Triple is a cool indie/casual match-3 style social puzzle game and it’s mobile incarnation was developed using Unity!
More Here…
http://www.lostgarden.com/2012/01/real-triple-town-available-ios-and.html
Looks fun., hope it does well.
But what’s with all the rip-offs these days? Its depressing to read that blog and discover that this guys game was ripped off not once but twice before he was able to release a mobile version. This is the third or fourth instance I can remember reading about in just a few weeks! Its bad enough having your game cloned, but in one instance they actually used stole the Triple Town assets too!
Just don’t understand why ‘game developers’ are so eager to copy someone’s original idea at verbatim and pass it off as their own.
I have been aware of LostGarden for a considerable amount of time and enjoyed reading his blog and looking at the cute graphics which for most part is under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. I also find it unethical not to at least give credit and they should have ask the owner of the assets if this was okay to make such blatant ripoff clones.
http://www.lostgarden.com/2007/03/lost-garden-license.html
@Noisecrime - That could go for any medium. Why do musicians cover other peoples songs, why do comedians steal other peoples jokes etc etc.
While I have used Lost Garden assets in Fishing Bears and the concept for Dan’s “Fishing Girl” it did fall under his Prototyping Challenge section which was fair game to anyone who wanted to produce it. I also got Dan’s blessing to upload my version to the App Store and keep him up to date with things from time to time. He is also mentioned in the credits.
Dan is very open and honest about games he is working on and what he has found, I guess that also makes it easier for others to copy his concepts.
What if he were to use Unity in the future he would be able to launch to multiple platforms very quickly.
I really like his site some very good articles and as you have mentioned he has some great little art assets that are free to use (with credit) by indie game developers.
But his openness also ensures he has copyright, in effect by announcing and telling you about his games and their design he is ensuring his ownership of the design and it’s creation.
Except you can’t copyright game designs. You can probably patent the crap out of insignificant details though. Pretty sure Sega still has the patent to having a floating 3D arrow point to a waypoint in a driving game (can you recall any other AAA driving game that has copied the Sega Rally navigition arrow?).
But you still can’t copyright a game design.
Some other bizarre game related patents: http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/Multiformat/Top+5+charts/feature.asp?c=29914
Not sure musician covers are the same really, the majority of times they change it to fit their own style and anything that is released would end up paying royalties. Its not as though they can release a song to a different market, beating the original author either.
That not to say you shouldn’t be able to ‘clone’ games for the learning experience, but you’d never release them, let alone try to sell them. However in all the cases i’ve seen, its been pure greed that motivates these people. They weren’t trying to build off an original idea, bringing something new to the genre or imbued it with some great new art style or anything, they are literally duplicates of other peoples work.
Indeed it does, but only if you know about him. Yeti Town is obviously making money off his game judging by the comments. Its quite nice to see so many comments pointing out the rip-off too, but sadly that doesn’t seem to stop people buying that version.
The problem with this situation is its bound to make people less open about their projects.Why risk showing an early demo for feedback, if someone’s going to rip off the entire thing and put out some shoddy version before you?
I still see a lot of similarities there with copy cat game design. Changing the song to fit their own style would be similar to changing the art assets, the words remain the same (game play, features, etc). Just because they pay royalties doesn’t negate the fact that they are usually either doing it to ride the fame of the song or they have a lack of an imagination or writing talent, again similar to game design.
And if the original author posted the full song online months before the actual release date I am sure there will be a band somewhere trying to make money off it.
With the state of the market at the minute there are many more “game developers” all looking to make a quick buck. It is far easier for people with a lack of imagination and general games design skills to take someone else’s hard work and try to pass it off as thier own especially if there is a market for it.
yeah, this is what truly saddens me.
Couple that with most newcomers to the scene simply wanting to re-make whatever game it was they played recently and original/fresh designs end up being pretty rare.