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Indie iPhone developers live life on the edge, poke fun at Langdell

Plans announced to change game's names to include 'edge'

Indie iPhone developers live life on the edge, poke fun at Langdell
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Although it's unlikely that Tim Langdell is intentionally sacrificing himself on the game developer community's altar, his relentless copyright claims do seem to be having a mildly positive effect, alongside the trouble they've caused.

A group of indie developers have banded together to poke fun at the spate of trademark disputes issued by Langdell, after Killer Edge Racing became the latest title to fall victim and find itself removed from the App Store (though only temporarily, we suspect).

This cadre of code comedians have all announced plans to change their game's names to include the word 'edge', in an effort to bury Langdell's legal team in the rubble of questionable copyright profiteering.

"Millions of downloads of our unstoppable Dismount™ series of games have brought us to believe in developing games almost as much as trademarking random dictionary entries," says Jani Kahrama, Chief Sledge™ of Secret Exit.

"In fact, as soon as our next game, LEDGE DISMOUNT™ is released, we are proud to announce our intention to trademark and patent the concept of Secret Exit in relation of computer entertainment. We look forward to charging plumbers, hedgehogs and other creatures and characters of platform variety a hefty license fee if they wish to pursue departures of clandestine nature."

Online we phenomenon turned iPhone hit Canabalt, in which you avoid falling off the edge of buildings, has also been re-released as Canabedge, while the sequel to unique puzzle game Eliss has been announced as Edgeliss, a game involving revolutionary new gaming concepts EDGE-D, EDGE-touch and EDGE-black (all trademarked).

A couple of new titles are also promised, including Edgeform: On the Edge of Insanity from Edgeware Productions is promised soon, Edgeward McEdgington (an 'adventure game about greed'), while Closure become Closure on the Edge of Reality, and edge-three game EDGEles.

To better represent the cubist nature of adventure game Fez, Polytron has decided Fedge would better describe the game's events. "We at Polytron Corporation are at the edge of everything, at the edge of other edges, so it only make sense to reflect this edgyness in our product’s name, which is now Fedge."

Developer Tyler Glaiel is working on a full version of his popular Flash game Closure, which he now intends to change the name to Closure: On the EDGE of Reality, saying, "We feel that this will embrace the theme of the game, which fundamentally takes place on the EDGE between reality and nonexistence. The title also represents many of the technical algorithms we used to create the game, such as EDGE Processing, EDGE detection, EDGE, Separating EDGE Theorem, EDGE Mapping, EDGING, and EDGE-SORT."

The japes go beyond iPhone, too, as WiiWare game And Yet It Moves is set to be rebranded, as developer Broken Rules explains. "To emphasize the edgyness of And Yet It Moves for WiiWare we decided to change the title. On WiiWare And Yet It Moves will be called And Edge It Moves. Yeah! This will give people an idea of how much edge we put into bringing our game to Wii and how edgy it’s controls will feel. Celebrate with us as we stand on the edge of a consol release somewhere after the edge of the upcoming new year!

Good luck to all at Langdell Legal Enterprises. Looks like Christmas has come early.

Spanner Spencer
Spanner Spencer
Yes. Spanner's his real name, and he's already heard that joke you just thought of. Although Spanner's not very good, he's quite fast, and that seems to be enough to keep him in a regular supply of free games and away from the depressing world of real work.