Author: Jacob Vela
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AI Art: The Future Of Game Development, Or Risky Infringement?
When I was in high school, I wrote a paper on the possibility of music generated by Artificial Intelligence, or AI. At the time, AI art seemed like a distant dream, one that couldn’t possibly be real outside of science fiction. The thought at the time was that AI would always lack some human element…
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Are Game Mods Illegal? All About Duke Nukem and PointCrow
In April of 2023, YouTuber and Twitch streamer PointCrow was issued copyright strikes against his channel by Nintendo. PointCrow makes “videos playing games, sometimes in strange ways.” On occasion, he “modifies the games [he plays] and explore[s] what happens when the game mechanics are a little different.” What drew Nintendo’s ire was the videos of…
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Understanding Non-Disclosure Agreements in the Game Industry
Non-disclosure agreements can be tempting to protect your game, but it’s important not to use them improperly. There’s a bit of wisdom that goes around game developer circles, especially with new people who think they have the greatest idea for a game in the world. It’s that your ideas are worthless; what matters is how…
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Three Ways that Changes in Monetization Affects Game Design
Games are a unique industry in that they are art, entertainment, and also business. While some idealists may think of the business as totally separate from the art and entertainment – make a good game and people will pay money to play it – the reality is that the business side of things has far-reaching…
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A Quick Primer on Loot Box Laws for Indie Devs
While there have been many methods of monetization of video games over the years, few have more quickly drawn scrutiny and criticism than the implementation of loot boxes. EA implemented a loot box system into Star Wars Battlefront 2, which drew an incredible amount of criticism from fans and an investigation by Belgian authorities before…
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Are Video Game Trailers Lying with False Advertising?
Every summer video game publishers share their trailers of all the games we’ll be playing soon. It used to be concentrated at E3, but these days it’s the Summer Game Fest and other various connected events around the same time. I often find myself a bit jaded by the flurry of pre-rendered cinematic trailers with…
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Should Game Developers Think About Forming A Limited Liability Corporation?
If you’ve been developing games alone or with a few other people for any significant amount of time, you’ve probably considered forming a limited liability corporation or other small business entity. There are many reasons why someone would consider forming a company at some point in their game development journey. Maybe you’re starting to work…
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Can You Legally Make a Fan Game? (Probably Not)
Video game development is more accessible than it’s ever been. Today anybody can go download a program and start learning how to make games. Combine that with a games industry that has been around long enough to have games that people are nostalgic for and you can easily understand why fan games have come up…
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A Basic Guide to Video Game Privacy Laws
The internet has dramatically changed the way that games operate, and the amount of data that they collect. In the days of the arcade, the most data that a game would collect from a player would be their initials to put at the top of the leaderboard after a particularly good game. Video game privacy…
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The Legal Problems with NFTs in Video Games
A lot of companies have talked about the idea of implementing NFTs in Video Games. Other blockchain technologies have similarly been considered. Ubisoft has attempted to put them into their game Ghost Recon Breakpoint. Konami celebrated the 35th anniversary of their legendary Castlevania franchise with a collection of NFTs rather than a new game that…