Dutch developers Vlambeer fuel discussion on game cloning
What would you do if you would find that your creation, on which you’ve spend time, money and energy, headaches, blood, sweat and tears, is released into the world, brutally copied by another, yet minimally modified to appear slightly different and to see it have great success? And how would it affect you when, to make matters even worse, the cloners accuse you of cloning 'their' game?
This happened to Dutch game developers Rami Ismail and Jan Willem Nijman of game studio Vlambeer with their game Radical Fishing. Radical Fishing's 2011 game launch was abruptly disturbed by the sudden release of clone Ninja Fishing. Ismail and Nijman decided not to sit back and speak out against the practice of game cloning.
The reactions to this were not solely supportive, much to Vlambeer’s surprise. Bravely, Ismael and Nijman decided to continue the debate on game cloning. Last week Vlambeer was invited to speak on the topic at the Game Developers Conference 2012 in San Francisco during the session 'Advancing the Discussion: Clones'.
Ismael and Nijman try to breathe new life into the discussion on game cloning, reports IndieGames.com: “The way we look at it, game design is a series of problems and the solutions to those problems. Clones don't care about the problems of design, they just take someone else's solutions. They don't look at the problems, because they don't care about them. Cloning hurts the industry, and the discussion on clones has completely stalemated.”
Vlambeer also responds to some much-heard arguments used by cloning proponents:
"Some people say that simple games are bound to be clones. We say f*ck that. We make minimalist games, we will make what we want. We won't let the threat of people cloning our game change the games we make."
"Some say software patents would ruin the industry. This is sort of a scare tactic. People say "What if in the days of super mario, someone had patented jumping". We don't want people fighting over patents in our industry. This has nothing to do with clones, this is a differnt discussion.
"Some say clones are free marketing. No. Clones are horrible marketing, it's really hard to handle without looking like the bad guy. Handling that stuff has taken more time than any game that we've made. It will cause backlash. If you say something people will get mad. You have to defend yourself for defending your game. People have accused us of cloning Ninja Fishing."
“Some people say clones don't hurt the industry. Cloning stagnates the industry. If there are only clones, nothing new is going to happen. We're losing a lot of good people. A lot of talented artists, programmers, designers are making clones. If you keep cloning, there's a loss of diversity in games. People who don't understand game design are making games."
IndieGames.com announces an interview with Ismael and Nijman on the topic of cloning and the emotional impact that the clone of Radical Fishing had on them. Interesting! To be continued.
Read more about developments in the games industry on FutureOfCopyright.com:
Source: IndieGames.com
Comments(9)
phulshof
Judging from the screenshots, Ninja Fishing simply is the better looking game, which may very well have impacted the relative success of Radical Fishing. The success of a game is rarely in the idea; it's in the execution of the idea.
bart
Isn't the issue here that they 'stole' the game concept?
The success of a game is both in the idea AND the execution. Good graphics do not a good game make.
phulshof
Depending on how you define "game concept", there's hardly a game out there that's not a "stolen" concept. These two games have similarities, but also differences, not unlike all the 3D shooters out there, the tetris clones, etc.
Game ideas are a dime a dozen to be honest, and usually a combination of things that have been before. Execution is what makes the differences between a good and a bad game.
Thijzo
@PHulshof: I think that in most cases you're absolutely right. However, in this specific case, it's not just a developer who iterated on an existing concept. They copied it, a till z. In my opinion that is indeed IP-theft.
Kamisama
This is laughable, Patents would only give even more power to big corporations like EA and Activisition that would have the means to produce patents by the hundreds, while the indies would be stomped like insects under an incredible amount of lawsuit they can't afford to defend against.
Hell look at that, Bethesda threatened Mojang of lawsuit because Mojang's "Scrolls" upcoming game could be mistook for the trademark "The Elder Scrolls", even though they have nothing in common.
Patents for game design would make this type of absurd scenario a common occurence, and would cripple the industry more than anything.
By the way, I can't think of any successful clone recently ... and if a clone was more successful than the original game, well, then it means the clone fixed a flaw of the original game, and the players are more satisfied with it. Too bad for the original's creators, but that's ultimately better for the buyers.
You don't want patents, trust me, since they ever existed they always did more harm than good.
phulshof
@Thijzo: As said: the power is in the execution, not in the idea. If NF is more popular than RF, I can only conclude that they wrote a better game.
Future of Copyright
There are differences between copyright and patents. Patents give their owner the exclusive right to exploit or sell a technological invention. Inventors have to apply for a patent at a patent office and have to pay for it. Copyright protects creative, intellectual or artistic works and arises automatically when a work meets minimal standards of originality. Games also fall under the scope of copyright. The idea of a game is not copyrighted, but the execution is. There is no clear dividing line between idea and execution. The relevant criterion is whether the total impression of two games is similar. In case of a copyright infringement, is not important which of the two games is the better or the more successful one. However, it is relevant which of the games was created first.
phulshof
@FuC: I'm not so sure it would work that way, because that might make LibreOffice an infringement of MS Word, MS Word an infringement of WordPerfect, MS Windows an infringement of MAC OS, Linux an infringement of UNIX, etc. Software with a similar task usually has a similar look and feel. Somehow I doubt that creating a game, no matter how similar to another game, can be considered copyright infringement without actual code/binary copying.
Talat
This post is related to game cloning and why too much of policing can actually harm the game community.
http://pikplay.com/2012/06/clone-my-game-einstein-would-approve/
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