The Patent

Sometimes you mean to say something, and before you know it time gets away from you and instead of having all the time in the world to formulate your thoughts, you have to just put them out there. 

At the bottom of the website here and on videos of SEAR gameplay you’ll see a little message about a patent. When I came up with the idea for phase-synchronized music gaming and all the ways it could be used, I filed for a patent on it, and I want to explain why. 

First of all, let me say that the patent is still under application. It’s not approved yet, and it’s always possible it won’t be. 

If it never gets approved this whole conversation is probably moot.

If it does get approved, I plan to have a generous licensing program for it that encourages experimentation in the space. I want to see a lot of games that use the system. I want to see big swings, hits, and misses. The last thing I want to do is chill the design space. I literally started this studio to get the idea out there and hopefully inspire games to be made with it. I want to play them!

So then, why file a patent at all? Why not just make the game and let the design space evolve, the way art should?

I’m not independently wealthy. The amount of money I spent starting this studio, pulling this team together, is small potatoes in the greater world of game development, but for me it was an enormous financial risk. I feel this idea is truly new and has a ton of potential. And early on a friend of mine asked, what if someone takes the idea? 

I’ve written 6 novels, and in the writing world this is a common refrain as well. But anyone who writes (or makes games) will tell you that an idea and a product are two very different things. Ideas are a dime a dozen. Execution is a completely different thing. So on face the prospect didn’t bother me at first. But I realized that game design has a risk that writing doesn’t: it has patents. So the risk existed that someone could see what we were doing before we have a product to sell, beat us to market, and patent the concept, shutting me out of my own idea and destroying my financial and time investment in the process.

This isn’t just a weekend dalliance for me. It often feels like I am spending every hour of every day on it, and that’s on top of the financial considerations I just mentioned. So I thought if there was something I could do to head off that threat, I should. 

I don’t love the idea of patenting game mechanics. I understand why the practice is so disliked by so many gamers, and I actually count myself among that number. But it is a legal reality, and I wanted to do what I could to insulate myself from it. So I filed, but only after thinking long and hard about what I’d do with the patent if I did get it. How I would use it, and maybe more importantly, how I would not.

I mentioned at the start of this post that I felt time had run out to talk about this, and I had to talk about it now. Why? Because I recently became aware of another game which could make a reasonable argument that it is using some of the mechanics I’m seeking to patent. I’m not going to name the game or the studio, but the game’s release cadence started after the patent filing. We are going to be releasing our first (very early) teaser trailer soon and I didn’t want that studio to happen to come across it, see the patent notice, and start getting worried. So I contacted the developer of that game to let them know about the patent and specifically that I would not seek to impede the development or release of their game, even if the patent does get approved.

The letter was drafted by my attorney and any legal correspondence is always intimidating, so I won’t lie - I’m writing this post partially in hopes that someone from the studio sees it, and so I can explain just a little bit in my own words what I was trying to do here and why they got that communication. 

If you are from that studio, thank you for checking in, and let me just say personally - your game is awesome and I wish you all the best with it.