Hello, me and my development team have been making a obby-royale type game, seeing the recent take down of games like SlipBlox and DropBlox due to copyright infringement on the game Fall Guys. Me and my team have used similar obstacle course layouts to Fall guys and I do not wanna risk a take down.
Here’s the comparison of a map we made:
My game:
Fall guys:
Could we have our game taken down? We changed the art style and gameplay.
I’m not a lawyer so please don’t take this as legal advice. Here’s a useful tip that I have learned over the years of self-studying copyright.
Make sure to ask yourself those questions:
While it doesn’t seem to infringe on Fall Guys’ IP, you’re threading into other territory and should make sure that a game you never heard of doesn’t strike you.
Remember that development isn’t only creating - it’s also making sure you create something original.
Heres some more examples of what we are using for the style instead of the cartoonist game we were inspired of off.
the gameplay is mostly similar to fall guys, racing to the finish to avoid being eliminated, minigames etc
This really depends on the other similarities of the game. Just using a different color pallet is in no way going to prevent copyright strikes.
If you do want to take the risk, don’t use the same/similar layouts, and don’t copy and paste mechanics. The chances that games of this genre will get taken down, is higher now that it has happened multiple times already.
Make sure to make your game it’s own. As long as you ensure that it is not in any way similar, and don’t try to market it to ride on the trend of Fall Guys, you should be fine.
Your completely fine as long as you dont use their assets (music, images, models, scripts).
They CANT copyright you for taking their idea, gamemode ideas or colors as that is under fair use.
So we cannot use the concept of a obby-royale? we arent trying to ride the trend, I just liked the idea of a battle royale obby.
You can’t be copyrighted for mechanics unless Fall Guys went through the trouble of trying to patent a game mechanic that’s been around for at least 10 years.
As long as it’s the genre of gameplay you are focusing on, and not the link to Fall Guys, you should not have copyright issues.
Alright thanks for the clarification.
I did not mean the general mechanics of the game, but rather the specifications of how the game runs and directly stealing appearance of functionality. Sorry if I was unclear.
To be honest I have no idea why the other fall guys game are getting copyrighted as there was no copyrighted material in their games. Technically Fall Guys is breaking the law.
You cant be copyrighted for how the game works, only for assets can you be copyrighted.
Game mechanics = how a game works.
Still can’t get copyrighted unless (like I said) it was patented by Fall Guys.
Because they’re entirely ripping off the game. There was one that even went as far to use their character models. That is 100% breach of their copyright.
So would my recreation of the rotating obby be considered stealing? I changed the style of the build, did not steal actual assets from the game, but the mechanics of the map are almost the same because they both rotate and have obstacles on it
Yes but taking the idea of another’s game is 100% fair use.
It does not matter if the game is pretty much a complete rip, its 100% fair until you use their assets.
I understand that one game getting copyrighted, but why all the others which had no copyrightable things inside of them?
@Driftyzzz No, you would be completely fine, they dont own that gamemode nor the idea.
That is completely fine, since you are not directly stealing the assets, and separate your game from Fall Guys in other ways. A spinning tube is in no way copyrighted last time I checked. You can’t own a general idea as simple as that.
Correct, you can’t own an idea at all (spinning tube).
False. If you’re recreating a game to look 99.99999999999999% like the original, it is a breach of their Intelectual Property. No matter if you use their assets or not.
Taking ideas and ripping off entire games aren’t the same things. Also, you shouldn’t claim fair use just because. Only a judge can determine fair use and you’d lose the case if it was in court…
If you need to learn about fair use, please watch this video from the US Copyright Office.
Yes of course, if it looks very similar to the original then that is completely fine, however when I looked at “Slip-Blox” there was almost nothing copyrightable inside of it. (It has a similar style but you cant copyright that.)
Take all the Clash Royale clones, or all the Fortnite clones. They are exact copies with nothing added on that just look a bit different and they get away with it… 
Why is Brick-Hill still going strong? Its a copy of Roblox and its doing just fine.
They’re there only because the actual IP holders haven’t DMCA claimed them
Websites are way more difficult to take down. Just look at Kissanime. It took the anime companies 10 years to fully take it down. Besides, like I said, If Roblox (the IP holder) will feel like throwing a DMCA claim at a terrible game that does actually seem to meet the standards of Fair Use, they will do it. In the end it’s up to Roblox whenever of not they want to take it down.
