It is currently March 28th, 2024, 10:56 pm

Is it illegal to make a skin based on a Video Game?

General topics related to Rainmeter.
SimpleNoob
Posts: 3
Joined: June 7th, 2017, 12:07 pm

Is it illegal to make a skin based on a Video Game?

Post by SimpleNoob »

I have an idea in my mind, I want to make a skin (a suite actually) based on Video Game(Any Game) and I intend to make videos of developing the suite and share them online(on Youtube), I just wanted to know, I will probably use a wallpaper of the Game, Then the font used in the game(or similar to it), Then the graphics from the game(not exact but similar), So will the game developers allow me to make such suite?
User avatar
jsmorley
Developer
Posts: 22628
Joined: April 19th, 2009, 11:02 pm
Location: Fort Hunt, Virginia, USA

Re: Is it illegal to make a skin based on a Video Game?

Post by jsmorley »

That can't be answered in a specific way. While there are TONS of skins on deviantART that are based on or are an "homage" to any number of video games, it will always be the prerogative of the game company how much they want to protect copyrighted images from their games. I would expect that 99% of the time you are going to be fine using images captured from the game or from various advertising and web sites and such, but it would be hard to define where you might cross some line that gets their attention. Certainly anything that implies that the effort is from them, supported or encouraged by them, or otherwise blurs the line between the product and "fan" stuff is likely to be problematic.
NegativeIQ
Posts: 22
Joined: May 7th, 2016, 12:56 am

Re: Is it illegal to make a skin based on a Video Game?

Post by NegativeIQ »

In theory it all depends on a license that comes with a game, but in real world example you wont have problem, if capturing something from game as image was a problem there would not be youtube videos and people earning money from streaming videos using screens from game's.