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[Gentleman Owl]

I wanted to open a discussion about what you would consider to be cloning a game as opposed to taking inspiration from a game.

It often seems that popular indie titles are copied and then re-themed. Some titles make an effort to differentiate themselves from their inspiration, while others barely try.

When do you feel like a game has become a clone of a game, as opposed to being inspired by it?

Do you feel that clones are generally good or bad for evolution of games?

I'd like mention that at one point that many of our game genres started out as games that popularized certain systems of gameplay (like how Wolfenstein 3D jump started the popularity of fps genre). Today, when somebody makes a platformer, people don't accuse them of copying Mario. My guess is that it will not be long until Minecraft style games will be considered as a genre.

[Paul Eres]

please use search function before posting a new thread on a topic that already has a thread

http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=21683.0
http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=4704.0
http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=4871.0
http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=1137.0
etc.

[Christian Knudsen]

I consider it cloning when the game mechanics and levels are the same. So it certainly isn't good for the evolution of games since there's no evolution taking place as nothing is changed. But a lot of game developers get started by making a clone or two, so I guess in that sense it's an okay thing.

Basically:

EDIT: And what Paul said.