The Last Year

[temperedelm]

Recently it was announced that a 5 vs 1 survival horror game based on "Friday the 13th" was in the works, this came about weeks after the successful kick-starter of "The Last Year" a 5 vs 1 survival horror game with a more generic setting based on those good old slasher flicks. Now this:

"Last Year - 5 vs 1 Multiplayer Survival Horror [Submitted by Davis, Wright, Tremaine LLP]



Date: Jan 12, 2015

Sender
[Private]
Davis, Wright, Tremaine LLP
865 S. Figueroa
Los Angeles, CA 90017
US

Sent via online form

Recipient
Kickstarter, Inc.
58 Kent Street
Brooklyn, NY 11222
USA

Re: Last Year - 5 vs 1 Multiplayer Survival Horror

Description of copyrighted material: Crystal Lake Entertainment, Inc. (Sean Cunningham) and Horror, Inc. are the rights holders of the "Friday the 13th" movie franchise. This includes all characters, such as Jason, and movie posters and one-sheets, and the right to create derivative works. This also includes all trademark rights.

Description of infringing material: "Last Year - 5 vs. 1 Multiplayer Survival Horror" "

*copied and pasted from the kick-starter page*

*Edit: Here's a link to website of "The Last Year" http://www.lastyearthegame.com/

 

[temperedelm]

The only thing I could find that made me really think Jason was the 'Lake night' picture in the media section.

 

[temperedelm]

*Update: The creator of 'Last Year' has responded.*

Hi everyone,

As you may have heard there has been an IP dispute on Last Year from the people who own Friday The 13th. These people claim that Last Year is too similar to Friday The 13th and they're trying to shut down the Kickstarter. Using a hockey mask is apparently not allowed...I guess we better file an IP claim against all the goalies of Canada too

Just to give you an idea, it's been 25 YEARS since a Friday The 13th game...isn't it a funny coincidence that as soon as Last Year does a successful Kickstarter campaign all of a sudden a few weeks later Hollywood announces they will make an asymmetrical slasher game too! Oh and they send their lawyers after me saying Last Year is infringing on them. There hasn't been a really good movie-inspired slasher game and I took the opportunity to make it because, like you, I've always wanted a game like this as well. Now, all of a sudden Hollywood notices that people actually want a game like this so they try and shut ours down and make their own. Classic. Typical big guys trying to bully the little guy and wipe out the competition.

One of their statements was that our location Silver Lake Summer Camp infringes on their location Crystal Lake Summer Camp. Well, there are certain similarities and obvious inspirations/tips of the hat to the old classics, however, the dialog in the trailer clearly states this game is drawing inspiration from Friday The 13th. Silver Lake is not the same as Crystal Lake and Last Year is not deceiving, affiliated with, or causing confusion with the Friday The 13th brand...which is what the owners of Friday The 13 have now claimed. We are merely paying homage to the great classics and putting our own unique spin on it and creating our own unique universe. Granted, they did make one comment which was about using the movie poster of the original movie in the Last Year trailer. That's fair, and I will remove this from the video immediately.

I've reached out to their lawyer, my lawyer, and Kickstarter and I'm in discussion to sort this out and get the Kickstarter page back up with the necessary changes so we can move forward.

I would have wished that people who share a passion for the same types of genres including Crystal Lake Entertainment and myself could work together on something like this (which is a win-win for everyone, especially you the fans!) and not work against each other... We'd be able to make a game that's even more awesome as a team. Unfortunately they chose to work against each other which is really only them trying to benefit themselves.

I'm sorry about this, it sucks. I'm working to resolve it as soon as I can so we can move forward on making an awesome game.

Thanks for your support guys.

Sincerely,

James Wearing

facebook.com/lastyearthegame
twitter.com/lastyeargame