http://itch.io/jam/candyjam
I understand a few of you like trolling. I understand a few of you like making video games. Some of you like ripping. I understand that even ... sometimes, you like all three.
Well, have I got just the thing for you. Common word trademarking is a very .... interesting, practice. As it currently goes, a few companies quite like to do so and in the land of video games, it's rather bizarrely counter to creativity and an open market-place.
For King, it's just a bit ... off. Some companies (and individuals, as I'm sure you've seen) tend to be quite okay with more or less cloning an existing game. King are one such company. And they of course monetise that. Then ... trademark the words, and sue the original game. Yuuuup.
So, the proposition is fairly simple. Before they trademark the word Candy, make many many many games,which itch.io will make available to the public, and you can through whatever other routes you want, too, which liberally use the word Candy. And Saga, and yanno, other things King like to use.
The increased use within gaming makes the case for holding a trademark on the word rather weak, and King need to enforce the trademark quite heftily, to be able to continue making the case for holding the trademark. If there are many many games that infringe such a trademark they have to either 1. spend lots and lots of money suing many independent game developers to enforce the trademark or 2. accept legally that they've not enforced the trademark fairly and so, cannot successfully enforce it against specific developers in the future.
Pretty troll, right. Anyone interested?
ID:1482975
 Jan 28 2014, 5:16 am
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Jan 28 2014, 6:14 am
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Lugia319
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I'm in but I need to come up with something :/
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I didn't know you could trademark words like Candy, that is just dumb... And what King is trying to pull off is such a dickmove on the guys who made The Banner Saga.
I checked on the site that the deadline is 3rd of february, so 6 days more or less. If anyone is interested I'm willing to do some pixel art for this. | |
Papa Candy is a mythical figure in the land of Aaah, a mystical figure that travels the world and delivers candy to boys and girls on Crashmist Day. But one fateful Crashmist, the candy does not get delivered. Instead, one boy receives a note in has candy bag, written in crimson red blood...
Cherry flavored. Probably candy, actually. Anyway, so the note says: "Smash the Bubbles." That boy is Flick, an adventurous boy from the slums of the Candy Queendom. With only this note as a clue, he travels to the Bubble Bayou, a dark and dank place located like a mile away from the Queendom, inhabited by all kinds of bad people, and one in particular called the Bubble Gang. A place that nobody goes to cause it's full of bugs and stuff, but Flick must rescue Papa Candy cause otherwise he won't get any candy. So he's gonna do it. Also he uses a bat to smash stuff. Papa Candy's Smash Bubble Saga! | |
War broke out in the Candy kingdom, the bitter Chocolate kingdom is invading.
The only ones who can protect the Candy kingdom from the menace of the unsweetened hordes of chocolate are the Candy heroes, armed with candy canes and lollipops they ought to defeat the evil poopyKing. Candy The Legendary Saga is an action, arcade, sidescroller, battle alongside your companions to deafeat hordes of enemies and protect the Candy. | |
So, can I make a game with the word "Earth" in it, and thereby own it through trademark!?
Trademarking a single word from the dictionary shouldn't be allowed. It's the reason why game developers have to come up with increasingly stupid, drawn out names. Some developers even consider canceling their game just because of trademark issues with the name that they thought they came up with first. Anyway, I assume that this trademark only applies to the video game market. Here's an interesting fact. Candy Land was first published in 1949, more than 50 years before King ever existed. It is now owned by none other than the toy giant, Hasbro, and they have in fact developed a number of video games based on Candy Land. Can you imagine what would happen if Hasbro entered the Candy trademark arena? King would be crushed like a peasant! So, I say we notify them about it! Tell Hasbro to make another Candy Land game (as much as I hate it) for the latest consoles, and to defend the free use of the word "candy". Chances are, Hasbro already knows what's going on, as large as they are, but sometimes it takes action from the public to move giant businesses like that. | |
It always amazes me how a company will commit PR suicide by doing something like this. I don't even see what they get out of it, unless they're planning the equivalent of patent trolling and are going to try to extort money out of other developers.
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I started, not sure if i'll be able to finish it, but I'm trying regardless...
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Well to be fair, provided the game has some concept of gameplay and (as it does) looks vaguely competent, all is well.
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 Programming is ugh... And I'm on crunch time. | |
Someone is tradmarking the word saga?
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The word "Candy", for use within games. They've also opposed other people's full name trademarks such as the Indie title "The Banner Saga", on the grounds they have a game with Saga in the name also (despite being a very different game in nature to theirs). Which isn't really how trademark opposition is supposed to work.
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It's all about the benjamins.
EDIT: Related note: IIRC, there was a website designer that was trying to sue people for $10,000 for having a scrolling titlebar or something because they had the software patent on it. I don't think they got very far with it. | |
I love your art, Neo.
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There was a guy who use to claim he owned the trademark to the word "Edge" and went around opposing anything, including games with the word Edge in it.
He was actually successful for a while and he went around bullying a bunch of small companies. Eventually EA stepped up and tried to get the trademark cancelled because he was abusing it. Before EA won (and he got into massive legal trouble for abusing this trademark) he agreed to give up the rights to it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edge_Games | |
http://puu.sh/6HVyX/cac05f80ad.mp4
Should I even bother | |
@Fugsnarf, thanks :).
In 2 days i managed to put something together for the Jam. If anyone wants to try it out, you can download it here. Also thanks to metamorphman for fixing some bugs. https://www.dropbox.com/s/zatb4a96fev7yid/ Candy%20The%20legendary%20Saga.zip Too bad i don't think there's a way to submit my game on http://itch.io/, since it needs Byond installed for it to run. If there is actually a way, let me know. | |
If you're interested in a bit of criticism:
1. Bounding boxes are off. It's clear to see it when you follow behind enemies by running into them from behind. 2. Attacks are delayed too much. Putting in this much delay between the key-press and the actual attack has been discussed before and is generally hated/avoided, but who knows. Maybe you'll get lucky and its ridiculous difficulty will make it popular like Flappy Bird. As far as I can tell, you can put BYOND games on itch.io. Putting BYOND in the installation instructions should suffice.  Or, you could use BYONDexe and upload just an .exe that can be played. This isn't really an open method though, at the moment. | |
Thanks kaio, yes I'm open to any kind of criticism.
I will fix the bounding boxes now that I'm fixing a few other bugs. Also I may have got used to the delay of the Attacks but i can see it being annoying for some players so I will most likely remove the delays. BYONDexe would come so convenient, - only if it was available-, oh well... After fixing some issues with the game i will try submitting it, personally I don't like the idea of making potential players install another program in order to play a small game but i guess there's not way around it for now. Edit: I submitted the game, http://itch.io/jam/candyjam/rate/1522 | |
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