This discussion is mainly about the looks of Horace, right?
In this case I would propose a technical solution - one I'm inept to implement myself, I'm quick to admit - but well, here goes. Horace is just
1. a name and
2. a bundled of bitmaps
IP laws differ from country to country, but there seem to be ways around 1. by either parody (Huray! and the Ski Shores) or reference (Tribute to ...).
Maybe you know about the Mii Channel on Nintendo's Wii https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mii or ktuberling https://games.kde.org/game.php?game=ktuberling or similar character generators. So a workaround to 2. would be to deliver the game without preset sprites, but generate them according to user settings. A Horace look-alike would be only a set of parameter values within the myriads of possibilities, say
Number of rattail = 1
Number of feet = 2
Number of eyes = 2
Size of Eyes = 7
Number of arms = 0
etc.
Now your generator needs some default values to start with, so the user can fiddle with them.This just might be 1,2,2,7,0, ... I would of course prefer three feet and three eyes, i.e. 1,3,3,7,0, .. 'cus he 'd look soooooo leet'o!
This is basically taking the "You can't copyright a pure idea" to the game character level i.e. if it is legal in your jurisdiction to program a clone of say Pac-Man from scratch and distribute it, it should be legal to do the above.
Horace and the Scissors
Re: Horace and the Scissors
"Truth would quickly cease to be stranger than fiction, once we got used to it." - H.L. Mencken
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Re: Horace and the Scissors
Now it's time to make wise decisions...
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