I'd like to point out that I saw a game like that one UrbanMonk mentioned even before that one came out.
I'd like to point out that I saw a game like that one UrbanMonk mentioned even before that one came out.
Well damn, I have to apply for a couple of aussie tax forms before i can start selling .. Who knows how long that will take.. have any aussie clickers gone through the abn+gst saga? Oh well..gotta dig deep
When I look at games I enjoy for inspiration, I try and think about what could be changed to make it as different as possible. I'm a huge fan of originality - It's difficult to be original these days, but I would suggest, for example: both games have red spikes you have to avoid, and are both set in tight corridors in space. I'd drastically change the shape of the red spikes, which would probably result in a colour change also. I'd like set it in a different environment, too. It could still be space, but have something different about it. Planets or foliage or machinery in the background.
I'd also change the level set up and design, bigger, more open levels? Always heading directly up/down? And the way the smoke hits the wall, I'd have the fumes actually leave the exhausts, maybe. On iOS, we can see a lot of time trail action platformers. They all feel very similar, the thing that differentiates them from each other is the artwork and sound track. And in a lot of cases, this is done really well.
These games are all fine, but it concerns me when I walk into a mobile phone shop and see a wall with about 20 iPhone variations on it, all from different companies. It's a shame how products such as modern technology, all look the same these days. In the creative industry, I like to see new and interesting things!
If everything was original, we wouldn't have genres. If we wanted to play a platform game, we'd only have the option of Mario.
Or Sonic.When I talk of originality, I just mean sometimes things can seem a little too familiar. I believe there is more than enough to separate Mario and Sonic.
I've given this thread (and myself) a few days to calm down before posting. This is to Dave C. I can only comment on what I know of your game which is based on what I saw in the teaser video. There could be some original content in Astrogate that I haven't seen. But you asked if I mind and this is your answer.Originally Posted by DaveC
To be honest, this all had me pretty down over the weekend. If you want to know what I think frankly, I really wish you hadn't made it so similar to Uchuusen.
Let me explain: This is not about you making a ufo game, or one with a 2-button control scheme, or a game with coins/orbs, or any other single element. It's that you've taken almost the entire thing - the concept, gameplay, and every little feature and effect; the smoke on the ground, the ship rotation, the flickering flame animations, the coin animation, the moving spike blocks, the rotating bar.. and I'm guessing more that isn't shown in the video. None of these individual features are mine to own but the combination of all of these things are what make Uchuusen my game; not in terms of copyright but in the sense that it's a reflection of my personality. That's why it hurts when someone else so blatantly takes it and THEN claims that they made it "100% from scratch."
"People clone/take ideas from mario/zelda/metroid/sonic etc." I understand that game designers take influence from the vast pool of ideas, add their creativity and spin on things and as a result the medium evolves. I get that. It's a wonderful thing. This is what you say you're exercising here but it looks a lot more like you intentionally took almost every feature of Uchuusen, then failed to acknowledge that it exists - and that's called "copying" to be polite about it, not "being influenced". Do you understand the difference? I can see that you changed the graphics, made your own levels (no small effort, admittedly) and added two more obstacles, but even with those things considered the similarities are glaring, and I'm obviously not the only person to notice. That someone could trace another game so closely and then say to the original author "this is 100% my own work" is stunning. And that there is what is eating at me the most.
The reason I posted below your original post is because I wanted you to acknowledge Uchuusen - something you didn't do in the game's description, or on your Youtube page, or on your website. Of course you didn't have to, but it would have been a kind gesture and sure would have been a more graceful description than "The game is retro-lunar-landery kinda game.. except with more baddies and less landing..." Tell me honestly, were you hoping that no one would call you out on this? Then when I posted a link to my game, you admitted taking it but said that you couldn't remember its name. I don't buy that excuse. I found Uchuusen by searching on gamebuilder.info for "Chantico Temple", which is YOUR game, and this is the results page for a competition we both entered in 2010. Uchuusen was my entry. The one you voted for. (Thanks for that, by the way)
http://gamebuilder.info/world/conten...tition-results
There is one other thing that I'd like to ask. My game was open source, as you know. You said that you made this game from scratch, but I'm almost convinced that's my movement code you're using. Just to clarify, you would be legally safe but I'm asking you to be honest because you said that the code was 100% made from scratch, and I'm saying that it's doubtful. This probably won't make sense to most reading this, but the Uchuusen ufo movement is quite a bit more than y+yacceleration. There are a things that go against physics and logical thinking (your Y acceleration is affected my your X velocity, for example.) I spent hours, literally, just tweaking the numbers in that expression to get the movement feeling as it does, and for you to have used the same values would be one hell of a coincidence. I could be wrong, but in that video it looks identical. You're already comfortable taking ideas from people and some things you've posted haven't been honest (frankly), so I'm saying it's 100% possible and 90% likely. I'm willing to be proven wrong, but can you prove that it's your own code and not mine, either copied and pasted or used as a direct reference?
I truly hope that your future games aren't so similar to any other games made by indie devs in this community or any other. More for their sake than yours. I don't want anyone to feel like I have over the past few days.
I didn't realise it was so similar!! I thought he'd just used the very fundamentals. Otherwise I'd have responded differently. Not quite so comfortable about this one anymore...
Part of me wants to say "that's business" but I like to think that in this community we work together and help one another out and would never try to step over each other for money.
I don't think he had any malicious intentions though nim, he clearly loved your game and took massive inspiration from it, I'm sure his lack of a mention came from absentmindedness rather than malice, at least I hope so. Perhaps some kind of deal could be made here?
Anybody else thinking of Zynga right now?
I honestly thought nim was going to port his game to the iphone first.
OMC had emailed me about it being perfect for the iOS platform.
I couldn't see the video, but I sure hope he didn't steal code. That wouldn't be nice.
Well he's hardly helping himself.
http://www.meetup.com/freedom-perth/members/36331192/
"If you have any ideas for an App tell me and I'll "steal" it, make millions and won't feel bad about it!"
Ummm, wow.
The design world is littered with the corpses of those that lack creativity and originality.
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