Clones, Copies and Inspirations

This week, let's talk about developing games based on existing ones from downright cloning a game to games that are inspired from existing ones.

There are at least two ways to approach designing a game. The first is to design a completely original game, which can be difficult to do at times. Everyone has a great idea but pulling it off is an entirely different matter. This can lead people to the second approach, take an existing game and develop a new one based on said game. Now this approach has a few variants.

Some people can take the laziest route and simply clone a game. This usually involves keeping all the core mechanics and changing the visuals so it looks somewhat different. An example of this is Triple Town and Yeti Town with the latter being a clone of the former game. Don't EVER take this route because you're riding on the back of someone else's success. It's even worse when the cloners don't acknowledge the game they cloned.

The next route is improving an existing game. This involves developing a game similar to an existing one except the aim is to fix its flaws and leave alone what isn't broken. Another way of looking at this route is developing a game that's inspired from an existing game.

However, this can be tricky because it can be borderline cloning. But it depends on how you handle it. For example, recently, NimbleBit released a game called Nimble Quest. When it was released, several people accused them of cloning an existing game called Call of Snakes. However, NimbleBit has said during an interview that they were inspired by the Call of Snakes game (see link below for the interview).

In the end, Nimble Quest turned out to be a great game, some saying much better than Call of Snakes. Which is great because NimbleBit not only improved on an existing game's idea, but they gave Call of Snakes credit for their inspiration.

This is how our industry moves forward. As we improve on each other's idea, we bring new innovations to the table. Also, think about this... when people clone or copy a game, they will always add at least one new feature to avoid their game being seen as a blatant clone or copy. Though it's nearly always obvious to the public, the need to add at least one new feature can be positive, negative, a new innovation or be the foundation of something revolutionary.

I've placed an interesting video of a TED talk regarding the above but in the fashion industry.

Now, I'm not promoting cloning, copying or the like... I'm merely giving you another perspective to this subject. I know it can be painful to see a game based on yours becoming more successful, but know that without your game, it wouldn't be possible.

Well, that's it for this week. I hope I've opened your minds to this part of the gaming industry. See you all next week!

[Links]

TED - Lessons from fashion's free culture: Link
NimbleBit Interview: Link