Clone Wars
Video game clones are not anything new to the game market but as of lately there seems to be a major influx of clones that don't seem to be slowing down any time soon. Most clones don't seem to sell very well but they do sell and every sell made of a clone is a sell taken away from the original IP. Is there bound to be endless repeats of original games just to make a quick dollar?
Defining a clone
One can say that many of the video games out today are not 100% original. Many games take one, two, or many concepts from different games, mash them together and make very interesting games. These are not the types of games that I would define as clones, nor do I feel that they are ruining the market. The games that are destroying the game market are blatant rip-offs that do not alter the original IP gameplay in any way, throw in some cheap art, then go to market. One, somewhat recent, game that many called a clone is Flappy Bird. This game came out to the mobile market and people went nuts, calling it a clone. I happened to be one of those individuals who was upset over this game. I would get on a soapbox and preach to my fellow developers that I work with, on how this game was a rip off of an old helicopter game I used to play. But then I got to thinking, I played that helicopter game more than 10 years ago. There hasn't been a game, at least a popular game, like it in a while. I then see the success of Flappy Bird and my mind started to not see that game as a clone, but as a game that found a niche in the market. Flappy Bird was a game that was needed, the developer saw this and brought it to the market. One could complain about the art being similar to Super Mario Bros, but that simple art style fits for that simple gameplay. So in short I wouldn't call Flappy Bird a clone, it seems to me that it took an old concept in games, refreshed it and released it. Something that many Indie and triple A games do today. After Flappy Bird came out, the clones started rolling in. There are almost too many clones in the market to count. I remember reading earlier this year that there were more than sixty out on the market at that time, there are probably more out there now. These are the dirty clones that are ruining the market. They steal sells from each other, the original developer, and flood the market with cheap knock offs. I'm not going to call out any clones specifically, I don't need any enemies, but developers of a clone know who they are and other developers know what a clone is. The sad thing is that many casual players can't tell a clone from the original IP and may give a potential sell away to a dirty clone.
How is the industry hurt?
Game developers make games for one primary reason, it's something that they love to do. For many indie developers game development isn't their primary source of income, but I'm sure they would love for it to be. When clones are made of an original IP it steals potential funds from developers of that original IP. This prevents great developers from developing other great original games, because they lack the funds to do so. So eventually developers can no longer have the funds to make fun original games and the individuals who would normally make a clone of that fun original game, no longer have a fun original game to clone. One could argue that developers are only complaining of clones because they can no longer make a ton of money on their game, but in reality the entire indie industry is hurt, and eventually the players who love indie games are hurt.
What can be done?
One solution to this problem is that every indie developer with an original idea make their game so that it is so complex that no clone can come close to it. The sad part of this is that one part of making a game complex is to make complex assets and complex assets take money. Many indie developers do not have the funds to pay talented artists to produce great-looking art and music for them. So in short they create assets that are more along their budget or skill level which often times are easy to clone. Another solution is that it's time for the game development community and gamer community to stand up against clones. An example of this, though I don't completely agree with what happened, is again Flappy Bird. When this game came out the industry saw it as a clone and stood up to it. Not neccessarily through sales but through a number of articles defining the game as a clone. The developer took notice of this and eventually took the game off the market. The sad thing is that no one stood up to the countless clones that came out afterwards, and the community opened up a hole in the market for those countless clones to sell. I feel that the indie industry is going to need a combination of both strategies in order for the indie market to not crash. No longer are indie developers going to be able to depend on their great idea while ignoring other aspects such as art and music. At the same time the community is going to have to stand up for the indie market if they want to enjoy great indie games in the future. We just need to be smart about it and fight the true clones.
Article Update Log
23 May 2014: Initial release GameDev.net Soapbox logo design by Mark "Prinz Eugn" Simpson
I've mad a few clones before, but never released them as I only saw them as a learning tool.
I've also had this idea for a game for a long time now and I'm working up to it, but I've developed anxiety of ever announcing it from fear of it being cloned before it can be finished. I can't see many things being more demoralizing than your game being cloned and then being successful while your original goes unrecognized.