If I were to make a game with stonehearth-like models(looks at least) that I had made on my own, would it be a problem legally? Can one legally copyright a look/style?
A game for profit or for fun, either or.
Also all animations for said game would be done by me, pretty much the only thing similar would be the character model style
There’s lots of voxel based games out there and nobody has claimed so far that Stonehearth is a Minecraft clone.
IANAL, but if you were to copy the game thoroughly - in style, gameplay and/or other things - so that one could mix up these two games, you could be in trouble. Maybe not even legally, but surely there would be people that wouldn’t take it kindly that you’ve copied an idea.
It’s possible to copyright a look (trademark), but I don’t think Radiant has done that for Stonehearth, nor do I think it’s possible for games.
That’s why i added the second post, the game genre would be completely different, and the even the character models would look similar, since I’d plan to change some things i don’t like about stonehearth’s character look.
hmm… perhaps @SteveAdamo or @Relyss could page the devs for you, i would but i dont know who to page
Probably Tony/Tom.
The game I’d possibly consider making would be a third person view rpg/dungeon crawler voxel style. With character models with a similar style to Stonehearth’s
making a game that features voxel characters that look similar to SH would probably be OK, as I don’t think (as others have alluded to) that the visual style can be trademarked… that’s not to say you could/should make exact replicas of existing units/character classes though …
it would probably be best for TR to provide an official stance, but the discussion would likely get into the very muddy legal waters that I am in no way knowledgeable enough to provide any real insight into …
@sdee, any thoughts?
Nothing would be an exact replica, there’d be characters similar to the 1’s in my creations thread(specifically the dragoon, long legs, thinner) with nothing other than the general shape alike, the 2 main features of stonehearth I would say I like are the heads and the hands(floating hands to be specific).
Then again, all this is ideas I may not even make any game at all, all depends if I have the time for it.
Just an idea, and I would love to know where TR stands on this before considering it more.
Just copying the characters really isn’t a big deal. Voxel characters look alike anyways, so there would be no real issue.
Things get real murky when you start pushing it as a citybuilding rts/rpg hybrid game, with inspiration from dwarf fortress and a cutesy aesthetic. Start making UI elements that closely resemble it, and name it RockFireplace, then you are really, really pushing it. At that point Radiant has to strongly consider action, because you have made something that could be confused as their product.
But just square dudes? Go to town.
This is not in any way a legal stance. That said, from a creator’s POV, I think that if you’re going to make a bunch of brand new models and animations, you should also go ahead and give yourself an artist’s permission to find your own voice and style. Start from our models, if that helps you start somewhere, but I strongly encourage you to push and play with the colors and the proportions until you find something that’s uniquely you. That’s the fun of it, after all!
well said @sdee!
That’s sort of what I was going for.
As a person who wouldn’t really consider himself an artist I planned on essentially taking inspiration from what I like about multiple voxel games(since there’s not really that many good 1’s that do things different)
The heads/hands of Stonehearth are basically it.
I mean I’m sure before it ever gets anywhere I plan to go through a few iterations of style anyways.
Thanks for the reply @sdee
Do what ever you like, just remember Radiant Entertainment is watching, always watching…
You know, in the .00003 microseconds available to us between bugs.
It’s a little suspicious that a little before this is posted, Radiant Entertainment got a new staff member. I believe that @Brad is really a security monitoring manager! I have always been suspicious about something like this after I accepted the “Send crash report” thing! Seems like a scam to me…
They are a rather small team, and there is a lot to be done…
The fact they got a new staff member was highly likely to happen