So a friend of mine and myself have been working on a game we came up with for a while, and its been coming along. We have been keeping it quiet because we felt it was a really good idea, and really liked where it was going. However, just yesterday I was on IndieDB, and I saw a game pop up on the banner, and it looked really interesting (meaning it looked a lot like the game we were making). I took a look at it, and it was really awesome, and it was everything we are doing and more. Not only that, but they already have a playable game that is for sale on Desura, and just launched a Kickstarter to "finish it".

As amazing as the game looks, it was like a punch in the heart because it seriously demotivated me from continuing my project. I don't need to have an original concept (if that even exists anymore) but I don't really want to make a game that is basically this other game, only they have some more features that would be everything I wanted this game to become.

What would you do in this situation? Has anyone had this experience? If so, what was the outcome?

EDIT: Interestingly, I came across this gamasutra post that was an interesting read on the subject:

http://gamasutra.com/blogs/MikoCharbonneau/20130510/192111/Coping_with_Comparison.php

What would you do in this situation?

The real question is, what are your options? I see four:

1. Continue making your game, with no changes to the plan.

2. Continue making the game, but with some changes to the plan.

3. Stop making that game, and go make something else.

4. Stop making that game, and don't make something else.

Have you considered all those options?

P.S. This isn't about "what happens" in this situation. It's about "what you'll make happen" instead.

Imagine what it was like to be the guy who had a great idea of a "first person shooter" when Wolfenstein 3D came out. Surely there was no point in continuing after that.

What would you do in this situation?

The real question is, what are your options? I see four:

1. Continue making your game, with no changes to the plan.

2. Continue making the game, but with some changes to the plan.

3. Stop making that game, and go make something else.

4. Stop making that game, and don't make something else.

Have you considered all those options?

P.S. This isn't about "what happens" in this situation. It's about "what you'll make happen" instead.

Yes, I agree. Those seem like the only logical paths to go. However, my question was more of a "What would you do? or Have you had this happen?". I was looking for peoples experiences with a similar dilemma.

Imagine what it was like to be the guy who had a great idea of a "first person shooter" when Wolfenstein 3D came out. Surely there was no point in continuing after that.

That's not quite what Im talking about, its not like I have an idea for a genre. I had an idea for Kolfenstein, and someone just came out with Wolfenstein. Its basically the same game, with the same theme and same play style. I loose excitement for my game when I see someone else deliver something very close, and do it well in my opinion.

That's not quite what Im talking about, its not like I have an idea for a genre. I had an idea for Kolfenstein, and someone just came out with Wolfenstein. Its basically the same game, with the same theme and same play style. I loose excitement for my game when I see someone else deliver something very close, and do it well in my opinion.

I am not looking for a 1 + 1 = 2 type answer. I was simply opening a discussion on this dilemma my game and team are facing. I understand this is opinion, and blah blah. Its called talking, and I am not really looking for a solution as much as I am looking for people with experience in how they may have handled a situation similar.

Heh, it happened more or less when I saw Sword of Arkhanox, its the kind of game I want to make. Its being made by one guy (mainly) in Darkbasic.

Then I thought it was good news, it means that what I want to make is way more within my reach than I thought before.

Think about it this way, you have some pretty good material there. Take it as an example, see what you can improve, what aspects you disagree with, what aspects they did better. And fundamentally, now you know that your game can be done, that is good. Just have some faith in you, have faith in that you can do it even better.

If it helps any I had a somewhat similar experience. I had an idea for a game project related to RTS games with some player side AI like Majesty. It turns out that some games that are similar have recently come out like Towns, DF was out but ASCII, and there are a lot of semi-related games like Stonehearth and Timber and stone coming out that are citybuildery with economics and AI controlled units with different professions.

Now I was lucky in that these games were all voxely and terrain terraformy where as my game was built on a more traditional RTS engine that can't do those things. And it was more magic and RTS and RPGy. However it was still unfortunate because the market for all these games is relatively small and overlaps.

Now my process involves so much re-imagining and feature creep that this didn't throw a big wrench in it to make a few focus changes. I ended up playing CK2 and that changed a lot for me and I had always wanted to add a higher layer anyways so it was easy to add way more RPG. And since I loved KoDP I focused on an event/trait system that combined aspects of those two games plus some more original thought and stopped worrying about these other games. They were into their cutesy graphics and terraforming and such and I moved in a direction I liked anyways.

It might be more helpful to people posting what you wanted if you were to talk about your game and the game that came out to mess you up. If you want personal stories from others perhaps you should share yours.

I am not really looking for a solution as much as I am looking for people with experience in how they may have handled a situation similar.

Cool. So what if Guy A went with option 1, Guy B went with option 2, Guy C went with option 3, and Guy D went with option 4? Mini-polls are an inferior decision-making tool. But they are okay at generating discussion. If you're more interested in discussion than decision-making, then I'll shut up. Oh wait, that would be the wrong thing to do in that case, too! I'm confusing myself...

'

Well I announced my game Postmortem, where you play as death incarnate tasked to claim one life at a charity gala event, and literally the next day RPS had a big release article about Death Inc. which... also makes you play as death. The two games are very different, but the basic idea is so close it gave me that brief sinking "well there goes the spotlight" feeling :P

But I continued on and am a release away from official Beta now, getting ready to set my final release date. Knowing my luck, tho, it will probably end up being... the day before Death Inc comes out hehe.