He already made a few very addictive text-based (or should I say: roguelike) games so far and we wanted more.
He was fishing out ideas from a forum and one of them was making a game set in Star Wars universe. He said he loved the idea, but was really worried about legal issues. So far all his games are freeware and I assumed this for this new game as well, but he replied that even fan-made games used to be "killed" by LucasArts (LEC) and that he doesn't want to receive "Cease and Desist" letter from them.
I fully understand this - the franchise can be sometimes a curse - but on the other hand I started to wonder, how is it possible that LFL is actually (and recently this is even stronger visible on the official website) encouraging making fan-made content, such as movies... or how such a popular game like Star Wars Combine could survive for years without being closed by LFL/LEC.
Since we have some lawyers here on the forum I'd like to hear their opinion on this matter. Is this guy exaggerating? Is it possible to create a very popular free fan-made game and don't get own website shut down? Or is there no real possibility to accomplish that because of license regulations? What fan content is acceptable then? Are there any "walkarounds"?