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Zynga rips off iPhone GOTY Tiny Tower
- Thread starter Wario64
- Start date
Not unlike that 'Splosion Man game Capcom put out? Whatever happened to that one?Technosteve
Banned
Does Zynga version allow me to just straight up buy mapple stores in my tower?
-Deadpool-
Member
Hahaha, pretty crazy.
I've been playing Tiny Tower on Android - apart from the fact that Mobage hasn't ported over all the extra iPhone stuff, it's fantastic.
Knowing Zygna, it'll be nowhere near as playable (and probably nowhere near as free) as Tiny Tower anyway.
I've been playing Tiny Tower on Android - apart from the fact that Mobage hasn't ported over all the extra iPhone stuff, it's fantastic.
Knowing Zygna, it'll be nowhere near as playable (and probably nowhere near as free) as Tiny Tower anyway.
AlphaTwo00
Member
Right. And in Sim Tower, you're managing people in the tower, and assigning jobs?
wow lol
"If you peek inside the app binary the project is named Towerville and inhabitants are named zitizens."
Wow.
Got damn.
RomanticHeroX
Member
I'm glad Sim Tower has already been brought up. It doesn't make Zynga's game any less gross, but Tiny Tower is definitely clear in its influences as well.
-Pyromaniac-
Member
goddamn
How's life at Zynga?
I thought I worked at Blizzard. Or so that's what I was last accused of when I made such a statement.
AlphaTwo00
Member
Influence, sure. But did you look at the image comparison. It's feature by feature carried over. You won't find as many and as precise similarities between sim tower and these f2p games.
Bomber Bob
Banned
Fucking Zynga they are trash
Technosteve
Banned
You steal a little bit here, steal a little bit there, you polish it all up and you save 99 cents on developement
Big company out-and-out steals concept from small team with successful idea, and it's okay to do this? Right.
sixteen-bit
Member
Fucking shameless.
Why not? Games steal from each other all the time. Sometimes they flat out copy each other. This is nothing new and nothing to get pissed off about. It's how competition works.
The Faceless Master
Member
Apple (or any platform holder) is not and should not be copyright cops.
We are discussing how Zynga is shameless. Just because everyone else is doing it does not make it less shameless.
Hats off to Nimblebit, though. Instead of whining "wah wah evil corporate steals our idea!" they decided to make it a joke. Can't wait to see how these guys move next.
PatrickLyons
Member
having never played tinytower (i don't have a smartphone) i have to ask. is it actually an improvement on simtower? because i had a lot of fun with simtower, but there were certainly parts i would have improved in the design, and streamlining is a good idea for most games.
Wow, fuck off Zynga. Tiny Tower was a awesome. I had a lot of fun completing it.
Really? Dev team of 3, indie type devs, get ripped off by large company that purposefully and blatantly steals from others, and this is OK? This IS not competition, this is stealing or damn near close. Look at them, they are barely different. Nearly everything is the same! They've even been quoted that this is their goal. Add to this the way they treated employees over stocks (give it back or be fired)....and Zynga are a bunch of motherfuckers.
I haven't seen Sim Tower but I keep hearing other than having floors, they are different games for different people and not the same deal.
Really? Dev team of 3, indie type devs, get ripped off by large company that purposefully and blatantly steals from others, and this is OK? This IS not competition, this is stealing or damn near close. Look at them, they are barely different. Nearly everything is the same! They've even been quoted that this is their goal. Add to this the way they treated employees over stocks (give it back or be fired)....and Zynga are a bunch of motherfuckers.
I haven't seen Sim Tower but I keep hearing other than having floors, they are different games for different people and not the same deal.
DangerousDave
Member
One thing is to inspire on, or take out some features for a game because they're good and they fit with the game concept of your game.
But this game seems to clone all the features in the same way, making it more a Tiny Tower Remaster edition than another game.
Ok, a tower building game where you build new floors. Ok. In each floor there are shops. Ok. There are 5 kind of shops. In each shop you sell products to get money. The number of products is 3. You need one worker for each product. That workers have different stats for each kind of shop and a dream job. The items are stocked, and then sold. There is a elevator minigame.
The whole concept has been cloned, and without even changing slightly the main elements. 5 kind of shops? 3 different products in each shop? Same consumers that goes to the shop with a bubble explaining the product that they buy?
AlphaTwo00
Member
Tiny Tower only share "towers" with SimTower. It's a full on F2P game that was designed for these mobile devices, and really lacks the depth of management that you see in SimTower. But the lack of depth is what makes this the perfect time-waster that mobile games stands for.
br0ken_shad0w
Member
They wish Tiny Tower was as good as SimTower. SimTower had actually depth and management.
Tiny Tower is not trying to be like SimTower, so why are you posting this? It's a causal, fun little game with almost no management outside of restocking floors and assigning jobs to people.
Metal Gear?!
Member
Game mechanics are not and should not be copyrightable.
Doesn't mean we can't rip on Zygna for being unoriginal though.
Doesn't mean we can't rip on Zygna for being unoriginal though.
Agreed.
It's one thing to innovate upon an idea (a practice done and encouraged by Minecraft's Notch), and another thing to carbon copy a game then think "what should we change so it's not the same game?".
Of All Trades
Member
If they're profiting off of copyright violations then yes they should be, particularly if they have a certification process (unlike Youtube or Windows).
MarshMellow96
Member
Wario, I can't wait for Meier's response.
That's silly, no they shouldn't. That should be done outside the App store. Do we even know if TT has a copyright on it? If so, what specifically for?
So it is in this case Apple's responsibility to hold a full court session and go back through all previous case law and written law on copyright violations and deduce by themselves if Zynga is infringing/copying from Tiny Tower? Then what? Do they just refuse to put Tiny Tower on the App Store, or do they require Zynga to pay reperations or damages to the Tiny Tower devs? Where are they getting this legal jurisdiction? And so of course they would do this for every game/app before they are 'approved' and put on the 'App Store?' But then how long would it take to get anything on the App Store besides the in-house Apple apps?
I don't know too much about these 2 bills, but sounds sort of similiar to SOPA/PIPA.
charlequin
Banned
But he's got a good point. Inasmuch as both explicit copyright infringement and not-quite-infringing ripoff titles are present on the App Store, they're there because Apple's policies actively allow them to be present and make money.
Hobbestetrician
Member
What next, Zynga? A Scrabble rip-off? Yeah, that will work...
Why put emphasis on the fact that it's an indie dev team of 3? Would you take less issue with this if Zynga was copying EA or Activision? I find such an idea kind of offensive.
They're there because of the ridiculous amount of apps that are submitted for approval on a daily basis, and that Apple's checks are little more than "does this app break the phone?".
If Nimblebit has an issue and case, it's their move now. They've started with the great picture comparison in the OP.
What's the point in bringing up the size of the original developers? Would it have been fine if Zynga ganked the concept from a company bigger than their own?
The amount of ripoffs on iOS are staggering.
Also, I somehow never heard of this game so I'm off to buy it now; stealth publicity!
Probably just to emphasize the element of the little guy against the "giant corporation."
Also, I somehow never heard of this game so I'm off to buy it now; stealth publicity!
Probably just to emphasize the element of the little guy against the "giant corporation."
Castor Krieg
Banned
Ummmmmm, no, they don't. That's why IP-protection laws and copyright laws are in place in, I don't know, every civilized country on this planet? So that other companies cannot go out and STEAL your stuff?
Live Free or Die
Banned
Actually looks better than the original.
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