In terms of copyright and public perception, the game genre is irrelevant. What is relevant is that both titles will have the "stargate" moniker and thus both games will be considered, by the public, as coming from the same franchise (which is true).

And since the original copyright owners have no control over what un-licensed people do with that copyright, even if they made a side-scroller to avoid confusion with the MMOG, it would still carry the "Stargate" name and thus still be a problem.

Copyrights: easy to learn; a lifetime to master!

I agree. The usual mark of failure is continuing to defend your infringement. Regardless of the final outcome, you have impressed us (and others I'm sure) with your willingness to do things by the book.

And here is the bright side: if they do tell you to cease and desist, all you have to do is "tweak" the copyrighted material and you keep your game!

It's not a stargate, it's a "worldportal"; it's not carter, oneil and teal'c... it's smith, jones, and razmuse'n! Hell, you could even KEEP the names if you attempt to make the game into a parody of the series (you can use the "200" episode as a guide for how you could go about it). Teal'c would only be allowed to say "Indeed"... Carter can only speak in meaningless technobabble... O'neil, well, O'neil doesn't say much. If youc can pull the parady angle off, you can use all the copyrights and make your game (though commercialization is still out of the question)

You get my drift? You can keep 90% of the work you have done by simply coming up with an original background of your own. This is why making fan games NEVER made sense to me since it is much cooler to have your own ideas there. I guess the idea is that people will pay more attention to my with the SG label and that is true... but the SG people EARNED that attention and as future game designers, you don't want to be "leeches" and live off the hard work people have put into building the franchise up.

I'm sure you don't want us working on projects from your ideas, right? No different just because it's a big company.



Makes perfect sense. If you are an unknown, then how else are you going to show that you CAN do the job unless you've done it? Furthermore, as my previous post shows, you don't have to use others copyright to impress people. If the Mach team creates the game by tweaking what they have to avoid infringement, it is quite possible that the MGM people will take notice and take action and possibly allow the copyright in.



It's not about little or big. Quite simply, this issue boils down to respect for other peoples hard work. I'm positive that ABC, EA, or Trump would get the same treatment if they tried the same approach as Mach.

But you are right, why spend years on a project if it can be taken away at any time? This is why I discourage fan work and encourage original work!

I absolutely agree here. If you really want to make a fan game at the end but you dont want to lose your project then you should really start to make a similar game with different weapons, different persons and your own but similar designs. Then make it a fun game, at least an impressive working prototype! If that has been done then you can contact them and ask if they like your idea to change it into a fan game.

It is still more work if you really convert it but the risk to lose everything is smaller.

So catch the feeling of Startgate, make all that happen what you love when you watch it, make it just as enternaining as the original. Create a good sci-fi base, some interesting fantasy locations for remote planets and a very big range of different designs, exotic locations and an interesting story... Do you smell what a huge task that is even without any Stargate brand?

I thought you did the programming?
Well in the movie I saw butterflies flying around exactly as in lennart's demo. They don't fly without code .

I don't think just rendering your models in their engine for showcase gives them all the rights over your work, that's not possible... It's probably only when you would make an actual MOD (and it's not true for every engine out there, Unreal 3 engine does not have such a license afaik).

Also, if MOD teams use 3rd party model packs like yours, it won't be automatically be property of the engine creators either for sure.

A lot of guessing. The risk is still too high for me.

beside the obvious multiple copyright violation (maps/models by other users, making a fan game based on a tv series without a license, music on their website and possibly in the game), lack of ideas (why else would they take other user's maps), self-overestimation ("we are in beta" while thy obviously can still add/remove maps at will, and the map shots still look highly unfinished, esp. the egyptian things), a cheap logo ("the new enemy"), bad lighting in the vaccum-cleaned levels (check the website shots), no gameplay in the video, just mostly badly textured scenes, may i add my personal opinion: stargate sucks? but well. crappy series, crappy game. it matches.

hahaha, true, there's some code in there that's mine, but i didnt explicitly made that for his level, it just fitted in there and it was about art/level design, rather then programming now wasnt it hehehehee. either way, it's fine by me, that's what friends are for

regards,

Ok, thats not true stargate is awesome and you should give the game a chance and don't judge on what they have until it is finished.