cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/38612237
I’m not a game developer but if I were to make a game, the only ideas that come to mind seem to be “I’m gonna remake my favorite game but change these things I didn’t like about it!” but I heard that’s a bad idea usually.
I’m wondering how much change, and to which aspects (gameplay, mechanics, theme, etc), do you think is needed to make a game inspired by something instead of a rip-off?
It really depends on if people like the game. Games people don’t like tend to be called rip offs more than popular games.
Far as I’ve seen, most players won’t care if it’s a rip-off as long as it’s done well.
A ‘more of the same’ will do ok.
Add improvements and it will do better.
But if it’s just a ‘this could’ve been a mod’ or buggy, then expect very poor reviews.Players don’t want a badly done copy. It cheapens their nostalgia and feels like you’re mocking them.
If you just want to change x thing about a game, make a mod(or a few mods).
If you want to change several, then see if you can’t re-evaluate the things you liked from the original from the perspective of them being optional or potentially distracting from the things you changed; ie, your changes become the central premise/mechanic for your new game. Tweak it enough, change the story, genre and theming enough, and yeah, you can arrive at a new game from a seemingly set-in-stone inspiration.
Most of the games on the market, most of the good ones and a lot of the most-loved games, could have been cast from this mould.
Palworld is a direct rip off of Pokemon. I don’t care if it is a better game overall, I am not going to buy a game that stole designs from other artists.
Also the Horizon Zero Dawn rip off by Tencent
Not o fan of stealing designs, but on the other hand Palword’s main reason for success is The Pokemon Company’s lack of innovation and favoring profit rather than making good games.
Digimon is interesting in that regard, they keep improving games after games, it’s night and day compared to Pokemon
Agree with you on The Pokemon Company. Legends ZA is ridiculously low effort cash grab.
Palworld should have hired artists with original creations instead of copying existing designs.
I would be more interested in buying the game if they did business more ethically.
Unfortunately I was never interested in Digimon because of the art style. The monsters just look ugly to me.
So to you it’s about designs? What if a game looks completely different but has the same exact gameplay? Like they just did a find and replace on all the assets and set it in a fantasy world isntead of scifi
I am more ok with copying gameplay mechanics if it tries to improve or at least have a twist to the original formula.
For example Stardew Valley’s gameplay is heavily inspired by Harvest Moon, but it expands and improves in every way.
deleted by creator
I don’t really care as long as the idea is refined and the end result is better than the original, but if it’s worse and feels like a knock off, then fuck it.
