I realllly liked the way they were looking before, but in order to avoid any legal problems with any car manufacturers I had to have them all obfuscated.
Even though I still don't understand how a car manufacturer can copyright/tradmark the "shape" of a vehicle. As long as I don't use their logo/name I don't see what the problem would be.
A good example are Porsches in games, they rarely lend their license out to video games...for instance...
- Gran Turismo 4 had cars that looked exactly like Porsches, under the name "Ruf".
- Midnight Club 3 has them under the name "Gembella".
Both of these names are companies that take Porsches and modify them (it's Gemballa, not Gembella though). I could tell exactly what types of Porsche they have in each of those games...I don't know how they avoided problems *sigh*.
Another thing is...I don't understand how sites like turbosquid.com (or any car model distribution site) get away with propogating and promoting the distribution of car models that use logos, and look exactly like the real thing. It seems like that would be worse than what I'm doing, as they're making money soley off the fact that the car looks exactly like the real thing.
Some of the changes that were made to the models include the tail-lights, grill, rear lights, wheels, door handles, fog lights, and other small touches...basicly enough so that I won't have any problems.
Here's what the cars look like now:
I've still got 6 cars that are in the works. Each vehicle has 2-3 different paint jobs for variety.
In other game stuff, I'm working on getting the drug market working...as well as getting the gameplay settled in for the IGF....I've got to send off my entry for the first round in about 2 weeks :-O
The official rules stipulate that the games should be "beta status" and have "at least 1 playable level"...which is sorta hard for my game since there aren't any "levels"...hmmmm, I really hope my game gets accepted as a finalist.
Back to work!
- Dan
I would suspect that the car companies are either unaware of sites like turbo squid, not wanting to pay for the legal costs of going after the artists, or selling models of cars is legal.
If your game is successful the automakers probably wouldn't want anything to do with something called Gang War, and might go after you. It's probably best to play it safe.
Also, you must get tired of hearing this, but your game looks amazing.