Statement from N-Dream AG about Runorama

In a blog post tinybuild has made false allegations about us. We would like to share our point of view with you.

In spring 2016 AirConsole wanted to extend the portfolio of its games. We had already launched about 20 titles, but wanted to bring bigger games with more depth to AirConsole. The games we had launched by then, were mostly created by indie studios that didn't have the budget for games with tons of content. We had just closed another financing round and thought it would be great idea to support indie studios so they could create bigger games for AirConsole. That's why we launched a call for project initiative that would subsidise indie studios with up to $20'000 to create games that could be launched on AirConsole. Many great projects like "IRIS", "Racing Wars" and "The Neighbourhood" came from this initiative.

We asked iLogos to create a local multiplayer platformer in which you would battle and rush through levels. The game mechanics of "Fun Run", "Giana Sisters: Dream Runners" and "SpeedRunners" were mentioned in that conversation and we said that we like those. We told them explicitly that we give them full freedom on how they would like to implement the game. Because we only subsidized the game and left full ownership in the intellectual property with iLogos, we agreed to a license for this game for launching on AirConsole. It is also important to mention, that iLogos has total freedom to publish Runomara on other platforms not exclusive to AirConsole. The only game description in the License Agreement was:

1.1       The Purpose of this Agreement is the publishing of a Runner Game (“Game”), a video game, on AirConsole.

The Game will

We trusted iLogos would create a great multiplayer Runner Game for launching on AirConsole. We gave iLogos feedback from time to time on how to optimize the game for AirConsole and the game was coming along great.

Copyright laws for "derivative work" in computer games are complicated. There are tons of games that have similar mechanics and looks and feels without infringing copyright laws. When we received finalized graphic assets we stumbled upon “SpeedRunners” again. We did not feel in a position to judge if "Runorama" was "derivative work", so we asked iLogos to check their work with their legal department:

Andrey Godar, the project manager of iLogos, replied on November 4th 2016 that their legal department had confirmed that the game has (i) unique characters, (ii) game settings, (iii) physics and (iv) level design and so the game is not “derivative work”.

This judgement convinced us and we launched Runorama.

To summarize:

 

The allegations of Tinybuild:

 

Andrin von Rechenberg, Founder of AirConsole

 

 

 

 

Reference: Original Blog Post from Tinybuild