is still up, and this game steals every sprite on Earth.

http://abobosbigadventure.com/

If this game can stay alive (though, I suppose there is the "parody" aspect), then I figure anything can.

This is a free, non profit game. 

Golvellius was never persued by Nintendo, and Compile certainly wasn't playing grab ass with them. 

Make it as a new game with a new title.  The second you release a Neutopia III, or imply that a game you're making is a sequel, you open the flood gates.

[ParanoiaDragon]

Technically the official name is Gorrilla's Eat Potato Chips, so, that's what it will say on the manual, tray insert, cd, & title screen, so...I'm not seeing the problem?

I'm kidding ofcoarse, but yeah, if we can strike a deal with Konami, cool.  If we can't, then it'll be a different game.