44 minutes ago, Alberth said:

Don't even mention "Super Mario" or anything like it. You're selling software for it, the owner of the Super Mario brand ain't gone like others making money from their reputation

Mario is just a character that runs and jumps. No one invented that nor did anyone really invent Mario - that's how Italians tend to look. I'm think about not selling this for more than $5 but I'd like to start a community of level developers and stuff - basically I want people to make levels for me so that I can play them. Currently working on a download link so stay tuned for the code.

2 minutes ago, prof_smash said:

Buddy, that simply ain't true. True, no one INVENTED a character that runs and jumps, but they invented the character of Mario. If you are selling something and in the same breath saying it's "super mario" then Nintendo isn't going to like that.

You've been given plenty of good advice already. I'd pay attention to it.

Dude, I said I wasn't going to sell the game maker anymore. I'm going to put up the link soon. I think y'all just want to use the game maker. And Mario... he's some stereotypical Italian beef head. I don't care about Nintendo they're starting to suck especially after their last president pass away, unfortunately. They're not even putting much into the DS and koopa looks dumber than ever. I don't even think Koopa is innovate at all. I've been in storm drains and have found snapping turtles in there. Also didn't the teenaged mutant ninja turtles have half shells and walk upright. Could have been take from a guy that wore a backpack with hammers in it. Relax, I'm going to put up the download link.

19 minutes ago, francoisdiy said:

Dude, I said I wasn't going to sell the game maker anymore. I'm going to put up the link soon. I think y'all just want to use the game maker. And Mario... he's some stereotypical Italian beef head. I don't care about Nintendo

Two main problems:

1. It doesn't matter if you're making a commercial product or not, Nintendo will not allow you to make a product using their characters, trademarks or other copyrighted material. "It's a fan project" (or similar) does not make them say ok.

2. It doesn't matter if you care about Nintendo or not. What matters is that Nintendo cares about their intellectual property, trademarks, copyrights, etc. They care enough that they will take legal action against you if they find out about the product (and I find it very likely they have people who have it as their job finding stuff like this).

If you use the name/likeness of Mario, or any other Nintendo stuff, you are setting yourself up for pain, which is a silly thing to do.

Quote

Nintendo will not allow you to make a product using their characters, trademarks or other copyrighted material.

Trademarks are not a kind of copyright. Trademarks and copyrights are legally very different; you shouldn't conflate the two. Trademark law is what is relevant in this case.

Now, while I must first mention that I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice, the thing about trademarks is that their purpose is to prevent confusion of consumers. So, for example, if someone bought a game you made because they saw "Mario" and assumed it was an official Nintendo product, that's a problem. More importantly, if Nintendo's reputation was affected because some crappy game that had nothing to do with Nintendo was labeled as a "Mario" game, that would be a problem. And yes, I do think it's fair to say that "Mario" in certain contexts counts as a trademark which you should keep in mind, because it's such a strong brand that pretty much everyone just immediately thinks of Nintendo when the name "Mario" comes up.

However, this doesn't mean you can't reference Nintendo or Mario at all. If you are referencing an actual Nintendo product having something to do with Mario then it would be wrong not to say "Mario" to refer to it. For example, if you're developing a game similar to Super Mario Bros, it would be perfectly appropriate to say that your game is "similar to Super Mario Bros".

Take this post, for example. I used the word "Nintendo" several times here. "Nintendo" is a registered trademark. I am not guilty of trademark infringement because I'm using the trademark in this context, because Nintendo is actually what I'm talking about. But if I were to open a Gamedev.net account called "Nintendo", I would be giving the impression that I was running an official Nintendo account, and so that, then, would be trademark infringement.

Another example you see all the time in stores: take a look at some of the generic products offered in competition with brand-name products. Often you will see the generic name in big letters, but if you look closely, in smaller print, you will see something like "Compare to [brand name product]" beneath that. It's presented in such a way that no reasonable person could get the impression that it actually is that brand-name product, but informs the customer that the generic product is a competitor to that brand-name product and intended to be similar.

Anyway, I hope this post was informative. I want to stress again that I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice.

(I see you've put up a download link now! It looks like your website is down right now though, so I'll try again later.)

7 hours ago, JulieMaru-chan said:

Trademarks are not a kind of copyright. Trademarks and copyrights are legally very different; you shouldn't conflate the two. Trademark law is what is relevant in this case.

True, I should have been more precise with my terminology

My main point was that this is essentially a minefield -- be careful where you step, and don't set yourself up for more pain than you need to.

Ok, it's open source and downloadable now. Let's make some levels!

Seriously, I tend to create software that tailors to my own needs because I end up using the software myself. FrancoisDIY is a tool that I can create and share games with. I go for simplicity so while this software may not be up to industry standard I never really meant it too. If I can build up a small level building community to build some additional levels of only a few people that's good enough for me.

Hey people, the download link expired so I'm posting a new one here:

http://www.francoisdiy.com/12227920170000

Saw one user - his/her name was "X". Good name but where beez da levels! I'm on Twitch now if anyone wants to watch.