Zynga Accused of Cloning Hit Indie iPhone Game Tiny Tower 245
FrankPoole writes "Indie iPhone game developer Nimblebit is accusing social games giant Zynga of ripping off its popular mobile title Tiny Tower. Nimblebit's Ian Marsh got word out about the similarities between Dream Heights and Tiny Tower with an image that's still making the Twitter rounds. The image is made up of screenshots showing how Dream Heights' interface and gameplay mechanics appear strikingly similar to Tiny Tower's."
Game rules do not underlie copyright (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl108.html [copyright.gov]
Too bad Nimblebit is hypocritical (Score:4, Informative)
http://i.imgur.com/ajaYt.jpg
Sim Tower (Score:5, Informative)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SimTower
Or as they say, 'everything is a remix'.
Re:Too bad Nimblebit is hypocritical (Score:2, Informative)
drumscowski admits within that he hasn't even played tiny tower - if he had he'd realise it's not a vague 'influence' that nimblebit is pissed off about - such as he took from similar games - it's essentially a direct clone with a new skin on top of it.
Re:Too bad Nimblebit is hypocritical (Score:5, Informative)
Don't make a judgment until you have actually played all the games. I haven't, but at least from what one can read on the Internet from people who have: SimTown plays quite different, TinyTower and Zyngas game almost identical and it's not like this is the first time Zynga has done something like this, see FarmTown vs FarmVille.
Re:Sim Tower (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Game rules do not underlie copyright (Score:5, Informative)
Perhaps not, but then again nobody is suing them either. This is more about moral rules than the law.
Zynga has no morals.
Re:Happens all the time. (Score:5, Informative)
Let's see... when I was a kid in the days of Apple ][, these neighbors of ours (Stoltzfus family) came up with a graphical programming language.
They showed it to Apple, hoping that Apple would buy. Apple strongly considered it, and then returned it, saying that they weren't interested.
A year later, they came out with Apple Logo, which was immensely popular.
Logo was created in the 60s [wikipedia.org], turtles and all. It was popular on other systems as well in the early 80s, so it doesn't really seem to me that they did anything wrong here?
Not the first time for Zynga (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Sim Tower (Score:5, Informative)
I've played both SimTower and Tiny Tower. They can only be described as a "remix" if you go to a high enough level that all you can see is that both games have commercial tower construction involved.
In Tiny Tower, you manage all of the people in the building, as well as what each floor is doing - what the stores stock, who works where, who lives where, etc.
In SimTower, you just put in the "zoned" space, and people move in and pay you rent. You manage the building from a facilities perspective, screwing about with elevator timings and where the box stays in the shaft when no one's in it. You manage traffic flow within your building so you don't end up with pissed off people that just want to get out of your building at the end of the day.
They are quite different games. In fact, after finding Tiny Tower, it inspired me to fire up DOSBox with Windows 3.1 and play some SimTower.
Re:Happens all the time. (Score:5, Informative)
Well, except for the fact that they didn't steal anything, you're right. Xerox gave it away. Willfully.
Re:Thompson and Ritchie (Score:5, Informative)
I can't stand it any more! Three posts in a row! I must say something!
It's "bald faced", not "bold faced"!
OK, I feel a little better.
Re:marketing.. (Score:5, Informative)
I am not saying Zynga is going to be losing any sleep over this
oh i very well doubt Zynga will lose any sleep over this...
ex staffer says [gameinformer.com] "zynga's motto is 'do evil'". also "the source said that staffers were, and are still, instructed to blatantly steal the idea of competitors. He recalls a time when founder Mark Pincus spoke on the subject, allegedly saying “I don’t f**king want innovation. You’re not smarter than your competitor. Just copy what they do and do it until you get their numbers.” "
Re:Happens all the time. (Score:3, Informative)