My apologies if this question has already been asked. Today I watched a video of the board game “Quoridor” being played, and then searched for an app on Google Play.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=gameconfig&hl=en
It seems to me the app by the same name isn’t affiliated with the board game.
What are guidelines for developing board games into apps?
There aren’t any guidelines in the formal sense, but for any game which you wish to copy-duplicate-convert to digital you need to check on rights. If you want to duplicate the mechanics of Quoridor exactly, it is a good idea to respect the rights and IP of those who first came up with the idea.
One thing you might do instead is:
If you can do #2, then you may be able to release your ‘new’ game without infringing upon someone else’s IP. Still, it is best to get a lawyer involved for things like this. You can easily get yourself in real trouble duplicating someone’s hard-earned physical game as a digital game.
Whatever you do, don’t just duplicate an existing game and sell your own copy on the app store(s).
Oh, another option is to contact the rights owner and propose making a digital version for them. Again, best to get lawyers involved too.
Question: Were you hoping to duplicate the game and sell it to make money?
If so, forget about that. In fact, abandon all thoughts of quick cash and focus on game dev learning instead.
If you’re just learning about game dev (an assumption on my part), you should treat it like a hobby and not try to make money from everything you do. Not only will this make the whole process more enjoyable, but you won’t end up getting yourself banned from an app store and/or in legal hot water.
I know it’s the cool thing nowadays to jump right in and make money on a game, but really it’s not. The coolest games are made without profit as the first and more important feature.
There are way to many clones and made for profit games out there.
Note: I’m wrong about this and you were thinking, “Dang! This is a cool game. I wish it was available on the app store.” , then by all means. Duplicate the game and make a kick-a55 implementation. Then approach the owners to see if they want to distribute it.
Worst case you’ll have a copy you can play digitally and share with friends (within reason) as well as all the learning you’ll get of the process.
The entire topic of (video) game clones is murky waters.
Technically no one can copyright game concepts or gameplay mechanics, which is why every successful game is sooner or later followed by copycats. Some are effortless clones, others have their own spin on it and even exceed the original.
A few things that are, however, under copyright (and possibly under trademark protection as well) are the names and all the assets. If the copyright holders of the boardgame were to find out about the Quoridor app then they could sue the developer as well as request Google to take down the game.
With board games, there’s also the often overlooked issue of rule books. Now, the rules aren’t technically copyrightable, but the texts in the rule books are, i.e. how they’ve written the rules. So if someone were to copy their game and rules while making sure that none of the names or assets infringed on the original’s copyrights, they’d need to find a way to write the rule book in a way that they aren’t inherently copying the original.
Now, even if your game wasn’t clearly in violation of someone’s copyrights or trademarks, they could still sue you. They might win, they might lose, but it’d be their right to sue you. As such, it’s often better to just play it safe and steer clear from such things.
Now, if you do decide to turn a board game into a video game, then the most important things that you need to take into consideration gameplay-wise are:
Trying to keep the game as responsive and as fluent to play digitally as it is physically.
Enhance the game in some way by adding something that the physical game couldn’t have, such as animations and automatic rule checking and other background processes (i.e. you can break the rules in physical chess, but you shouldn’t be be able to do that in digital chess).
Don’t steal from others and break laws while doing it.
Thanks for all the educational replies.
I have about 6 games in progress, but recently published on this forum one that I think is close to being done. My main motive isn’t to make money, but to learn and to make games that others would enjoy playing.
https://forums.coronalabs.com/topic/77498-new-game-threes-a-crowd/
When thinking about a game like Quoridor, I was thinking of making it a field with cows grazing, something like “The grass is always greener on the other side.” The object would still be to cross the board (nothing new, you do the same thing with checkers) but you could place other pieces like a mud pit, a portal, who knows? But I don’t think I want to duplicate the game Quoridor.