Adventure Gamers - Forums

Hello adventurers!

My name is Mathieu and I would like to introduce to you my short point and click game!
It’s a tribute to Psycho movie from Alfred Hitchcock. Created by myself in 4 months, it follows the iconic scene of the film in the style of Lucasarts 90’s games.

You can find it for pc and mac at :
http://mathieu-ratier.itch.io/psychoadventuregame

Hope you’ll enjoy, thank you for your time!

Gabe - 12 September 2022 12:13 PM

A fine example of copyright infringement.

And possibly three in one!

Obviously Psycho is a film franchise, but Alfred Hitchcock’s name is also an IP, as it has been used to sell books and stuff (that he didn’t author himself).

And because there is “Alfred Hitchcock - Vertigo” video game, it can be guessed that perhaps the publisher has an exclusive deal to use Hitchcock + film title combination in video games.

Some young lawyers wanting to advance their careers could have a field day with this one.

Maybe the game infringes copyright laws but it’s absolutely free so who is it hurting?

Okay…

I’m aware of the risk I’m taking by paying tribute to the movie Psycho since I had to study it to create this free and fully credited game…

But… thank you for your encouragement, it’s much appreciated…

A plus for the one that encourages “Some young lawyers wanting to advance their careers could have a field day with this one.” 👍

Remind me to never come back here to talk about my future game.

MathieuR - 13 September 2022 03:06 AM

A plus for the one that encourages “Some young lawyers wanting to advance their careers could have a field day with this one.” 👍

Remind me to never come back here to talk about my future game.

That’s not an encouragement nor is it a discouragement towards any parties involved.

It’s simply a fact that fan games do receive cease and desist letters from time to time, your game wouldn’t be the first one, even in the adventure genre alone there are a good number of cases where such a thing has happened.

I personally don’t understand how using someone else’s property without consent is a tribute to anyone or anything, but if that’s how you feel, and I know some people really do, you should be aware that there’s a chance that things will get nasty. Especially if the IP is owned by American media companies.

For the record, you aren’t even the first one to create a Psycho adventure game, it has been done decades ago:

http://www.mobygames.com/game/psycho

And I’m not saying any of this to discourage you, just pointing out few facts, which you probably don’t quite understand.

Just because you credit the original authors one way or the other, that doesn’t make the copyright infringement anything else. I’m not a lawyer, I won’t take action, but there are people being paid for doing nothing but that.

And you are in fact asking for money, as the game page says:
“Do you want to make a donation?”

In case you haven’t been following, Star Trek fan films got lawyers after them because they were asking for donations.

So if no lawyer contacts you in the future, I would be surprised.

But good luck with the game and all, no matter how things turn out to be.

For the record, I was familiar with the 1988 Psycho game, as I studied the film and its derivatives.

You are absolutely right, the problem of copyrights is complicated and even more so in the USA especially with an author like Hitchcock.
Once again I am fully aware of this, I have been alert on this subject since I decided to embark on this short adventure.
I took a risk and you are probably right about the ambiguity of the donations.
Your speech on this subject appeals to me and so I preferred to delete them.

I am not looking for glory by using this intellectual property or to fill my bank account or to steal an author…
Once again, I pay tribute to pop culture through this game on Psycho.
I’m trying to bring this game to a generation who haven’t seen it through a more contemporary medium.
If the rights holders ask me to take it down, I will of course.
Video games are an art, art has reinterpreted popular culture many times.

Thank you for your message of good luck.

chrissie - 12 September 2022 01:31 PM

Maybe the game infringes copyright laws but it’s absolutely free so who is it hurting?

I downloaded the game & have to retract my support based mostly on the footage ripped off from the film used in the beginning accompanied by the blatant use of the original character’s names.
I’ve enjoyed playing what I have so far but couldn’t help wondering why you had to stick so closely to the film rather than changing a few details to present similar scenarios which would be recognisable as paying tribute to the film without challenging copyright laws?