Llamasoft does TxK for Sony Vita

[Markie]

Rod S did a pretty

Ooh, that's purdy :-)

Guess who's back in the saddle ... The news plus the image bring a huge smile to my face, this is good, it's all good ... it's Llamasoft :-)

[axel000]

Must say I like the art style of that poster. Inspiration perhaps for the final game aesthetic ?

I quite fancy a somewhat monochromatic take with vectors, different shades for each level. Clean and modern looking.

[Sir_LANs-a-lot]

Yeah, love that art Rod S.

[skip]

For those that don't want to 'support' Sony, why not just pick one up on the second hand market? They're the equivalent of 100 of your UK pounds on this side of the pond. Pocket change for a really nice bit of kit. For serious.

A concern on my part is that those who own the Atari IP might get their hackles up over the look and feel (ugh) of the game. You guys have Sony prepared to back you up on this should shit hit the fan?

[gilesgoat]

For those that don't want to 'support' Sony, why not just pick one up on the second hand market? They're the equivalent of 100 of your UK pounds on this side of the pond. Pocket change for a really nice bit of kit. For serious.

A concern on my part is that those who own the Atari IP might get their hackles up over the look and feel (ugh) of the game. You guys have Sony prepared to back you up on this should shit hit the fan?

Well .. "I suppose so" ..

The "big thing" is really NOBODY seems to know who and if there's anyone that owns the IP of T2K or such, not even Atari knows any more not even anyone around
seems to know who/what if there's still anyone holding it and who he/it is.

The other problem I'd say/think is "no matter how you'd call it or do it", Jeff is let's say "the T* man" everyone knows far too well about T2K everyone loves/etc. it
even if this game would be called "Sky Rocket Banana" the moment you make a web and you start putting stuff on it and comes from Jeff people are going to say
"Ah this is TxK" ...

So now what ? Honestly I have no fucking idea, really NO FUCKING idea IF something could happen, what could happen and what could be done, there's been a bit
of concern around this but Jeff thinks "there should be none", Sony seems to think the same.

All we can say is that is "a kind of a spiritual successor of T2K" or such but in reality it's "a whole new project inspired by".

Apart from that I'd have not a clue I mean "how far can you go" in saying "no you can't do this" or "no you owe me something for" ( for the fucking what ? for you are
holding some pieces of papers rotting somewhere of something that is now more than 20 years , 30 ? , ago just waiting for some lawyer to squeeze old money out of it ? ).

I have no idea .. "we'll see what happens" I think it would be "quite a bit of a shit" if someone would tell us "no you can't do it" and/or would start to make fuss
around it ( that ultimately would be only to say "give me money I want it" ) at that point maybe instead of TxK you'll see KxT coming or "Rocket Space Bananas and the
battle for the glooey kablooie"

Would you know what to do ? I don't ...

[Jamesac]

Nothing's going to happen. So long as the game doesn't use Tempest sprites it's a non-issue. More worry than it's worth, honestly.

James

[gilesgoat]

Nothing's going to happen. So long as the game doesn't use Tempest sprites it's a non-issue. More worry than it's worth, honestly.

James

There are no sprites ... it's all geometry

[Harlequin]

… even if this game would be called "Sky Rocket Banana" the moment you make a web and you start putting stuff on it and comes from Jeff people are going to say
"Ah this is TxK" ...

If nobody made such a fuss about Space Giraffe then they probably never will.

[PVB]

In case Yak didn't see the Tweet, Penny Arcade want a chat about the news:

BenKuchera ‏@BenKuchera

@llamasoft_ox Any interest in talking about the new game soon?

[Dio]

Nothing's going to happen. So long as the game doesn't use Tempest sprites it's a non-issue. More worry than it's worth, honestly.

Agreed. Video games have eschewed the idea of look-and-feel lawsuits. The only remote example I can think of is the kerfuffle over that Geometry Wars clone, and that really was a very exact clone.

The basic rules Llamasoft need to follow are:
- Do not use the name 'Tempest' anywhere, name any of the enemies, or use any specific text present in the original or T2K. That 'T2K' is an informal uncopyrighted and unregistered name for Tempest 2000 is a huge plus here.
- Do not use any code or data that might have been used in the Tempest 2000 or 3000 projects

[Little stoned kiwi]

How far can you push something like that? I looked at the Kickstarter for Grimlands today and the first thing I thought of was Gearbox suing.

[Sir_LANs-a-lot]

And there was the whole Mario Bros/Giana Sisters fiasco and the Katakis/R-type one..

But then having said that, there must be hundreds of Tetris-a-likes out there..

[gravy]

How far can you push something like that? I looked at the Kickstarter for Grimlands today and the first thing I thought of was Gearbox suing.

Tonnes. Unfairly so IMHO. You can't protect a game mechanic.

You can protect look and feel but you have to be really close to what you're infringing for that to work.

I'm not being funny but Jeff's games don't look like anyone else's. Even his previous ones

That all said if someone wants to bring a case with no merit and have deep pockets to pay lawyers you're kind of fucked.

Personal assesment of the risk here? V low. It'd be exceptionally poor PR for anyone trying to inflict a dodgy court case on an industry legend.

The only thing I would say is this has the opportunity to be really well received and widely seen. What I wouldn't do is appropriate sound fx and sprites from other games for this one

[Little stoned kiwi]

I'm not saying Jeff can't do it. I doubt he could make a non-Minty game if he tried.
I was just curios to know a bit more about the topic. EA and Zynga settled their issue out of court, which could have been a game changer for this in the US if they carried on in court. Jeff won't be infringing on Atari's market, but it's bleeding obvious where Grimlands intend to poach customers from.

[Dio]

That all said if someone wants to bring a case with no merit and have deep pockets to pay lawyers you're kind of fucked.

If you're in the game industry now, you're probably at more risk of that from some random patent troll, who's suddenly decided they own the idea of render feedback or something.

I'd agree that all the art and sound assets need to be original and properly licensed this time round though.