[Help Wanted] - Pokemon World

Jednou · Post by **Jednou** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 9:59 pm

Hello people,
I would like to announce a project I am desiring to tackle. The game will be about 3D Pokemon Adventure.

Summary:

My idea is that there will be Pokemon regions like Johto, Kanto, ect. You will choose a region you want to start with, you gender and a town you live in. Depending on the region, town you will get different starting Pokemon which may not be always the same for all players.
You will be adventuring the Pokemon region you are in and take challenges in forms of badges and then a Pokemon League. You will also be able to go to another region and meet more Pokemon.
Like in all Pokemon games you will be able have 6 Pokemon and battle with players or NPC's. Your Pokemon will be able to learn more then 4 moves not like in other Pokemon official games.

Team Needed:

Coders: - Must know how to use Irrlicht Engine and the appropriate
language

Artists: - 3D Artists who can model the Pokemon and animate them
- 2D Artists who can texture the Pokemon and make 2D icons

Scriptwriters: - They must know a lot about Pokemon games and
Pokemon in order to make quests and a storyline

Researchers: - They must also know something about Pokemon but their
role is to research and check if the game content is right

If anyone wants to ask me a question I will be happy to answer it. You can reach me on my mail: my.boo@hotmail.com (msn) or just reply here.
Thanks everyone who read to this point and looking forward to hearing from you.

Jednou

Saturn · Post by **Saturn** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 10:02 pm

So you have acquired a Pokémon license by The Pokémon Company?

Jednou · Post by **Jednou** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 10:04 pm

Sorry, but no. You can create a free Online Pokemon Game as long as it's free.

Dorth · Post by **Dorth** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 10:07 pm

Absolutely not. The fact they don't bother suing doesn't mean they couldn't. It is their copyrighted product AND trademark. You have no right to use it in a product. You can, however, reference to it, as example, or cite parts of it briefly, or use it in a personal project that will not be redistributed. THAT is the law, not something you make up.

Jednou · Post by **Jednou** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 10:15 pm

Ok, take for example SWGemu. It's a totally copied star wars game. Take also World of Warcraft private servers. They are all illegal because they are totally a coppy of the games. Now take for example Pokemon fan games. Are they illegal? Can they be sued? They all use Pokemon content, they refer to the original games and credit the creators. So that's why it's ok to make a Pokemon Online game. But it must be free.

monkeycracks · Post by **monkeycracks** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 10:21 pm

http://nz.answers.yahoo.com/question/in ... 845AAbP0A4

Jednou · Post by **Jednou** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 10:26 pm

Yes, but we are not copying some Pokemon official game so the rule doesn't apply to us. I'll double check again with my lawyer with your arguments.

monkeycracks · Post by **monkeycracks** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 10:32 pm

The only way i can think of it being legal is if you made all your own media, nothing being ripped or used from any previous pokemon game ever. This includes artwork, textures, models, sounds, etc.

I still don't think that is legal though. Fan games are generally a bad idea, but most people don't consider that.

Dorth · Post by **Dorth** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 10:34 pm

Don't know the SW.
I do know the law on WoW private servers though.
You can host a server, in some country, for various reasons.
The 2 main ones are:
Study
and
Private group (I think it's 10 or less)
Both you need to have legally bought the game to play on. If you don't, you ARE breaching the law. The reason you can host a private server (keyword, private), is because you already paid for the game. And if the company prevented you from playing it by disallowing concurrent services, it would be breaching a lot of countries laws. BUT you can't use their name, their image for publicity, you can't alter the original files, you can't use their source to create a server emulator (aka, you are forced to packet sniff.) Lots of other nifty laws like that. What you are talking about is not the same thing. It's exploiting, even if freely, a commercial title and name, brand. You can't do that, it IS against nearly every countries copyright laws. Just move on to another ideas, that's all.

P.S.: About the yahoo answer. Be wary of a copyright or license. It can NEVER override a countries law, not even if all parties concerned are in agreement. Thus, some section are void in some countries. This is why you'll always find the nice "If any section is rendered null through laws, the rest will still hold", or something the like

Monochrome · Post by **Monochrome** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 11:11 pm

It is legal. Nintendo and Gamefreak are ok with it, as long as it is free. I've seen this issue discussed zoudns of time, and there actually lots of fan game projects halfway done. Nintendo even allows people to use sprites from the original games, AFAIK.

This is a complicated project though and i hope you know what you are doing. I sugest you to contact http://www.z00ttheater.com/ admin ManTiS, since he is doing a pokemon mmorpg, and as a few models ready which you could try asking for, so you could have some resources to begin with.

You could also try recruiting programmers and artists at http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums ... forum_id=8 (check the help wanted section, and for god sake read the sticky threads b4 posting!).

And for a small suggestion, base the world map graphics on the original gameboy classics :p even if they're 3D. A tile based world map allied to a decent map editor could boost a lot your possibilities while keeping the gameplay simple.

Dorth · Post by **Dorth** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 11:27 pm

I have found 11 suits against pokémon game makers with a simple google search. On the other hand, I haven't found a single site supporting your claim, not even, of course, Nintendo's one. I call bull. Prove they support it, or else you'll only land the people that'll believe you in potential trouble. Don't just claim that. Not having being sued yet isn't a proof of support.

Monochrome · Post by **Monochrome** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 11:48 pm

Dorth wrote:I have found 11 suits against pokémon game makers with a simple google search. On the other hand, I haven't found a single site supporting your claim, not even, of course, Nintendo's one. I call bull. Prove they support it, or else you'll only land the people that'll believe you in potential trouble. Don't just claim that. Not having being sued yet isn't a proof of support.

Of course nintendo wont support free projects but its pretty much ok with them. There are lots of pokemon mmorpgs ongoing, some of which are actually on beta phase by now. I think as long as you mention them, its ok.

Now for the linkies:

Pokemon Online Revolution - MMORPG currently on offline alpha
http://www.pokemonrevolution.org/main.p ... main&sst=8

Pokemon World Online - MMOROG currently on online beta
http://www.pokemonworldonline.net/

Ekayio Online - 3D MMORPG currently on pre-alpha stage
http://www.z00ttheater.com/z00t/control ... w.php?id=1

These are the ones i remember so far. But i know there are a few more. I suppose nintendo would have sued these long ago, if they were harming anyone, since they are quite known actually.

*EDIT*

Oh and lets not forget Pokemon Battle Arena a VERY popular pokemon battle engine played widely online. It is pratically impossible for nintendo not to know this one at least. They stopped developing it, but mostly due to lack of time, since the game is still distributed.

http://tvsian.info/netbattle/index.htm

Also would you kindly provide the links you found regarding the lawsuits? I would like to take a look at 'em.

hybrid · Post by **hybrid** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 8:05 am

Jednou, please read the project announcement rules (first, sticky post in this forum) and adjust your first post accordingly. You have to provide much more documentation and stuff before you can announce projects or search for help. Otherwise this thread might get deleted...

rogerborg · Post by **rogerborg** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 8:48 am

Nintendo will ignore your project as long as it sucks. Not a great incentive to contribute.

Monochrome · Post by **Monochrome** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 9:01 am

rogerborg wrote:Nintendo will ignore your project as long as it sucks. Not a great incentive to contribute.

Or if its a clone of their games, which is perhaps the weirdest factor :p.