Topic: Konami and fangames

[Crescent]

Hello, guys. I'm new here and this is my first post.

I was wondering why Konami decides to stop some fan projects (the cease and desist sent to the Unreal project developer for example) but does not seem to care about other big projects (Lecarde chronicles).

Most of fan games even reuse graphics and sounds from original games and konami remains silent.

Maybe because they don't care about projects that look "retro"?
what do you guys think?

[aensland]

As far I know, the Unreal CV remake got C&D because the developer was monetizing it with a kickstarter

Other projects are allowed and acknowledged, like Lecarde Chronicles, but maybe Belmontoya can tell us more about that since he's part of the project 

[Dracula9]

Unreal got killed because the dev thought he could get away with a Kickstarter campaign. That's a no-no.

From what interactions with Konami reps I've seen, they're generally okay with shit so long as there's no profit and proper credit to they as the IP holders is given.

[Crescent]

I had no idea about the kickstarter campaign, that explains a lot. It's great that they have no problem with non profit-projects, unlike nintendo and others.

[X]

I have to give it to Konami for being a rather cool customer when it comes to fan projects that are not making profit off of their IPs (unlike some other game companies), especially with Castlevania which is one of their most recognizable. It's one of their very few saving graces.

[Belmontoya]

It seems that there is no standard treatment for how they tolerate fan powered projects. I think it's handled differently game by game.

Obviously the Unreal cv1 dev made an error with the kickstarter.

But to be clear, Konami has given us restrictions with Lecarde Chronicles 2.

Aside from Robert Belgrade, we had 2 very well known exciting people who worked on many official Castlevania games who wanted to get involved with our project. It was one of these individuals who contacted Konami on our behalf. Konami said they would allow us to release the game, but that they didn't want any more well known former Konami employees involved. It would have been a big deal to CV fans had it happened, but at least there is a silver lining.

We of course have followed their wishes and have been as publicly transparent as we can that LC2 is non-profit game made for the fans.

Konami has shut down other fan games before like the metal gear remake for no obvious reason in the past. So I don't think that this is a one size fits all type of thing.

It seems like they take more into consideration than whether or not the game is free and who is involved. If the game is being monetized, how big it has gotten online, if it damages the brand or confuses fans about its status as a fan game. These are just a few things that matter a lot.

Wish I could tell you more!

We are incredibly grateful to get to share our hard work with the fans. We're very lucky.

[Chernabogue]

Other than fan games, I contacted several Castlevania composers to join Vampire Variations a few years ago and they couldn't participate without Konami's consent. Konami didn't shut down the project though, but it was clear we coudn't make money from it.

[FinnishFlame]

Agreeing with most responders here, Konami seems to be generally okay with fangames as long as they do not make profit from their ideas. However, I'm fairly sure of a few instances, although I'm not sure if it was Konami, that eventually shut down some fangames because of the bad rep they were getting as an indirect result. Something of the like of the fangame outdoing the original.

Personally I can say with CvBla, there aren't many restrictions that I know of, just the fact that we can't make money in any way, including monetization of youtube videos, or paid advertising by some other means.

[Crescent]

I see. I have been considering start working in a fan project too, but the idea of breaking my back working just to be eventually stopped by konami kept me cautious.

Apparently there should not be any problems if its clear the project is non profit.