Blitz Games Studio of Leamington Spa, started by the Oliver Twins stole my college final major project, a puzzle game, and then around the time of their closure would sell on the IP to the game. They took from me a game I would never receive any recognition or money for creating but also in that respect with a team of game developers under their roof they gave life to a game that I at the time could never have given it. A game that was released on Xbox live and is still widely sold today on mobile platforms.
The article also contains advice on how aspiring developers can best protect their IP from an incident like mine.
Please read the full story over at the original Medium article here.
I think it's important that when blatant intellectual property thefts like this happen in the industry that light is shed upon them, not only to inform future generations of the risks they are likely to encounter and how to prevent them but also if not just to highlight that this problem exists, I am sure I am not the first person this has happened to and will not be the last, but the many people before and after me in most likelihood never felt like they had a voice to speak up about issues like this because of the way these companies talk you down when you try to do so. It has taken me the best part of 12 years to personally muster up the courage to have a voice, in the past I felt a number of reasons why and one of the more dominant reasons was that speaking out against them could have a negative impact on my future career in the industry and that I could just end up looking like some kind of “crazy person” particularly with the amount of effort they had put into disarming me when Blitz Games Studio was still in operation.
I know that most people are likely to share their opinions before reading any of the article or just having skimmed through it, but that's the problem in the majority of replies I get. There is a whole account of how this transpired and not just a blind accusation.
I'm not forcing anyone to read the full article, but also, miss-informed responses make me have to re-iterate details.
A quick FAQ:
1. Did you produce the game or was it just an idea you had?
I did produce the game, to what a professional development team would consider a prototype due to the mediocre home made graphics.
Video Here: https://youtu.be/w54gRmyYYWY
2. What was the time period between you releasing your finished game and Blitz Games Studios releasing their version?
It was one year between be releasing my game (2008) and Blitz Games Studios releasing Droplitz (2009).
3. Are you sure Blitz Games Studios stole your idea, did they even know about you?
Yes they knew about me in my first year of University as my tutor Stan Zych was working closely with the company, the reason being, as to what he claimed, is that because the Studio's founders went to Secondary School in the same town he had some leverage although the company Blitz where operating one of the largest outreach programs for young talent at the time so the reality was that they had their fingers in many educational pies so to speak. Stan Zych pitched my game idea to them and on one occasion Blitz Games senior staff attended my college to take a look at the prototype I had been working on some time early 2008.
Since posting my story I have had a response from James A. Parker the original claimant for the game idea his response can be read here (mirror) and in my counter response here (mirror).
