ripoff of antiyoy
As noted in the description, this game (same as Antiyoy) is heavily inspired by Sean O'Connors Slay!. However, it does bring some pretty impactful twists to the formula. See this older post for list of the differences compared to Slay! (and Antiyoy): https://itch.io/post/6419763
Honest question - I'm currently working on a game heavily inspired by an existing game, it has similar mechanics but with some new twists, all new art and all new code, would that be considered a "ripoff"? I looked it up and legally game mechanics aren't copyrighted, but still, should that be considered unethical in some way? I think that building on existing ideas is fair game, but am I missing something? I am planning to give credit to the original game within the game itself, and link to it.
Just my personal opinion:
- Small minority of people will always call it a ripoff as long as there is any similarity at all, even just for being in the same genre. I wouldn't worry about that.
- If you strictly remake the original game with different assets and add nothing new to the gameplay or story, but also promininetly give credit to the original, IMO that's a clone and there's nothing ethically wrong about it (see games like OpenTTD, Remnants of the Precursors and countless other tributes to cult classic games)
- If you do the above, but without giving credit, that's where I would draw the line personaly, and that's when I think your game could get some bad rep (but as you said, you're still not in any danger legaly. (cough)not-a-legal-advice(cough).
- If you take inspiration in the original game but make some substantial changes to the mechanics or story, IMO giving credit is totally optional (how many people call Minecraft a ripoff of Inifiniminer?).
Legaly speaking, reusing assets is obviously a big no-no, and I believe there are also some cases where copying the UI can get you in trouble even if the assets aren't exactly 1:1. But I'm not a lawyer.
“Good artists borrow, great artists steal.”
- attributed to Pablo Picasso
Thanks! I very much appreciate the detailed answer. :)
It's always nice to get the validation that I'm not doing anything wrong. I hope the creator of the original game will feel the same way and won't get mad. Given that they open-sourced their code (which again, I didn't use), I think I can be optimistic.