"Threes" - WIRED article (design)

[Luis Felipe]

Found this interesting article on Threes (mobile). Seemed interesting enough to share  

 

http://www.wired.com/2014/05/threes-game-design/?mbid=social_fb

 

 

Great insight into the design process, also a small mention on cloning:

 

 

 

After all of that work, it took some other developers all of an afternoon, give or take a few afternoons, to rip Threes off. One of those derivative games, 2048, all but eclipsed Threes, even though it borrowed only the superficial joys of the original while ignoring much of what makes it truly great.

 

And their letters: http://asherv.com/threes/threemails/

 

What's you're guys view on cloning?

 

In the art world we would immediately report anyone who stole artwork to publish in magazines without permission (unfortunately asian magazines most of the time) or artitst who simply publish artwork very similar to another.

 

I think cloning is a great learning technique, at least that's how humans have always learned right? As long as the clone stays private, in my eyes it's ok, but publishing it? I don't know... Would we frown upon someone cloning a nobel prize author? 

[SpriteWrench]

I remember reading this post from their main site a while back.  Its a fun, if not lengthy, read.  Coincidentally, the developer behind 2048 posted this today: http://gabrielecirulli.com/articles/2048-success-and-me

[mariamdh]

Cloning game mechanics is very common today, and I haven't heard of anyone copyrighting it. One of the biggest game today, which is Candy Crush is inspired by the popular match 3 mechanic. And there are many similar game examples that I can share.

 

However, when most smart developers copy ideas, they also improve other aspects of the game such as the storytelling, levels progression, monetization, controls etc.

 

My thoughts are, that innovation is good and will make you stand out from the crowd if you manage to build your game well enough. However the cost of success will be another developer taking your idea and making a better version of it (or worse where you will win!).