Game Theory: My Fan Game is a CRIME?!

The host announces completion of his fan game called Superb Barrio Siblings after 10 years, featuring two Spanish electricians traveling through the truffle empire to rescue Queen Nectarine from King Trouser, releasing on Gamejolt.

• The internet creates memes by remixing old ideas, from photoshopped Alola Exeggutor to Rickroll to John Cena Blast • Arthur aardvark from a family-friendly kids show is now a meme about wanting to fight someone • When internet memes a game, it becomes a badge of honor and seal of approval

• Before the internet, there was no good place to share fan games • Sites like Gamejolt, Steam Greenlight, and tools like RPG Maker made game creation and sharing easier • Fans create tributes and offshoots inspired by their favorite games to learn game design • Undertale itself originated as a fan game of Earthbound

• Pokemon Uranium had over a million downloads in nine days before Nintendo shut it down • Metroid 2 Remake was taken down overnight by Nintendo lawyers • Five Nights at Candy's and undertale-inspired games like Over Tail and Mother Tail remain available

Copyright and fair use are major topics in gaming, with legal precedents dating back to Pong in 1976 and hardware copyright cases.

• When game developers claim copyright infringement, courts conduct extrinsic analysis • This involves creating a list of similarities and differences between games • The process is essentially a 'spot the difference' puzzle from third grade

• Asteroids vs. Meteors (1981): Court listed 22 similarities and 9 differences • Street Fighter vs. Fighters History: Examined character designs and movesets

• Both cases were thrown out despite visual and mechanical similarities • Courts cannot protect game ideas, only the expression of those ideas • Atari couldn't copyright shooting rocks in space; Capcom couldn't copyright martial artists or real-life fighting techniques

Game mechanics and ideas cannot be copyrighted, only their specific expression through colors, sounds, graphics, and character designs.

• Companies cannot have a monopoly over a game idea • The focus is on expression of game elements, not the mechanics themselves • Any game shooting rocks in outer space will look similar to Asteroids

• Pokemon Uranium would be struck down for using visuals, maps, and logos from original games plus trademark infringement • Most Undertale fan games could be busted for using character designs and locations from the original • Toby Fox allows cool people to use his cool characters, making him an exception

If Pac-Man can claim maze-chase games and Mario can claim platformers with coin collection, entire game genres could be monopolized.

Most Five Nights at Freddy's fan games take the idea of haunted animatronics hunting the player in a building and create new robots and spin-off stories.

• Five Nights at Candy's: Set in aftermath of a closed pizzeria with familiar-looking puppet character • Five Nights at Rachel's: Similar format with new features like leaning and turning on lights in camera mode • Joy of Creation: Takes it further with a free-roaming gameplay experience

FNAF striking down these games would be like Mario striking down Sonic for being a platformer; Scott Cawthon wouldn't have monopoly over haunted restaurant games if maps, characters, sounds, and stories are different.

Joy of Creation is the only FNAF fan game that would be legally safe because it offers different gameplay through free-roaming experience while changing animatronic names and locations.

Triple Town vs. Yeti Town (2012) involved two mobile tile-matching games that looked less similar than other mobile game clones like Candy Crush variants.

• Court conducted both extrinsic and intrinsic analysis • Intrinsic analysis examined the game as a whole through the eyes of an ordinary observer • Judge admitted difficulty in comparing games from screenshots and descriptions without actually playing them

Judge based the ruling on opinions from video game bloggers rather than playing the games themselves, finding no plagiarism in code but still ruling Yeti Town a copy based on overall feel.

• Game mechanics themselves are now being claimed, not just superficial elements • Statements like 'It's a Minecraft clone' or 'It's Amnesia meets Outlast' could become legally admissible judgments • Whole game genres could be claimed by one creator under this new rule

• Could Battlefield take down Call of Duty for both being boots on the ground FPS games emphasizing realism? • Could Mario have taken down all 90s platformers with coin collection and enemy jumping mechanics? • Could 7 Days to Die be struck down by Minecraft for punching things to gather resources and crafting axes?

Pac-Man case: KC Munchkin (maze chase with ghosts chasing a puck-like character eating dots) was ruled too similar despite having fewer dots, moving dots, dead ends, and a moving map.

• Candy's and Rachel's are now solidly out because they're called FNAF clones • Additions like leaning and camera lights don't help protect fan games • Only Joy of Creation remains legally safe as it changed gameplay mechanics fundamentally

If Sister Location features the player moving between different locations (vents, control panels, bunkers) like Joy of Creation, the fan game would become the original and shut down the source material.

The legal system is not ready for the internet age, and copyright law is getting tighter around game mechanics at a time when gaming culture is looser and more exploratory than ever.

• Game Lab series features the host playing Five Nights at Candy's and getting beaten up by an ostrich • Scare PewDiePie episode with a FNAF-themed challenge where the host meets Felix for the first time with a bag over his head • Game Lab nominated for two Streamy Awards as one of the best non-fiction shows of the internet

Game Lab was inspired by Mythbusters from episode 23, featuring 360 videos and interactive content designed to put viewers in the middle of the action.

Upcoming episode will examine Mario's jump mechanics with pixel rulers.