I'm wondering is the idea of Bomberman copyrightable? I don't mean the characters, music, name, etc.. But the gameplay idea of dropping bombs, having chain reactions and blowing up walls.

I thought I read a thread on here in which someone said that ideas cannot be copyrighted. However I seem to remember reading that Hudson caused some problems for the people who tried to release BlitzBombers for the Amiga.

Any idea?

No. Gameplay ideas are not copyrightable. If that were the case, there wouldn't be the plethora of clones that exist today. Yes, there are a few cases of people trying to claim copyright to an idea, but in the long run as you can see these have mostly fallen flat. Names are, however, copyrightable, as far as I know.

Oh, and the original Hudson game was called Dynablaster, IIRC.

In general, no the concept of a game is not copyrightable. In reality, the line is a bit more blurred. If all the characters look like the original and it's a close enough spinoff, then I would expect the original game makers would prevail in court.

A lot of times the companies simply target the trademarked names of the game. Example, if you are going to make a falling block clone, don't name it -tris.

So say you had a bomberman game with say, penguins instead of bomberman and the game was called penguin panic (I just made that up..) then it should be ok?

Yes, assuming you used original graphics, sounds, and level designs.

How much level design is there really in Bomberman, though? I mean, to me most levels look the same.

The original game just has a grid layout if IRC. Later games added different level designs as well though.

Nevertheless. You can't copyright gameplay. Everything said above is true.

Hmm... however, in USA you can patent algorithms... so, be careful with your algorithm to increase the strength of the blasts!

if(picked_powerup) blast_range++;
I doubt they could have patented something like this.

In USA you can patent almost anything... geez... human stupidity again

No, I don't think you can patent that ...

What a brilliant idea! You'd become a multimillionaire

Well what if you wanted to make a clone of a game and make it really similar but say 'This Game is a Clone of the original *********'? And if its free and all, is it still copyrighted?

You have patented human stupidity? You have to be millionaire!

Well, I did not say that one could patent that ... Neither do I think that.
That's just that talking about patents reminds me that the USA were really crazy about patent... They patent here and there to nonsense !

[EDIT]
due to the number a replies while I wrote my post, the "that" now refers both to the patenting of bomberman algorithm and the the patenting of human stupidity.

And BTW, human stupidity is obviously public domain

I agree. You can't even exercise your cat without breaking a patent.

You still might get sued. Depending on whether or not the original "artist" feels your stealing from him/her or not. Whether you win or not depends on the lawyers, judge, and so on.

I'd say you couldn't be sued. But it's happened before quite a bit. Like the makers of the GTA3-like simpons game. They got sued. But then again, the simpons game was a commercial game.

I guess you guys haven't heard about the case of The Great Giana Sisters.

I have not. Would you care to explain? A quick google was not terribly helpful, or maybe I'm just blind ...

Other than the song by Machinae Supremacy, I have no idea.

Do you care to link to a respectable source that shows the case even went to court?

I thought Nintendo simply threatened, and the company just gave in.

The GGS makers were dumb for a few reasons:

Super Mario Brothers = Great Giana Sisters

Play on words. Ok, probably not close enough to warrant a case by itself, but they could have at least tried to be creative.

Some of the graphics looked to be lifted straight out of Mario, namely the bricks. Again, probably not enough to warrant a case.

Had they had sufficient financial resources, I'm sure they would have won.

Is there any legal info on this subject of not being able to copyright ideas that you know of? I would like to make a full bomberman style game sometime in the future as Shareware (If I am successful in the business). But obviously I don't want to get into legal problems with this.

Yeah, that's the US legal system in a nutshell... the ones with money win.

A few Google searches reveals there are already a few bomberman shareware games on sale. Although I don't like the look of any of them.

This does seem to be an option for the future then..

I think if you release your game as freeware and you declare something in credits that this is something like original it would be ok. As for americans - I think that a couple of them are bit stupid, I cannot explain why somebody can go to court ,when he pour over himself a hot coffee and have up the company that produces this coffee for producing hot coffee, and win the trial I'm just wondering about it.