Zynga completely rip off indie dev

[FelixofMars]

I am surprised that with all the baseless rumour posts no one has mentioned this. Zynga is planning to release their new game that bares more than a passing resemblance to Tiny Tower by Nimblebit.

I really hope that Nimblebit actually bother to create a case against them TBH, absolutely appalling form.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/nbpromo/dearzynga.jpg

[Dogg Thang]

Zynga have quickly made a name for themselves as the sewer of the games industry so I'm not really surprised here. Few companies have quite such an impressive 'controversies' section on Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zynga#Controversies

Check out this article - http://www.sfweekly.com/2010-09-08/news/farmvillains/ . Quote from Zynga founder, "I don't f***ing want innovation. You're not smarter than your competitor. Just copy what they do and do it until you get their numbers."

[Brad]

Very similar yes. To be fair you could go and find the first devs that made a tower defense game and then slag off every dev who made one after that. There's an argument that Tiny Tower is a completely new game type (tower building) so similar games are bound to spring from it. Theme Park - Rollercoaster Tycoon, track and field - decathlon...

You would have hoped that a big company had some ideas of their own though. Disappointing but not surprising.

[JSR]

There's an argument that Tiny Tower is a completely new game type (tower building)

Isn't it just a very simplified version of SimTower though?

[FelixofMars]

Well to be fair GamesLoft have been doing the same, so as you said could be difficult to prove. But that said this has causes quite a big backlash from all developers so maybe something will be done.

[EvilBoris]

There was a big article about this in a recent edge magazine, saying how this happens lots and there is very little you can do as it doesn't break any laws. Angry Birds was a rip off of an Armor games flash game.

It's particularly common on IOS though, but ultimately it's this that creates new genres and variety within them.
Imagine if ID software had of owned the patent to FPS games or Nintendo owned the patent for platform games.

[Brad]

Isn't it just a very simplified version of SimTower though?

See! I told you there was an argument!

My daughter plays tiny tower. If I show here this she's not going to jump ship. She'll just say 'I've already played a game like that. I want something different'. Or maybe she won't. I'll show her it as an experiment.

[FelixofMars]

The thing that annoys me is company's like Zynga will sue the little guys if the 'clone' their idea, but when the shoe is on the other foot they basically can walk all over them.

[Brad]

It would be cool if a bunch of indies got together and multi-sued one of the big boys for ripping them off.

[QualityChimp]

Fair enough, but it has to be pointed out that Tiny Tower is also very similar to Yoot Tower, which has been around since the mid-90s and been on PC, Mac, GBA, DS and even on iOS!

Tiny Tower looks like a version of this that has been streamlined for the smaller screen of the iPhone... Just sayin'!

[toythatkills]

Please note that Tiny Tower is NOTHING AT ALL LIKE SIM TOWER. The only people that ever make this comparison are people that haven't played one or the other.

They both have towers in.

That's it.

Also, this is nothing like the creator of the first tower defence game claiming that all future tower defence games stole his idea. This isn't Zynga stealing idea, they've stolen the entire game. It's exactly the same game as Tiny Tower, just reskinned.

[Brad]

What's your definition of "exactly the same game"? So every person, shop, job and every other object in this Zynga game is exactly the same as in tiny Tower?

EDIT: None of this would be quite so bad if Zynga hadn't actually tried to sue another company recently for copying several of its games.

[toythatkills]

What's your definition of "exactly the same game"? So every person, shop, job and every other object in this Zynga game is exactly the same as in tiny Tower?

EDIT: None of this would be quite so bad if Zynga hadn't actually tried to sue another company recently for copying several of its games.

I haven't played it, so I've just got the screens to go on. The screens that are identical to Tiny Tower. If they've changed things like the store names, they've changed as little as possible to try and get away with it.

It's literally like someone releasing Halo on Xbox 360 but with different graphics and a different name, but keeping everything else the same.

[Brad]

I'm not saying it's right but from what I've seen they've done more detailed graphics, they have some bridge system to span to another tower? Facebook integration, the ability to shop at the stores in your friends' towers. Admittedly that's hardly anything and CLEARLY it is a blatant rip-off of Tiny Tower. But, what I'm saying is that it's not that different from stuff that has been going on for years and I have seen various incarnations of tower defense games that basically differ in just their graphics and IMO that is pretty much the same as this.

I do think the tiny tower guys should sue as I believe they would win (I am NOT a lawyer!).

It is amazing what people do get away with though:

[toythatkills]

I'm hearing that they have one quite major change, actually. Where Tiny Tower doesn't bug you to give them money and you can play happily forever without paying a penny and without the game slowing that much, Dream Heights stops the game unless you pay for it or bug your Facebook friends about it.