Monopoly3D
Community Forums/Graphic Chat/Monopoly3D
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| 3 screenshots about my latest project: Monopoly3D. This game displays the Monopoly board in 3D and will allow you to play this game in a LAN. One player will host the game, others can join. Also computer players will be implemented when the game is working nicely. Currently, only the board is implemented, no AI or play-code or interface has been created yet. The camera can be turned and tilted already (yaw and pitch). Also zooming in and out is implemented. The game is being created using BlitzMax and Xors3D. I've disabled the VSync to get an idea how stuff is affecting my framerate on my crappy 5 year old laptop (HP Pavilion DV9000). Screenshots:    Last edited 2012 Last edited 2012 |
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| Whilst it looks good and nicely textured, please beware that Hasbro doesnt like fan made games of their games... |
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| The game won't be sold anytime soon, or given away freely. When it's finished, I'll contact them first and I'll ask them if it's ok to release it. If they won't allow it to be made public (being sold or given away freely as open-source), the game won't be released. This project is in fact just a test-project to: - test my modelling skills - test my coding skills - test the Xors3D engine - learn something about networking So, selling it or releasing it in any way (for free, or open-source) is not really required for me right now. |
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| When it's finished, I'll contact them first and I'll ask them if it's ok to release it. I can save you the bother - because you'll get one of two responses.1. Cease & Desist from their lawyer. 2. Please send us a large bag of money. |
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| They could release and publish it themselves. It doesn't matter if I can release it, as it's only a test project. If they refuse, it won't be released. If it would be possible, it would be nice to have a few bucks on the side from royalties, but it's not required. |
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| They could release and publish it themselves. They already did that. |
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| You'd be far better off re-purposing this as an original game with no copyright hangups. Anything else will be a waste of the development time involved. |
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| What is Xors? |
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| Nice little test project, I'm sure you'll learn a fair bit. But you won't be able to let others play it, which is a shame. |
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| Xors3D is a 3D engine for BlitzMax/Blitz3D/C++ which uses DirectX9. It comes as a DLL, so it could be used for every programming language that can use DLLs. http://www.xors3d.com/xors3d/overview Development is going slow atm, but it has really nice features and works nicely. I could also proceed with another game which was already started. That game would have no copyright issues as that game would have nothing in common with another existing game. But that game will also be ALOT bigger than Monopoly3D, it would take me more than 10 years to complete it. It would be an adventure RPG type of game (much like the play-style of an MMORPG, but for single player only). But I decided to start a smaller project first to learn BlitzMax code, 3D modelling/animation and network coding. |
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| it would take me more than 10 years to complete it. - then pick something smaller? |
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| The Monopoly game is a good idea in principle for a beginner project, but using third party IP as the basis for the game is extremely stupid. There's zero chance of the IP owner allowing you to do anything with the project, or of them doing anything with it themselves (they need to protect their brand and ensure anything that represents that brand is something they have a high level of control over). It would probably be a simple enough thing to change the ruleset and graphics of the game enough to not get into trouble (minor changes won't cut it, you need to make it fundamentally different). Then you have something you can call your own and can do whatever you want with. |
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| What he said As a learning project that never sees the outside world, fine no harm no foul, but this thread's existance could backfire on you should Hasbro google image search themselves regularly to see whats what. But let's hope it doesn't. Nothing is worse than spending time and effort only to be told by others (perhaps with past experience) that the people who own the game would rather you didn't continue with what you are doing. But then what? create a whole new board game just to prototype the game mechanics, if you have a game in mind with established rules that is either PD or your own creation then its something to hammer on with. 'Classic' 8bit and early arcade games also fall under the "Do it, just don't bother showing it." camp, mostly though cos the world doesn't need pong #56842653 or break out '99 remix' #4485122. But coding said games is a good starting point in other games, you have an established rule book and play style, so all you have to do is work out how to get the code right. Once done, that code can find it's way into another project. There are exceptions to this as platformers are rather generic as are shootem ups, but Pong/Breakout/Space Invaders treat them like learning chords and scales on a piano, you need to know them to play other music, but no one really wants to go to a concert and see someone just going over the scales for 20 minutes (although I'm sure there is a band that has done this). |
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| By reading all those suggestions and comments, I've decided not to release anything about the project. It seems quite clear Hasbro wouldn't even bother looking at the game, not even to release it themselves. But am I violating copyrights as well only by posting screenshots? Some images were copied from Google Images (the Go, Jail, Free parking and Go To Jail squares). If it is, I'll remove them. |
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| I remember a girl who was adapting a famous board game called Arkham Horror and was posting videos progress on Youtube. She contacts the manufacturers and copyright holders to see if it was a problem and they were more than happy she was adapting the title (!). Height iterations later, she was offering close beta-testing of the product. That's exactly when she receive a cease and desist letter from their lawyer! So she stopped the game but the video is still available on Youtube. On the unofficial wiki of that particular game, they allow people to list every games objects with photo and all, at least if all the text of a specific deck of cards was masked/made empty. What they did. It seems it is less a problem for them when it's not a game (because learning the rules is the only real problem of Arkham Horror). What's funny is that a game set is available for Vassal... I learn about that because I'm thinking about creating a board games that would take a few rules from existing board games and I was wondering if it was an issue. Mainly with Cthulhu stuff since part of the myth as fallen into the public domain (that's why you see a lot of game based on Cthulhu these days). Anyway, I didn't decided yet if it would be a 3D games (then I would use Unity3D) or a 2D games (then I would use my BlitzMax Engine) because 3D is nice but pretty disturbing for board games when it's not correctly done. Most of the time for board games with small RPG systems you need to see the whole board and details can easily be unseen. I'm also thinking about including real-time gameplay but then it can easily triple the amount of time needed to finish it... and I don't have years anymore :( |
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| So you're actually telling me to remove the screenshots if I don't wanna get involved with lawyers and copyright stuff? But I'll still keep working on the game silently as it's a learning project, but it won't be released anyway to avoid copyright/lawyer issues. This project holds alot of stuff I would need in a bigger game, like: - network code - 3D modelling and texturing - animations - threading - AI - ... If the entire project won't see the public, I guess it would be safe to work on it for my private purposes. |
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| I got a C&D for showing screenshots (only) of a WIP game called 'world snooker' in 2003. The WPBSA took exception and threatened me with lawyers as, unknown to me, 'world snooker' is a registered trademark belonging to them. I believe to this day that somebody here with an axe to grind tipped them off. |
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| I believe to this day that somebody here with an axe to grind tipped them off. You'd be suprised, really, just how thorough company lawyers can be at actually going through, actively looking for such stuff. Because the current litigation requires that to prosecute copyright infringements, the copyright holder themselves must take action, there's a good deal of money to be made by legal representatives in just trawling the internet for such infringements. |
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| I'll play it safe then, the screenshots are hereby removed. I don't wanna get into trouble, just by posting screenshots from a learning project. This topic can thus be closed. |
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| No, I don't think you could run into any problems because posting a picture or a video online, that would be silly (even if we live in a silly world). Why not swapping the texture and a few rules or content to something personal at the end? It's often easier to use existing material for prototyping then polishing the aspect when everything is fun and playable. Ergonomics is very important in board games, so at some point you will probably have to let peoples try your game to spot bugs and improve things. |
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| I could change the board at a later date as you suggest. First I'll try to make the game work. Currently, the game can only load the board-model and allow the camera to be moved around it and zooming in/out. Maybe make the board circular, so it won't even look like a square Monopoly board. The logo can be changed as well to hold a different name. Also the prices can be changed and the names of the properties. Even the amount of properties per color may vary later on, before you can build houses/hotels. Even those houses and hotels may be changed to something else. I could get rid of the railroad-properties or change them to something else. I might give it a complete overhaul to change just about anything in the game to create something unique with a new set of rules. If the end-result is complete, I might have something that won't violate copyrights and I would be able to release it into the public without risking anything. Nice idea, thank you. |
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| Depending on where (country) you live, you will have to pay attention to different aspects. Here in Germany you are able to copy "game ideas" without infringing copyrights. Think in the U.S. it is a bit different as there are "ideas" patentable. The logo ... the name is a trademark ... the graphical logo is a figurative mark. Means: If you would call your game "Monopolisation" they could argument with "likeness" to their brand. If you are having a board/software (depends on the nizza classes here in germany) you might run into problems if using the similar Font-type for your logo. As I remember the logo is not something special, so the figurative mark wont be a problem so easily (compared to something with swirls/...specials/ in it) the board ... the layout can be something special but I doubt it is copyrightable the signs on the board ... sure there is a copyright on each symbol (as long as the level of creativity is high enough) ... don't use them (jail symbol, question mark, ...) the names on the board ... the combination makes it unique ...don't use them the rules ... don't use their text but methodology of a game itself is not copyrightable (like "threw a dice and move your figure", "able to buy the field below", "build something on it"). But like said ... depends on where you live. further reading: short google search bye Ron |
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| the board ... the layout can be something special but I doubt it is copyrightable the signs on the board ... sure there is a copyright on each symbol (as long as the level of creativity is high enough) ... don't use them (jail symbol, question mark, ...) the names on the board ... the combination makes it unique ...don't use them the rules ... don't use their text but methodology of a game itself is not copyrightable (like "threw a dice and move your figure", "able to buy the field below", "build something on it"). Like he said... ;) |
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| They probably patented the whole thing by now so anything slightly resembling the game they will find a court somewhere in the world to try you in for patent infringement. These days if someone has the right amount of money they can find someone to take you to court for something. |
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| I'll play it safe then, the screenshots are hereby removed. Best way, the creator of GLBasic made an Operation (The 'your the doctor' board game) type game, he put "operation" in his search tags and was greeted with a message from Apple (I think) that the IP holder had been on and wanted that word removed from the tag list. So, dont underestimate them, they can be thorny buggers! Dabz |
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| You could always call it something else, rename everything in the game and modify the mechanics a little bit, perhaps make the board circular or something. Its a grey area but most indies get away with it as long as it is not a total rip off. |
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