My First iOS game - Astrogate - coming soon!!

[Adam]

Free? Cause it was inspired by another game? Game designers do this all the time ;-P

Ill clone your game and sell it, then.

[DistantJ]

I think whether it's OK is nim's call, not yours. But go for it, I make platformers, can't stop you making a platformer now can I?

But this often happens. Just look at CrazyCrab and Penguins Have Lunch.

[DaveC]

haha that's okay Pookasnooks I pretty much share your view. I hope this thread doesn't devolve into an IP argument..

Now Adam... People copy/improve/remix ideas all the time, it's human nature and it's all to the good! It's how children learn and how culture drives forward. From the first people to use spoken words, invent the wheel, hunting techniques, art techniques, invent a new music genre and on and on in every area you can think of, people have been copying (not stealing). Even within the games industry, most of the top selling games all look/play the same (cod vs moh?). People clone/take ideas from mario/zelda/metroid/sonic etc. all the time, and so much the better! This is how we progress, by taking good ideas and expanding and sharing them, and casting aside the bad ideas. It also happens to be what people want, "more of the good stuff" not deciding to make something original for it's own sake, simply because another idea was used before.

An idea is worth nothing until it is put to action, there were no games like this I could find on the App-Store, seeing as no one else made one, why shouldn't I fill the gap and supply the App-Store masses with this kind of gameplay experience? The only way to make sure no one copies your idea is to never share it with anyone - once you do, it's out there in the world of ideas and you no longer have exclusive control of it. We can't even conceive of a world where no one is permitted to copy/imitate.. it would be stagnation. I also believe you were not the first to be named Adam, shall we lock your parents up for copyright infringement? Your protectionist/mercantilist worldview has no place on the internet, IMO.

lastly, to clarify, this is 100% my own work, every line of code, sprite, level etc. was made by me from scratch. And thanks to everyone for the kind words on the actual game, we game creators struggle with motivation/procrastination, and the nice comments have given me a real boost! so thanks!

[DistantJ]

Although this may look like I am adding to the drama, I'm really just intending to go against it and say how rediculous this teenage stuff is.

Whoever is making the game in question, make the game.
They were inspired by someone else (nim?)'s game, that person should be HAPPY to be payed homage to.
Saying "don't make your game because its a clone of mine" is NOT a legal issue even. It's just intolerance.

whether its ok? honestly? no one is even doing something illegal. the game may be based on something but it's still a different game made from scratch, right? I am someone who's okay with using ripped graphics... but this sounds like its original, right? even more so then, I say that THERE'S NOTHING WRONG.
Whoever is creating this should not have their dreams squashed because of some teenager basically going "you copied off of me!"

Sorry if I rambled, I'm not always good at putting words together well. But I was outraged by the idea of needing someone's approval.

It's sort of the same as what I was saying, I was just trying to say this isn't Adam's call at all, if anybody should be able to decide if this was 'not OK' (in which case he still has every right to do with it) it's nim, and nim has been friendly about it. If nim decided he wasn't happy about it it'd be a personal issue though, nobody can stop anything happening here. I just thought it was rude of Adam to suggest Dave puts his hard work out for nothing just because somebody inspired him.

[iamjot]

It´s not that easy these days to really make a "new" game. We all have seen everything in every color. Sometimes there are new ideas but I think it´s like this: if a game is a good and cool and fun to play "copy" (i mean the word copy does not even fit - every developer has to programm the game, make the music, make the art,...) of a genre it´s just fine! I could play millions of fallout versions and copies. Or billions of Secret of mana sequels, prequels, sidequels whatever as long as I FEEL the game and i feel that the developer has put all his love into the game. So yea my point is: it´s just damn hard to create or recreate a game genre I guess.

I´m trying to create my "own new gamytype" since years and whenever I think: "Wow!!! I have a fantastic idea - i have neeeeever seen this before" - i use google 5 minutes and need a beer

[AndyH]

Its funny i have a game with left/right controls like this too, except youre a submarine, mines on the back burner. This looks ace and will definately buy it when it is out.

[ratty]

Funny that the guy calling this a ripoff is named "Adam". Original name. I think not. Everything word he says and everything he creates needs to be free and all credit goes towards the first guy named Adam, whoever he may be.

[XStar]

Cool looking game! What did you do to record it? I've been looking for something to record my first app with!

[DaveC]

Andy - my game was originally set deep underwater in an earlier version! haha but I changed up the graphics/theme because my underwatery effects were making the game run too slow. Heres a sreen of that old build.



this game has been put on the backburner for me like 3-4 times and each time I would re-make it all over.. procrastination eh?

Xstar - I used Cam Studio, it's a free open source screen recorder.. got the job done well enough

[UrbanMonk]

I like the current graphics better.

I wanted to mention I saw a game like nim's before I saw his. It was a flash game I found online somewhere.