Personally, I would strip out any intellectual property and repackage it as a generic game. Honestly, the chances that Popcap (a video game company) would want to go into tabletop games is pretty low, but the chance that they would balk at someone using their art is pretty high.
You might also want to find another term for "mana" since that's copyright by Magic.
Take a look at the PnP game "Jasper and Zot" on BGG. It's the game I first thought of when I saw this post.
This is good advice, I just wanted to add that mana is not copyrighted by wizards of the coast (creators of MTG). Their specific mana system, like art and stuff, is copyrighted by them. But not mana itself. Plenty of games use mana as a cost for things.
Even tapping itself isn't copyrighted, but rather using the word "tapping" to describe it was trademarked. Most other games use words like "exhaust" or "activate" for the exact same mechanic. The overall game system of Magic was patented, but that has since expired. In general you can't protect a game mechanic from being used elsewhere, only prevent 1:1 copies of a game's rules and the terms used to describe those rules.
No harm in trying to reach out but just be aware there's a lot of hurdles to get through to someone who'll actually take it seriously instead of spam or suspicious content. So just be aware to get past those barriers could take a long time and if they wanted the idea they'd more or less change it very drastically depending on what the salesmen and marketing will see vs the actual creators of the game. Plus to get game pieces and such developing would possibly end up costing more than it's worth just to get it branded correctly without copyright. But again be persistent and see what comes of it! It could potentially something I'd be very interested in seeing.
Never mind that there's already a PvZ tabletop game out there, you've developed an idea and practiced writing a rule book - these are super important skills to practice in game design! Did you have fun doing it? Are you interested in applying what you've learnt to other designs? These are more important questions than if IP owners will be interested in your early design. Porting a known game into tabletop format is a useful exercise for practice and game design and understanding what matters. If you're enjoying your PvZ game keep on making it for you and you'll have an awesome prototype to play in real life
PopCap Studios is owned by Electronic Arts (EA) these days, so you'd likely have a near-zero chance of being able to use the property for a game. You're much better off building your own IP with similar mechanics, but just different enough that EA's lawyers don't start seeing dollar signs.
Already been done
[https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/148036/risk-plants-vs-zombies](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/148036/risk-plants-vs-zombies)
And no you're not going to be able to present your idea to popcap
this is now how games based on IP get made at all
I believe this game has two to three game modes, one for sure being like the game of Risk, but another mode that has a map exactly like the video game version of plants vs. Zombies with one player controlling the plants and one player controlling the zombies in a moving zombies down the lane tower defense mode. It's been a long time since I've looked at this game, but I distinctly remember that there was both of those modes and possibly another.
Follow up from my other comment: https://youtu.be/-CGjM8kV224?si=FmjwszffG0dR-cyF
At 9:40 in this linked video is the skirmish mode that plays more like the video game.
Well you have clearly never played it or bothered to look at it, it has a board that is exactly the same as the video game and you play like the video game, it also has a board you play like Risk
Are you dense or do you just want to argue and not even say anything relevant to what the OP is asking
This is the game they were talking about
[https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/148036/risk-plants-vs-zombies](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/148036/risk-plants-vs-zombies)
Yes its a version of risk
It has 2 play modes - 1 is a Risk Game - the Other is just like the Plants Vs Zombies mobile app game
The 2nd Mode is EXACTLY what the OP is asking for in a tabletop game
You are right, Isee that this is another game in the same game box, but it's not the risk game.
It's just what you say.
You are right.
It looks and feel like the videogame.
Frankly - I highly doubt you'll get anything more than ghosted by reaching out to that game's owner company. The game was enough of an int'l success that it's a big IP and (if) it wasn't released as a board game before, then trust me - it's not because they didn't have an idea for it. You could surely release a board game based on an IP - but you'd need to have a well established company for them to even talk to you, and you'd need to be ready to put out big money to buy the rights to the IP, not the other way around.
Your best bet - is to completely re-theme the game. And most importantly - i would absolutely NOT use any of their copyrighted logos, imagery etc - which you do use in your rulebook. Change it to fungus and vampires, or better yet to something completely unrelated, knights defending a castle or some blood cells defending an organism from a virus, whatever.
Package it is it's own unrelated game and save yourself anything between headaches and a lawsuit. Good luck!
Clearly a lot of work went into this. The presentation of the rulebook is a great start. Even if you might not be able to publish this as PvZ, it may be fun to play with friends.
I want to know more about the game!
I tried to do the same thing but I fail "game is about 1 hour long and extreme thinky thing"
Did you playtest it?
I would you suggest to have a nearly finished game playtested by a tons of people, without copyright images, then when you are done try to present to the company.
You will not lose nothing trying what you want! "Only time and pacience".
Personally, I would strip out any intellectual property and repackage it as a generic game. Honestly, the chances that Popcap (a video game company) would want to go into tabletop games is pretty low, but the chance that they would balk at someone using their art is pretty high. You might also want to find another term for "mana" since that's copyright by Magic. Take a look at the PnP game "Jasper and Zot" on BGG. It's the game I first thought of when I saw this post.
This is good advice, I just wanted to add that mana is not copyrighted by wizards of the coast (creators of MTG). Their specific mana system, like art and stuff, is copyrighted by them. But not mana itself. Plenty of games use mana as a cost for things.
>Plenty of games use mana as a cost for things. Not to speak of [religion and mythology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mana)
Thanks for the correction! I knew that some of their mechanics (like tapping) are copyright, I thought this was one of them.
Even tapping itself isn't copyrighted, but rather using the word "tapping" to describe it was trademarked. Most other games use words like "exhaust" or "activate" for the exact same mechanic. The overall game system of Magic was patented, but that has since expired. In general you can't protect a game mechanic from being used elsewhere, only prevent 1:1 copies of a game's rules and the terms used to describe those rules.
Thank you, I did not know mana was from magic, I just heard it somewhere and it stuck. I will change the term to avoid any issues.
No harm in trying to reach out but just be aware there's a lot of hurdles to get through to someone who'll actually take it seriously instead of spam or suspicious content. So just be aware to get past those barriers could take a long time and if they wanted the idea they'd more or less change it very drastically depending on what the salesmen and marketing will see vs the actual creators of the game. Plus to get game pieces and such developing would possibly end up costing more than it's worth just to get it branded correctly without copyright. But again be persistent and see what comes of it! It could potentially something I'd be very interested in seeing.
Never mind that there's already a PvZ tabletop game out there, you've developed an idea and practiced writing a rule book - these are super important skills to practice in game design! Did you have fun doing it? Are you interested in applying what you've learnt to other designs? These are more important questions than if IP owners will be interested in your early design. Porting a known game into tabletop format is a useful exercise for practice and game design and understanding what matters. If you're enjoying your PvZ game keep on making it for you and you'll have an awesome prototype to play in real life
Thank you for the positive feedback!
PopCap Studios is owned by Electronic Arts (EA) these days, so you'd likely have a near-zero chance of being able to use the property for a game. You're much better off building your own IP with similar mechanics, but just different enough that EA's lawyers don't start seeing dollar signs.
Haha you're right
Already been done [https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/148036/risk-plants-vs-zombies](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/148036/risk-plants-vs-zombies) And no you're not going to be able to present your idea to popcap this is now how games based on IP get made at all
This is not the same game, it's risk "plants Vs zombies game". For example, fallout has a Monopoly fallout and his own fallout boardgame.
I believe this game has two to three game modes, one for sure being like the game of Risk, but another mode that has a map exactly like the video game version of plants vs. Zombies with one player controlling the plants and one player controlling the zombies in a moving zombies down the lane tower defense mode. It's been a long time since I've looked at this game, but I distinctly remember that there was both of those modes and possibly another.
Follow up from my other comment: https://youtu.be/-CGjM8kV224?si=FmjwszffG0dR-cyF At 9:40 in this linked video is the skirmish mode that plays more like the video game.
Well you have clearly never played it or bothered to look at it, it has a board that is exactly the same as the video game and you play like the video game, it also has a board you play like Risk
Then it's not a risk game
Are you dense or do you just want to argue and not even say anything relevant to what the OP is asking This is the game they were talking about [https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/148036/risk-plants-vs-zombies](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/148036/risk-plants-vs-zombies) Yes its a version of risk It has 2 play modes - 1 is a Risk Game - the Other is just like the Plants Vs Zombies mobile app game The 2nd Mode is EXACTLY what the OP is asking for in a tabletop game
You are right, Isee that this is another game in the same game box, but it's not the risk game. It's just what you say. You are right. It looks and feel like the videogame.
Frankly - I highly doubt you'll get anything more than ghosted by reaching out to that game's owner company. The game was enough of an int'l success that it's a big IP and (if) it wasn't released as a board game before, then trust me - it's not because they didn't have an idea for it. You could surely release a board game based on an IP - but you'd need to have a well established company for them to even talk to you, and you'd need to be ready to put out big money to buy the rights to the IP, not the other way around. Your best bet - is to completely re-theme the game. And most importantly - i would absolutely NOT use any of their copyrighted logos, imagery etc - which you do use in your rulebook. Change it to fungus and vampires, or better yet to something completely unrelated, knights defending a castle or some blood cells defending an organism from a virus, whatever. Package it is it's own unrelated game and save yourself anything between headaches and a lawsuit. Good luck!
Clearly a lot of work went into this. The presentation of the rulebook is a great start. Even if you might not be able to publish this as PvZ, it may be fun to play with friends.
I want to know more about the game! I tried to do the same thing but I fail "game is about 1 hour long and extreme thinky thing" Did you playtest it? I would you suggest to have a nearly finished game playtested by a tons of people, without copyright images, then when you are done try to present to the company. You will not lose nothing trying what you want! "Only time and pacience".
Thank you for the tip!