Well, I'm a big fan of mario games (my favorite's super mario world and I'm looking forward to the new one on the wii) and I was thinking that my iPhone would be perfect if I could play super mario bros. on it. I just assumed that hopefully other people would agree because of mario's huge popularity so here i am. I want to create a mario type game with different characters, items and all that, but almost the same exact gameplay to the point where i wouldn't be sued. I can make art and movie clip symbols in flash for the art. Positions needed: • Possibly a (better) artist • A developer • Person(s) to help with game design, ideas, and level design I was thinking along the lines of releasing world after world in in-app purchases for the game. Money would be discussed after the team is created. I promise it would be faire, and it's after the team is created, not the game (although we may edit it then based on effort). I'm not really sure if we'd be able to compensate for the idea guy, besides giving him/her credit, (or me if we get another artist) but we'll see. I'm pretty sure this isn't going to work, but if you're interested PM me or just reply.
So your idea is to copy Mario, which has been done a billion times, and all you need is someone to do the art, someone to be the programmer, and someone to do the game design and level design and come up with the ideas… I don't want to discourage you, but you aren't offering anything here from what I can tell… Any artist or developer could say "hey, I'll rip off Mario" and they'll already be 10 steps ahead of you. The fact you're asking for someone to do game design, level design, and come up with all the ideas seems the most unnecessary request - Why can't you do this yourself? Here's my suggestion for what you should do… - Design the game yourself. If you're as big of a fan of Mario as you suggest, you don't need another designer, you should be able to come up with ideas and level designs. - Design a main character, enemies, draw up level designs in detail, come up with as many unique gameplay and level ideas as you can. - Flesh out your design documents over the course of a few months until they read as interesting and are high in detail. - Take your design documents to artists until you find one who is interested in coming aboard the project, and ask him to do a couple of concept images. - Then bring these concept images and your design documents back here and post some samples saying you're looking for a developer. I believe you'll have 1000x better chance of getting the game made if you take the right approach. It'll be a lot more interesting for an artist if he knows you're dedicated and you have a clear focus, and it'll be more appealing to a developer if he sees that the foundations are all ready for him to work with. That's just my suggestion though. Whatever you do, good luck.
I see what you're saying. I already have an idea for the character and story and I am capable of doing all the artwork, I was trying to think what would get the game out faster (more people), but I probably should get to work on some characters and the general game idea. Doodleing time starts... now! But still, if anybody wants to help with any of the above options let me know. I will have the general game idea and possibly some character images up in a bit. btw, thanks for the suggestion EssentialParadox Double Edit: I never realized what an ingenious idea koopas are. Their shells really enhance the gameplay and I'm not really sure how to recreate that without copying. Hmmm...
i think you need to really think about what you want to do. if your goal is to clone a Mario game; then your probably going to make it as close as possible to the original and you'll end up with a cease and decist from Nintendo - i know from personal experience; we've made clones 100% exactly the same, almost perfect (you would think it was built by the original developer).. the problem is that people who own the rights / trademarks don't see this the same way you do. i ran into this issue with the game and watch series (original) - which have since been removed from the app store, but replaced with different versions. while i could have stuck with the nostalgic LCD feel; the issue with copyright law is that if you were to put both the original and your game side by side - would a person of no computer knowledge be confused they are the same. if the answer is yes; your probably going to get sued. its one thing to copy the gameplay; but try to inject your own unique attributes to it. never copy graphics 1:1, even if you modify them a bit; there can not be any confusion between the original and your version - or your just asking for a lawsuit. look at the recent issue that was discussed here between Luxor and StoneLoops - two different games; but MumboJumbo sent a letter to apple *claiming* copyright infringement (graphics, gameplay, look and feel) - and look what happened. Stoneloops is no longer available.
Thanks for all the info. I really need to work hard on the ideas because I want it to have the same gameplay, but I don't want to create a game that will immediately get banned. Do you think I'd get in trouble with this? Koopa Troopa = Mole with helmet Bowser = King Mole Goomba = Crawling mole (instead of walking like mole with helmet) Shell = helmet I think I'm going to just draw a bunch of the characters and post them here. Then if I think somebody would notice a comparison to mario I'll change them.
Moles in general aren't very interesting animals. Unless you plan on using their digging skills in the game, use a bouncier/faster animal or come up with an original character that has skills that add to the gameplay. Also, exact clones are never fun, since we've technically already played them before.
