Otome Game Query

[Imperf3kt]

If you are using a cosplayer as a base design for a character, be aware that the clothing they are wearing may be patented or copyrighted.
Cosplay - costume play

In other words, make sure its okay to imitate the clothes first as you may potentially find a lawsuit in your email one day.

[Barzini]

But do you have to copy their appearance? Like, why would you do that? Should it be an incentive for players to buy the game? Because I still think it's weird

Well, if it's just because you don't know about character design and plan to use the cosplayers as a reference then I more or less understand and am fine with it. Tho I wouldn't advertise the game as "you can play as so and so from cosplay community!" Because it's weird.

Hey there, it is to see about bringing the cosplayer's fanbase as a marketing angle.

Unless you got the permission of that cosplayer to use their likeness in a romance game, I'd feel really uncomfortable and wouldn't pick up the game. I mean, how would you feel if you spent a lot of time and effort and money gaining an audience and then someone just copies your face in hopes of leeching off of your work, and then puts this copy of you in romantic situations without your consent. That's pretty creepy and not very ethical in my book. It is probably *legal*, but I 'd say it isn't very ethical.

Definitely with the cosplayer's permission and blessings.

[quilleth]

If you're strictly talking about appearances, I personally would prefer a generic character over using a cosplayer's appearance. For one thing, a generic looking character is easily overlooked in terms of appearance, and since I mostly want to focus on the story, I don't mind having a basic looking sprite for the player character or no sprite at all, because I can glaze over the sprite appearance if I want and mentally put in my own idea of a MC.

Second, it's a little strange to me to use references from a cosplayer specifically. What's the story your game is trying to sell? Why cosplayers specifically? What's the connection? And when you say cosplayer, do you mean the person while they're out of costume? Because if you're using their appearance while they're in costume, you're touching the edge of a tricky legal area that, frankly, it's not really worth attempting to tangle with. If it's a person cosplaying a character, that character is still a licensed figure, even if the cosplayer took liberties with the outfit of the character they're portraying- usually the liberties aren't to the point where people can't tell what character they're portraying. It'd be better to design your own unique character than relying on that if people are ultimately going to be able to tell that your sprite is a loose interpretation of an already licensed figure.

As far as using it as a marketing ploy targeting a cosplayer's fanbase, I can't say that I would find that particularly effective. I know a lot of cosplayers, and there are cosplayers whose work I follow, but I follow it because of their crafting abilities and tutorials. I'd buy clothing or costumes from them, but not games that they push because I associate them with creating clothing, not games. And even then, only if I like what they're selling. So unless they're a personal friend who I know has played a game and recommends it to me, it wouldn't affect my interest in a positive way; it might have the opposite effect frankly. It's like the fact that Yaya Han has a line of cosplay patterns that are sold at craft stores. I'd be likely to buy those because I know she's a skilled maker, but I wouldn't see the association between her and a game, so would be more likely to brush it off as kind of conceited, because the game having a sprite based after her has nothing to do with why I would have been interested in her in the first place- her ability to make things- and is instead just connected to her physical appearance; I'd probably roll my eyes and hit ignore in my steam queue if that's it's selling point.

Your best bet to marketing your game is to make sure you've got an interesting story, interesting and unique characters, and appealing art style.