I'm a beginner here and I have a slight ethical issue.

A few months ago I wanted to make a small game, and at the time I really liked to play Bejeweled. So I decided to make something similar and change some things in it. So instead of moving one piece at a time I wondered what would happen if I moved the entire row? How about the column as well? How about adding some other things? Seemed unique enough to me, as all the match 3 games out there didn't have any of the things I wanted to have in my game.

So I started my little project, created my "jewels", managed to make the rows swap, then the columns, then after a few painful tries I managed to get the killing to happen. I was so eager and I really enjoyed working on it. Next on my list was to implement a score system, when all of a sudden somebody said she had seen my game before. And she showed it to me. It was called Chuzzle Deluxe by popcap games.

I never played that game, nor did I ever knew of it's existence till that point. All my hopes got lost

Now I'm wondering...should I finish my game? I originally wanted to post it on fgl (my first ever game that I would try to put there), but now I don't know if that would be possible, or if it would be ethical for me to do so.

What would you do in my situation? Did something similar occur to anyone else? Would I get in trouble if I finish the game and put it up for bids?

I love chuzzle. Cute furry chuzzles.
What happened to you has/is happening to you, not about a game but a software, 3sweep.

Look for what chuzzle doesn't have and implement it (like a space jewels game, if you match a whole column, explosion)

This kind of thing happens all the time.

Some people are even entirely conscious of their products "humble beginnings". Bungie (the guys behind Halo) made a little game for mac called "Gnop". Take a wild guess as to what that was.

Ill give you a hint

Go ahead and make your game, there's no shame in releasing it. The only thing you shouldn't do is make it look and work exactly the same as a commercially copy-written product, so even just swapping some graphics around should get you mostly in the clear. Just to be sure though, find at least one thing to innovate (again, I know easier said than done) to completely set your game apart, and your very much good to go again

Good luck!

Game rules aren't subject to copyright in the US and most other places AFAIK, so reinventing the same game using your own sweat isn't a legal issue.

Your game could be seen as a 'clone' or 'knock off' (which may have negative connotations), but if you did this via coincidence, I don't see how you could feel your work has been immoral.

The only thing you shouldn't do is make it look and work exactly the same as a commercially copy-written product,

That's gonna be quite hard to do unless I turn it into some kind of puzzle game, and right now that's not the direction I was after . I never played the original game, but I'm pretty sure my clone won't have too many innovations in it compared to the original (at least I haven't thought of that many things to add yet and I bet they already added my yet un-added twists in the original, since the game itself imposes some limits).

I don't see how you could feel your work has been immoral.

Would you say the same thing if I tried to put it on fgl for sale?

The only thing you shouldn't do is make it look and work exactly the same as a commercially copy-written product,

That's gonna be quite hard to do unless I turn it into some kind of puzzle game, and right now that's not the direction I was after . I never played the original game, but I'm pretty sure my clone won't have too many innovations in it compared to the original (at least I haven't thought of that many things to add yet and I bet they already added my yet un-added twists in the original, since the game itself imposes some limits).

I don't see how you could feel your work has been immoral.

Would you say the same thing if I tried to put it on fgl for sale?

If you're not using someone elses code or assets and the price you charge is reasonable then thats fine.

I'd be willing to bet a couple of hundred bucks that popcap wasn't first either. (They weren't first with bejeweled atleast, that gameplay is almost identical to a mid 1990s DOS game)

If you're not using someone elses code or assets and the price you charge is reasonable then thats fine.

... or someone else's trademarked name.

I obviously don't plan on using the same name, code or assets as the original, but in terms of gameplay it will probably come out pretty much like the original. I mean, what can you add in that game besides the obvious bombs, clear the row, clear the column, clear all the same "jewels" from the board, block a row and block a column? And I bet they have that in the original as well :(

Candy Crush is basically Bejeweled with a few changes here and there. It worked out well for them...

I obviously don't plan on using the same name, code or assets as the original, but in terms of gameplay it will probably come out pretty much like the original. I mean, what can you add in that game besides the obvious bombs, clear the row, clear the column, clear all the same "jewels" from the board, block a row and block a column? And I bet they have that in the original as well

you can also use a different board size, tiles that can't be removed, tiles that only get removed if you clear a tile next to them, a bonus that allows you to make more than one move at once or one to convert all tiles of one color to a different randomly selected color.

You could reverse the game (rather than starting with a filled board you could start with an empty board and have tiles appear one row at the time from the bottom, changing the goal of the game to be more like tetris (prevent the board from filling up),

you could let your tiles have both colors and symbols allowing the player to clear using either 3 of the same symbol or 3 of the same color. (and give bonus points or special effects (clear surrounding tiles for example) if both color and symbol matches).

There is a virtually unlimited number of directions you can take the basic concept and mechanics in, not all ideas and directions are good and not all will be fun when combined but there is definitely room to twist the concept into something unique.