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Tiny Tower mission pokes fun at Zynga and Dream Heights
Tiny Tower gets a new mission every Wednesday, and they're usually simple, themed tasks which players must complete for bonus Tower Bux, the game's currency. This week, a mission called "Beware of Dog" takes a shot at Zynga's clone, Dream Heights."After failing to buy your tower, a rival developer would like the following: 13,500 Tower Design (Architect Office) and 4,500 City Sim (Game Studio)." The icon for the individual awarding the mission is a little man dressed as a devil.We took a screen shot of the "Beware of Dog" mission. You can see it in full past the break.
Zynga's Dream Heights ready to build tiny towers on App Store
There's been plenty of controversy regarding the visual similarities between NimbleBit's popular Tiny Tower and Zynga's Dream Heights, but now the public can check out the full monty. Zynga announced that Dream Heights, which "surely isn't the first of many great games already in this category" according to the publisher, is now widely available. Zynga describes Dream Heights as the "most social" game of its kind, allowing players to invite their Facebook friends to the mobile title.As of this writing there are two polar reviews:1 star: "Simply awful and shameful attempt to capitalize on the success of Tiny Tower."5 stars: "Dream Heights is beautiful, fun and polished. Another must-play from Zynga."Check out Dream Heights and let us know what you think.%Gallery-145623%
Kill Screen on the legality of cloning game design
With the recent spate of cloned game stories -- namely those alleged to be the work of Zynga -- Kill Screen has put together an interesting article about the legality of the practice and its effects on the industry. In short, cloning an entire game and stealing its assets is illegal. However, cloning a game's ideas is not -- see Scrabble vs. Words with Friends -- and, while it can be morally repugnant, it can also be healthy for the industry.Game designers "borrow" from one another all the time, taking mechanics from successful games and implementing them elsewhere -- think stealth, cover-based shooting, power meters, triple jumps. That said, outright cloning is still a problem, one Kill Screen asserts we can address with education and a few notes from the fashion industry. In other words, teach consumers how to tell the difference between a knock-off and the real thing.
Zynga responds to copycat claims, NimbleBit rebuts
"You should be careful not to throw stones when you live in glass towers," Zynga head Mark Pincus said in a recent VentureBeat interview, firing back at recent criticisms of his company's games for being copycat versions of already released games. His cheeky comment is specifically targeted at indie dev NimbleBit, creator of Tiny Tower, who recently wrote an open letter to Zynga addressing similarities between its game and Zynga's upcoming Facebook title Dream Heights."When you pull the lens back, you saw that their tower game looked similar to five other tower games going all the way back to SimTower in the early 1990s," he added. But Pincus' argument goes beyond cheeky jabs -- he also makes the point that Zynga isn't a copycat developer as much as it is an iteration developer. Pincus also defends against Buffalo Studios' recent accusations, citing his company's own game (Poker Blitz) as inspiration -- at least visually -- for Bingo Blitz, as seen above.As Pincus says in an internal memo, "Google didn't create the first search engine. Apple didn't create the first mp3 player or tablet. And, Facebook didn't create the first social network. But these companies have evolved products and categories in revolutionary ways. They are all internet treasures because they all have specific and broad missions to change the world."NimbleBit, unsurprisingly, doesn't agree. Company co-founder Ian Marsh told Touch Arcade that while "It was a smart idea for Mark Pincus and Zynga to try and lump all games with the name 'Tower' together as an actual genre whose games borrow from each other," he added, "sharing a name or setting does not a genre make." And now that we've devolved into genre definitions, we can officially declare this story over. Like, forever.
Tiny Tower dev wishes Zynga luck on clone
NimbleBit, the three-person indie team responsible for the iOS hit Tiny Tower, is voicing its displeasure with Zynga's Dream Heights via passive aggressive infographic. Posted by NimbleBit's Ian Marsh, the graphic wishes Zynga luck with its new iPhone game that shares more than a passing resemblance to Tiny Tower."We wanted to thank all you guys for being such big fans of our iPhone game of the year Tiny Tower," NimbleBit wrote to Zynga's 2,789 employees. "Good luck with your game, we are looking forward to inspiring you with our future games!"Marsh does note that Zynga did try to acquire NimbleBit first, but seems to have decided on a different route. The iOS scene, with its shorter development cycles and lower barrier to entry, has seen numerous examples of games the blur the line between "inspiration" and blatant theft.%Gallery-145623%
