Via engadget, here’s an IP-related story that brings me back to middle school. A redditor who (currently) goes under the handle XsimonbelmontX has clearly spent a lot of time building and testing a board game based on one of my favorite 8-bit side-scrolling platformers from the 1980s, Castlevania:
It’s an impressive bit of work. The game involves co-operative play, and in addition to the progressive board game format it seems to incorporate elements of card-based role playing games like Magic: The Gathering in addition to die-based roleplaying elements reminiscent of Dungeons & Dragons. Responses on Reddit are quite positive; the general tenor is captured by the current leading comment, from redditor “Canadianized” which reads: “I would buy the fuck out of this.”
But of course, Canadianized can’t buy XsimonbelmontX’s game, because it’s not available for sale–there’s just the one prototype. And some redditors, predictably, blame IP (see here, and here). But the IP story appears to be somewhat complicated.
