Hello everyone, I am working on a commercial platformer game, and I'm wondering if there might a copyright concern using item blocks. In Nintendo's Mario series, items are often stored in blocks that suspend in the air. The item is revealed when you jump and hit the block from underneath. Obviously if I made item blocks like this, I would use unique sprites and sound effects, but do you suppose something like that might be protected by Nintendo as a game concept? Have you seen other Platformers that readily use this kind of thing? My assumption is that this would be no problem, but I wanted to check here. Thanks!
Based on the definition of copyrights, there's no problem. As you mentioned, you have to make the graphics unique or other artwork. A discussion that has been around is the patented or copyright game mechanic. A game mechanic cannot be patented/copyrighted. Obviously, people will know that you borrowed the idea from Mario Bros. I've seen other games using this concept, but not a lot. You can read about copyright to get more information. Try not to make your main character a plumber at least!