Posts by Thrik

  • dear zynga

    Quote from Skjalg

    The bucket loads of money could prolly take us to the moon.

    Its not a duplicate and I doubt the major facebook/ios population sees it as that. Gameplay might be exactly the same, or even the frames/scenes, but as long as the art has a totally different (better) style, then sure..

    Also, warcraft is a total dune clone only with different graphics and story.

    How would you feel if someone literally reproduced Pirates of New Horizons scene-for-scene, with everything in the same place and the gameplay exactly the same? Same plot, same script, same characters, same everything? Except switched to a viking theme and done in CryEngine 3 instead.

    I realise the above is unfeasible and wouldn't happen, but that's exactly what Zynga has been doing on a smaller scale. If that wouldn't disgruntle you a bit, well more power to you I guess.

  • dear zynga

    Zynga is probably the most blatant and shameless of all, though. I'm not surprised they can make the original concepts a little better considering they've got millions of dollars and thousands of staff to throw around.

  • What are you playing now?

    Been having a massive craving for a good old simulation game after that whole Tiny Tower thing, but no new RollerCoaster Tycoon, SimCity, etc in sight. Might have to install The Sims 3 seeing as I didn't play it very much and it still looks pretty hot.

  • dear zynga

    Yeah, see this is what I mean. There're plenty of ways you can lay out a bingo game and obviously bingo itself is as old a creation as it gets, but Zynga is just so brazen and shameless about it. It's like when a kid traces a drawing rather than doing it properly. Disgusting IMO.

  • dear zynga

    I think the growing trend of making a token effort to be respectful of others' work (ie: offering to buy them out) and then going ahead and taking their game anyway when they refuse is fairly disgusting and while it might be legally acceptable, I hope mounting pressure from the media and gamers causes companies to think twice in future. Inspiration and homage is one thing, but it's quite easy to tell the difference between that and the kind of shit posted in this thread.

  • dear zynga

    Yeah, the Sim Tower thing has been getting ridiculous. The two theme park-related games I mentioned earlier are very similar in premise, but you can't really call them a rip-off of each other. I'm sure RollerCoaster Tycoon was pretty much based on Theme Park back in the 90s, but it very quickly became its own (better IMO) thing. Zynga's game would appear to be a literal rip, though — as in, it looks like the developers used Tiny Tower as their design document.

  • dear zynga

    Quote from Vilham

    It is entirely evident from the shots of zyngas game that it is a complete clone. Whereas tiny tower shares very little in common by looking at any shot of it with sim tower other than them both having towers and lifts.

    That's what I said in the first place.

  • dear zynga

    Quote from Vilham

    Didn't you say yesterday you hadnt even played Tiny Tower. It is nothing like Sim Tower. Mega mall story = close to sim tower.

    I did actually download it yesterday, but anyway you only have to look at screenshots of Tiny Tower to see the similarities, just like we've been looking at screenshots of Dream Heights and saying how similar it looks (I bet none of us have played it). Obviously Sim Tower is infinitely more complex and in all honesty more of an actual game, but on a superficial level the inspiration is obvious in terms of the GUI, the way the lifts and rooms are presented, etc. I'm not saying it's anywhere near a rip but I'll be very surprised if Sim Tower wasn't an influence, but as I said on the past page there's a big difference between that and an outright copy.

  • dear zynga

    lol. To be fair, Tiny Tower is blatantly heavily inspired by Sim Tower — lots of similarities upon a closer look. However there is a difference between being heavily inspired by an old, forgotten game people would probably love to see a modern reinterpretation of, and practically cloning a game from a company you tried to purchase a while back.

  • dear zynga

    I'll tell you what, this thread has given me a proper craving for a good new sim like RollerCoaster Tycoon or Theme Park or something — but not on a little handheld. Where are these games.

  • dear zynga

    Eh, it looks like a fairly typical Flash/mobile game. I can't say they pull it off badly because it looks fine, even if it is the style 99% of them go for. If NimbleBit didn't go for the awesome retro style it probably wouldn't look a great deal different.

  • dear zynga

    Oh, I love the pixel art style. I think I'd tire of it on a big screen, but for a handheld game it's wonderful. Brings back that 90s simulation game charm which I've not experienced for ages.

    Might have to get Tiny Tower now, been ages since I got a new iPhone game (not that I play them very often, I'm still working through Cut the Rope).