In case you haven't heard, the developers behind the incredibly popular game Candy Crush Saga have trademarked the word 'Candy' in order to clear out the clones of their game from the market. Yes, you heard me. In an attempt to get rid of cheap knock-offs of Candy Crush Saga, which is itself a Bejeweled knock-off, King has trademarked one of the most common words in the English language. So now they are going after every indie developer they can find that has used 'Candy' in the title of their games, even if they have absolutely no similarities to Candy Crush. And now that they have the taste of blood upon their regal lips, King has taken shots at Stoic's Banner Saga- a game about an epic viking tale that has absolutely nothing to do with candy, or crushing it. King's claim is that because their games consistently end with the word 'Saga' (Bubble Witch Saga, Farm Heroes Saga, Etc.), Stoic must have named their game Banner Saga as a deliberate ploy to confuse people into buying it instead of any of King's games. Obviously, this claim holds absolutely no weight. But King seems to think it does, and they're prepared to throw it around wherever they can.
To protest King's misuse of the trademark system, some people have gotten together to organize Candy Jam- an indie game jam where the only rules are "Make a game involving candies. Consider using the word 'Candy' several times, also 'Scroll', 'Memory', 'Saga', 'Apple' and 'Edge' might give bonus points". The deadline is February 3rd, so if you feel like fighting the man, or at least poking fun at that annoying game that always pops up in your news feed, you should slap something together and enter it! If not, at least grab some popcorn and watch the lampooning begin.
