Joystiq http://www.joystiq.com Joystiq http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/http://www.joystiq.com/media/feedlogo.gif Joystiq http://www.joystiq.com en-us Copyright 2013 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/<![CDATA[A Ridiculous Fishing story: Reel talk from Vlambeer and Gamenauts]]>http://www.joystiq.com/2011/09/07/a-ridiculous-fishing-story-reel-talk-from-vlambeer-and-gamenaut/http://www.joystiq.com/2011/09/07/a-ridiculous-fishing-story-reel-talk-from-vlambeer-and-gamenaut/http://www.joystiq.com/2011/09/07/a-ridiculous-fishing-story-reel-talk-from-vlambeer-and-gamenaut/#comments While Super Crate Box developer Vlambeer was preparing to announce an iPhone version of its first game, the browser-based Radical Fishing, it discovered that the game was almost on the App Store. Sort of.

A game called Ninja Fishing, published by Gamenauts, bears an unmistakeable resemblance to Radical Fishing. In both games, you start by controlling a hook falling through the water, dodging fish on the way down. You then pull the hook up at high speed, grabbing as many fish as you can. Then you yank the fish out of the water and destroy as many as you can before they splash back down. The art is different, and there are some tweaks, but the two games are, at the very least, closely related.

Continue reading A Ridiculous Fishing story: Reel talk from Vlambeer and Gamenauts

JoystiqA Ridiculous Fishing story: Reel talk from Vlambeer and Gamenauts originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 07 Sep 2011 16:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>app-storegamenautsmobileninja-fishingradical-fishingrami-ismaelridiculous-fishingstanley-adrianusvlambeerWed, 07 Sep 2011 16:45:00 EST<![CDATA[IGF chair continues campaign against game cloning]]>http://www.joystiq.com/2011/08/15/igf-chair-continues-campaign-against-game-cloning/http://www.joystiq.com/2011/08/15/igf-chair-continues-campaign-against-game-cloning/http://www.joystiq.com/2011/08/15/igf-chair-continues-campaign-against-game-cloning/#comments Independent Games Festival chairman Brandon Boyer is quite unhappy with Gamenaut's iOS title Ninja Fishing, a game that's more than "inspired" by indie studio Vlambeer's Flash game Radical Fishing. Vlambeer was secretly in the process of porting the game to iOS when the studio was blindsided by the clone.

"I have a chart I'm almost done with. This is not inspiration," Boyer told us at GDC Europe today when he brought up the dilemma. "The things [Radical Fishing] doesn't have is ... Fruit Ninja. Radical Fishing didn't have Fruit Ninja. [Ninja Fishing] has everything else, except they added Fruit Ninja to one of the parts."

Boyer continued, "The progress, the structure, the power-ups. The mechanics, the three-part design. It's just Radical Fishing. I think most people in the indie circle haven't played Ninja Fishing, which is good, but I think because of that they don't quite understand how blatant it was. Once you lay it out side by side [a project that Boyer will publish soon on an excel sheet he showed us], it's like 'Oh yeah, they just 100 percent ripped that off.'"

When asked what the difference is between "inspiration" and theft, Boyer said, "It's like the thing about pornography, you know it when you see it."

If this type of blatant cloning sounds familiar, it's because it is. In February, the story of The Blocks Cometh theft made the rounds. Indies being ripped off by indies isn't the only type of iOS cloning going on, either. It can also happen with major publishers, as was the case with Capcom's MaXplosion, a blatant clone of Twisted Pixel's high-profile 'Splosion Man.

[Image credit: Official GDC]

JoystiqIGF chair continues campaign against game cloning originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 15 Aug 2011 18:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>brandon-boyerGamenautsgdce-2011IGFmobileninja-fishingpcradical-fishingvlambeerMon, 15 Aug 2011 18:15:00 EST