Hello, story first:

Recently i felt like playing the game brick breaker. I realized that making my own version of the game would be quite simple, and after i make it, i could even sell it on Steam for like 1-2€. But then i though, aren't games like this copyrighted?

So here's my question:

Are old games like snake, tetris, solitaire, brick breaker copyrighted? I don't mean reselling an existing game, i mean if i make the whole game from scratch, is the idea of the game copyrighted? I know this may be a stupid question but i saw copyrights on various things so i ask just in case.

the general mechanics of game play is almost always open for any one to use (think how many platforms there are with just a character that jumps). The only thing that is protected is the name and the art work (technically the code too, but unless you get access to the original source code you can always use the clean room exception). There is some grey area in the middle when it comes to specialized mechanics (eg if you gave your character all the exact same powers as mario.), but with only a little variation you usually avoid it.  I would say if you wanted to make a snake-like, or a brick-breaker-like game by all means go ahead and do it.  The college I went to had snake as the beginning level programming final so, if a college can get away with doing it dozens of times a year, you won't have to worry about it.