game copyright

AHarvey

AHarvey

AHarvey

Soldato
Joined
6 Mar 2008
Posts
10,085
Location
Stoke area
Hi all,

slightly odd question.

we are looking at developing new flash based games for our website, and I was wondering about the legalities of using games such as mouse trap or frustration as the basis of a game.

There will be 2 versions, one where we can make money from it and one where we can't.

Does anyone know about the legalities of using known board games like this?

We already have a snakes and ladders game. And I doubt they'd be impressed with having to pay out money to use the game idea as we already do that with games like Bejewelled and Deal or No Deal.

EDIT : i've asked for this to be moved.
 
Last edited:
First off, wrong place in the forum...

Second, Mousetrap is owned by Hasbro, which as a company, is vast and TM almost anything under their umbrella. I personally would make the game similar if not exactly with ever so slightly different e.g. the components, but named differently as a game.
 
How is it in the wrong place?

And contact Hasbro's HR department. They'll be able to tell you.

You could create your own and make a twist on it and call it something completely different then copyright that version. It happens, a lot.
 
If it is still licensed by someone like Hasbro, then possibly no chance of being allowed to use it.

Look what happened to the Scrabble game on Facebook.

Basically, you have to design and invent your own game, rather than use other peoples works.

Unless you want to license it, but this could mean silly money.
 
Thanks for the info so far.

We've just been asked to come up with ideas for games, I didn't want to waste time coming up with ideas from other games if there would have been issues.

I know we wouldn't want to licence anything as I said, we already do and profit margin isn't great.

Tefal, we probably do, but like most people here, probably doesn't know the **** from their elbow. Wasn't worth wasting time asking as it'd take them a month to get back to me!
 
Ripping off their games is still ripping off their games, even if you change it slightly. It just doesn't seem right to do so.

Aside from that though... you can do so much more in Flash than you can on a board game! Don't restrict yourself that way!
 
The Halk said:
Ripping off their games is still ripping off their games, even if you change it slightly. It just doesn't seem right to do so.

Aside from that though... you can do so much more in Flash than you can on a board game! Don't restrict yourself that way!
Click to expand...

I was thinking more of using them as inspiration than just ripping them off directly. As for flash, we are kind of limited with what we do as they are played within a chat room on a bingo site, it poses quite a few restrictions on us. Even just size wise and the fact that it will be played by 200-500 people at the same time.

I am trying to get them to branch out by looking at player vs player competitive games where we take a % of the total wager but cogs move very slowly in our firm :(

thanks for the feedback everyone, its been very helpful.

I've get a few basic ideas from kids party games, just looking at something a bit more fun now.

They used my idea for a isketch style game so keep coming to me for more ideas.
 
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