Leaked e-mail of indie that claims Rock of Ages is stolen intellectual property Options

[ZenoClash]

So, a friend of ours that works at an *undisclosed* gaming site got this email earlier in the day from a guy claiming that we had stolen his idea for Rock of Ages!!! and we checked the site http://sites.google.com/site/pebbleoftime/ just to make sure the game was REAL.

Yes. We have to admit he made a pretty neat, 2D and Free version of something SIMILAR to our game... but calling us names for making a way better game (1000 times better) than his is just RIDICULOUS.

You can make up your own opinion about this guy's claims by downloading and playing his so-called "original" game.

Our games have always been 100% original creations and will continue to be this way.
But don't worry guys... Rock of Ages will continue under development, we will just make sure our lawyers fight this one.

ACE Team

Dear Editor:

I'm an indie developer, and I am pleased to address you for the first time, to tell you about the release of Pebble of Time, the addictive action game where you crush the enemies with a giant boulder!

You can find screenshots and download the full game at (please copy and paste in web browser if click doesn't work)
<a href="http://sites.google.com/site/pebbleoftime/" target="_blank">http://sites.google.com/site/pebbleoftime/ </a>

Unfortunately, I am also writing because I recently made a disturbing discovery, I learned about the other game development studio called The Ace Team who very soon is going to release a very similar game "Rock Ages," which I think after watching their video and their posted screenshots is a flagrant, obvious and criminal imitation of my game.

I admit it is not unusual for game developers to take ideas from other games and I'm totally OK with, but if you're playing Pebble time it becomes immediately obvious to you, too, that The Ace Team stole the design and art almost directly out of my game.

I have read in places, people talked about these developers who have original ideas in the gameplay and art, but people should know where these ideas really came from a really truly indie developer, and not them.

Pebble of Time was years in the making, I hope you enjoy it very much and that it has success not affected by other unscrupulous developers.

Sincerely,

Petro Lucjo

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[tschumann]

I feel bad for initially believing this.

[David C]

I feel bad for initially believing this.

did you play the game?

[tschumann]

did you play the game?

Yeah, I've beaten just over half the levels. It's not easy though.
Out of curiosity, how long were you planning this for?

[Carlos Bordeu]

Yeah, I've beaten just over half the levels. It's not easy though.
Out of curiosity, how long were you planning this for?

Something similar happened than with 'The Malstrums Mansion' (which was our April fools for Zeno Clash):

Edmundo created a basic prototype of 'Pebble of Time' very long ago but not for the April fools joke... just for fun. Every certain amount of time I think he added a thing or two to the game and when we started nearing April fools we brainstormed about what we could do and it eventually came down to using his prototype for the joke.

This is interesting because for both Zeno Clash and Rock of Ages we have created fully playable small games for April fools jokes and by doing so we might have set the expectations that we do it for all our titles.