Editorial More of Uncle Jeff's Important Lessons for Lonely Children

[Jason]

Tags: Jeff Vogel; Spiderweb Software

<p>Jeff Vogel continues to dish out <a href="http://jeff-vogel.blogspot.com/2010/05/three-more-tips-for-getting-started-in.html" target="_blank">tips for aspiring indie developers</a>.</p>
<blockquote>When you find resources online, be sure that you have the rights to use them in a game. This can save you a lot of hassle. When I was writing Exile 2: Crystal Souls in 1998, a friend gave me some awesome sword effects he found online. They were great, so I used them. Then I got the Cease &amp; Desist letter from Blizzard. Turns out, they were from some obscure title called WarCraft 2. Ouch. Learn from my errors.</blockquote>
<p>Eh, the <a href="http://www.rpgcodex.net/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=24624" target="_blank">Limbo of the Lost</a> developers didn't worry about rights and such and that turned out just dandy.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>

 

[Fez]

Not bad advice at all. Certainly it would be worth being careful from day one if you hoped or planned for your project to be for sale one day.

Limbo of the Lost, good times.

 

[Donkey Balls]

Indie developer by day, Captain Obvious by night.

 

[denizsi]

"some obscure title called WarCraft 2."

I feel like stupid for even doubting that this is sarcasm.

 

[Luzur]

"some obscure title called WarCraft 2."

I feel like stupid for even doubting that this is sarcasm.

yeah i was kinda surprised about hat too.

obscure? Warcraft?

 

[Norfleet]

Given that you could be sued for anything or nothing at all, it's best to start out covering your tracks by eliminating your attack surface. Segment your operation so that anyone exposed is replaceable and disconnected, so that they can't actually do anything about you, and make sure that no one involved knows anyone else involved, so if captured, they will not be able to rat anyone else out. If you can entirely eliminate your existence as verifiable real-world entity, you can avoid a lot of hassles.

 

[Fez]

Given that you could be sued for anything or nothing at all, it's best to start out covering your tracks by eliminating your attack surface. Segment your operation so that anyone exposed is replaceable and disconnected, so that they can't actually do anything about you, and make sure that no one involved knows anyone else involved, so if captured, they will not be able to rat anyone else out. If you can entirely eliminate your existence as verifiable real-world entity, you can avoid a lot of hassles.

The indie gaming resistance will live on!

 

[Monocause]

Indie developer by day, Captain Obvious by night.

Where's the captain obvious here? The part about assets is especially valuable, regardless of what you're doing, be it game development, music creation or amateur porn. The net makes legal issues quite complicated; correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that the Codex, for instance, could be theoretically sent a C&D for using copyrighted artwork as avatars without permission. Of course, nobody will do that, but they just might.

While making a game you might think that you have the right to use a lot of stuff you find on the net, or that at least nobody will have issues with what you're doing. Use a neat picture of a forest you found on some blog? Turns out that this is a picture taken from National Geographic, just that the blogger reposted it, as did some ~200 people before - downgrading the quality, resising it, erasing the watermarks, whatever. Just that you're the first guy to use the picture as an asset in the dollar creation process and so the first guy National Geographic sent a C&D to.

 

[Donkey Balls]

Indie developer by day, Captain Obvious by night.

Where's the captain obvious here?

When you find resources online, be sure that you have the rights to use them in a game.

I think even kids nowadays know that pretty much everything* is copyrighted. And at very least you should always try to find the author and ask for the permission.

* For example, if I take a picture, post it on my blog, and you then download it and use it in a commercial product without asking for my permission, then I can sue you.

 

[DraQ]

Indie developer by day, Captain Obvious by night.

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

Indie developer by day, Captain Obvious by night.

Where's the captain obvious here?

When you find resources online, be sure that you have the rights to use them in a game.

I think even kids nowadays know that pretty much everything* is copyrighted. And at very least you should always try to find the author and ask for the permission.

* For example, if I take a picture, post it on my blog, and you then download it and use it in a commercial product without asking for my permission, then I can sue you.

You give kids waaaaaaay too much in this post. One glance at a comments section across the webs, and I doubt whether most of the dunce kids these days even know what copyright is. Half of them don't even know how to spell the simplest of words!

Yes, they may know how to use computers to some degree for Facebook, etc, but they seem a lot dumber these days to me as a general rule.

Captain Obvious is more necessary than ever these days.

 

[Fez]

Captain Obvious is more necessary than ever these days.

Agreed. The internet just keeps reinforcing that this is the case.