Hello!
So, i was working with a group of people on fan-game project, but it turned into really advanced game.
We decided to release it as official game. But it's highly inspired by Danganronpa series:
- Gameplay is identical
- Characters are really similar (Monokuma -> Mononeko, Monoraion, 16 students with "ultimate" talents (few talents are identical, but characters are different))
- Plot is really similar
- All of the assets are created by our team.
Is it legal to publish game like this on popular game platforms, like steam?

Another question is:
Our team is a group of people from different countries (Poland, America, Australia) and few of them are underage and we aren't an official game studio.
Is it okay to release game like this?

Thank you and greetings!

P.S. Sorry for my poor english, it's not my native language!

Hey Jukashi!

I'm no expert in this field; but it looks like you (may) run into problems if the Danganronpa team takes notice of your game once it's live.

From what I've read through articles, documentation is huge factor in the legal side keeping things legitimate. This also is very similar with film/and writing.

You are definitely eligible to replicate a game for personal uses. Once you make a profit of said game beware you don't infringe on any rights. Such as, if the game has copyrights on stories, characters, assets, names, music...especially on specifics.

 For instance: You can make a Darth Vador villain for personal uses, but once you start to make a profit from it. That's when you need to make sure your ducks are in order and your not using Darth Vador anymore, as he would be a copyright infringement.

Lets say you make the super villain name: "Varth Dador"....but he looks identical to Darth Vador. This I'm pretty sure would raise flags, (I'm no expert), but if there are super close similarities involved your going to be infringing upon a copyright. (If it happens to be under a copyright)

(These are definite issues if the game team put them under a copyright)

•Storylines (if similar)

•character (if similar)

•music (if similiar)

•Abilities shouldn't be, but if you so many similarities revolving around it, this would be some battle ground against you....if you were brought to court for the game.

Also, just to keep in mind as you search for answers. 

Nintendo was brought to court for supposedly a making some type  of a knock off with Donkey Kong based upon King Kong. I'm not sure what the reason they were brought court was. But Nintendo won it.

Documentation is pretty key.

To officially release a game, I would think you'd want to put it under a copyright. Just for a couple reasons. Getting coverage away from backstabbing, making sure no one decides to use your game name or characters and make a copyright infringing your game assets or whatever to get royalties. You never known, play it safe!

These are my thoughts anyway, I hope it was helpful. Don't take me for granted, as I said before, I'm no expert haha!

28 minutes ago, BlueFlute said:

Hey Jukashi!

I'm no expert in this field; but it looks like you (may) run into problems if the Danganronpa team takes notice of your game once it's live.

 

From what I've read through articles, documentation is huge factor in the legal side keeping things legitimate. This also is very similar with film/and writing.

You are definitely eligible to replicate a game for personal uses. Once you make a profit of said game beware you don't infringe on any rights. Such as, if the game has copyrights on stories, characters, assets, names, music...especially on specifics.

 For instance: You can make a Darth Vador villain for personal uses, but once you start to make a profit from it. That's when you need to make sure your ducks are in order and your not using Darth Vador anymore, as he would be a copyright infringement.

Lets say you make the super villain name: "Varth Dador"....but he looks identical to Darth Vador. This I'm pretty sure would raise flags, (I'm no expert), but if there are super close similarities involved your going to be infringing upon a copyright. (If it happens to be under a copyright)

 

(These are definite issues if the game team put them under a copyright)

•Storylines (if similar)

•character (if similar)

•music (if similiar)

•Abilities shouldn't be, but if you so many similarities revolving around it, this would be some battle ground against you....if you were brought to court for the game.

 

Also, just to keep in mind as you search for answers. 

Nintendo was brought to court for supposedly a making some type  of a knock off with Donkey Kong based upon King Kong. I'm not sure what the reason they were brought court was. But Nintendo won it.

Documentation is pretty key.

 

To officially release a game, I would think you'd want to put it under a copyright. Just for a couple reasons. Getting coverage away from backstabbing, making sure no one decides to use your game name or characters and make a copyright infringing your game assets or whatever to get royalties. You never known, play it safe!

 

These are my thoughts anyway, I hope it was helpful. Don't take me for granted, as I said before, I'm no expert haha!

Thank you really much!
But another question is:
Does it help if we want to make this game free to play?
And is it enough to call our character too similar? (Right one is our, left one is original)
Greetings!