So are we allowed to make fan fiction games like something that takes place in another series, I’ve been thinking about making a Campione choice of game
@Aznxa Nooope not unless its public domain (ie Dracula by Stoker etc.)
I - think - you’d be alright actually, as long as you didn’t commercially advertise or distribute it.
I.E. If you make it, post it here on this forum and let us all play it, you’re not likely to get hounded by any law enforcers.
You’d never be able to attempt to sell or officially publish it though, unless as Headhunter says, it’s licensed in the PD.
I’m with @CJW. You should be fine, so long as you never make money from it and credit the original creators.
I’d avoid it, without express permission from the original author. Technically, CoG is a commercial site.
It’s not that likely that anyone will chuck a legal writ at you, but it is a possibility.
I think @CJW and @ArchAngel950 are right, though you could sell/distribute it as long as you contact and get permission from the creators (which, depending on how big the franchise you wish to make a fanfic of is, may be difficult)
As far as I understand it, there license allows you to do nearly anything with the choicescript engine as it absolves its makes from anything that may happen to you as a result of using it improperly. Just like with other game-creation engines like say, RPGMaker or Ren’Py, the assets your use to make your own game are… ‘your own damn problem’, and the engine is not to blame for it. Just like Microsoft can’t be blamed for someone’s writing done with Word.
A fanfic has no hope whatsoever of being hosted here. The site is a different matter altogether, since it’s collusion for copyright infringement.
Fanfic has always been a legal gray area, and tolerated mostly because it’s harmless and incidentally draws in more customers to the original work. Personally, I got into Dr.Who through reading crossover fanfics and asking ‘Just what are these Dalek things and why are they so scary anyway? They look silly.’
And now when I hear “E-LEVATE!’ E-LEVATE!” I go, “Oh shit stairs don’t hamper them anymore!”
And when visiting graveyards, there is an instinctive desire to always keep angel statues in full view. 
But more seriously now, go ahead. Unlike original games, fangames have the benefit of already established characters and art that can readily be inserted into the story. Easier, certainly, but all just for fun.
I was planing on having you make your own character and it just takes place in the campione universe with its own story or something like that. Maybe ill make it if i get the time to learn how to do choicescript and if people are interested in it.
@bluepencil One thing before anything else: read the ChoiceScript licensing here. CS’s free license is purely non-commercial. For any commercial distribution of a game using CS you need to contact CoG.
@Aznxa Now, as for fanfiction, there are two things to keep in mind:
-
There is zero chance that it will be hosted by CoG, nor should you expect to get CoG to write off on you commercially producing the game yourself.
-
Fanfiction is a legal grey area, which is a very polite way of saying that it is (possibly) illegal. That may seem extreme to say considering how prevalent it is, but it’s true. Now, depending on where you live and what the laws are, it may not be, but in the United States, it is simply illegal (so long as the work isn’t clearly a parody, which falls under fair use laws, but we don’t usually use the term fanfiction to refer to parodies). Now, the exact repercussions can vary greatly depending on a huge number of factors (that I’m not going to detail), but if you do anything that earns you money on a work of fanfiction, then you’re facing legal trouble that you probably don’t even fully grasp the scope of.
What makes it a legal ‘grey’ area, rather than a ‘black’ area, is only that some companies don’t actively go after fanfiction. Some, on the other hand, do. And then there are some that do sometimes, and don’t other times. So, you may get off free (lots of people do), but you also may get sued into oblivion.
As for this site itself, there is no promise that if you do make a work of fanfiction that you’ll even be able to post a thread about it here. And you will certainly not get CoG to recognize the game in any official capacity.
Now (before anyone points it out), I am erring >em>way on the side of caution, but that’s standard practice when talking about these sorts of things. There are two circumstance worth noting that will allow you to produce such a game. First, older works stop being protected after a time and enter the “public domain” (minimum 50 years since the death of the author, but some are renewed for much longer if they are still earning money for the descendants). Second, in the United States (and other places) parodies are protected under “fair use” laws.
Above link (in case things break):
Hmm so i guess ill just make up something, can i take inspiration from another series long as i dont use their characters?
Well I believe the finished product must be at least 44% different from the other series, not sure though…
Not to be mean but I think you should drop it. Most good authors do not take others ideas or inspiration. Either way I doubt I will play any of your games if you continue with this simply because I like authors that make their own ideas. Like I said this is not meant to be mean. Simply my thoughts
I havent even started anything yet just making sure what i can and cant do before starting
@Aznxa, you can absolutely take inspiration from another series. As far as what % different it needs to be… lots of people write a work of fanfic, change the names and a few minor details, and hit the NYT bestseller lists (see: Sword of Shannara, 50 Shades). You don’t exactly get a lot of respect for that (see: reviews for Sword of Shannara, 50 Shades), but it’s not uncommon.
So do make up something of your own, and don’t stress if at first it’s not too original… just try to be aware of the authors who have most influenced you, and think, “What is going to be different about my world and characters?”
If there be nothing new, but that which is
Hath been before, how are our brains beguiled,
Which, labouring for invention, bear amiss
The second burden of a former child.
O, that record could with a backward look,
Even of five hundred courses of the sun,
Show me your image in some antique book,
Since mind at first in character was done!
That I might see what the old world could say
To this composed wonder of your frame;
Whether we are mended, or whe’er better they,
Or whether revolution be the same.
O, sure I am, the wits of former days
To subjects worse have given admiring praise.
~Sonnet 59, William Shakespeare
You cannot rid yourself of inspiration, and neither should you try. Without inspiration, we have no stories of any kind, because every story takes inspiration from somewhere. The key to being honest with your works instead lies in telling the story you want to tell. The more you worry about that, and less about about how it is similar or different from other stories, the more the story becomes your own work, and the less it becomes the retelling of someone else’s.
As for claims that it has to be different by such a percent and so on, those are just urban legends. No laws set down percents of this or that, because that’s not how the courts look at those kinds of things.
Inspiration is not only fine, it’s impossible to avoid. None of us exist in a cultural vacuum. It’s direct borrowing that you need to avoid.
If you want to do fanfic elsewhere though, it’s not necessarily beyond the realms of possibility. A bit of research will often show you how individual authors feel about the subject. It varies wildly.
fan fictions not good most of the time anyway.
See I’d like to write fanfiction in the typical fashion. I want to write stories with the characters/setting which explore options that aren’t available in Choice of the Vampire. For Example: Saving Clotho :). I’d be posting on a fanfiction website for entertainment, and anyone could view it for free.
I’d give credit to Choice of Games and Jason Steven Hill of course.
@ClothoLover I sent an email to Choice of Games about that a few months ago. I got replies from both Jason and Adam saying that it was okay on the games which Choice of Games holds the copyright to. I’ll quote both their replies below.
It’d be great if you can give them credit and a link back to the CoG site. And be sure to post on the forum too with a link to your fan-fiction. I’m sure plenty of people would love to read Clotho being saved.
Jason: “So, I don’t think we have a problem with fanfic for anything we have the copyright on. But if we don’t, then you’d have to ask the author. You can see the copyright on the credits page of the games.”
Adam: “To add to this, there have been a few pieces of fanfic published online for free based on games to which Choice of Games LLC or the members of Choice of Games LLC owns the copyright. We think that’s great. We have no problem with other people publishing similar pieces. As Jason said, for games for which we don’t own the copyright, that’s between the owner of the copyright and the fanfic author.”
@ClothoLover just make sure to spell my name correctly. 