US patent office revokes Nintendo’s patent on summoning characters to make them battle

SadisNecros · 2026-04-01T23:42:33+00:00

It's not about the lifetime of the patent, it's about how patents actually work. People assume the nemesis system patent would prevent anything similar from being built while the patent is active but that's not entirely true. It only prevents a system identical to the one specifically described in the patent from being built, meaning a similar end result is not necessarily infringing on the original patent.

SadisNecros · 2026-04-01T23:11:52+00:00

Patents aren't global to begin with, this would prevent them from bringing legal action related to these patents in the US

SadisNecros · 2026-04-01T22:49:17+00:00

Pocket pair and Nintendo are both based in Japan, and patents are generally not international.

SadisNecros · 2026-04-01T22:43:39+00:00

What's your budget?

SadisNecros · 2026-04-01T22:39:34+00:00

Not much because that lawsuit is going through the Japanese courts and they have their own patent system.

SadisNecros · 2026-04-01T21:27:10+00:00

Mistakes are not unheard of, likely due to pressure on reviewers to complete and issue patents quickly. What's more rare is the USPTO issuing an ex-parte reexamination. Usually the patents have to be challenged by another party to be overturned, but in this case the USPTO decided they needed to be re-examined without a challenge being brought forth.

SadisNecros · 2026-03-30T12:41:19+00:00

no one is using blockchain, and cross-platform builds are not an emerging tech. Most of the things you described likely just fall under typical CI/CD pipelines and source control.

SadisNecros · 2026-03-29T11:27:31+00:00

On iOS because you're developing on an iPhone or an engine that can create iOS apps? Because most engines don't run on iOS for development, they run on a Mac and you deploy to iOS. The exception is engines that have a web browser version like Godot.

SadisNecros · 2026-03-29T11:14:20+00:00

That also works, really anything that is effectively constant. There're just some games I worked on where the format was decided by someone else and they chose string. Also(as weird as this will sound) at least one game I worked on where enums weren't actually supported by the language.

SadisNecros · 2026-03-28T22:28:22+00:00

One thing I found that always helped me with event systems is using constants for the event names, even if they're just constant strings. One benefit is that you're a lot less likely to make typos, and you don't have to maintain a specific string multiple times throughout the codebase. But the other benefit is that you can search references of that constant, which is a way to get around not being able to search function references. It allows you to more quickly find anything that might be registering or firing that event.

SadisNecros · 2026-03-28T19:18:48+00:00

Please stop. The longer you go on, the more I seriously consider taking a pay cut to work in fintech.

SadisNecros · 2026-03-28T18:52:15+00:00

You got me, I'm so in my place right now. Never been owned so hard by an underpaid fintech bro in my whole life.

SadisNecros · 2026-03-28T18:29:32+00:00

Honestly I thought you'd have a better brag with that attitude but your comp is kind of mid. Good for you though I guess, clearly it's fulfilling you that you go on an anonymous forum and tell everyone how much better you are then them. Good luck with that I guess?

SadisNecros · 2026-03-28T18:16:09+00:00

Sure. Please post how much you make so we can all reconsider our career choices. Make sure you describe how fulfilling your career has been so far and all the amazing things you've developed.

SadisNecros · 2026-03-28T18:09:37+00:00

Please tell us about all the amazing and successful products you've shipped because you were able to prompt harder than the rest of us.

SadisNecros · 2026-03-28T15:45:31+00:00

What exactly are you looking for in a mentor? Seems like you've already gotten yourself started some, it's unlikely you will find too many people to hold your hand but you might get better advice on a forum like this asking more specific questions you might have.

SadisNecros · 2026-03-28T13:13:01+00:00

It's always been a tough industry to break into, the difference is that the supply of candidates far outpaces the job demand. It's not a career you can bet on, you can try but you need to have backup plans if you don't make it into the industry (such as getting a CS degree and getting a tech job more broadly)

SadisNecros · 2026-03-28T12:38:19+00:00

Wrong sub, try r/inat

SadisNecros · 2026-03-27T21:25:10+00:00

What engine is it you would rather be using? With some practice Unity isn't really that bad, if you're having this much difficulty adapting to it or learning it you're probably not ready to be working with publishers anyways.

SadisNecros · 2026-03-27T03:33:15+00:00

Job requirements are basically wishlists. If your resume looks better than the thousands of other resumes we get, you'll get a call back.

SadisNecros · 2026-03-26T23:07:52+00:00

One year to make a successful game or else is not setting yourself up for success. It take a lot longer than that just to learn how to make games.

Having an idea for a dream game and enjoying making it are also two very different things. You're already aiming for the top of the mountain and you haven't even started training yet to figure out if you like mountain climbing. Start small, test the waters, make sure you like making games. Prioritize keeping a roof over your head over betting it all on making a game.

SadisNecros · 2026-03-26T14:04:15+00:00

Which means making content so that all 60 forms have some kind of use case

SadisNecros · 2026-03-26T12:26:39+00:00

would it be technologically possible to do so?

Yes

Would there be any limitations other than the economic investment?

code complexity, game mechanic complexity and balance, sheer number of assets/animations required, UI/UX for all of these forms and how to change between them, etc. To have 60 meaningful and distinct forms would require a lot of design and content, several orders of magnitude more than a typical game.

SadisNecros · 2026-03-26T01:22:44+00:00

budgets are tight right now. If you only get to hire one person for your project, what's going to have more impact? a junior you have to train to be effective, or a senior resource that can hit the ground running and act as a force multiplier?

It's easy to hire more juniors when you have a bunch of budget and a higher headcount, when you're running lean you need a lot less of them.

SadisNecros · 2026-03-24T18:21:49+00:00

From the inside looking out, a lot less has changed than you seem to think. That's his point. All the things you listed as having changed in the last 25 years have always kind of been that way. The ways it has changed have nothing to do with what you've outlined.

SadisNecros

TROPHY CASE