When someone else makes "your" game

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#1

Last night I went off in search of some place holder art, didn’t need to be anything fancy, was only me that was going to see it, but I wanted something that would inspire me and encourage me.

Not long after I started searching I found something that look perfect, too perfect, initially I thought it was just for a fan site of the original, non-digital, version of the game I had started to work on.

I followed the artwork to a site, the site led me to a games news site… which mentioned a well established studio now being in the process of making the game… my game… *sniff*…

My hope had been to build a proof of concept, it was going to be quite complex, but then approach the relevant company and start discussing licensing (hence this suggestion on the voting site last April).

I will confess to not often feeling like I am blessed with the best of luck, however this came as somewhat of a blow last night. Most of the work I had done was paper based, and only in the last couple of months had I actually started to create anything in Unity.

I am now wondering how to proceed, continuing with a game that I know is already being built by an established studio which will invariably be much better, and delivered much quicker, than what I will produce seems a little bit, blunt… (adjective - not having a sharp edge or point). That said, it would perhaps still be interesting to continue as a personal project to see how it grows and how similar/dissimilar it ends up to the pro version.

I don’t want to say too much about the specific game/companies involved at this point, but the game in question has been out of the limelight for a good 20 years and I felt would be a fantastic opportunity to revive it and digitise it (plus I really wanted to play a digital version of it and as no one was making one, I thought I’d have a go).

Whilst this would have been a clone to some degree of an original game, it wasn’t a clone of an existing digital game, which I felt gave it a degree of originality.

Has anyone else been in a similar position? What did you do?

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#2

That sucks, sorry Rob.
I think it depends on how much you want to make that game.

You really need to have a good think about it. You don’t want to waste anymore of your time if you get half way down the road and decide to pack it in when the other company releases their game.

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#3

That’s a tough dilemma!

I guess we all should really pause from time to time while in the various stages of development to evaluate what’s really motivating us to make “our” game. Besides the obvious financial return of a successful game, there are other motivations I consider with my endeavors. (My projects have yet to fall in the financially successful category.)

Does this project teach me a new skill or technique that will add to my repertoire and make future projects easier or better?
Is my passion about playing one of my favorite games with “my touch” on it? (A lot of fan clones and mods fall in this category)
Am I just interested in building this game because of the Intellectual Property (character branding) or because of the game design, mechanics, and systems?
et al.

I usually tap my ideas from older games realizing that I’m probably not the first person to consider digitizing or updating it or that a franchise has already been established, but that doesn’t mean something just as good or better can’t come of it.

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#4

Sorry to hear that Rob. I was in a similar situation when I had started design (but not coding) on a carnival sideshow game for GearVR (duck shooting gallery, coin toss, etc) and discovered a well known studio had almost the exact game already in active development.

In my case, I moved on to other things, but there’s no particular reason why I felt I had to. There’s only a handful of truly different game genres, just as they say there are only seven different story plots.

The point at which you approach the license holder for permission is a tricky one, and maybe @Rick_Davidson could chime in - too early, especially with no prior work/credibility, and you risk a flat no. The later you leave it, the more you are invested in the license and the more leverage the license holder has.

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#5

Im sorry to hear that my friend :frowning:
Put it aside while you work on different projects and wait to see how the other company’s game will come out is a good option too, there is even a chance that they won’t finish it or that they won’t be doing the game the same way you would. You could still ask to the license holder if they would allow you to make it too, who knows, either way you would have to ask for it anyway. Have you measured how many hours it would take for you to finish it?

Yesterday I’ve uploaded a closed alpha build of the cannon bowling to the play store, and I have discovered that there is a game with the exact same name :cold_sweat: I will have to change it. I also discovered that there are a couple games with a similar concept, although pretty different gameplay.

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#6

Thanks all for the replies, appreciated.

I think I will carry on with it for now, there will be a lot of aspects that will require additional learning and research I’m sure so it won’t be a wasted effort - just unbelievable that something that has been in the shadows for almost 3 decades would spring up like this just as I had started doing something.

When I feel the time is right I will share some additional information about the original game and what I was hoping to do, along with relevant links to the studio and their progress.

Thanks again for the replies :slight_smile:

#7

Rob, I feel your pain, I’ve been in a similar situation. The thing is that there is definitely room in the market for more than 1 version of the game. This sounds like its great motivation for you to get cracking and start making the game. Give it a slight twist in terms of the player experience, the look of it, etc and it will be different enough to the established studio’s game.

Rick
ps. Its Leisure Suit Larry, isn’t it? :slight_smile:

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#8

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#9

Hi Rick,

I guess so but I am a bit concerned over the similariities that would be in place, it was a very niche game, so a lot of the mechanics would perhaps look like direct copies.

That said, from a portfolio perspective I suppose it would add some wow factor, as long as no one was to think “Oh, he has just copied that”…

I always knew this would be a fairly lenghty and large project, but it never occured to me that someone else may actually do it!

In reading some fans responding to the news about the studio doing it one said, “We have been waiting for a very long time for this, so you had better not [expletive] it up.” This is something that is sought after. The company distributing the licenses have given licenses for a variety of other product related games too, some aren’t that high on the quality front in my opinion.

And no, its not leiaure suit larry… lol… :smiley:

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#10

Hope you find a corner of the market Rob.

And by the sound of it you’ve put your heart and a tonne of thought , time and effort into it.

If i were to say anything, ive always found that independent games that ive played have more heart and substance from an enjoyment point than alot of the big studio titles.

Hope you find a way forward to pursue it.

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#11

Thanks Daz, appreciated…

A fair bit yes, although not much to really show for it yet… yet… I shall keep moving forwards! :slight_smile:

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#12

I can fully appreciate feeling discouraged I had a very similar experience to this recently. However, as you are a true fan of the original and you feel you can modernize it, you should definitely go for it. Good games will out. Its a learning experience. Your game although similar in concept can be vastly different in how it plays, how it looks, what innovations a fan like yourself can bring to the table. Also don’t let the fact it is a whole studio put you off either, triple A games can be terrible too, lol.

Personally Rob, if its something you love, you should definitely stick with it!

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#13

Hey Sam, thanks for the reply. Yeah it’s something I enjoyed and I will continue with it. I’m sure the studios version will be out long before I have anything to show but I guess that means I can play it whilst working on mine :slight_smile:

#14

Id have to know more about what you have in mind to give any good suggestions but I’m sure there are many ways you can innovate and make yours something special. Many successful indie games are an older concept with a fresh twist.

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#15

Interesting topic. I just wanted to put my quick thoughts to this:

1: Yup, would suck, but…
2: I would think to myself, should it stop me from making the game? No, it shouldn’t
3: Others and yourself have mentioned about a learning process. Absolutely agree with that.

4: Would it make sense to say, now wouldn’t be the time to be upset? I would think to myself, have I made the game yet, or got a team who have already started building it and are say, over 50% done on the game (if you know where I’m getting at).

Take for example that game ‘Threes’ from back in 2014. That team took a while to concept and produce that game. Then about a month of so later, somebody created the game ‘2048’, which was based off an idea that was based off of ‘Threes’.

In addition to that, 2048 did very, very well (in all honesty, I only found out about ‘Threes’ from playing 2048!) Now that is a good time to be upset.

And sadly, we’re probably living in a world where if somebody sees a game, you’ll get immediate clones pop up next to no time ( please see Flappy bird clones, League of Legend clones, Overwatch clones, Mario Run clones etc).

I guess what I’m just trying to get at is, you found a project to work on that gave you much satisfaction, so even though you’ve found that someone else is doing the same project, that shouldn’t really stop you from gaining your original satisfaction from completing this project that you originally intended on working on, right? :slight_smile:

#16

Rob,

I am terribly sorry this has occurred to you and anyone else out there that might have had this happen. Luckily, at this point at least, I am only interested in creating assets so don’t have to worry about all the time spent creating a game. I am not a coder and never will be one!

Since I am unfamiliar with creating games and/or anything about them, I have a question or two. Is it possible to file something with some sort of authority where you live, the progress you have achieved so far as a way to document your idea and progress as a form of protection for you? If so, you might check into filing something. Will it be on the same platform as the gaming company? If not, can you on that platform instead without any troubles?

It is nice to know that someone else in the world is also not blessed with the best of luck. I am in that same category but also the one that is always leagues behind others creativity and skills. But honestly, even though I am way behind the vast majority of others, I try to persevere because of the enjoyment factor. Like someone said, the company may decide it is not worth the investment and drop the project or put it on the back burner for something else.

And agrees with Pokedev8, there are tons of clones out there! Some being much better and more interesting than others! Look at different platforms or markets maybe you can still do your game but a bit differently. Personally, (no offense to those who like or play it), I detest COC. I tried it for awhile hoping to play with the folks here from the forums but, got tired of no progress with always being raided…it’s not my idea of fun in any way, shape, or form so I happy deleted it. I went on to find something more of interest and have advanced nicely without always being robbed of enjoyment. Plus, the gaming company has made a ton of money off me in the couple of months I have played. Heck, I could of bought some software I am interested in with what I have spent so far. :slight_smile:

So, don’t give up! Give it a bit of a rethink. Maybe take the game in a different direction? Make it different some how but, better. I say Keep Calm and Carry On '-)!

#17

I actually found myself in almost the same situation, ironically at about the same time. In the end, I realized that while there might be similarities, there’s no way that it would be the same game. Make sure the core of your game has something unique to it, and I think you’ll do just fine.

#18

Wanted to revive this topic a bit from something I’ve just seen :smiley:

So since January this year, I did begin a project about stoats (weasels). Basically, it would be a 2D open world type game where you try a raise a family of kits. TLDR, I’ve put it on hiatus and haven’t touched it for a while (my GitHub says it’s been 22 days since I’ve last touched it). Although would like to go back to it once other priorities have been cleared.

Here is what it looks like in its current iteration:

What’s amazing recently is that I’ve just today found this game called “Cattails”

Kinda similar right? (I mean, not exactly similar in graphics, looks etc, etc) but, regardless, a similar game is being made. What should I do? My answer is to just keep doing what I’m doing to be honest (although keeping on hiatus is probably not a good thing…).

p.s. although my game is on hiatus, there is 1 project I’m working on which, because its not my idea or my game, I can’t share any information about, and I feel obliged to finish that first before anything else.

p.p.s. For all those stoats/weasal lovers, I am making a mini game about stoats! (which kinda contradicts my statement above xD). As this game is ‘smaller’, I’ll hope to release it to the wild maybe sometime in the next few months?

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