[Noddy]

Hello everyone,

I have a few questions regarding fan games. Is it possible to make them?, how does it work, would you need a permission, and what is the stance of Gearbox now when they have the rights to the franchise.

I' am asking this, because I wonder after seeing that guy make Metroid remake, and getting it banned by Nintendo, should a person ask for permission to make a fan game. If this question has already been answered, please point me to the topic. I have a few ideas in mind for my version of a fan game, so I 'm just wondering,

Thanks

[Maisth]

Noddy, on 20 December 2017 - 05:45 PM, said:

Hello everyone,

I have a few questions regarding fan games. Is it possible to make them?, how does it work, would you need a permission, and what is the stance of Gearbox now when they have the rights to the franchise.

I' am asking this, because I wonder after seeing that guy make Metroid remake, and getting it banned by Nintendo, should a person ask for permission to make a fan game. If this question has already been answered, please point me to the topic. I have a few ideas in mind for my version of a fan game, so I 'm just wondering,

Thanks

I think it depends on what engine you are using in the case of Duke Nukem, as far as i know making a Duke Nukem game on the GoldSRC or Source engine can end up in problems though im not quite sure if this is true.

[brullov]

I doubt you can make your Duke Nukem game on any engine.

[Hendricks266]

Gearbox (and 3D Realms before them) have a history of C&Ding standalone Duke Nukem fangames. Your only options are to make a mod of Duke Nukem 3D or beg for permission.

[Noddy]

I was thinking of making a game in Unity, some kind of platformer/twin stick shooter, but I was more concerned with the legal matter. Anyway thanks for clearing things up.

[NUKEMDAVE]

It all boils down to how much attention the project attracts. There are several Duke Nukem fan games out there that haven't been shut down. Duke Nukem 2.5D being one. Anything that's too impressive is going to attract too much attention.

[Micky C]

The Serious Nukem mod for Serious Sam 3 is pretty interesting in that it replaces the weapons, enemies and one-liners with Duke's equivalent (models taken from DNF). Of course the thing to remember there is that it's basically just a reskin; the gameplay is completely unmodified.

[necroslut]

Micky C, on 21 December 2017 - 04:31 PM, said:

The Serious Nukem mod for Serious Sam 3 is pretty interesting in that it replaces the weapons, enemies and one-liners with Duke's equivalent (models taken from DNF). Of course the thing to remember there is that it's basically just a reskin; the gameplay is completely unmodified.

That route is probably the worst one if you're looking for not getting shut down - not only are you using their IP, you're using their assets too and doing it as a mod for a "competing" game.

As Dave mentioned, there's been well over a dozen Duke fangames released over the years, as well as probably thousands of Mario fangames. Keep your head down and don't go looking for attention or appreciation and you'll probably be fine. Don't release a ton of screens and stuff before the actual game is actually ready to be released, don't promote it beforehand, and you might also want to keep some level of anonymity.
If you ask, you're most likely gonna get a "no" and in best case a "maybe", but what they don't know about they won't have to consider.