So This is one of my oldest loves in video games, finding it in highschool and following it all this time. I am wanting pull the lore and art out of the game as much as I can to use for a possible RPG, but I am not sure where this stands legally. I know there has been no successful contact with prior owners of the game, so is there a possibility of legal repercussions if the intellectual property is used?
OFC provided your company is located in a country that recognises IP rights, and you actually made enough cash to warrant the cost/effort of persuing legal action. Much of the 'Lore' could be considered generic and provided subtle changes were made to any unique content there would be little grounds for a compensatory damages claim, but the art is an entirely different matter...
As far as IP is concerned, there is none unless you use the naming convention set forward already. So change Drakkon to Drakon and you’re good enough. I’ve reworked the map and rewrote the lore canonically so go for it yourself.
Yeah the artwork copy/paste is an issue but if you want to draw a Tortun or Kanen, well Pox artists kind of pioneered some races we see in Hearthstone and the like... Im happy the artists landed on their feet through this, they seem to be the most versatile in the industry.
Its all copy written material. The IP and domain (although not actively being developed) are still owned and are property of DOG and obviously OctopiV also. PoxNora's name is still very much off limits.
linked a video in my Project: Top Secret thread Just to be clear, I'm not advocating for anyone to plagiarize, write your own message in a bottle, but at the same R&D frequently
Thanks for the info. I was a bit worried about that part. At the moment I have no plans for monetary gain, but if I wanted to use the info then I was wondering about it. I will likely just pull some of the most iconic art and commission someone to make something similar so I don’t get in trouble for using IP owned by them.
Take a little bit of care with this. If you create new art that can be shown to have taken Pox art as a reference it still infringes copyright. So even if you have an artist create art from scratch but the result has similar creatures, poses, lighting, etc. to the point that it is clear it is a kind of reproduction of an existing piece, you are infringing its copyright. But if you don't make money from it, I doubt anyone would care.