XBL Indie Dev Clones Minecraft With FortressCraft

[SHIFTYMACO]

I do think that it is pretty disgusting that these guys are cashing in on Mine-crafts popularity.
I mean, What would people think if someone came out with a clone of Mount & blade while they were developing it?
This is setting a bad precedent where New Developers cant fund the development of their game by releasing beta versions at a lower price because others who are better established and have more funds will clone it and release a better version a lot quicker.
Then people out there who will discover Mine-craft will be like "Oh its just a clone of Fortress-craft" And mine craft Developers will loose out!

 

[hardband]

It is a clone, but so was saints row and that was fun. I will probably get this when it comes out (its only 80MSP) just because it's cheap and a minecraft clone it still minecraft. It will be nice playing it on a TV screen as well and if it does add new features it will be pretty damn solid, even if it won't reach the heights of minecraft.

 

[Awexsome]

This could get pretty popular since I have a 360 and a computer that can't run minecraft. Not to mention the much greater accessibilty for the 360 even if my computer could run it. I might check it out.

 

[Roofstone]

I..actually prefer minecraft graphics, they are cozy to me..

 

[Wondermint13]

Hah! Minecraft got owned!


Sorry.. I know my talents can allow me to post better than that but i'm just sick to death of hearing about the almighty minecraft now... =)
And no matter how many times you post the word 'lawsuit' its not gonna happen x

 

[airrazor7]

not exactly surprised this is happening. I just think this is the coming of a new popular genre.

Yahtzee, get your "Like Minecraft" stamp ready

 

[The3rdEye]

And yes, you CAN copyright ideas. Thats what a copyright is. By definition.

Actually... taken from the US Copyright Office's website, first paragraph:http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-protect.html

"Copyright, a form of intellectual property law, protects original works of authorship including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works, such as poetry, novels, movies, songs, computer software, and architecture. Copyright does not protect facts, ideas, systems, or methods of operation, although it may protect the way these things are expressed.

Furthermore, by your logic this case: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/for...ll-Ready-to-Sue-World-of-Warcraft-Second-Life would have resulted in Blizzard and Linden Research getting sued out the wazoo.

And Hexen and Quake were made by id (well Hexen was developed by raven but published by id), so why would anyone be pissed at id for 'copying' their OWN games?! Not to mention that Quake was FAR from a Doom copy, the technical advancements that came with the Quake engine were nothing short of groundbreaking.

You're missing my point. Rather than have someone else "copy their game" as you put it, they did it themselves to see if there was a separate niche market for fantasy-styled FPS's to make sure they'd be in a position to corner the market. Despite Hexen's performance, the premise of playing a game from a first person perspective with a primarily ranged combat focus is the -idea- that all those games had.

No, Notch did not invent the idea of this kind of sandbox, nor does he own a copyright of it. This Fortress craft game isn't illegal, but by so far adding nothing original to the mix, this is a lazy copy of a better game, and people should not accept that.

But we are also discussing a teaser here, not a demonstration of the full game, if plans to release it in multiple chapters is any indication. Based purely on the trailer hosted on the actual Minecraft site, you would not expect to find: Item crafting, monsters and animals or a day and night cycle while playing the game but those features are actually in it. Were it not for Joystiq you would not know that Fortresscraft also will be including NPC "minions", machinery or "Fortress Assault mode" (whatever that may be) just from watching this teaser. The entire point is to give you a taste of what someone else plans to do with the Minecraft formula, it's by no means a definitive demonstration of the game.

Don't get me wrong, all hail Minecraft for what it did, yay for the self published small developer. But Minecraft has been in development since May 2009. These guys are going to do Minecraft to date (if you are to believe the cries of 'exact copy') and more, plus meet XBL's quality standards in order to be allowed to distribute. I don't mean to encourage their egging on of the Minecraft fanbase, but I AM interested to see what they do.

 

[Ghengis John]

I've been wanting to play the original minecraft on the 360 for a long time. That said, I think I'll keep waiting for notch to acknowledge that consoles exist.

Or maybe I'll try this.

I can't decide.

 

[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.

 

[New York Patrick]

jesus, elitists have to unite and scrabble over anything...

reminds me of a bunch of fucking hipsters..calm down..

meh, my brothers might have fun with this though, looks pretty good.

Thank you for trying to make this arguement about something it isn't. Really appreciated.

This is not about elitism. This is about sloppy, shameless, dishonerable, and disrespectful plagerism. Fortresscraft is essentially the equivilent of someone plagerizing someone elses novel and calling it their own after some slight, trivial cosmetic changes.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

jesus, elitists have to unite and scrabble over anything...

reminds me of a bunch of fucking hipsters..calm down..

meh, my brothers might have fun with this though, looks pretty good.

Thank you for trying to make this arguement about something it isn't. Really appreciated.

This is not about elitism. This is about sloppy, shameless, dishonerable, and disrespectful plagerism. Fortresscraft is essentially the equivilent of someone plagerizing someone elses novel and calling it their own after some slight, trivial cosmetic changes.

oh i realize what i was doing, and no it isn't about elitism, but it's just fun to stir the pot anytime i can against elitist going hipsters (slightly sarcastic)

i get what your saying, but do you realize how many games are copied near damn close, all the time?

i forgot the name of the game but gears of war in the past few years had a game that was the most copy paste game i have seen in a while, and thats a AAA game that's pretty distinct, unlike minecraft which is a sandbox..lego block builder thing.

so if you honestly have a problem with fortresscraft, then your arguement definitely needs to be with hundreds of other games out there. I see games all the time that are rip offs, but do i sit there and QQ or something about it? no, i either don't play the game, or if i do, i enjoy its merits.

 

[manythings]

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.

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

Anyway, I think you guys are making it out to be a bigger deal than this is. Yeah, it's pretty lame that the developer is outright denying it's a Minecraft clone, and that I'm pretty sure he said somewhere that he's doing it for the money, but still, games are essentially a set of features, and features are viral. We don't call generic FPS's or RPG's ripoffs of COD or Final Fantasy, because those are entries into a genre. What's stopping "creative block-based castle building simulator" from being a genre, if you think about it? Just because we're being faced with the second of it's kind doesn't mean it's a blatant ripoff deserving of a lawsuit.

Or rather third of it's kind, since Notch has admitted that Minecraft is an Infiniminer clone.

I'm in full agreement with Monicro on this.

Even if we leave the whole Infiniminer thing alone for the minute and assume that Minecraft invented it's genre why all the fuss over another game in the same vein? I'm a huge fan of ASCII Roguelikes, and that entire line of games would have been snuffed out in an instant if the gaming community decried them for 'being Rogue clones'. Seriously guys and gals, Infiniminer invented this genre, and now Minecraft and Fortresscraft are picking up the ball and running with it. If you people like the genre so much, why the hate and bile now the genre is growing?

Although in the interest of fairness I will admit Fortresscraft is a pretty shameless cash-in.

 

[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.