App Store hit by new game-cloning controversy
League of Epic Heroes withdrawn following Desktop Dungeons dispute
In the latest of an apparent glut of plagiarism disputes, RPG League of Epic Heroes has been pulled from the App Store as a result of complaints by another developer.
QCF Design released the PC game Desktop Dungeons last year and was planning on a later iOS port, but in December revealed concerns around alleged similarities in Eric Farraro's iPhone title League Of Epic Heroes.
Farraro had previously admitted that "League is based on the core gameplay of Desktop Dungeons" but claimed the Ł1.19 App was not a clone. Stating he had not yet been contacted by QCF's lawyers, he told Edge last week that "My formal line is that League Of Epic Heroes violates no law, and that QCF does not have a valid legal claim."
Farraro appears to have had a change of heart since then. In an email sent to QCF yesterday, he wrote that "Just wanted to let you know that as of today, I've removed LoEH for sale in all countries, following the copyright infringement notice I received from your lawyer.
"I apologize for all the issues this has caused, and wish you best of luck on your IGF nomination. Looking forward to the full version of Desktop Dungeons on iPhone."
QCF is now worried that this may reflect badly on its title. Wrote founder Danny Day, "We now have to deal with the fact that there are people out there who have seen LoEH before they were even aware of DD. Yes, this is partly our fault (uh, for not marketing to a user-base we didn't have a product for yet, I guess) but now we have to conquer that odd first-adopter loyalty just because someone else stole our work."
Day also revealed that "We gave Mr Farraro ideas on how to change LoEH so that it wasn't a DD rip off. We tried to motivate him to create something cool and offered to work with him to help deal with the resulting longer dev time. Obviously he didn't go for it. We're sorry about that."
In the last week, plagiarism charges were also levelled against various 'doodle' games on the App Store by Doodle Jump creator Lima Sky, and at Capcom's MaXsplosion by Twisted Pixel's 'Splosionman.
Desktop Dungeons' Day felt such disputes were a growing trend. "You can't heave a brick these days without hitting something that's involved either in copyright infringement or enforcement in some way. Laws are going to change, games will enjoy more protection eventually.
"More and more cloned games are being shut down by platform owners that realise they're hurting the platform's perception. Game buyers understand what a clone is and - even if they don't - are less likely to spend money on something that others have complained about."
Addressing other developers who were considering copying existing games in the hope of making a fast buck, he argued that "Cloning is financially riskier than building an original game: You are increasingly likely to have your clone's earning window cut short through either technological, legal or consumer-awareness avenues. You don't have to be a rocket-surgeon to realise that's a stupid way to try and earn a living."
I Would like to add that these developers who are cloning games, it's probably due to try to atract players from a current trend or market. Like happened with the Wii, that tons of games came after Wiifit (in different kind of games) to please the need of this new market.
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Francisco Javier on 17th January 2011 3:08pm
;)
Seriously though, it's more difficult to sort out plagiarism in an artform like gameplay when compared to something like a physical product (with patents) or writing or actual art where the art has a specific character to it usually stemming from the vision of a single author.
http://www.halfbot.com/?p=338
Tell that to Zynga ...
@ John Blackburn, thanks for posting that link. That is INSANE. Good luck to Halfbot.
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Edward Buffery on 17th January 2011 5:51pm
I don't know where the author is getting that. I don't agree with a bit of it. From my experience, your average gamer doesn't know/care what a clone is. See Farmville. I've actually seen threads where people were saying "Don't play Farm Town! It's a rip off!" They get confused and don't bother looking up the facts. It's awful.
<strong>IMAGE COMPARISON</strong>
... and you can read up on the state of the game here...
<strong>Day 2: The Blocks Stoleth</strong>
Friggin' ridiculous.
Surely ther have been a few successful clones and not all of them have been commercial flops.
Plagiarism is an academic term that has nothing to do with copyright. Copyright ONLY covers the copying of aristic expression fixed in a tangible medium. It does nto cover ideas.
If LoEH copied code from DD, or copied art from DD, then the claim is legitimate. if not, which this article doesn't seem to suggest is the case, then LoEH is 100% legally in the right. This smells like just another case of a developer with enough money to hire a lawyer strong-arming a competitor who doesn't.
Shame on you.
That said, with all due respect to Rovio, Angry Birds was clone of a dozens of wall breaking games that one could found for free in internet and that also had several examples in App Store before Angry Birds. Rovio did a clone with really streamlined gameplay, good visuals and characters that catch your attention. That was the difference that resulted in 13 000 000 sold games.
Edited 2 times. Last edit by Kim Soares on 18th January 2011 7:03am
I never did finish that game but, learned lesson no.102 "Don't give your idea away through careless banter or plastering it all over the web when you only have a prototype and a title screen to show for yourself"