Ask Lemmy
A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions
Please don't post about US Politics. If you need to do this, try [email protected]
Rules: (interactive)
1) Be nice and; have fun
Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them
2) All posts must end with a '?'
This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?
3) No spam
Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.
4) NSFW is okay, within reason
Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either [email protected] or [email protected].
NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].
5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions.
If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email [email protected]. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.
Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.
Partnered Communities:
Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
view the rest of the comments
Assuming you're in the U.S. (though possibly even if you aren't)...
The cool thing about game mechanics (boardgame, video game, school playground game, etc) is that they're not covered by copyright. And (while this bit might be less true of video game mechanics) they're rarely covered by patents.
So, for the most part, clones require no licensing or anything. You can make a knock-off of Carcassonne or Settlers of Catan or whatever legally, so long as you avoid trademark infringement. (Basically as long as you're careful to make it clear your game isn't by such-and-such company and you don't have any affiliation with them.)
(Also, it's worthwhile to mention that some games are as much or more so "flavor" as/than mechanics. In such cases, while I don't know that there has been that much precent in the court, it's likely the flavor would be considered copyrightable. So maybe if you're copying the BSG boardgame, don't include Cylons. Also, IANAL.)
I once designed/manufactured a 3d-printable clone of Cubed: Next Level Dominoes, which itself was a(n I'm pretty sure unlicensed) clone of The Grid Game.