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Threes browser game will ensure you get absolutely no work done
Attention hungry iOS Threes addicts and sad Android users: You, too, can play Threes all day long with the browser game, designed specifically for those who want to spend hours avoiding actual work (or those who forgot their spectacles at home). Seriously, open this game only if you're OK with not doing anything productive the rest of the day. You already opened it? Oh, man. We warned you. Threes comes from artist Greg Wohlwend and designer Asher Vollmer, and it's a brilliantly simple premise: On a four-by-four grid, slide numbers together to create larger numbers, all divisible by three. One and two make three, three and three make six, six and six make twelve, and up from there, squishing together the same, three-based numbers to achieve the high score. The Threes browser game doesn't include the amiable chatter and unique personalities of each number featured in the iOS version, but it has the option to play the game's music. The big version comes from Angela Li, @angelaconstance on Twitter, and it's been approved by Wohlwend and Vollmer. "We're really flattered that a fan would take the time to put Threes in the browser like this," Wohlwend tells Joystiq. "It's a fan-made, free game that doesn't try to profit from our hard work on Threes. We're currently trying our hardest to stay focused on the next update as well as on porting to Android. While the obvious feelings of 'uh-oh, people really want to play Threes everywhere' kind of permeate our thoughts more and more, and it's hard to focus on what we need to because of that, we feel this homage was done with the right kind of heart." [Image: Angela Li]
Candy Crush dev King pulls Pac-Avoid following copycat accusation
King has pulled Pac-Avoid, the game indie developer Stolen Goose recently accused the Candy Crush Saga developer of cloning. Stolen Goose alleged that Epic Shadow-developed Pac-Avoid was a direct clone of its own 2009 game, Scamperghost, which the developer pitched to King before backing out of the deal to bring the game to rival online game portal Max Games. "The details of the situation are complex, but the bottom line is that we should never have published Pac-Avoid," King CEO and Co-Founder Riccardo Zacconi wrote on the company's website. "We have taken the game down from our site, and we apologise for having published it in the first place." Zacconi added that this "unfortunate situation is an exception to the rule," stressing that the developer "does not clone games, and we do not want anyone cloning our games." He noted that King performs "a thorough search" of existing games and reviews trademark filings to avoid infringement. Former Epic Shadow developer Matt Porter responded to King's retraction of the game, calling King's claimed thorough search of games in the marketplace "an obvious lie." "Our only additional term to the deal, was that the Epic Shadow branding not be placed in the game, as we found the entire project to be sketchy and we wanted nothing to do with it post-release," Porter wrote. This is the latest in King's controversial saga, in which it trademarked the word "candy" in order to deny mobile clones of Candy Crush Saga. King also set its sights on The Banner Saga developer Stoic Studio, opposing its application for "Banner Saga." Zacconi said King will not enforce the use of its trademarked word "saga" on Stoic Studios, but opposed the application to "preserve our own ability to protect our own games."
Indie dev claims Candy Crush Saga publisher King copied its game
Indie developer Stolen Goose has leveled a public complaint against Candy Crush Saga publisher King.com, alleging that the casual games company deliberately cloned its game after a licensing deal fell through. According to developer Matthew Cox, Stolen Goose pitched its enemy-avoiding game Scamperghost to King in 2009 but later backed out after striking a more lucrative licensing deal with a rival online games portal. King responded by publishing a clone of Scamperghost, doubling down on its similarity to Namco's Pac-Man by giving it the new title Pac-Avoid. King claimed that it was looking into licensing similar games when the Scamperghost deal fell through, but Stolen Goose alleges that this turn of events was more than coincidence. Speaking with Pac-Avoid's developer, Stolen Goose learned that King ordered another indie studio to specifically clone Scamperghost, citing a nonexistent breach of contract as justification. According to Stolen Goose's report, the developer was additionally requested to finish its clone before Scamperghost could hit the market. King trademarked the word "candy" this week in a bid to curb mobile clones of its hit Candy Crush Saga, and recently targeted The Banner Saga developer Stoic Studio over its use of the word "saga."
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MMO Mechanics: Exploring death mechanics
They say death must come to us all, and that inevitability extends to our characters in MMOs. The death of our characters may be inconvenient when we want to plough through content, but penalising failure is an essential part of any MMO and further incentivises success by making you learn from your mistakes. As much as players crave gratification through rewards and progression, they also need to feel that such progress has been well-earned and greatly deserved. Rewards become that much sweeter when we must risk something to secure them, and failure without consequence would render the gains made in our favourite MMOs insignificant. Without a considerable death penalty, it becomes possible to mindlessly crush content through brute force. I don't know about you, but I don't find fun in bashing my skull repeatedly with a rock in an attempt to crack it! In this week's MMO Mechanics, I compare various death penalties and the effects they have on the MMOs that employ them. I'll explore just how tangible death penalties such as corpse running, gear durability loss, and XP drain make our character's demise feel.
Vlambeer Clone Tycoon turns indie dev's real problem into a game
Developing games is fun – or so we're told – but now stealing game ideas from real developers is just as entertaining. Sure, it's missing the vital "I've poured my heart and soul into this baby" aspect, but cloning games is still pretty fun with Vlambeer Clone Tycoon. Inspired by indie developer Vlambeer's real-life issues with repeated, obvious clones of its games, Vlambeer Clone Tycoon puts players in the shoes of a wannabe cloner. As an idea thief, players must read news and emails to learn about Vlambeer's coming games, and then create their own knock-offs before the real version is released. The successful clones are automatically tweeted out by @VlambeerCloning. The game comes from a composer and web developer who work in the same building as Vlambeer, so it's all in good fun. Play Vlambeer Clone Tycoon for free in your browser, and look out for clones of Vlambeer's next game, Nuclear Throne, before it's released for real.
Keepin' it real fake: HTC One gets a convincing plastic clone (video)
We hate to say this, but the KIRF market is often a good indicator of how popular certain devices are, hence the plentiful fake iPhones and Galaxy phones in China. (Meanwhile, MediaTek is shamelessly cashing in as it ships its SoCs to those cloning factories.) Now, we're not saying the HTC One doesn't have any clones, but most of those we've seen weren't very convincing -- they were either of different sizes or had very poor build quality. But we eventually stumbled upon a pretty good fake in Huaqiangbei. The offending device is pictured above on the left. Externally, it bears a disgustingly strong resemblance to the real deal thanks to the same 4.7-inch screen size, the same curved back, the same micro-SIM tray, the same dual-soft-key layout and even the same metallic chamfer on the front. But if you look closer or touch it even, the tell-tale signs start to show up. See for yourself in the gallery below -- the fake One is to the left or on top of the real thing.
The Daily Grind: Do you ever roll two of the same class?
Every once in a while I'll hear from a friend that he or she has rolled a new character in an MMO. This by itself is not strange nor unusual, but what is weird is that the new character is of the exact same class as another one that the player regularly uses. To me, this is a hard concept to wrap my head around. MMO characters take so much time to develop as it is, and part of the joy of rolling a new alt is trying a different experience. Why would someone want to play the same class again if there are others that haven't been touched yet? I'm sure they have their reasons, and I'm curious if you've done this. Do you ever roll two of the same class, and if so, why? Explain yourself! Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
How live-streaming development can solve Vlambeer's clone problem
[Image credit: Tommy Rousse] Vlambeer is going to live-stream development of its next game. This wouldn't be notable for many other indie developers, but Vlambeer's history makes this strategy appear, for lack of a stronger term, absolutely illogical. "At this point, all of our big games have been cloned," Vlambeer co-founder Rami Ismail tells me at E3. He goes down the list: Super Crate Box, Ridiculous Fishing, Luftrausers and Infinite SWAT all have clones. The only acceptable one is the Infinite SWAT "homage," Broforce, from South African team Free Lives, Rami said – it's an example of developers taking inspiration from a game and creating their own world with it. The other ones, though. Those are straight-up clones. These clones caused major problems for Ismail and Vlambeer's other half, Jan Willem Nijman. The Ridiculous Fishing clone affected the team so strongly that they almost stopped developing their own game completely. Ridiculous Fishing almost didn't exist. Because of a clone. Hence, Vlambeer live-streaming development of its next game sounds like a pretty terrible idea. Until Ismail explains his reasoning: "If you look at Ridiculous Fishing, one of the reasons the clone was such a nightmare was because nobody knew that we were working on Ridiculous Fishing. We had to rapidly announce Ridiculous Fishing while the clone story was going down, so people knew that it was our idea first and they stole it from us. With Luftrausers, when SkyFar hit, it was much better, because everybody already knew that Luftrausers was a Vlambeer thing and that SkyFar was a clone." That makes sense, actually. "No, it doesn't," Rami says. But Vlambeer is doing it anyway.
The best -- or the worst -- of the WoW clones
You've probably heard the term "WoW clone" applied to nearly every MMO out there, because as WoW borrowed ideas from older games like EverQuest, so newer games borrow from WoW. And any game with WoW-like features -- by which we mean nearly any MMO -- might get branded with the label "clone," no matter how good it is. However, some of these myriad WoW clones strike us as particularly... well, let's call it familiar. Now don't get us wrong -- these aren't bad games, and every game builds on its predecessors in an attempt to make something better. But if you're looking for something that's distinctly different from WoW, none of these are going to fit the bill. However, any of them may be an entertaining change of pace or just an amusing venture into what some of the other MMOs on the market are doing.
Luftrausers clone dev shoots back at Vlambeer
RubiqLab, the developer accused of cloning Vlambeer's upcoming 2D dogfighter Luftrausers, has taken to Facebook to assert that Vlambeer's game isn't an original concept. The Game luftrauser is cloned by ( SKYSTRIKE , JETSTRIKE & many more ) And your game also came under pixel art. Earlier games likes SkyStricks & Jetstrike also were in pixel art. SO WHAT DO YOU SAY IS THAT REALLY YOUR OWN IDEA ? We dont think so.The clone in question, SkyFar, shares certain mechanics and a visual style with Vlambeer's game, painting the world in a blue hue versus Luftrausers red color scheme.Joystiq has contacted RubiqLab for further comment on its stance, and will update this post if the developer responds.Luftrausers is the second game of Vlambeer's to be cloned. The first is the notorious case of Radical Fishing (Ridiculous Fishing on iOS), where Vlambeer's browser-based fishing game was beaten to iOS. Luftrausers is slated to launch this spring on PC, Mac, Linux, PS3 and PS Vita.
Vlambeer 'fully intends' to fight Luftrausers clone
Indie developer Vlambeer is getting used to its games being cloned before final release, with the developer discovering today that its upcoming game Luftrausers has a clone called SkyFar on the iOS App Store. Freelance journalist Scott Nichols noticed the clone today, following its App Store release on March 24."We obviously endured a bit of a scare when news arrived of Luftrausers being cloned and released ahead of our own release schedule by another developer," Vlambeer lead Rami Ismail told us. "This time, however, it's not 'just' the idea of the game that has been cloned, but also the visual style. This gives us much more room to fight the whole thing, and we fully intend to."Ismail continued, "The developer of the clone has gotten in touch with us after Twitter exploded and let us know that 'acttuly we genrated our assets, Codes and all newly' and that the gameplay as indicated on the screenshots 'is not there in game as in the screen shots. We just done those screnshots for public attraction'. They signed off with the note that 'we really dont think it links your game at all.'"Vlambeer was famously at the heart of another cloning incident, when its 2010 browser-based game Ridiculous Fishing was cloned in 2011, while the developer was in the process of porting it for the platform. Another key issue with that clone, Ninja Fishing, was that it became a hit on the App Store. SkyFar hasn't seen such traction.
Add a clone partition to your backup drive
In case you missed it, March 31st was World Backup Day, a big topic of discussion on the last few Talkcasts, which culminated in a visit by the team at Dolly Drive. Inspired by the conversation, I wanted to create a clone-sized partition to mirror my SSD. I had an extra external drive on my desk but, like most, it already had some important data on it. In this video I will show you how to add a partition to an existing drive so it can be repurposed to make a clone of your boot drive. I'll be using Dolly Drive Revo, a free Dolly Drive 10 GB Account and Disk Utility in Mountain Lion. The actual cloning can also be done with Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper! if you prefer. Warning: Before you attempt any disc-related modifications, please be sure to have a backup of the data contained on that drive.
Daily iPhone App: Ridiculous Fishing is ridiculously good
Vlambeer's Ridiculous Fishing is finally out on the App Store today, after a long and rough development cycle that included a well-publicized battle against a clone. But in my humble opinion, the guys at Vlambeer should never have worried. No clone could ever match up to the design talent, brilliant wit and just plain love that's been put into this game. Ridiculous Fishing lives up to its foolish title and then some. You play as a fisherman. To begin, tap to toss a hook into the water. The game then runs in three phases. First, as your hook descends, tilt the iPhone back and forth to guide it past as many fish as you can, as deep under the surface as possible. As you reel it back in, you switch tactics. Tilt to grab as many fish as possible, trying to avoid the jellyfish if you can. Finally, the game gets really silly when your hook reaches the surface. The fish fly up into the air, and you've got to take them out of the sky with whatever firearms you have lying around. Each fish you kill earns money for line and equipment upgrades and finding new species can unlock new areas with new fish to hook and deeper waters to plumb. It's a very addictive gameplay cycle, and it's all backed up with some brilliant art, great sound effects and very catchy music. I've been playing the game for about a week now, and have found it hard to put down. Ridiculous Fishing has seen a little drama even before release, but the team never needed to worry, in my opinion. This is a great game that is among the best we've seen on the iPhone, ever. It's well worth the purchase at US$2.99, though I'll bet we'll see Ridiculous Fishing (and with any luck, more of Vlambeer) around the App Store for a long time to come.
Reality Absorption Field: The Mac clone that wasn't
One could say that the Apple of the Michael Spindler era was like today's Apple in name only. However, even that is not quite true. (Apple dropped the "Computer" from its name just over six years ago.) In the mid-'90s, Apple had an aggressive if conflicted Mac cloning program. Beige boxes from the likes of Power Computing, UMAX and Motorola were available. At that time, there had been concerns that licensing the Mac OS to a really big PC vendor would create more competition than Apple could handle. Nevertheless, there were persistent rumors that Dell, for one, was interested. Coincidentally, long after licensing ended, the Round Rock, TX-based PC company was early to offer a "Mini" netbook that could easily be turned into a "Hackintosh." These were aberrations in a long rivalry between Apple and Dell that has been filled with contrasts. As Apple focused on building its own vertically integrated PCs, Dell was a master of supply chain and cost reduction in the PC clone model. Dell was welcomed through the front door by most IT departments; Apples were snuck in by enthusiasts. Dell was an early e-commerce poster child selling its PCs direct online, but Apple ultimately trumped it selling its PCs via its white-walled physical stores. And Michael Dell infamously said during Apple's darkest days that he would close down the company and give the money back to the shareholders. Today, of course, the tables have turned. Apple is one of the world's most valuable companies and Dell has opted to flee public markets, perhaps even veer away from the PCs that are the last vestige of the company's roots as a direct sales pioneer. But a twist of fate may have OS X plastered across the screens of PCs from Dell -- and other PC vendors -- after all. As part of its work with Wyse, the "thin-client" company that Dell acquired last year, the company has developed a device and service called Project Ophelia. Ophelia is a USB stick-sized computer that runs Android. Several of these have come to market. But there would be links to what would presumably be a Dell-powered cloud that could serve up a host of different computing environments similar to how OnLive or CloudOn -- or Wyse's own PocketCloud -- do on the iPad today. Those environments could include Windows, Linux or OS X. Of course, accessing OS X remotely, even in a world that offers ever more prevalent and speedy mobile broadband, is not the same as running it on Apple hardware or even a well-designed Hackintosh. And any number of remote apps can call up an OS X desktop to a Mac, PC, iPad or Android tablet. But Ophelia represents the greatest deviation from standard Windows computing that we've seen from Dell since its short-lived Android tablet dalliance, and the freshest idea from the company in even longer. Time will tell if Ophelia turns out to be, like its tragic Shakespearean namesake, desperate for love, crazy, or even suicidal. But if not, a pocketable Dell device may soon be vying to be your means to OS X access. Ross Rubin is principal analyst at Reticle Research, a research and advisory firm focusing on consumer technology adoption. He shares commentary at Techspressive and on Twitter at @rossrubin.
Super Hexagon cloned on PC, Cavanagh is pretty all right with it
Open Hexagon freely states that it is a clone of Terry Cavanagh's iOS mind-melter Super Hexagon, but on PC. The developer of Open Hexagon, Vittorio Romeo, says that he secured permission from Cavanagh to make a game inspired by Super Hexagon, and Cavanagh says he's "basically all right with it." He'd probably be totally all right with it if Romeo hadn't beaten him to a PC launch."I'm a little upset that he released it before I had a chance to release Super Hexagon on PC myself," Cavanagh tweets. But, overall, he says Open Hexagon is "not bad at all – the harder octagon stage was pretty cool. I also like the death effect."So, no harm, no foul. Cavanagh even posted Open Hexagon on his Free Indie Games blog, writing, "This is probably the closest I'll ever come to posting my own games on this site." Besides, Open Hexagon is free for PC. Check it out right here, or play Super Hexagon for $3 on iOS (or regular Hexagon for free).Cavanagh is "working flat out" to get Super Hexagon on PC and Mac soon, and those versions are almost done, he says.
Alt-week 10.13.12: is the Universe a simulation, cloning dinosaurs and singing mice
Alt-week peels back the covers on some of the more curious sci-tech stories from the last seven days. Are you reading this? Seriously, are you? Sure, we know you think you are, but what if you're just a sub-feature of a complex computer program. A sprite, nothing more than the creation of software. The problem with this question is, how would you ever know? You wouldn't, right? Well, not so fast there. Turns out, maybe there is a way to unravel the matrix (if there is one). It'll come as no surprise, that this is one of the topics in this week's collection of alternative stories. Think that's all we got? Not even close. We'll explore the truth behind cloning dinosaurs, as well a rare performance by singing mice -- all before dinner. Or is it really dinner? This is alt-week.
Goophone I5 manages to KIRF the 2012 iPhone weeks in advance
Here's something you still don't see every day: a KIRF that's unveiled before the device it's supposed to copy. Although the 2012 iPhone may not show for weeks, the Android-based Goophone I5 is already doing a remarkable job of aping Apple's rumored style, including that two-tone look that we've all seen before. Just don't get notions that it's the bargain of the century. Where most rumors point to a bigger screen for the real thing, the I5 is making do with a 3.5-inch screen similar to that for Goophone's iPhone 4S imitator, the Y5. Performance isn't likely to jolt the engineers in Cupertino out of their seats, either. Mum's the word on whether or not the I5 will beat its inspiration to the store shelf, but we'd wager that it will cost a lot less.
TangiBot manufactures ethics controversy by replicating open-source Makerbot 3D printer
A Kickstarter entry has managed to stir the fairness pot by touting a MakerBot Replicator clone called TangiBot -- legally copied from the original 3D printer's open source plans. The project's creator, Matt Strong, says that the device will offer "the same performance and features at a roughly 33 percent discount" to Makerbot's $1,800 price tag, thanks to Chinese manufacturing. That's inflamed some in the 3D printing fraternity, who take exception to the exact copying of a design without any improvement. The founder is unrepentant, however, saying that "MakerBot's technology is nothing new" and insists his replica product's lower price will open up 3D printing to more hobbyists. TangiBot has addressed a trademark gripe from its doppleganger by removing the MakerBot references from Kickstarter -- but hey, we know a KIRF when we see one.
Droid X360 goes for the KIRF prize, antagonizes Microsoft, Motorola and Sony at the same time (video)
Can we establish a KIRF award for Most Likely to Invite Multiple Lawsuits? If so, Long Xun Software would have to claim the statuette for its Droid X360, at least if it dared set foot in the US. This prime example of keepin' it real fake is even more of a PS Vita clone than the Yinlips YDPG18, but goes the extra mile with a name that's likely to irk Microsoft, Motorola, Verizon and George Lucas all at once. That's even discounting the preloaded emulators for just about every pre-1999 Nintendo, Sega and Sony console. Inside, you'll at least find a device that's reasonably up to snuff: the 5-inch handheld is running Android 4.0 on a 1.5GHz single-core Quanzhi A10 processor, 512MB of RAM, 8GB of built-in space, a 2-megapixel camera at the back and a VGA shooter at the front. If the almost gleeful amount of copyright and trademark violation isn't keeping you from wanting this award-winner, you'll have to ask Long Xun for pricing and availability.
Randy Pitchford can't believe you haven't copied Borderlands yet, game industry
We can't tell if this is a sign of the times or an indicator of Randy Pitchford's own psyche as it enters the primary stages of acute paranoia. Pitchford, CEO of Gearbox Software, is surprised that Borderlands hasn't been cloned yet, even though "the formula's right there.""I'm actually astonished that we're about to launch a sequel and no one's stole it from us," Pitchford tells Gamasutra. "The formula's right there. No one's stolen it yet. That's weird. We're in an industry where people do nothing but steal from each other."The formula, for those who haven't picked it up yet, is [(first-person + shooter y) x (console) / (PC)], where y = a rotating variation of loot, guns and XP. Even though that super-secret formula is now public, Pitchford isn't inviting people to steal it from Gearbox."Not that I want anyone to steal it, or I'm challenging people to steal it," he says. "When talking about Borderlands 1, it was really confusing, because on one hand we gotta scream from the highest mountain to get attention because it's a new IP. On the other hand, it's like, 'Shit, we don't want to tell people our secret because then they're all gonna copy it because it's so good.'"Ah, we see the root of Pitchford's perspective now. If Gearbox worried people would copy Borderlands because "it's so good," and no one has copied it, Pitchford might take that as an insult. Don't worry, Gearbox – the right people know that Borderlands is a great game, and it's entirely possible that no one at Zynga has played it yet.
