Friday, February 25, 2011

FortressCraft is Bad For Gaming (?)

(edit: Full disclosure - the ? in the title is new. In discussion, I've learned a bit more about this than original research had turned up. Check both the comments and the next article for discussion on that. In summary though: I retract my assessment that FortresCraft can objectively be called a "clone" of Minecraft and the idea that FortressCraft will significantly damage Minecraft's bottom line. The bit about it scaring other developers away from that business model though - that's still sound.)

You all know Minecraft right? Indie game? Big hit internet sensation? The current darling of artsy game connoisseur types - a title previously held by the likes of Limbo (meh), Braid, and Portal?
Alright, NOW we're getting pretentious.
Well, have you ever heard of FortressCraft? No? Well, it's the thing that looks to dig a hole in the roof of your mine and use it as a cistern.
This is your indie game on FortressCraft.
You see, FortressCraft is Minecraft. The difference? Graphics, some as-of-yet unspecified extra features which do not yet exist, and, the big one, an XBox Live release.

This is bad for the gaming industry, developer and consumer alike.

Why? Well, Minecraft has been successful largely due to its unique business plan. It allow users to pay for a work in progress, on faith, in order to fund the completion of the project. It provides investors for a product which would otherwise never be made, and players don't have to wait for a finished product to enjoy its parts. It is, in theory, great. In a world where this were common practice, we all would have been playing Duke Nukem Forever for years, rather than anticipating it, "abandonware" would just be "unfinishedware," and more such software would actually have the funds to never go on hiatus in the first place.
Maybe the original, abandoned version of Daikatana WOULD have. (Check the link to actually find out!)
FortressCraft destroys this. You see, if the designer of Minecraft had not used this business plan, none of us would have played Minecraft, beyond the original two week demo project which it has since far outgrown. Even that original project would never have received the attention it has. The developers would not have the funds to sustain the project. They could not simply hope, without funding, that, upon completion, they would recoup their losses and produce a profit. Minecraft simply would not exist.

By extension, of course neither would FortressCraft. Without this business model, he would have never seen it, never had time to capitalize on the situation, and apparently never developed a interesting game concept of his own. Yet, he'll be the one to profit from the Xbox market. That might not seem like a huge deal, but one must recall that the vast majority of gamers aren't "in the know" enough to know all of this. This is especially true for the console market. Almost every sale of FortressCraft will be an individual who will no longer need to buy MineCraft. In other words, that's pay the designer should have gotten for his work that he now never will. It might not seem like a big deal, but for an indie developer that's a financial hit that's incredibly hard to take.

By doing such a project as FortressCraft, its designer has all but doomed all future chances of success for such business models. Even if it's a bomb, or never releases, its effects will be felt. You just can't risk the chance of some guy swooping in and aping your work at the last minute, making great profit for little investment. It doesn't promote "competition" because it denies Minecraft's team any opportunity to compete. Competition has a positive economic effects, unjust enrichment does not.

So, let's move beyond the subjective. We can argue all day over whether or not FotressCraft is a "clone" or represents copyright infringement. That's an extremely complex legal matter I'm not qualified to comment on. Let's focus on what this objectively means for gamers and designers.

-Designers: It has gotten that much harder to fund independent projects, and thus that much harder to create original and experimental products.

-Gamers: There are games - games you would have loved - that will now never exist.

And all for what? A minor financial flash in the pan for one man, a one hit wonder unlikely to be followed up by future creative success once he's wrung the creative juices out of someone else's work.

In short, if you're anyone other than the creator of FortressCraft, FortressCraft has hurt you.

(edit: Some text redacted for being unnecessarily personal and entirely based on my own presumptions)
(edit 2: I'd also like to add that, while this article is about a particular case, this isn't a new practice. Oh how creativity is rewarded in the industry we so often decry as bereft of original ideas.)

45 comments:

  1. You say because of this one game which BTW is on a different platform and is only a look a like to Minecraft, there will be future games which will randomly cease to exist.

    Im sorry but could you clarify an example of this logic anywhere, cause I swear that things like this have happened plenty of times before.

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  2. Sure.

    I'm simply stating that Minecraft's business plan is critically undermined by FortressCraft. It essentially shows that such an open development process is impossible in this market.

    Thus, any title which could have otherwise benefited from such a business plan must now contend with the possibility of such imitators. In an industry where investments so often fail to pay off, that essentially means no more open development processes. No more "buy now, play now, get the final product when its done."

    This means independent devs have an even harder time getting funding for their titles. That means less independent games get made.

    As far as past examples of this, I don't know of another indie game with such a business plan - but I do know of other industries which are experimenting with such plans.

    Dead Gentlemen Productions, a small independent film group known best for "The Gamers" and it's sequel "The Gamer: Dorness Rising," for example, now produces an episodic series called "JourneyQuest." They also use a business model wherein they produce content as the budget allows, based solely on their audience's donations. In other words, if you like the show, you send them money, and they have the funds to make more shows. If you don't like the show, you don't, they go broke, and thus no more JourneyQuest episodes. Like MineCraft, this show would not exist without such a business plan.

    If someone were to create another series, with the same exact plot, characters, jokes, etc. but spend the time and money they didn't have to invest there on special effects, then distribute that product via a more popular channel while JourneyQuest remains in production, you would see a similar effect. The show's potential audience would be severely truncated and the derivative production would reap profits inordinately high for their initial investment, as the original production team's time and effort would have basically been invested in the derivative product as well.

    That wouldn't necessarily end the show of course, but it would prove to others that their business model was an unsound one.

    Now, as far as how getting venture capital directly from consumers differs from working for a publisher, that's an entirely different topic which, if it needs discussing, is a discussion of its own.

    As always, I appreciate your readership and response, even if you don't agree with me. Criticism helps ensure that I try to convey my ideas as clearly and thoroughly as possible.

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  3. "A minor financial flash in the pan for one man, a one hit wonder unlikely to be followed up by future creative success once he's wrung the creative juices out of someone else's work."

    Gosh, this seems a little harsh. Have you reviewed my indie game and professional career? How about the time EA took one of my indie games and repackaged it?

    "Why? Well, Minecraft has been successful largely due to its unique business plan."

    *I* thought Minecraft was successful largely due to 'being really awesome', myself. The concept of 'paying for the game before it is done' is something the MMO market have been doing for many, many years (Beta/Early-access)

    "some as-of-yet unspecified extra features which do not yet exist"

    I can see you haven't done your research tho! My main issue with detailing these extra features, is now I see comments like "Well apart from the lighting and models and graphics and vegetation and water and avatars and voice chat and p2p and relics and emotes, you're doing nothing different!'

    A question, though; I'm doing this without funding. Why is my situation different?

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  4. I support Minecraft to the fully, but I would like to point out that the fancy special effects that minecraft dont have is merely the design of the game.

    My final point being that Games will always be somewhat unique, Minecraft for example looks the 16 bit way that it do because it was designed so, and if they wanted bumpmaps and shiny reflections im sure they could use a while and add that, but really Minecraft is just a low res game and I think I speak for a lot of us that I like Minecraft the way it is.

    Reason for my response is mainly because I think you are overreacting, and that I believe this wont effect Minecraft to any big extent.

    Thx for a quick response, really appreciate it.

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  5. DjArcas, you're right about the personal line in there. I didn't research the man, just the product and the business plan. I'll redact that bit but, in the interest of fair play - leave the history of it visible. I wouldn't want it to look like I was trying to change the record of what I originally said.

    But "EA took one of my indie games and repackaged it?"

    Doesn't that hit the nail on the damned head?

    Now, I don't know specifics, but I gather that you produced an indie title that EA chose to copy and sell without seeking your permission or otherwise compensating you. I'll also assume that you're 100% right and know this with 100% certainty.

    If you had not done that work, EA would not have a game to release, and would not have made any money off of it, right?

    So, the formula is something like:
    (DjArcas Investment + EA Investment = DjArcas Profits + EA Profits)
    or, to use like terms:
    (X+Y=X+Y)
    Unfortunately, there's a mathmatical problem, as DjArcas Investment > EA Investment. X = 0.9, Y = 0.1 (I'm assuming there was some repackaging, re-branding, code work, etc.), yet on the other end X = 0 and Y = 1.

    You were slighted, illegally so by your reckoning. But, again, I'm not arguing the legality or morality here. I'm talking about the industry.

    EA made profits from your investment. I imagine that hurt your motivation severely. Possibly made you consider giving up this crooked business and go do IT somewhere. Doesn't such a practice that so undermines the creative engine behind the industry undermine it's long-term stability?

    And, here's were I may be getting personal because it sounds like YOU are saying you're the guy behind FortressCraft which, for the sake of argument, I will accept. If you're doing the same thing to another designer as EA did to you - doesn't that prove what an infectious and destructive practice this is? They turned the thing that was supposed to be your break into a $10 discount bin piece of shovelware. They broke your idealism and shattered a dream. So, you're going to turn a buck by doing the same to someone else? Does that not eventually leave us with an industry absent of any dream or creative spark at all?

    To answer your more direct question though, you DO have funding. It isn't cash - but it's every hour and dollar invested in R&D in Minecraft up to the point that you became aware of it and began your project. Yes, at this point you've begun adding new features - but you did not start at square 1. Someone else carried you a few spaces first.

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  6. Oh, and DjArcas, as for "the MMO market" involving paying for a game that is not yet finished - explain that please. MMOs charge for ongoing network support and continued content expansion. The player, however, pays a $60 up-front free for the content that's on the game disk upon purchase. That's a simple case of exchanging funds for goods.

    Also, I don't understand your comments, such as in this interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpaZ3ziupAg in which you state that Minecraft has no gameplay.

    I agree that the game lacks long term goals. After you've got a set of diamond armor and tools, you've no practical motivation to continue. However, that's something that team has explicitly states is being worked out.

    But, you allege that it's just a lego build tool - which is why I myself ignored the title for a long time. It's not though, survival mode has considerably more features than building.

    If your goal was simply to bring more to what you saw, did you ever approach them about adding your expertise to the project? Joining the team? If so, discussing this could do a great deal to silence your detractors.

    As always, tell me if I'm wrong, show me where I've made a mistake, and I'll thankful for it. I would hate to have slighted someone unjustly, and would seek to rectify such mistakes if they'd been made. These are simply my thoughts which, like all opinions, are formed based upon my knowledge and experiences. Still, I think there is an objective fact to discern here.

    The release either is or is not good for the industry.

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  7. Damn this comment system is rubbish.

    "EA made profits from your investment. I imagine that hurt your motivation severely. Possibly made you consider giving up this crooked business and go do IT somewhere."

    Far from it. My game had made whatever money it was going to made. I was amazed and amused that EA had ripped me off to (and believe me, this ripping off makes Minecraft and Fortresscraft look like chalk and cheese!)

    "Someone else carried you a few spaces first. "

    Yes. If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants. Dwarf Fortress has been my biggest inspiration so far; the Minecraft stuff has mostly been the inspiration for the graphics tech, not gameplay ideas.

    "I agree that the game lacks long term goals. After you've got a set of diamond armor and tools, you've no practical motivation to continue."

    Can't say as I know what you're talking about. Fortresscraft has no armour or tools. Neither does Minecraft Creative. Minecraft Survival and Fortresscraft Chapter 1 barely have anything in common barring walking, making things, and blocks.

    Comparing Minecraft Survival to Fortresscraft Chapter 1 doesn't lead to any particular similarities in the gameplay either.

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  8. "Oh, and DjArcas, as for "the MMO market" involving paying for a game that is not yet finished - explain that please. MMOs charge for ongoing network support and continued content expansion. The player, however, pays a $60 up-front free for the content that's on the game disk upon purchase. That's a simple case of exchanging funds for goods."

    Many many MMOs allow you, once you've bought the game 2,3,4,5,6 months ahead of release, access to the beta. It's been a standard way of building community and fixing bugs for years now.

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  9. Yes, and I've participated in many, but you must acknowledge that this is entirely different. The player's investment has absolutely no bearing on weather or not the title will achieve gold status at such a late juncture. "Beta" specifically implies that the game, while still imperfect, is prepared for exposure to individuals outside of the company. At that stage of development in almost every title, the big decisions have been made. The content is in place. They're just doing stress tests that require financially prohibitive numbers and, as one Spec Ops: The Line Dev stated in an interview I can't find at the moment, there's an unfortunate industry tendency to not really use "Betas" for testing at all, but purely as marketing schemes.

    As far as "Comparing Minecraft Survival to Fortresscraft Chapter 1 doesn't lead to any particular similarities in the gameplay either," that's an entirely subjective point which I don't know that we can conclude here. That being said, as subjective as it is it does seem somewhat fundemental to the argument. After all, how can your title be capitalizing on the progress of the other if you've taken no more than the pre-existing concept of 3D grid based level design. In that sense you could argue that you're no more similar to Minecraft than 3D Dot Game Heroes.

    I do, however, disagree based on the latest build of Minecraft and the latest footage I've been able to find of your game. If you really do believe that my perceptions are skewed, however, please feel free to put me straight. Put up a poll on your site/forums to see if those looking forward to the title don't see the similarities either.

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  10. "I do, however, disagree based on the latest build of Minecraft and the latest footage I've been able to find of your game. If you really do believe that my perceptions are skewed, however, please feel free to put me straight."

    As I said, you are comparing Minecraft Survival to FortressCraft Chapter 1. I stated that Minecraft Creative has no goals, no gameplay, it's a toy, a sandbox, an engine, a level editor, a pretty place you and your friends can build ridiculous things.

    Hence my comment; FortressCraft can't copy Minecraft (Creative)'s gameplay, as there's simply nothing to copy.

    Regardless, do I think my game is good or bad for the industry?

    Neither.

    Minecraft did an amazing thing, and it's one of the few lucrative Indie Games that have ever been made.

    FortressCraft might turn out to be the next Dwarf Fortress, but it might turn out to be the next CreeperWorld. Heard of that game? No? A pity; it's utterly, utterly brilliant, yet sank without a trace.

    Will FortressCraft ever have the same sort of industry-changing impact that MineCraft did? Almost certainly not.

    ""Beta" specifically implies that the game, while still imperfect, is prepared for exposure to individuals outside of the company."

    No, Beta has a different meaning within the games industry. Regardless, I don't see any difference between Minecraft ("Give me $20 and you get to play unfinished builds") and an MMO's early-access/beta ("Give us $80 and you get to play unfinished builds") Is there a fundamental difference I'm missing?

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  11. "Almost every sale of FortressCraft will be an individual who will no longer need to buy MineCraft."

    I own quite a lot of games. I own all the Lego games, for instance. They're quite similar! I have 20 or more racing games, a dozen beat-em-ups and so many RPGs...

    I really can't imagine anyone would NOT buy MC if they have FC; quite the opposite, I can imagine a heavy FC-Xbox player going to his friend's house, seeing them play MC, and going 'Hey, that's like FC that I have on the Xbox, I LOVE that game, omg, I'm going to get MC for my PC now!' - might the MC player pick up FC for his Xbox? Well, I hope so ;)

    Saying that people won't buy one game in a genre as they already own one is simply not in line with the reality of the games industry.

    The other obvious point; Minecraft has already made, what, $15 million? Does Mojang need to become the 800lb gorilla of the indie industry, marking off entire sections of the market with it's dominating scent, not allowing other developers access to these?

    I *love* the phrase 'unfinishedware', and I can most certainly describe FC as such. But please, do not purport MC to have invented this sort of business model. Dwarf Fortress (although more donations than sales based) has been thriving for years as a piece of unfinishedware.

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  12. No, I hadn't heard of Creeper World. I'll check it out. Thanks for the heads up ahead of time.

    The issue I'm getting at is that that $20 ensures that there WILL be a finished build, while the AAA title is coming out regardless of your early $80 investment.

    ^ - My argument in a nutshell is this, complicated by the fact that a release marketed as "like this thing that hasn't come out but is better" is bad news for the game in progress. The industry effect of this would be devs more closely guarding the details of their progress until they've gone gold. This makes perfect sense, right? I mean, outside of this particular instance. Assuming I'm wrong here and the two titles are unrelated.

    (Inconsequential Nitpick: I fail to understand your statements about beta though. Yes there are internal vs external betas, but if you have people testing your game that you don't consider part of your team, even in a volunteer sense, that's technically beta. Maybe I've been looking at the wrong dictionaries, but I've never heard otherwise.)

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  13. "The issue I'm getting at is that that $20 ensures that there WILL be a finished build,"

    Well, that's not entirely true. "Hmm. I've sold 5 copies. I give up"

    "while the AAA title is coming out regardless of your early $80 investment."

    Again, not necessarily true; APBs dying stillbirth of a release shows that even if it does come to market, it might not last long! Any games dev who's been around a while knows the pain of a canned game; MMOs aren't exempt. Dragon Empires, anyone?

    ""like this thing that hasn't come out but is better" is bad news for the game in progress."

    Truthfully, is that a fair thing to say? If one is objective about Minecraft's status...

    A) It's mostly finished.
    B) Most major features are in, and complete
    C) It's sold a million copies

    How is it *any* different from any other commercially released game?

    Sure, it's being patched endlessly, but so is TF2.

    In fact, that is an excellent example; TF2 and Minecraft are the same thing. The main difference is that Notch says 'It's not finished, it's beta', whereas Valve go 'We added a cool thing!'

    Both games released with a certain quality bar that has improved over time. Both games required you to pay money to pay, and have received many patches and new features. Both games were released with a clear dev statement saying 'This is not the final product'

    Minecraft can sell 0 more copies and still be wildly successful. Nothing can ever change that.

    When/if there are many more unfinishedware titles, things are different, but Minecraft most certainly does not, and should not, claim exclusivity on that development style.

    If lots of games are doing this, it turns into 'survival of the fittest' - is that a not a good thing, from a gamer's perspective?

    My opinion: 'Minecraft has not come out yet' is a false statement. It's out. It's not finished; but "games are never finished. They merely escape"

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  14. I appreciate your continued responses here. T posit that Minecraft is not legitimately in beta, but rather in an extended, almost subscription based gold phase is one I had not considered and does certainly shine new light on your position.

    To allow a better mind than myself to paraphrase you, “Art is never finished, only abandoned,” but at what point does something that is seemingly in a constant state of upkeep proceed to be "old hat?" At what point is something no longer innovation but a stepping stone to new and better things?

    Logically, I must admit that that occurs as soon as it's a thing. I've Alpha tested games, internalized design decisions, and certainly those internalizations have in some small way informed my design choices from there out - immediately.

    That's fair, and good for the industry in that it's obviously better to have more informed and inspired designers than not.

    So, where do you draw the line on "inspiration?" My original thesis would state that the line should be drawn before your success can be directly derived from another developers and is, in fact, to their detriment.

    While your game may not be that, I bet the guys over at Twisted Pixel believe that every copy of MaxPlosion, for example, is Capcom taking money out of their pocket. It IS an issue that exists, but hasn't really reared its head until recently, now that digital distribution has made for less filtered content.

    Let's be clear though, I'm not saying this as a moral judgment. That's essentially pointless. If you were a strict Objectivist, your morality would clearly find the harmed party at greater fault than the benefactor.

    No, I'm suggesting that rewarding derivative works discourages innovation within the industry, promotes stagnation, and is thus harmful. (See the comic book industry or games, not so long ago.)

    All this being covered so far, I will say that I'll be making another post soon, adding to my previous statements, broadening my thesis, and acknowledging your defense and points.

    When I played Minecraft one of my first thoughts was that this + Dwarf Fortress would be fucking crazy. So far, I still don't see the big difference, but I look forward to you proving me wrong. Hell, if you actually accomplish that it'd be pretty damn impressive.

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  15. "but at what point does something that is seemingly in a constant state of upkeep proceed to be "old hat?""

    Hopefully never; it seems to be working for Warcraft!

    "So, where do you draw the line on "inspiration?""

    I don't. Some mechanics are lifted wholesale out of other games, whereas some features are completely new. I worked on Black; we had our own control method. It wasn't until past Alpha that we decided that was a ridiculous idea, and then just copied the Halo control layout. BANG! The game was instantly better. Clone? Plagiarising? Inspiration?

    "No, I'm suggesting that rewarding derivative works discourages innovation within the industry"

    I'd say that derivative works harm the industry much more than the horrible sequel culture that has developed. I believe all of the top 10 selling games last year apart from RDR were sequels.

    "When I played Minecraft one of my first thoughts was that this + Dwarf Fortress would be fucking crazy."

    Are you aware that Minecraft was inspired by Infinimer? I'm sure you are; are you aware that Notch's original goal was something very inspied by Dwarf Fortress - and look where that ended up!

    As for the Splosion Man/Capcom thing; that's taking the piss. I want to work on my unfinishedware game for a long time, steering it the way the community wants it, innovating and going down my own path.

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  16. Gah.

    "Notch's original goal was to write something very inspired by Dwarf Fortress - and look where that ended up!"

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  17. Your site's style hurts my eyes.

    Lines have been burnt into my retinas.

    A quick fix would be:

    body { color: #999999; }
    a { color: #9FC5E8; }
    a:visited { color: #0B5394; }

    Just sayin'.

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  18. Are you trying to imply that Notch isn't already getting filthy rich for the amount of work he does?

    Besides, It's his own fault for writing the game in FUCKING JAVA and ensuring it'll run on most platforms, just really really really badly.

    Plus, FortressCraft seems to have some fun new ideas.

    But i guess in your world there can be only one creative block-based game, one FPS, one RPG, one RTS and so forth.

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  19. Minecraft has been a success of epic proportions! Notch is a very rich, famous, and I assume fairly happy man right now?

    At this point, Fortresscraft can't harm that, can it?

    Infiniminer/Minecraft have almost created a new genre of game, and copying the voxel look and construction/destruction mechanic is similar to, for example, 'making a tile-based platformer'

    For the real 'Notch Defenders', well... Exhibit A is this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caXA-rbrnLU (No, it's not Inifiniminer-related)

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  20. Yes, but if Limbo was originally a 16bit plat-former. But then another person comes ago and completely take Limbos ideas and structure, but gives it "nicer" graphics and names it Zimbo there would be a problem,.... a big phat lawsuit problem

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  21. A better comparison would be the early days of first-person shooters, where a lot of games looked and played very similarly. They all used raycasting engines, and were all about running around corridors shooting.

    You could call them all 'evil nasty rip-offs' of Doom or Wolf3D or whatever came before. But they pushed the genre forwards. And the fierce competition (amongst rather similar games) led to large amounts of technical innovation and improvements in gameplay.

    What we have today is like the Wolfenstein 3D of the new 'Build-em-up' genre, and I'm quite sure that a bit of competition is likely to make future games more interesting?

    Notch made something awesome and has already been very well rewarded for it. (Many, many times better rewarded than key developers working on top-ten AAA console titles!)

    If anything, you should feel a bit sorry for the bloke that made Infiniminer, and was so close but yet so far from that mega-million-bucks success...

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  22. "Yes, but if Limbo was originally a 16bit plat-former. But then another person comes ago and completely take Limbos ideas and structure, but gives it "nicer" graphics and names it Zimbo there would be a problem,.... a big phat lawsuit problem "

    Limbo -> Little Big Planet. I found the basic gameplay concept to be exceptionally similar between those two games. Limbo was dark and moody, LBP bright and cheerful, but the gameplay - physics, character based, 2d platformer with extensive character->world->object interaction? Very close!

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  23. ya know what would solve this? if notch actually put the fucking game on the xbox! making a game for the PC and xbox is exactly the same thing just different controls. and microsoft loves taking in indie developers and helping them get there games on XBLA (not even indie games) just like super meat boy and the dishwasher.
    ~SMT Xero

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  24. I stopped reading after you said its the same as minecraft... If you want people to take you seriously, stop being so serious about things you don't apparently know about and start looking things up. Otherwise I will just point out that several multi million dollar games out there are from companies that started off doing quake/doom/UT mods in which they ended up getting /paid/ for. Starting from a familiar and already known development standpoint and then branching out your game into something far better than what it used to be is how games have always been done. For instance, prince of persia started off as jumping gaps in a 2d setting and we still have games that are just that, but with better graphics and more features. You called an incomplete game a copy when it already has several different features than minecraft with the thought that the guy making it is giving out several more ideas that he wants for the game. Nuff said

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  25. And no one can really say ppl are stealing ppls games when the codes and stories might be entierly diferent.

    If so dose that mean if i was to be inspired by Halo, or CoD and made a shooter i would be stealing that game. No because they are different story and all, yet at the same time they are completly the same just for the fact you do the same thing run around shot and kill thats it.

    Is someone stilling an idea or style when they make a 2D fighter that is like every other fighting game out there no they where simply inspired to make a game of the same type.

    Same thing gose on for sever game no mater what type, example (Age of Empiers, Red Alert, Warcraft, Civilisation) all the same type of game but completly different.

    Also who is to say FC come out and then MC sees it and says oh that looks awsome i think i might add something similer to that in this game, sure they are different but the idea is still around the same thing.

    Games evolve and evolve even further when you get more & more & more ideas from other games they are constently growing from ideas forever and ever its an endless circle of insperation for develpoer to develpoer for every game they play and see.

    Also new gernerations of developers come into play with there ideas from games they play up to building their carrer and use the ideas to build their games and other uses the ideas they have made.

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  26. I agree 100%!

    I read your words here, and imagined that you were standing in front of a large crowd - huge American flag behind you - and the national anthem was playing.

    It finished, and everyone cheered as you ended with "In short, if you're anyone other than the creator of FortressCraft, FortressCraft has hurt you. "

    It was wonderful.

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  27. I have nothing against FortressCraft, I play Minecraft, but I have to put in my hopefully objective thoughts here.
    I don't think that FortressCraft is hurting the people who play Minecraft on the computer. It wouldn't be hurting anyone if Minecraft was going to stay on the computer and not travel to the XBox.
    HOWEVER! Mojang does intend to release Minecraft for the XBox. I can see this progression of events happening once they have.
    "Hey, what's this? Minecraft?"
    "Looks like a copy of FortressCraft with worse graphics!"
    "Hey,DjArcas should sue!"
    What I think you should do is make it for PS3, which I don't think is planned to receive the gift of Minecraft. That way, the people who hate XBox for some unknown reason will still be able to play a (hopefully) good game in this genre.

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  28. I play fortresscraft and minecraft and fortresscraft has better graphics because it is about strictly making decorations and buildings and using your imagination for design do it is different than minecraft it just works the same

    ReplyDelete
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