Poll: FortressCraft and You

[Inglorious891]

Hello fellow Escapists!

Today I'd like to bring to your attention something that is hardly mentioned over here on the Escapist, but it's something that I've been wondering about for quite some time.

FortressCraft came out several months ago, and has been selling extremely well, to the point where it's one of the fastest selling Xbox Live games.

So, with all these people playing the game, I'm a bit surprised that there aren't any fans of the game on the site (or at least that I've noticed). So, to all of you who have played the game or not, what to you think of it? Is it a Minecraft rip-off, or just another game in a quickly growing subgenre of games?

I, personally, think that the game is just another game in a new subgenre of games (Sandblock, is what I'll call it). Projector Games (the people who made FortressCraft) have been updating the game consintently, trying to steer it in a direction differnt from Minecraft, altough the sames are obviously going to be similar because of the core gameplay. I've sunk an ungodly amount of hours into the game, so I'm definetly in favor of the game.

Oh, and finally, I would play Minecraft (for the adventuring part, not the creation part), but my computer is to shitty to run it.

Also, first thread!

EDIT 1: Ok so I just thought of a new question: What about games like Total Miner, Castleminer, etc. that also have the same basic gameplay but offer different features? Why are they left largely ignored?

 

[Kahunaburger]

It's obviously a take on minecraft, but minecraft was a take on infiniminer, halo was a take on doom, starcraft was a take on dune, and so on and so forth.

 

[smearyllama]

See, Notch cited Infiniminer as an inspiration for Minecraft. The creator of Fortresscraft said that while his game was definitely based on Minecraft, it was also completely different and better in every way.

Spoiler

?The Notch Defense Force said things like 'you even stole the name,' but the actual gameplay is nothing like Minecraft"-Actual quote.

?Minecraft has been squeezed out of its own market. It might do well on the name alone, but if you want sexy graphics and shaders and the creative aspect, you have FortressCraft. If you want to fight monsters and share stuff with your friends, you have Total Miner. Nobody will pay for Minecraft when they can pay $3.00 for Total Miner or FortressCraft."-Same guy.

Source:http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2011/09/20/designer-claims-fortresscraft-is-nothing-like-minecraft.aspx

I'm sure it's probably a fun game and all, but the creator's dickishness about the game bug me. I had no intention to play it from the beginning, though, and I've never tried it, so I'm probably a little biased against it.

 

[AyreonMaiden]

I agree with the OP. This is how new genres are born; with a lot of clones and some gems found along the way that do different things while retaining the "Sandblock" genre feel.

I have Fortresscraft, Junk Jack, Mooncraft and Eden. So far, neither has gotten me to fall in love with the genre, but there it is. Four "rip-offs" of Minecraft, and I'm sure there's others. You're watching a genre be born, people.

 

[Epona]

I bought it and didn't like it. Still, if it's been updated I may try it again.

About this "it's a Minecraft rip-off". During the NES and SNES era there were sooo many platformers. People often described games as "It's like Mario....". No one thought that was a bad thing. In the following two generation JRPG's were directly compared to Final Fantasy and this gen you can't avoid military shooters. Why then is a Minecraft rip-off a bad thing?

In this area, gaming culture has become very intolerant and ugly.

 

[Sixcess]

Fortresscraft has several major strikes against it.

No matter that it may play differently, it looks like Minecraft with a texture pack. Period. That's not taking influence from another game, that's ripping it off.

Secondly, if the 'creator' is so adamant that it's not a Minecraft rip-off, why did he call it Fortresscraft.

Thirdly, the 'creator' comes a complete prick, and his attempts to defend his rip-off do nothing to lessen that impression.

In summary, it's the video game equivalent of those no-budget movies that get made by The Asylum with titles like Transmorphers, The Terminators, The Day the Earth Stopped etc etc. And it's equally worthless.

 

[Phlakes]

There's one thing that pushes a game from being inspired by something to ripping it off.

If it's riding off the hype of the original game.

 

[The Lunatic]

The creator strikes me as a dick who's just mooching money off a ripped idea.

Sure, yes, Notch and Infiniminer, but, Notch added to the game, taking it beyond what it was, Fortress craft is just a shameless rip.

 

[OneStepAhead]

Terraria is LIKE Minecraft.
FortressCraft IS just a shitty minecraft.

 

[Inglorious891]

Fortresscraft has several major strikes against it.

No matter that it may play differently, it looks like Minecraft with a texture pack. Period. That's not taking influence from another game, that's ripping it off.

Secondly, if the 'creator' is so adamant that it's not a Minecraft rip-off, why did he call it Fortresscraft.

Thirdly, the 'creator' comes a complete prick, and his attempts to defend his rip-off do nothing to lessen that impression.

In summary, it's the video game equivalent of those no-budget movies that get made by The Asylum with titles like Transmorphers, The Terminators, The Day the Earth Stopped etc etc. And it's equally worthless.

First: Just because it looks similar, it's ripping it off? With this type of game, of course it's going to look similar! How exaclty can you make a sandblock game look different OTHER than do what FortressCraft, IE make it look HD.

Second: Does it really matter what it's called? If it was called Superfun Blockgame people would still call it a rip-off, so name really doesn't matter. It says the creator is uncreative, not that he's ripping off a game.

Third: I think he sounds like a good guy, altough this is influenced by obvious bias because of my love of the game. Sooo there's not much I can say in this arguement, since it is his personality that is being judged. But that's not my point. My point is: If you hate the game so much, then when have you heard his defence of the game? I'm honestly a bit curious...

 

[cryogeist]

It's obviously a take on minecraft, but minecraft was a take on infiniminer, halo was a take on doom, starcraft was a take on dune, and so on and so forth.

correction Starcraft was a take on Warhammer40k...i can continue this in a privet message if you want.

 

[cryogeist]

and of course the escapist eats my post

 

[viking97]

terraria is still the best. why? it has lasers, tuxedos, enchanters named tim and evil rabbits that jump up and eat your face.

i suppose minecraft techincally has tuxedos because custom skins, but whatever.

 

[EternalFacepalm]

Edit concerning your second question: They're ignored because they weren't the first rip-off, and because their creators don't have the same shameless audacity.

OT: Both it and the game's creators disgust me. They've advertised with better graphics, even. Have you seen how those blocks loop? It's horribly bad, they didn't even think of how the blocks would look when aligned.
It's basically Minecraft with a fancy texture pack that's badly made. You can literally get just as good graphics using mods.

Minecraft has been squeezed out of its own market. It might do well on the name alone, but if you want sexy graphics and shaders and the creative aspect, you have FortressCraft. If you want to fight monsters and share stuff with your friends, you have Total Miner. Nobody will pay for Minecraft when they can pay $3.00 for Total Miner or FortressCraft.

And if you want both, you have Minecraft.

terraria is still the best. why? it has lasers, tuxedos, enchanters named tim and evil rabbits that jump up and eat your face.

i suppose minecraft techincally has tuxedos because custom skins, but whatever.

Uhm. Terraria is an entirely different game with a few similiar aspects. It's like comparing CoD and Battlefi- OH WAIT.

Second: Does it really matter what it's called? If it was called Superfun Blockgame people would still call it a rip-off, so name really doesn't matter. It says the creator is uncreative, not that he's ripping off a game.

He's uncreative about everything in the game, considering he just ripped it off of Minecraft - just like the title. He added trampolines, though, so kudos to him for that.

Third: I think he sounds like a good guy, altough this is influenced by obvious bias because of my love of the game. Sooo there's not much I can say in this arguement, since it is his personality that is being judged. But that's not my point. My point is: If you hate the game so much, then when have you heard his defence of the game? I'm honestly a bit curious...

I, personally, have heard his defence of the game: It was pathetic.
If he wants people to think of it as something other than a rip-off, he probably shouldn't be returning to it so much.
Also, look at the quote I posted previously, that's dickish and retarded at the same time!

 

[EternalFacepalm]

Minecraft has been squeezed out of its own market. It might do well on the name alone, but if you want sexy graphics and shaders and the creative aspect, you have FortressCraft. If you want to fight monsters and share stuff with your friends, you have Total Miner. Nobody will pay for Minecraft when they can pay $3.00 for Total Miner or FortressCraft.

I refuse to play a game with developers this retarded. That is all.
[sub](FYI, with their current planning, Fortresscraft will cost ?30 in the end. $3 my ass!)[/sub]

 

[Dunkerloop]

I bought the game, stopped playing it after about 5 days.
Although everyone keeps mentioning that Notch got his inspiration from Infiniminer (Which he did) He didn't get the idea of building and creating things with blocks from the game, he got it from the people who PLAYED the game, and he realized that he should make a game based off of building things with blocks. These, quite frankly, are blatent clones. The Sandblock genre, with most of the games in it, would make it seem like there is only one way to make a game, thus creating a bunch of games that are virtually the same, which no matter how much you try and mix it up, it'll still feel all the same.
Now onto FortressCraft and Total Miner and stuff like that:
The Guy who created FortressCraft is a pretty big Dick, which as I could see, would make people not want to talk about and promote his game.
He says he never had heard or seen of minecraft before making FortressCraft (Which is very likely a lie), claims his game is different and superior in every way (Nice texture pack you got there, Minecraft!), and says that if you want creativity, theres FortressCraft, and if you want to fight monsters and have an adventure, there's Total Miner, but what he's not realizing he's saying is that Minecraft has Both of these features and more. And then there's the modding community for Minecraft, which is a MAJOR buy point for the game, which is completely Non-Existent with All of the Xbox Clones. Although the creator of the game would say that most people would just buy FortressCraft or Total Miner for their Xbox and be done with the genre, as shown with most genres, people don't usually buy just one or two of it for their console, So I doubt his game or any other game like it has Hurt Minecraft sales by more than a couple ten-thousand or so.

 

[Dunkerloop]

Minecraft has been squeezed out of its own market. It might do well on the name alone, but if you want sexy graphics and shaders and the creative aspect, you have FortressCraft. If you want to fight monsters and share stuff with your friends, you have Total Miner. Nobody will pay for Minecraft when they can pay $3.00 for Total Miner or FortressCraft.

I refuse to play a game with developers this retarded. That is all.
[sub](FYI, with their current planning, Fortresscraft will cost ?30 in the end. $3 my ass!)[/sub]

Wait, they say that it's going to cost ?30 in the end? That's more than Minecraft. The guy's a dick, and that seriously hurts his chances of people wanting to play and promote his game.

 

[Sixcess]

First: Just because it looks similar, it's ripping it off? With this type of game, of course it's going to look similar! How exaclty can you make a sandblock game look different OTHER than do what FortressCraft, IE make it look HD.

It doesn't look similar, it looks the same. Identical.

Second: Does it really matter what it's called? If it was called Superfun Blockgame people would still call it a rip-off, so name really doesn't matter. It says the creator is uncreative, not that he's ripping off a game.

I realise you're trying to defend the guy here but that line of argument makes him sound borderline retarded. He really couldn't think up a name that didn't directly reference Minecraft? Of course he could have, but why would he when his intent was to ride on the coattails of Minecraft's success? People like this are the reason Bethesda is taking Mojang to court over Scrolls, because it's people like this that would try and release a game named 'The Older Scrolls.'

My point is: If you hate the game so much, then when have you heard his defence of the game? I'm honestly a bit curious...

I read it on the Escapist. It's a popular gaming website that runs new stories about gaming.

Hate is an overused and devalued word in these kind of discussions, but if I was inclined to throw it around then yeah, I'd hate Fortresscraft, if for no other reason than the message it sends out - that the way to succeed in indie gaming is to blatantly rip off a genuinely original and innovative game.

 

[Phisi]

I have no problem with it at all. Minecraft while not starting a genre I would say, it draws elements of other games but it is certainly defining one just as CoD and Halo have helped to define the modern FPS. Minecraft hes defined the genre and people are trying their hand at it like Terraria and Fortresscraft. The market is the one that decides if they succeed and if they offer a better game at cheaper price that is accessible to more people then they deserve the profits but if the don't, they will end up like Homefront and we can all laugh at them
But if they do succeed? Then what of it? It doesn't destroy gaming and will bring enjoyment to many people and they must be doing something right anyway and then other people can rip-off tat and we can progress as a medium. Anyway I shall go back to playing Dead Island even if it is a rip-off of several games and a mix of genres and uses zombies because I like it and find it fun

 

[Epona]

There's one thing that pushes a game from being inspired by something to ripping it off.

If it's riding off the hype of the original game.

Yeah right. That means that any platformer to come after Mario is doing just that. Mario has never NOT been popular. How about Final Fantasy or Diablo. You need to rethink that.