ESCAPE - Escape From Robot Doom - Maximum Camel Attack
polycounter lvl 7
Hi everyone,
Since the Escape contest was announced last week, we have been working to form a team, and to settle on just one of our many ideas. We finally feel that we're ready to start
posting and get this show on the road.
The Team:
Adam Dudley - http://www.neoncypher.blogspot.com - Neoncypher
Neil Gowland - http://www.grimmsorg.com - Grimmstrom
Laura Hutton - http://www.laura3d.com/ - Switch
Gareth O'Neill - http://gdoneill.blogspot.co.uk/ - The_Preacher
Team Name:
Maximum Camel Attack - You can thank Neoncypher for that
The Idea:
The basic idea is a line of old/outdated/unwanted/malfunctioning robots on a conveyor belt, heading towards their doom; to be recycled, with a large furnace/crusher or
something very 'final' at the end. Along side the conveyor are load of big mean scary looking disassembly robots (huge robot arms etc) - so we see the scene from behind -
robots in the background being ripped apart by these machines, all the robots in the line look kinda sad, or dim witted/defeated/accepting of their fate, all but one robot
(our protagonist),who is looking back over his shoulder whilst creeping out of the line, escaping. I kinda want this guy to be a bit like Wall-E in terms of his charm, style
and the viewer immediately liking him.
Goals of the project:
- Create an interesting scene with a general aesthetic style similar to/loosely based on Pixar movies such as Wall-E and Monsters Inc
- Test our product design skills
- Challenge ourselves to convey emotion in a still image
As always feedback and crit is welcomed throughout the project and we thank you for your time
Current Progress: - Moodboard Created To Pitch The Idea
Since the Escape contest was announced last week, we have been working to form a team, and to settle on just one of our many ideas. We finally feel that we're ready to start
posting and get this show on the road.
The Team:
Adam Dudley - http://www.neoncypher.blogspot.com - Neoncypher
Neil Gowland - http://www.grimmsorg.com - Grimmstrom
Laura Hutton - http://www.laura3d.com/ - Switch
Gareth O'Neill - http://gdoneill.blogspot.co.uk/ - The_Preacher
Team Name:
Maximum Camel Attack - You can thank Neoncypher for that
The Idea:
The basic idea is a line of old/outdated/unwanted/malfunctioning robots on a conveyor belt, heading towards their doom; to be recycled, with a large furnace/crusher or
something very 'final' at the end. Along side the conveyor are load of big mean scary looking disassembly robots (huge robot arms etc) - so we see the scene from behind -
robots in the background being ripped apart by these machines, all the robots in the line look kinda sad, or dim witted/defeated/accepting of their fate, all but one robot
(our protagonist),who is looking back over his shoulder whilst creeping out of the line, escaping. I kinda want this guy to be a bit like Wall-E in terms of his charm, style
and the viewer immediately liking him.
Goals of the project:
- Create an interesting scene with a general aesthetic style similar to/loosely based on Pixar movies such as Wall-E and Monsters Inc
- Test our product design skills
- Challenge ourselves to convey emotion in a still image
As always feedback and crit is welcomed throughout the project and we thank you for your time
Current Progress: - Moodboard Created To Pitch The Idea
This discussion has been closed.
Replies
Anyway, after many ideas were banded round we've kinda settled on this, and quickly knocked up a concept (pretty rough/simple in places :S)... We ditched the idea of having the main robot creeping out, as we wanted to make it more dramatic and dynamic. Now he is sprinting the wrong way down the conveyor, barging past the other doomed robots who haven't realised the fate that awaits them at the furnace, whilst being pursued by the guard robots, leaping from their overwatch perches...
We then mocked up the scene in Max and dropped it into Cryengine - So far its a very simple blockout of the concept, to which we plan to add more complexity and elaborate on the ideas in the concept (alarms going off, wall mounted security drones, maybe add some dark humour in there some how
Max:
CryEngine:
Imagine the leaping guard-bot dramatically back-lit by the searchlight and enough lens flares to make JJ Abrams shit his pants....
Anyway that's what we got so far - next post will cover our start on the robot design.. C&C always welcome!
http://stevemata.blogspot.com/p/escape-from-robot-doom.html
As you can probably tell, we have been unable to finish our submission due to various other commitments - however, if we do continue to work on this scene after the Escape challenge has ended, we will ensure that we change the name to avoid any confusion with your game.
Best of luck with it
Adam
Yes, emotive robots are popular and common, maybe even generic, but IP titled "Escape From Robot Doom" about emotive robots escaping a recycling center is not generic, in fact, it's unique, in addition, "Escape From Robot Doom" is a title unique to my IP on google and bing.
Claiming ignorance is no defense to copyright infringement, and furthermore, downplaying your actions by claiming my IP "generic" or "common" or "B movie" doesn't invalidate my ownership, it's simply insulting.
Polycount is a community of artists and developers, amateur and professional. Community decorum is priceless and I ask that you be respectful to people's work, and their rights regarding intellectual property.
Mr.Stevemata, what do you specifically want Adam to do?
1. It's a non-commercial, not to mention at this point abandoned, project that happens to share similar themes, and by coincidence the same name. Much of that I would guess owes to the contest name (the escape) driving their naming conventions.
2. Emotive, artificial beings attempting to flee destruction by those who created them is far from a new or wholly unique concept. Toy Story, specifically Toy Story 3 comes to mind in that respect (conveyor belt driving towards destruction while emotive beings attempt to save themselves) The core concept is not unique, it is your execution of said concept that makes your endeavor unique.
3. As Neoncypher stated, and I would agree, looking at the two the concepts/art direction are quite different from one another.
Overall the point being.
It appears to have been an innocent miscommunication on the part of this team. Should they have googled the title, yes, it's always in the best interest of a creative party to find out if it's "been done before". However they clearly thought that such a concept and title was generic enough that they wouldn't have infringed upon anyone. As I stated above, your execution makes your game unique, but creating a game about emotive robots escaping from doom and then naming it "escape from robot doom" makes for an IP that sounds generic, though again, looking at your trailer I don't believe it to be.
It's a single image entry into a community based contest, not a competing franchise or product.
And most importantly the team has already agreed to rename their project should it ever be picked up at a later date. At which point there should be no confusion between the two products in any way, due to art direction and the fact that the initial premise seems to have been extrapolated on in a very different manner thus far.
Also for one so focused on community decorum it's probably best not to state that players of your games are in need of a "Full Retard" game mode.
As D1ver said, it would be nice if you outlined what action you were looking to be taken.
D1ver and Xelan101, as stated above, "I ask that you be respectful to people's work, and their rights regarding intellectual property." Secondly, you two jumping in, unless you're part of the team, have no business injecting yourselves. My first post was meant to be a casual and public notification about preexisting intellectual property.
Additionally, Xelan, the content I post on my blog is entirely up to me, I own it. However, on polycount I feel obligated to reflect a professional attitude which includes not flaming, or engaging on copyright infringement. And, polycount or not, I am absolutely within my rights to defend my intellectual property on a public forum.
If it was, your own claim to that can be easily over ruled from movies, books and other video games from the decades previous to your own efforts.
You are right however, if there was true infringement, we would demand the group recognize the source. You will not continue to troll our community with your inaccurate and meritless claims.
This discussion is over.
Trolling? Really?
1. Adam named his project exactly the same as my game.
2. I'm not claiming ownership of robots running from doom. I'm claiming ownership of robots escaping the recycling center.
3. Naming his project Assassin's Creed with a hero reenacting DNA memory is absolutely copyright infringement, it's no different than naming his project "Escape From Robot Doom" with an emotive robot escaping a recycling center.
4. My public notice has been given.
And, R13, you troll the polycount irc all the time. Give it a rest guy.
It does, copyright is messy however, plus rules differ from country to country, making it even fuzzier.
I don't really want to drag this out any further; this kind of nonsense is one of the reasons I don't really bother with these forums anymore.
If you feel slighted in some way, I apologize. Should I have googled the name? Yes. Did I? No. I picked it on a whim whilst taking part in a non-profit, fun, art based challenge. It doesn't look like yours, it bears a passing resemblance thematically, and I and my team have zero interest in being associated with your game.
This is coincidence, not intentional copyright infringement. I hope this will be the last of it, and people can get on with creating art for fun, what this place is supposed to be all about.
Best of luck to everyone still taking part in "Escape", and thanks to everyone who commented in here.
Adam
That's a super fast way to make people here not want to buy you game. Protecting your ip is one thing, but acting like a dick is totally another thing.
as you can see, copyright law specifically forbids you to claim copyrights as you are trying to do.
As I said you have not one bit of merit in this situation. I'm not going to tolerate you throwing around bullshit around here. you're ruined this team's entry thread with your petty bullshit.
Now you could potentially own some trademarks, but you haven't mentioned that once, so i'm gonna assume you don't either own those or know the difference between the two.
if you continue to protest this matter, you will be banned.