Well in 2018 the largest issue Indy devs face today is what is considered fair use versus the rights of the IP owner to “claim” that they own the rights so there is no 100% guaranty that one would be on the right side of litigation issue where the result is not what would be considered fair use but who has the better story in a court of law.
To be honest I don’t think that accepting reasoning from a forum group such as this one will not give you a same day solution as to once you go down the rabbit hole becomes progressively complex as to fair use doctrine but avoiding branding is a good start, as in calling a building Trump Towers or even a fast food joint called McDonalds, as a sub issue of trade mark violations.
A good place to start as far as preforming due diligence you can start here.
The focus is on legal issues, and the first of it’s kind, as to the ins and outs of copyright to at least becomes self educated as to the what is allowed under fair use versus where the line is drawn and has support forums where you can ask questions and receive a better overview to at5 least be prepared as to what could occur and not be surprised as to cause and effect.
In general.
No one cares what you do until you release your effort to public release or for sale via platforms like Steam and most companies will inform you that they have a complaint where there are companies that will sit on their issues until you “product” becomes successful. I’m sure with a market evaluation of 4 billion dollars Epic faces a few days where someone comes out of the wood work with their hand out as to the success of Fortnite.
Bottom line it’s far to easy to state a claim on even original works so as even a hobby tracking current cases in the courts is an eye opener and a fun past time 