Folks,
Here is the rules draft for the design competition. I tried to incorporate several people
Rules Draft
Wed, 03/12/2003 - 09:43
Mon, 02/03/2003 - 12:23
#1
Rules Draft
How do I send my game (E-Mail, ordinary mail or by the forum).
// Johan
Thu, 02/06/2003 - 11:21
#3
Rules Draft
You might consider a greater point value for cohesiveness in your next contest. Only a small portion of the game playing population will spend hours learning rules. The rest want a quick fix. That is why most board games tend to fit into two categories Hobby games and Parlor games. If you want to sell to a mass market it
Thu, 02/06/2003 - 15:41
#5
Rules Draft
Darkehorse
I would not change the rules at this point. It
Mon, 02/10/2003 - 02:09
#6
Rules Draft
An important addition to the rules would be that the creator of the game retains full rights and copyrights to the game.
Another good addition would be that the only reward for winning the competition is a feeling of accomplishment, and that there are no explicit or implied prizes of any other kind. This will keep people from claiming that they thought they
Mon, 02/10/2003 - 06:59
#7
Rules Draft
> An important addition to the rules would be that the creator of the game
> retains full rights and copyrights to the game.
Ho ho ho. One of the few things that games designers know is that copyright is a rather loose concept when it comes to games, since "ideas" cannot be copyrighted. Mechanics can be patented (a different thing entirely!), names can be trademarked and specific aspects are covered by copyright, such as the particular expression of the rules, and card designs etc. (This is why novelists are on safer ground since their ideas are bound up in their particular expression of them. But you can still tell someone the plot of a book or publish it in a review without falling foul of copyright laws.)
But if someone designs a game, there is really nothing to stop anyone else from producing a clone of the game (with different name and pieces but fundamentally the same gameplay).
IOW the designer already has "copyright" over the game, for what that is worth, but by publishing it is probably putting the ideas behind the game into the "public domain" as far as further use is concerned.
(After all, Scrabble and Monopoly were both straight-forward developments of earlier games by different people, and there were a number of subsequent clones of both of them.)
These days the problem has been reduced somewhat as the prominence of the designer has increased, so it becomes easier to identify the originator of particular mechanics and designs.
--
Scurra
(who knows what this feels like as he recently designed a game for someone else and discovered that the only bit he had any rights over - the mechanics - was the only bit that couldn
Wed, 03/12/2003 - 09:43
#8
Rules Draft
Oops, missed your reply.
I certainly understand the situation, but when something like this -- a competition -- is in effect, the definition of who holds the copyright (which I understand is simply the rules as written, the artwork, etc., but not the ideas behind them) is a bit murky. Work-for-hire is the property of the person who hires you out for the work. Contests that include creative content commonly specify who the copyright belongs to because it is not clear whether or not a given contest is considered work-for-hire.
And IANAL and all that -- I
Quote:
03-02-2003 at 08:23, Johan wrote:
How do I send my game (E-Mail, ordinary mail or by the forum).
// Johan
Johan,
It will be via E-mail. The address to submit games to will be announced.
-Darke