2017-11-23 16:40:41 (edited by Amit 2017-11-23 16:53:36)

hi everyone,
so I am just wondering, what's the correct definition of clone or cloning a game in this community? if a game is enjoyable should it be played? do the game has to be a exact clone to discourage it or does the similar games get discouraged too? for example should manamon be considered a clone because it borrows things from pokemon? let's get to the point now.  I was thinking to make an online fps kind of thing, but because of so many up and btb clones lying around here, will it be discouraged saying that it has similarities to other side scroller clones or will it be played? I can assure you that it may have some similarities but it's not a exact clone of anything. let me know what you have to say guys.
regards,
Amit

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2017-11-23 17:22:55

There's a fuzzy boundary between "this is in the same genre" and "This is a clone". I'd say Manamon is closer to a Pokemon clone than most of the FPSs are clones of anything, barring like 2 examples that should go unnamed because we'll never get Martian Manhunter to join the forums if there are any more flames.
There are lots of games you might call Pacman clones, although I don't know the relevant release dates. There is this DOS game called Vectorman, in which you control a yellow circle with a mouth and run through mazes collecting dots and evading ghosts. Adding levels with spiders and sharks does not make it less of a Pacman clone. Unless Vectorman came first, but somehow I doubt.
There's a Power Rangers fighting game for the Genesis which clearly based the Pink and Yellow rangers on Guile and Mbison/Vega. Yet it would be a stretch to call it a Street Fighter clone, what with the looping backgrounds, the giant vs not-giant mechanic, projectile reflection, and the rangers mostly being palette-swaps.
So is it more like Vectorman vs Pacman, or Power Rangers vs Street Fighter?

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2017-11-23 18:29:15

"clone" has become a rather dirty word of late, but in terms of the forum there was only one real instance involved with "trying to discourage a clone" and that to do with stolen source code in a situation which spiraled into a right royal mess to such an extent I'm not sure what the heck the right of it is anymore.

If you write it from scratch, do whatever you like.

Hell as Cae said there are plenbty of instances in the mainstream world of games that have a striking similarity to one another  were different, even if it was just a case of different content or layout or whatever.

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2017-11-23 19:15:19

Here is my definition of the word clone.
A game or a peace of software witch shares some parts of source code with an other project with out author's permission.
This also includes Sounds, .dlls, and other components of the software. Shurely this will tick off some very good projects of the db, But that's what I think is the meening of the word clone.

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2017-11-23 23:29:56

@BigGun, I disagree. If we use your definition as the "official" definition, then, logically, every game in the DB is a clone of one another, since they all share some form of similarity, whether it be the fact that they're audio games or that they most likely all share the same sounds to an extent. I'd say the true definition of clone should be the one from Wikipedia -- a hardware or software system that is designed to function in the same way as another system. The full lead goes like so:

In computing, a clone is a hardware or software system that is designed to function in the same way as another system. A specific subset of clones are Remakes (or Remades), which are revivals of old, obsolete, or discontinued products.

The article does go on to say "[...] Application software can be cloned simply by providing similar functionality (all word processors have the same basic purpose), but may also be designed to support specific file formats (e.g. OpenOffice.org is intended to supplant Microsoft Office)."

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2017-11-24 17:11:51

If I know what situation you're talking about with the source code, Alternative Magic is open source, and I've stopped development of the first game. With the second game, I wrote my own source by creating a new document and beginning from their. Like the first game, it's not based off of another game, it's based off of, a book. And that book was created by me, no one else helped with the creation of the book. The Blank Game 1 was more of a mod, I understand that now. If the second Blank Game (Pine Attack) is a mod, I don't know what game it's a mod of.

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2017-11-25 21:19:31

I was actually thinking it was that incident about ten years back where some kid took the Super Liam installer, went in and deleted all the sounds and movies and replaced them with material of his own creation and tried to pass it off as an original game he'd developed himself. Then he went and posted a "demo" on Blind Cool Tech, again while passing it off as his own work. I remember him from various mailing list and wasn't at all surprised when he tried that.

But wait, what's that? A transport! Saved am I! Hark, over here! Hey nonny non, please help!

2017-11-25 22:41:18

Ok, that sounds much worse than what I did. When I heard "source code", I just thought of that topic that was created about The Blank Game being an Alternative Magic MOD. Speaking of that game, an update to version 0.5, then 1.0 of the second blank game will be out this weekend.

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