XBL Indie Dev Clones Minecraft With FortressCraft

[New York Patrick]

Can anyone say breach of copyright?

Can you copyright things people do in the real world? It's not like he invented blocks or block based gaming and, like the article said, Infiniminer inspired minecraft.

It is essentially the same as someone releasing a platformer game called "Super Larry-o Brothers," where the player is a "Sicillian Electrician" that has to rescue a princess from a dragon, but she is always in another "fortress," and he jumps on "tortises," and other crap shamelessly ripped off of Mario, used a high pixel, shiny graphics engine, and released it to compete with Mario.

The difference between Minecraft and Infiniminer is that Notch made signifigant and noticable changes to the concept in the first incarnation of the game, and has continued to develop minecraft into a unique entity at a rapid base. In reality, the only similarity between the two games that is worth bringing up is that you make stuff out of blocks, and you mine.

However, if one watches any of the first gameplay footage of Fortresscraft, one may not be able to tell the difference between it and a high poly texture pack for either Beta or Classic. The sad truth is that the developer behind Fortresscraft has plagerized the majority of their game rather sloppily, instead of actually adding anything new or innovative to the concept to begin with.

Well a plumber in the mushroom kingdom is very different from a guy in the wilderness who mines, chops trees and crafts stuff. Should Blizzard sue notch? You do all that stuff in WoW, and then someone who did it before them sues blizzard. Then whoever did it first in games is sued by a bunch of trades unions because they did it before them. You can't plagiarise things people did long before you were around.

You are completely missing the point. It isn't because you can mine and craft, etc. in both that makes Fortresscraft plagerism. The similarities are MUCH too close. WoW, or if we want to use your further point, REALITY, isn't composed of 1 meter blocks which can be smashed and replaced to build fortresses.

I am not opposed to people using similar ideas in games. I just figure developers should use their full asses in coming up with unique or atleast marginally different games.

 

[Krong]

Ugh, another developer who is trying to blatantly pawn off someone elses ideas as theirs. I honestly hope this company goes under.

 

[Yoh3333]

okay here is my honest opinion:
I've thought alot about this and I don't like that is being made, I get why and I would've let it slide if it had another title that wasn't so similar to Minecrafts.
Either way I think this is not the best idea, he has changed the things that people love about minecraft but still keeping it similar (like the graphics) but it is the small changes that makes the game a flop in my eyes:
The most obvious one is the way he creates stuff. He can just aim at where he wants to place the block and it makes it easy for him to build. This is a mechanic that has been altered and has different effect. (bear in mind this is all just what I think, FC isn't even out yet anyway)The change is that with FC there is no difficulty in placeing objects in extraordinary ways (atleast not from what i've seen) Makeing a roof in minecraft with carvings and lights can be complex, and therefore VERY VERY rewarding. It's not like that in FC.

Graphics is definately not an improvement. Personally i would call it a lower grade texture. Minecraft's special artstyle makes it stand out and makes it special. The texture work in FC seems to me as a texture pack at best... Except for the water, i don't like minecrafts water, but it is still a vital key point that it has this "source block" Without it people wouldn't be able to account for it the same way.

This last point i am not 100% sure is true, but that fortress assault mode is objective based from what i can gather, and adding an objective to a game like Minecraft ruins alot of the depth of the game.

This is all just my opinion on the matter.

 

[witness51]

Look, angry PC owners, I know you love this game but so do I! And I have an Xbox. So this is a dream come true. And Minecraft wasn't copyrighted. And it probably won't be as good anyway.

 

[kikon9]

I'm looking forward to this, if only because I can't get Minecraft on my PC

 

[molesgallus]

if MC was Copyright notched could sue their asses!
this is just a MC ripoff and nothing more!
also MC,s relativly bad graphics gave it charm this just looks too realistic

He got the concept for the game even be4 minecraft's development was started. Just check his inspiration video...
btw: how could he sue them? Its like saying "Half-Life was a rip-off of Doom because they are both fps's"

It's just not. Half-life isn't called Half-Doom. What's happened here is more akin to someone coming out with a game called Holler of Duty : green ops. Then copying the gameplay, and graphical style in almost every detail. Throwing in a couple of new guns, and calling it an original work.

In fact, why even use that analogy. The truth is stranger than fiction, in this case. Someone has came out with a game called FortressCraft, that has copied minecrafts gameplay, and graphical style in almost every way, and added a couple of minor features. It's been, suspiciously, marketed as 'Minecraft comes to xbox'. All my friends are telling me to buy it on the basis that it is minecraft for the xbox.

I have talked to my father, one of those fancy lawyer types, and he seems fairly sure Notch could sue based on the fact that this work is derivative, and has clearly been produced and marketed as a minecraft clone, with the intent to draw users from MInecraft. Notch won't sue. He's not that interested. But, damn, he could destroy this guy if he was at all interested. Works don't have to be identical copies to breach copyright. Simply close enough as to obviously take market share that would have went to the original product.

FortressCraft is not a take on the block-building genre. It is a clone. Pure, simple.