XBL Indie Dev Clones Minecraft With FortressCraft

[Richard Allen]

Can anyone say breach of copyright?

Eh. You can't copyright ideas. If you could, somebody could likely sue just about every major game developer for ripping off certain genres.
They all have a lot in common after all.

The sad thing is, as the article points out, minecraft itself was 'inspired' by an earlier project...
I just looked at the website for that, and if that doesn't look suspiciously similar to Minecraft...

Yeah, anyway, when a seemingly unique idea shows up, people seem to think it can be defended, yet the evidence of history shows only the most blatant clones can really be sued for anything. (even then... Tetris anyone?)

The whole industry copies and refines ideas all the time. We even expect them to, because what would happen if a company tries something unexpected that works differently to the typical ideas?
Yeah... There'd be complaints about it being 'wrong'.

Usually AFTER the original idea has bygone its age. copying ideas as they are...still fresh? to me, paying for this would be like paying some of the modders who make texture packs for minecraft. its kinda silly. aaand i wish this Dev focused on a more fresh and different idea. this way he just gets called a unoriginal douche.

Welcome to the world of modern video games, where creativity is crushed by the safe bet. If people don't like it stop buying CODMW X and MASS effect x and madden xx ect (not saying that to you specifically just in general).

And no ideas are copied immediately, doom was made with in a year of wolfenstien.

 

[BOBdotEXE]

now, I finally have a use for thous left over 80MSP!!!
...how long have I had them? it seems like forever...

 

[SomeBoredGuy]

Nooooo!! Now the console tards will be able to enjoy something that only the PC Gaming Elite should enjoy.
-_-

Personally, I think this is a good thing. I still maintain that Mojang should have ported Minecraft to consoles, but they didn't. They dropped the ball on this, and someone picked it up.
I look forward to being able to play with a controller and a decent framerate and draw-distance.

Edit: The graphics look great as well. Pickaxe design is terrible, though.

I really wish Mojang had done this. I'd hate to see them losing such a huge market.

Well, you can't really blame Mojang for having not brought Minecraft to consoles yet, seeing how it's still very much in beta and is being changed constantly.

OT: Way to miss the point guys. Indie games are supposed to innovate, to give someone a reason to want to play it over the bigger-budgeted games. When indie games start completely ripping each other off and making the graphics more "realistic", immediately losing all of the charm that made the original great it is a seriously bad sign.

 

[timeadept]

That's like saying gee, I've made 50 million dollars, so why in the hell would I want to make 100 million?

That logic, doesn't make sense.

Depends. Would you want to port to a console you have no interest in to get more money when you have so much money you have no idea what to do with it all?

Still don't think a console version would sell as well as the PC version anyways. What makes you think he'd make double what he has just by putting it on xbox? My xbox-only friends all hate minecraft, even after playing it.

On top of this i'm already not very satisfied with the snails pace that new content is coming out for minecraft at. I would hate to see the Mojang team spread themselves too thin by trying to port an unfinished game to other systems. I don't see anything but the complete collapse of the game coming from that. If not, it'll be a year before anything interesting comes out for minecraft and my level of interest is waning as it is.

Don't get me wrong, the game is really cool, but it could be great! I can see that what it could become is right over the horizon, and i would very much like to get there before i completely louse interest in minecraft.

 

[Baresark]

Interesting. I wouldn't touch a game like this with a ten foot pole on a console, I am chiefly a PC gamer.

Yeah but I think us console gamers have probably gotten used to using the Joypad by now so I imagine that it won't be too hard to get used to it. Specially if we haven't played it using a keyboard.

I didn't mean to make it sound as derogatory as it did. I meant that I don't play much console games. I would love to see how this game does. I mean, the best part of Minecraft is the ability to do nearly everything you could want, gives you complete creative control. Consoles need this kind of stuff. There were so many awesome creations made in Mod Nation Racers. In a lot of ways I feel that this is the way video games should be. Not all, but at least some.

The only thing that looks better on this than on my PC is really only the water, and I'm not going to lose sleep over that.

To be quite honest, I prefer the minecraft look. I think it has a retro charm to it all, if I had the choice I'd pick minecraft over this any day. However my computer is a piece of shit when it comes to running games so I'm stuck with this FortressCraft thing. Though I would love it if they managed to port Minecraft to a console.

It would be awesome to see a direct port. I like how it looked, and it looks unique. But sometimes those 16x16 textures make my head ache. And the enhanced textures are part of the fun of the game. right now I am using the Bordercraft texture pack, someone made one that makes the world look like crayon art, some made it look super realistic. This is just part of the many elements of love about Minecraft.

 

[RowdyRodimus]

It would be hilarious if this turns out to be more complete and have more options than Minecraft does with their ever vacationing development team.

I really bet Minecraft getting out of Beta will be the new Duke Nukem Forever joke before too long.

 

[MassiveGeek]

I... I feel a small tingling feeling of disgust.

I don't know. I'm not really mad about this, I mean, you can't play Minecraft on the Xbox360, so... But I can't be happy either. It's... I don't know, it reminds me of a slightly more polished fanfic of a rougher but simpler book. Or something.

Dunno. It really turned me off though, and I'm not getting this.

 

[hilarius117]

I see this as Legos vs MegaBlocks
Legos are better, but sometimes MegaBlocks has a charm you cant refuse, so you get a set. You will eventually go back to Legos, but the MegaBlocks were a quaint distraction. And it is only for $1.

There will be no lawsuit. Different game, different look, same premise. Call of Duty cant sue every other brown FPS, and I doubt Notch can sue a similar game. Unless this guy used Notches code, no lawsuit.

 

[GreyKnight3445]

Even if it may be a somewhat polished clone of Minecraft, I'll probably get it simply because it is on XBL and has multiplayer, by the looks of it.
Won't have to rely on trying to get our own servers to work >.>

I cant wait to see the flames wars for this. It will be bloody and hilarious and at least one child will get scarred for life

 

[draythefingerless]

Can anyone say breach of copyright?

Eh. You can't copyright ideas. If you could, somebody could likely sue just about every major game developer for ripping off certain genres.
They all have a lot in common after all.

The sad thing is, as the article points out, minecraft itself was 'inspired' by an earlier project...
I just looked at the website for that, and if that doesn't look suspiciously similar to Minecraft...

Yeah, anyway, when a seemingly unique idea shows up, people seem to think it can be defended, yet the evidence of history shows only the most blatant clones can really be sued for anything. (even then... Tetris anyone?)

The whole industry copies and refines ideas all the time. We even expect them to, because what would happen if a company tries something unexpected that works differently to the typical ideas?
Yeah... There'd be complaints about it being 'wrong'.

Usually AFTER the original idea has bygone its age. copying ideas as they are...still fresh? to me, paying for this would be like paying some of the modders who make texture packs for minecraft. its kinda silly. aaand i wish this Dev focused on a more fresh and different idea. this way he just gets called a unoriginal douche.

Welcome to the world of modern video games, where creativity is crushed by the safe bet. If people don't like it stop buying CODMW X and MASS effect x and madden xx ect (not saying that to you specifically just in general).

And no ideas are copied immediately, doom was made with in a year of wolfenstien.

Thats AAA. but from the Indie department? Makes no sense other than greed buddy. Triple A games have budgets and risks and peoples with jobs to worry about? But indie devs? They have nothing to lose in trying sth new and fresh. THAT is why i feel this is silly and sad. Because the only motivator to do this is laziness, and perhaps greed.

 

[Sovvolf]

Also, I won't believe that FortressCrap was not made for profit until I get legitimate proof from the indie dev themselves that they made a carbon-copy of Minecraft after the fact for a legitimate non-ripping profit-based reason.

I don't blame you for not believing it, I'm not claiming for a fact that it isn't for the profit, I just think its a little unlikely. Specially if they are true to their word on the whole 80mp thing. They'd be getting about £0.50 per buy which isn't really going to do well for profit. They could easily bump it up to a higher price and I imagine people would buy it. That and even they probably know that the market for what they are offering is pretty small. Most people have PC's decent enough to run it and they have mod support, keyboards and a whole lot of other perks on the PC version.

So theres not much of a market there for profit. I could be wrong though, they could be intending to net up some profit. It just doesn't really seem like a solid investment for the money.

Don't buy it. Maybe wait until you can afford a better computer if you really want a Minecraft experience. Though I'm surprised that there's any computer currently in use by someone that cannot run Minecraft, considering it's java and all.
[/rant]

Wait till I can afford a better computer to play it, or go for the poor mans Minecraft? I'd go with the poor mans Minecraft. New computers are expensive. As for not being able to run it, yeah my computer has problems running most games... Its a piece of shit but I'm stuck with it.

 

[imnot]

It would be hilarious if this turns out to be more complete and have more options than Minecraft does with their ever vacationing development team.

I really bet Minecraft getting out of Beta will be the new Duke Nukem Forever joke before too long.

Im pretty sure it is out of beta...

Seriouslyt though couldnt this guy just think of something original?

 

[Azaraxzealot]

Adding a touch of the Microsoft evil, XBOX Douchiness, and Tom Goldman "pretend this badness is good!" flavor to the Minecraft world to make it slimey and nasty!

hey, it's basically a more polished version of the game for a dollar.

can anyone say "Good deal"?

if i can get basically the same game for cheaper, then why the fuck not? don't be pissed just because an indie developer is making your precious "PC exclusive" consolized

plus, you won't have to pay monthly for it once Minecraft actually gets finished. so.... why not buy this?

 

[Doug]

This makes me mad, people shouldnt get away with things like this.
Minecraft is for the PC and xbox live people can get a damn computer and play it on that

In the state that video portrays it ... its an outright rip off. It will probably become a big lawsuit.

Erm, am I the only one who read this in the OP?

After looking into FortressCraft past its exterior, I can say that it might be a game Minecraft fans should look forward to, rather than criticize based on its similarities. There's no doubt that it's taking advantage of the popularity of Minecraft, but there's nothing wrong with taking a game style and adapting it with new ideas, right? In fact, Minecraft creator Marcus "Notch" Persson himself admits that Minecraft was inspired by a very similar title called Infiniminer [http://thesiteformerlyknownas.zachtronicsindustries.com/?p=713]. For a few bucks, FortressCraft could be a fun way to use those skills built up in Minecraft in a different way.

I mean, if you click on that link, its pretty clear that Minecraft has at least a 'passing ressemblance to this InfinityMiner thingy.

As for this FortressCraft, I dunno; I do have some friends on XBLA, and so we might at least have some fun on it. But the video isn't overly encouraging as it seems to have missed the clean, simple graphics of MineCraft for more complex and yet uglier tiles. Though the water at least looks nicer, as do the player avatars.

 

[hilarius117]

Did anyone else check every program in the background after the bleep at the end of video?

Hehe. It was the guys Skype going off. I was confused too

 

[Brian Hendershot]

The only thing stopping me playing minecraft is that my comp sucks. So this is a good way to get more people playing it.

There seem to be 2 types of responses so far. Half of you are saying "OMG EVIL MICROSOFT SUE THEM!"
Or saying this is a good idea.

Meh.

I completely agree with this dude.

Also:


I have Minecraft on the computer and I'll still probably buy this. I mean...one dollar is not that much.

 

[imnot]

Im pretty sure it is out of beta...

it's not.

oops, I mixed up beta with alpha :3

I so bad at the internet.

 

[RA92]

This is as inspired bye" as Windows was "Inspired by" Mac's and that led to a massive out of court settlement by Microsoft. Just par for the course for MS. cut and paste software development.

Bullshit. Apple. Microsoft. All. Bullshit.

Both Windows and Mac ripped off the <url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox_Alto>Xerox Alto.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5e/Xerox_Alto_mit_Rechner.JPG/450px-Xerox_Alto_mit_Rechner.JPG

In 1979, Apple Computer's co-founder Steve Jobs visited Xerox PARC, where he was shown the Smalltalk-80 programming environment, networking, and most importantly the WYSIWYG, mouse-driven graphical user interface provided by the Alto. He reportedly was not impressed by the first two, but was excited by the last one, and promptly integrated it, first into the Lisa and then in the Macintosh, attracting several key researchers to work in his company.

 

[VitusPrime]

That's...Just fecing...terrible.

Honestly? This is terrible sad that someone needs to copy a game so clearly...sad world...

 

[TheLazyGeek]

Yawn, i already have Minecraft on my PC, why would I want it on XBL? Especially since MC is made in Java. I have respect for whoever can code anything in that god-awful language.