Flash Final Fantasy

[whitebabylon]

I've seen one final fantasy flash game where you can only be one character ( out of 3) and only one type of monster or something. I thought I would recreate Final Fantasy one, with the ability to choose a party.
Beware that I left my actionscript book after page 100 of 1000 lol. and I ignored everyone who told me I couldn't make an RPG without practice. I nose dived into this game and am probably doing things wrong. But none the less this is my learning process.
Here is my game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8O7mNRWDiU&feature=player_embedded

if you want to read the description it will help you a lot on why it looks kinda weird. (PS the crystal video quality looks way better IRL. its crazy bad inthe video)

Anyways I would just like some feedback on the general idea. Think it will become well known?
Anyways if you are good with sprites..art..animations.. basically not coding. then you could be a good friend of mine!:D. [or arrays]
Or if you know of programs that are nice. don't tell me photoshop please lol.

Anyways. are there copy right laws? I can just say "blah blah belongs to bleh bleh" or will they sue me for liking final fantasy?
Thanks and sorry I am very newb!
Oh btw if you have questions about complicated shaped hittests, i have a document that you just use in your game, thats how I did the border *took years to find it*

Comments?
you can be mean about my game if you'd like. As long as its to help me.

[vaha130]

In the world we live in today, no one really knows what becomes phenomenal or just a fad. You'd have to release it in the real world to realize that. But personally, I don't think that this would click. This looks like another RPG in the pool of RPGs. Go develop it further, and it might become big. Good luck.

-------------
reductil (http://www.reductil15mg.com)

[Noct]

Well, I'm certainly no expert, but it sounds to me like you're in danger of violating several copyrights there...

In the game world, the overall concept/story outline can not be copyrighted, but pretty much everything else can be. For example, you could make a game with virtually the same plot, assuming you changed the names of the characters and any visuals that could be constituted as intellectual property. Simply redrawing their characters or using rips of their actual sprites would certainly not clear you of that.

You could make the exact same game engine, assuming you wrote the code yourself from scratch. Similarly, the concept of the code is not copyrighted, but the code itself is. That shouldn't be an issue here, since the original code was not written in As2, and you're likely not doing a conversion

So, basically, it's only legal if you change the coding, characters, titles, story, visuals, dialogue and sounds.

Now, with that said, most companies are not going to bother with you on the scale you are probably going to end up launching this thing at (if you finish it). For one thing, copyright laws only apply to income as far as I know. So, you are free to do this, as long as you don't attempt to generate any revenue doing it. At least, that was the explanation I was given during college on my Star Wars fan film. As long as we did it for "educational purposes", it did not violate their rights.

Thing is, now try and find a website to host it that isn't going to advertise somewhere on the page (which would technically be generating revenue based on your game). Again, chances you're going to ever hear a word about it are virtually nill, but... In this dream scenario where "your game" takes off and thousands of people are playing it... Then you might give them a reason to get involved.

That though, brings up my final point... Why bother?
That game already exists in dozens of incarnations on multiple consoles and handhelds, and can be emulated on any PC bought within the past 15 years... Why would anyone want to play your (no offense) watered down beginners port of it, when they could play the original? Are you intending on "making it better"?

In my opinion, you're better off doing something from your own imagination. If you're going to invest this much time (and its going to be a LOT) into a project, why not make it your own and actually try to make a few bucks off it when you're done?

I have to agree too with the comments you've already received. This is not a good project to get your feet wet with programming/As2. Why not start off with something of a smaller scope? Know what you know my man, or you're going to pull your hair out before you ever get any success.

[maskedMan]

Note that SquareEnix recently slapped down a cease & desist order against a fan group that undertook a Chrono Trigger remake for PC with 3D graphics. They waited until the project was about 95% complete, too.

The remake was, assumedly, not a for-profit venture. It was simply a fan endeavor.

[whitebabylon]

hm :[. I love RPGs though. Should I work on my own sprites/animations/storys etc or make a completely different kind of game? I will learn C++ next semester and I looked at C++ and it looked similar to AS3 except AS3 I could see what was going on, that's why I didnt start with c++.

other games seem a lot more complicated when you deal with 3D interactions etc. All I need to know to create this RPG is like if this if that x10^10^10 and some mouse/keyboard events and wa-la.

What I would love to do is learn how to make it multi player online and make a mmorpg lol. even though I know no one would play it. Just something I always wanted to do.

I am suppose to learn networking/security/databasing/programming in the next few years but until then I am just sitting in a dark little corner with my as3 :/.

[Josh1billion]

Note that SquareEnix recently slapped down a cease & desist order against a fan group that undertook a Chrono Trigger remake for PC with 3D graphics. They waited until the project was about 95% complete, too.

The remake was, assumedly, not a for-profit venture. It was simply a fan endeavor.

Sounds like you're getting two different projects confused.

Chrono Resurrection (http://www.opcoder.com/projects/chrono/) is the 3D remake that received a cease & desist order, and that was back in 2004, over five years ago.

Crimson Echoes (http://crimsonechoes.com/) is a ROM hack (basically a modification of the SNES original) with a big, new storyline. It was this project that received a cease & desist letter when it was about over 95% complete (according to their website, 98% complete).

Back on topic, I agree that this project indeed has some serious copyright infringement issues. Many major portals (particular Kongregate (http://www.kongregate.com[/url)) won't accept it because of that, and if you do manage to find publicity, you may find yourself on the receiving end of yet another Square-Enix cease & desist order.

That said, I think it looks like a very interesting project. Good job on what you've accomplished so far.