FortressCraft creator decides to be an arrogant dick

[jawakiller]

seriously guys, go if you have an xbox on the internet, go download fortresscraft, and angry fish, and tell me which one is the bigger ripoff.

I swear, FortressCraft is small potatoes in the world of "XBLA Ripoff games"

Dude, who really cares about that piece of shit?
Not only is angry birds a seedy rip off of countless other games (fortressdestroyers, castlesmashers, blah, blah, blah) but the concept it's based on is fucking terrible to put it mildly. The game concept could be created by a four year old, the art could be drawn by a nine-year old and the engine could be designed by most tech majors. Yeah. Whoopdi fucking do.

just thought i'd point that out.

 

[omicron1]

He's quite probably mistaken on having taken over the market... From what I can tell, the niche that FortressCraft fills is just the creative side of Minecraft. Minecraft's Survival mode is what has sold 3.5 million copies (and counting!) - which, if not duplicated elsewhere (And even if so, perhaps just on name-brand quality alone!) could lead to Minecraft making a second mint on the consoletoys. Plus, you just know Microsoft will hype this thing to heck and back come release time - I wouldn't think a physical boxed release would be out of the question - and they might add pretty shaders or something. (Keep in mind it is a separate team doing the porting; the exact nature of the end result is somewhat up-in-the-air)

So in summary, I think he's cocky and overconfident - someone who found a niche where a lot of money could be made, jumped in, and now thinks he can play with the big boys. I don't think he'll be feeling quite this good once Minecraft makes its splash, but he hasn't exactly lost money on this venture, so he'll do all right in the end.

 

[Dfskelleton]

Eh, all that matters to me is that since Minecraft is more popular, this guy is still a #2, something which I'm sure he hates and therefore, I find very funny.

 

[Eventidal]

I can see his point Fortress Craft is intended to head in a far different direction than Minecraft, with build you own fort PVP and such.

However, it's an indie game were you create stuff with blocks... It's like the whole Coke/Pepsi thing.

(For the record I prefer Minecraft )

"intended to head in a far different direction"
and that's my problem. It's already out. People are paying for it as they would a full game, and it's just a beta of the creative mode. It's the foundation upon which a game shall be built, and it's one Notch makes FREE online, and the developer expects people to PAY FOR it. He's earned plenty of money putting down a copy of Minecraft with better graphics and far slower chunk loading, with only the PROMISE of LATER making something MAYBE worthwhile out of it.
Mobile game devs do the same thing and I hate it. Release an entirely unfinished game and rake in the cash while you contemplate how to fix your broken and unfinished mess of a game. Yeah, just release actual gameplay in an update later... at your discretion of course. Maybe make it a paid addon, who knows.

This is fine in the occasional PC game. Minecraft and Terraria are doing it. But those are exploratory games, trying to find their place. They already offer a good amount of content and gameplay so what happens from here on out is icing on the cake, adding more to something already worth paying for.

 

[Some_weirdGuy]

People use the argument of 'well minecraft was a rip off of another game', but that just makes them look silly. Sometimes it feels as if i'm part of some secret society, "people who actually learn about what they're talking about before opening our big mouth".

In this case:
http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Infiniminer

For a little more detail, I found a good blog entry talking about it:
http://blog.hardcoregaming101.net/2010/10/all-matter-is-made-up-of-large-cubes.html

As you can see, minecraft is quite different to the game it 'ripped off'.

-infiniminer was about gathering ores for your team, in a competative multiplayer game. You mine out blocks and return them to give your team points. Highest score at the end wins the round. (You can go singleplayer, but it's just multiplayer with no people so there's really no point)

-minecraft is about building stuff in a sandbox game, with the option for resource gathering and crafting, with enemies that appear in the darkness to antagonise your efforts. Creative mode removes the threat posed by enemies, and the resource gathering requirements leaving it as a pure sandbox building game. Both multiplayer and singleplayer modes.

-both minecraft and infiniminer used blocks
-both minecraft and infiniminer had proceedurally generated levels

and here's a good clincher:
-minecraft was made after infiniminer's discontinuation.
(meaning it wasn't trying to leech off a current successful game like certain others...)

see how minecrafted compared to infiniminer is different from what fortresscraft did when compared to minecraft?

-all three: block based, with procedurally generated worlds.

-infinimier: team and class based competative resource mining game
-minecraft: sandbox freebuild game / sandbox survival resource gathering and construction game
-fortresscraft: sandbox freebuild game



-----
Also, I think it's pretty obvious to everyone here, but i'll say it anyway: Cloning a game and removing most of it's newest features does not make the game no longer a clone...

 

[Custard_Angel]

We've rewritten the rules of how Indie games sell. Indie games are usually about being the new game on the market, being the new sequel, but we've broken that system.

Bull. Fucking. Shit.

Games mostly sell based on how much they are like other properties.

And besides, this guy didn't rewrite how indie games sell. Notch already did that with Minecraft.

By making retirement fund style cash on the alpha version of a game. And continuing that success well into the beta. And it doesn't even have a full version out yet, but has sold more total units than plenty of AAA mainstream games.

Still... This guy can dream I guess.

 

[ninetails593]

I hate both Minecraft and this ripoff of Minecraft.

I guess I'll jump on the hate bandwagon anyway.... He took a game we all love and gave it better graphics!! What a douche!

No, he stole the basics of a game and slapped his own name on it. Now because of it, he's getting a shit load of money. Off of something that isn't his. That everyone knows is a ripoff. And now he's bragging about it.

...Saying 'FortressCraft's gameplay is different from MineCraft's' is bragging about his game being a ripoff? What?

?We've rewritten the rules of how Indie games sell. Indie games are usually about being the new game on the market, being the new sequel, but we've broken that system."
He's bragging about his game, trashing minecraft, and claiming they're completely different.

 

[Gustavo S. Buschle]

I think that all of the haters are idiots. Judging a game by the creator is ridiculous, you dont say a bad game is good because the creator is a nice guy, besides I don't think anyone here has even played fortress craft yet, so who knows, maybe it will be better or different then minecraft in some time.

 

[PlowmanMk]

I'm more-so confused about his argument:

Basically, he is saying that 'Fortresscraft is nothing like Minecraft, but it's better as it has more features.'
How can a game be completely different, yet somehow better?


Anyway, Minecraft is still in beta, so who knows how it will look and compare in future.

 

[Altorin]

I have provided two pictures here.

http://mattplays.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/d2-1.jpg

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_KIU4QaKZDps/TQu3kC3W1wI/AAAAAAAAAIw/9dVnPtsohbM/s1600/halo-reach-screenshots.jpg

It's a graphics update and mutliplayer, man. Little else.

I too have provided two pictures

http://rst.gsfc.nasa.gov/Sect20/homo_habilis_003.jpg

http://www.laptopheaven.com/images/man_laptop2.jpg

it's pretty much the same thing

 

[SoulSalmon]

Unrelated words

You!
WHY am I getting notifications every time you get quoted??

 

[hazabaza1]

Oh god FortressCraft was so bad please don't talk about it.

 

[tthor]

Eh, Notch already said that he has no problem with other games that 'ripoff' Minecraft (tho using nicer words than ripoff), so if he doesn't really care, why should I. and besides, Minecraft will still always have the far superior fan-following. also, on the topic of games that copy the mechanics of blockbuilding, the free game Ace of Spades is actually a pretty entertaining fps (its not a blatant ripoff, it moreso just takes you mechanics but uses them in a very different direction)

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

I have provided two pictures here.

http://mattplays.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/d2-1.jpg

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_KIU4QaKZDps/TQu3kC3W1wI/AAAAAAAAAIw/9dVnPtsohbM/s1600/halo-reach-screenshots.jpg

It's a graphics update and mutliplayer, man. Little else.

Yeah, that second one looks awful. Were the designers all hippies that needed their neon fix?

 

[Doctor Brobotnik]

What a cool guy. I didn't even know this game existed.

No such thing as bad publicity, I guess.

 

[Savagezion]

Well what else is he gonna say?

"Yeah, it's basically the same game, but who cares? Give me money!"

He probably has to say this to maintain the pretense that he's not a shameless ripoff artist. Or something. I don't know, it just seems like a bad idea to admit that your product is, in fact, someone else's product.

I don't know if I hate you or like you, man. This is like the 10th time this week you have made it so that there is no point for me to post in a thread as you have made the same point I was about to.
Normally, I like you but this week... its a bit annoying. Ah, well, at least you ain't a dickhead about stealing my ideas. Hehe.

 

[Altorin]

Unrelated words

You!
WHY am I getting notifications every time you get quoted??

that is the one question in the entire universe I don't know the answer to. I don't even get notifications when I get quoted.

 

[Cridhe]

Reminds me of Vanilla Ice defending to the teeth he didn't steal the beat to Ice Ice Baby.

 

[Phisi]

I don't really care. And I don't think Notch cares either. It is not like he is re-selling his game but he has made his own version. I don't know if he has acknowledged Minecraft as inspiration for his game but if he hasn't then I'll accuse him of scumbaggery bt until then I am prepared to wait and see where this goes. Now to annoy all Minecraft fanboys, Minecraft it self is a clone of Infiniminer but it is nothing like that today and as Minecraft has evolved into something much better I am also prepared to wait and see what Fortresscraft becomes. Who knows? The Blocks system might manifest itself into a whole new class of FPSs and RPGs that have a random generated map and destruction physics. I am a Minecraft player from just after redstone was as I introduced and just have waited to see what Minecraft has ended up as while I enjoyed playing it, I am also prepared to and curious to see what Fortresscraft develops into. Patience my people, we shall look back to this day and laugh when we have Crysis level graphics in our lovely procedural generated country as we destroy buildings with explosives while trying to escape the zombie apocalypse with our small group of friends. And to think that such a possibility could come from a clone of Minecraft. Until then you may as well enjoy playing the game, oh and I called it