Pokemon game

I really want to invest my time into making a super long pokemon game. i want it to be at par ( as best as i can ) with the real games. I know it will take long and be hard, but i know i obviously can't sell it due to copyright BUT. Am i able to take donations while i make it? I'll keep a site for updates and what not and am i aloud to take donations? Or is that the same case as copyright selling it? When it's done it will be 100% free. 

I assume Nintendo would not be pleased if they found you where receiving income from their creation, even though it would be your own interpretation.

Nintendo in general doesn't take kind to their IPs being used even for fan projects.

Accepting money for donations (regardless of where the money goes) is even more of a no-no.

Don't do it.

The key for donations is wording, trust me. If you claim that the donations are straight up to help with producing a Pokemon Fan Game, you may as well write up your own Cease and Desist order. However, if you are clearly stating that you are asking for donations separately, you can get away with it possibly. Though I still wouldn't recommend it really.


Nathanial, I wouldn't say that they dislike fan games too much. They know about PokeMMO and some other bigger fan projects and not only let them go on, but didn't even ask PokeMMO to quit taking donations. However, they DID contact the head of PokeMMO and warned them that if they made the mistake of taking direct money in return for anything owned by nintendo, then the game would be shut down quickly.

I didn't say they don't "like them" I said they have a history of not taking too kind to some of them.

Sure, you could say wording could let it slide by. The truth of the matter is you're opening yourself up more by accepting money when you're developing such a project. Even if it's indirectly associated, it's still a bad idea.

I have been wanting to do a pokemon-like game myself. Not a direct pokemon game, just one that uses the same battle system of having monsters fight for you. But, I'm new to RPG Maker and haven't been able to figured out how to do that kind of battle yet.

And as for the donations thing, I'd say your best bet is to make it sound like the donations are unrelated tot he game. Like saying that you would except them to make life easier on you. Leave out that it would in turn make making the game easier, but it's implied.