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[jotapeh]

as moi said, there are already dozens of clones.

Rovio can't really pursue legal action over the gameplay or style, otherwise they'd owe some serious legal damages to their predecessors, heh.

edit: or should I say 'inspirations'

[Colon Semicolon]

Why would you even want to make an Angry Birds clone? it's the most basic iOS game ever, it could take less than a day to make it honestly!

[Theophilus]

I'm pretty sure they made it in a weekend.

[Nix]

It's the level design, not the game itself, that took time and effort

[BlueSweatshirt]

Which I personally believe is less-than-stellar in most cases, with a few that were great.
Unless I just didn't play far in enough to get to the "good levels"
In which case though, big mistake on their part for doing that.

[Nix]

the levels were boring as fuck. there were just a ton of them

[Core Xii]

Allow me to elaborate on the legality.

Copyright applies to expressions of ideas; That is, actual works of art. Ideas themselves aren't covered by copyright. Game mechanics are ideas, and cannot be copyrighted. Only actual, created art can. So while you can freely make a clone of a game by using the same mechanics, using any art assets from the game would constitute copyright infringement. If you draw everything yourself, you're safe as far as copyright is concerned.

Then there's trademark law, which is different but very relevant. If Angry Birds is trademarked, they can go after other games that look too similar; This is designed to protect customers from being fooled into buying something else than they think they're buying. If your game looks too similar to Angry Birds, they can come after you. As long as you make it different enough visually, and make sure there's no confusion, such that someone might mistake your game for Angry Birds, you're safe where trademarks are concerned.

[xMawiel]

Thanks a lot Core Xii just what I needed to hear!

[st0ven]

yes core has the right information here. if youre drawing your game graphics on your own, you should be very much ok in terms of legal defensibility. i dont really know why one would want to quite so obviously copy such a popular game as angry birds, as i think most people would be able to identify the popular brand and choose that, unless you had some unique hook or advantage that made yours more appealing.

There is this game on android, likely iOS as well, that essentially fully copies fruit ninja in its entirety and shamelessly. yet its still on the market and widely available. their motive for using their game instead of original fruit ninja? its a free download. literally everything about it game-wise is identical.

again so long as there isnt a trademark stamp on angrybirds, you should be fine. otherwise theres a whole host of games on almost any platform you can think of which should have been sued long before you (though technically that may not stop a company from sending you a cease and desist letter, which you can choose to accept or ignore at your discretion).

besides i dont think rovio is really going to care much about you until you start having your own drop-claw machines to compete with theirs.

[JoGribbs]

Back in my day people ripped off Cave Story and they were happy. Darn kids and ur angry birds.