Boxikon Brings Lines to Life

[terin]

Boxikon Brings Lines to Life

Sept 15th, 2005 – Shoecake Games (www.shoecakegames.com) announced their new geometric puzzle game, Boxikon, is now available. Not since Tetris have geometric shapes forming lines been as fun as Boxikon. It is simple to learn and simple to play, and every new game will bring a new puzzle. Boxikon is available for Windows, Mac, and Pocket PC.

Imagine Tetris where blocks are placed wherever you’d like. Now imagine that lines are gained not only side to side, but top to bottom as well. Then throw in a ton more shapes and three very important catches: The inventory only holds 5 shapes at a time, new one is added on a continuously faster timer, and if there isn’t room for the new shape a random spot on your map will become a permanent tile. Last but not least, add in some explosives, just for good measure. It is a race against time and your problem solving skills are your best weapon.

Boxikon is simple, easy, and fun; just the way puzzle games used to be. The Shoecake Games website, www.shoecakegames.com, has a free demo available to fuel your puzzle addiction.

About Shoecake Games
Founded in 2002, Shoecake Games is an independent game development company with its headquarters in Liverpool, England. The company was founded by Paul Burkey who has over 10 years of previous experience in both the Commercial and Shareware games business. Shoecake Games are dedicated to designing fun and unique games for PCs and Macs as well as for PDAs and cell phones. Visit their web site at www.shoecakegames.com for more information and the latest games.

[Andy]

May I propose another title for this particular pressrelease Joe?

Shoecake Games publishes 100% rippoff of WildSnake Software Lineup game design.


The game was designed in far 1995 and published in 1996.
There is the game website: http://www.microsoft.com/games/puzzle/
There is the screenshot of the game: http://www.microsoft.com/games/puzzle/lineup.htm
Hopefully everyone who able to try it should agree with the title.

Right now we just need to consider what would be the fair precentage Cakes would pay to us for usage of our game design.

Opinions of community are required and welcome!

Thanks,

[ManuelFLara]

Opinions of community are required and welcome!

Sure: read this. PopCap would be rolling (more) in cash if they got paid for each Bejeweled clone out there...

[Andy]

Sure: read this. PopCap would be rolling (more) in cash if they got paid for each Bejeweled clone out there...

It doesn't contain your personal opinion on my particular case Manuel.

Saying honestly to get worried about Bejeweled clones this is not my business at all. ;-)

[ManuelFLara]

It doesn't contain your personal opinion on my particular case Manuel.

Well, I guessed my opinion was pretty implicit: I don't think they owe you anything. AFAIK they haven't infringed your IP, and having your game design cloned is part of this business. Actually you're luckier than most people, since your game has been cloned many years after its release.

[TimS]

Not since Tetris have geometric shapes forming lines been as fun as Boxikon.

yeah.... without a doubt. If you weren't being paid to bring kind words about this product to the masses, this line would have seriously damaged your credibility as a sentient being....

Not since Tetris... I love it.

-T

[Omega]

Andy, did you think that game up? Was it original? Etc. I am just curious.

[Andy]

Andy, did you think that game up? Was it original? Etc. I am just curious.

We (my partner and me) have created the idea of Lineup. Was it original? - I dunno. But let we agree that anybody concerned had ten years to step up with concern and we got no any.

Another idea disturbs me really. Look. Community is ready to defend the cloners in favor to attack on original authors. And here we see the direct example of such behavior.

Manuel. I don't think really that clonning of game design is good and fair part of this business. I didn't though so before. And today I've realized this even more.

REM: Not to say that I'm expecting any money from that company. But that leaves pretty bad feeling in my heart - if you wonder to know my reaction. I'm not sure how popcap guys go through this bulls..t - they are probably already got trained. But that's like one uses your child for hell knows what...

Just my two cents of course. As always...

[soniCron]

Right now we just need to consider what would be the fair precentage Cakes would pay to us for usage of our game design.

So says the guy with no less than four pinball games, two of which "borrow" the theme of Space Invaders. (No more original a concept than combining baseball and football.) But wait, there's more! Exists yet another obvious amalgamation, Invasion Waves - a merger of several classic arcade titles. Not only that, but the website referrs to each of those games, by name, from which Invasion Waves was "influenced:" "Pong (Atari, 1972), BreakOut (Atari, 1972), Space Invaders (Taito, 1978), Galaxian (Namco, 1979), Galaga (Namco, 1983), Arkanoid (Taito, 1986)"

Andy, I'm surprised at the audacity of your comments considering the meat of Wildsnake's game library is highly unoriginal. Unless, of course, you consider combining multiple titles into one to be "original." In that case, I'm headed off to make TetriLines...

[Andy]

Yeah Daniel! That was your greatest speach so far.
Next one please.

[Ricardo C]

The reason clones don't bother me is this: If the videogame pioneers had been as protective of their ideas as some of today's developers are, we wouldn't have a videogame market at all. One might argue that not being able to clone would lead to more original games, but originality alone does not a good game make. And if we needed the permission of every pioneer in order to make derivative games, well...

Wanna make a side-scrolling shooter? Write a check to Eugene Jarvis.

Wanna make a side-scrolling platform game? Split the royalties with David Crane.

Wanna make an FPS? John Carmack needs a new Ferrari, send him a couple bucks. Throw in a couple pennies for Romero, too.

I like innovation, but I like fun a whole lot more, which is why I don't mind the existence and legality of clones

[terin]

Clones are a-ok. I think Boxikon is very well done, honestly. It doesn't have to be original to be fun. Of all the games I have played,I believe that not since tetris has forming lines been that entertaining. I play a lot of games where I form lines too

Doesn't have to be original to be true. If there is a game out there that it cloned, *I* didn't know about it (I assumed there was, but didn't research it). I'm very certain I am not alone either, so the statement may appal the informed people out there, but most of them won't have any idea that it is a clone, and most that do, won't care

Anyway, if it violates copyright you'll have to take it up with the developer As some other thread states, that is a seperate matter from cloning.

-Joe

[mahlzeit]

I think this argument is silly, but I like being silly. So... who says that Shoecake took the design from Wildsnake? Maybe Paul came up with it independently. Parallel invention happens all the time, and it's still parallel invention (or maybe the word should be "discovery" in this case) even if the games are spaced years apart (and Boxikon is already several years old, too, if I'm not mistaken). *I* certainly never played or heard of LineUp before. The game seems to be a fairly obvious extension of Tetris-like gameplay -- it isn't far fetched to believe that several people came up with it on their own...

[Andy]

Clones are a-ok. I think Boxikon is very well done

Yes, Joe. Thanks a lot. We always do our best with every new game we design.

And speaking about "Clones are a-ok" - you know? Not to offend you. But don't you suppose that this is not your part of business at all? - Correct me if I'm wrong. - Meh... You'd better correct the title of press release

[terin]

I don't even understand what you are asking now

But, I stand by what I said. Clones that make no differentiation should not exceed the original in sales, generally speaking. That should be enough reason to find differentiation.

-Joe

[Sean Doherty]

Joe,

I think Andy is implying that you would sell ice to and Eskimo? Not that there is anything wrong with that, Eskimos need ice too

[Hamumu]

The funny thing here is that I read the press release, and before I got to the responses, immediately in my head was "so it's Puzzle Express?" ( http://www.hipsoft.com/ ). Uh oh, Andy, looks like you've got another cloner on your tail! You better start yelling at Hipsoft too (although you're a year or so too late for that...).

[terin]

Yeah it just so happens i make money from clones ...

But that didn't really enter my equasion directly. Puzzle Express has a lot of innovation

-Joe

[Andy]

This is that ugly marketers in everybody's heads who pushes them on doing clones!!! Kill marketers!!!

And this is that terrible reviewers - you know where - who doesn't have a problem to write: this is pretty nice clone of... Kill reviewers!!!

Saying seriously: Mike. I liked to play Puzzle Express very much. I haven't ever connected it to our particular design. I suppose the game has stepped far enough to be pretty original and very fun. That's where the difference appear between 100% clone and fun development of idea. BTW not our idea to be more specific and not to offend my lovely HipSoft.

Correct point on "Clones that make no differentiation..." Joe. But let we agree that:
1. They can flood the market.
2. This do nothing with bad feeling in my heart.

OKi. Live goes on. We can't spend more than a whole day on discussion of such issues. Let I better focus now on preparation of next games for further clonning. ;-)

[shoecake]

I only noticed this thread due to a large number of hits to my website.

BoXiKoN was originally designed sometime around 1991 maybe earlier. It was a sub-game in an piece of educational software I wrote for an Amiga Shareware company called De-ja-vu Software. There was some big differences like much smaller board and only tetris shapes were used but it was still the same game. I could dig it out but I only have it on floppy disk and no working Amiga

It was brought back as a standalone game some years ago. Someone did point out a similarity with a microsoft game when it was first released. Any similarity is totally coincidence unless they saw my original which i guess is unlikely

The game was inspired by Tetris alone, nothing else really as I didn't really play casual games back then and Tetris was very popular at the time.

The "100% ripoff" claim is really quite a disgusting statement but, shrugg... Also all this association with talk of clones is a bit annoying but I'll forgive you

[shoecake]

I think this argument is silly, but I like being silly. So... who says that Shoecake took the design from Wildsnake? Maybe Paul came up with it independently. Parallel invention happens all the time, and it's still parallel invention (or maybe the word should be "discovery" in this case) even if the games are spaced years apart (and Boxikon is already several years old, too, if I'm not mistaken). *I* certainly never played or heard of LineUp before. The game seems to be a fairly obvious extension of Tetris-like gameplay -- it isn't far fetched to believe that several people came up with it on their own...

I must admit now I played the Wildsnake LineUp game about 3 months after the original release of BoXiKoN. Someone from a big indie games website pointed out the similarity. I remember there were some key differences but I guess the whole "make lines up or across with shapes you can freely move" bit was surprisingly similar.

However, as you point out, it's not that huge a jump from tetris and in order to make lines accross & down you would probably have to remove the falling shapes aspect. I believe it was just as you say parallel invention although I did use the exact same concept in or before 1991 for my earlier game. I could certainly dig out the old AMOS sources and data if I had to defend myself any further

EDIT: The earlier incarnation of boxikon from around 1991 was sub-game in a title called "Fun To Learn: Maths" (I found a link on here http://hol.abime.net/search.php?&N_ref_publisher=686 .) Maybe a floppy disk image can be downloaded from somewhere. Back then there wasnt really a great market for casual games but educational software was big business so I created a range of mathematics, geography and english language titles and had sub-games built into them as rewards for learning. The original BoXiKoN design was 1 day inspiration and about 2 days work, Things were pretty simple back then!

[shoecake]

This may sound rather cheeky... but can this LineUp game be downloaded from anywhere? I'm curious now

[svero]

This conversation reminds me a bit of aargon and how when I first released it I received some emails claiming I'd ripped it off from games I'd never heard of. In fact the game was created in a total vaccuum. That is.. it wasnt inspired by or copied from anything. I'd never played deflektor or whatever the other earlier amiga laser games were. I went back and played them after I found out about them, and they did have similar elements but were quite different. Aargon had its own unique set of rules and tended to be a little more logic/math heavy. But the point is.. It is possible for two companies to come up with similar concepts.

Just the other day I was talking to mike boeh and we're both prototyping and designing new games to try and decide what to work on next. In swapping and talking about the various ideas we had we noticed we both had games with similar elements we were interested in making. The reason for it was obvious to both of us. We were looking for ways to bring together elements of successful titles in novel ways. Its the same as luxor and beetle. When I started beetle luxor didnt exist.. none of the bottom shooting zuma style shooter games existed. But I think it's pretty clear that people saw zuma's success and started asking.. how can I make a game that's fun like this but also different? And using a space invader style shooter is an obvious way to go. So it's not only that new games can have the same ideas, but that the goals of developers and the games that came before them and their success influence us in the same sorts of ways.

[Nauris]

This may sound rather cheeky... but can this LineUp game be downloaded from anywhere? I'm curious now

No no no! First you gotta pay Andy! Biiiiig bucks....

[Andy]

This may sound rather cheeky... but can this LineUp game be downloaded from anywhere? I'm curious now

Play yours Paul and you will see it.
Sure it was much better in visuals, got amount of fun bonuses and was increadibly better adjusted.

OK. I'm kidding really. Saying seriously though - No. If I recall correctly the game wasn't included into the trial version of that pack. But because that pack was sold in hell knows of what a big number of copies - you probably could find it on some CDs. Some Family packs from MS, Plus! - or how they called it, etc. (We have big collection of pirate disks with our games - but I'm afraid this is not your particular option to be able to find such discs )

REM: I'll find the way to show it somehow to you personally. Just to feed your curiousity.

REM1: So, I'm curious now who would pay to another side if we'll dig out something from let's say 1989?

[Andy]

No no no! First you gotta pay Andy! Biiiiig bucks....

At least a one person able to think in positive manner!

[shoecake]

That is.. it wasnt inspired by or copied from anything. I'd never played deflektor or whatever the other earlier amiga laser games were. I went back and played them after I found out about them, and they did have similar elements but were quite different. Aargon had its own unique set of rules and tended to be a little more logic/math heavy.

I can sympathise with Andy because it's actually a bit of a disappointment that I wasn't the only person to come up with that "twist" of a game idea. The game concept itself IS extremely simple (given than Tetris paved the way years earlier.) However, since microsoft published that LineUp game i guess it paid off fairly well. BoXiKoN has given me a good full-time salary for the past two years (not so great now, which is where Joe came in!) so while the game concept was simple, we're both proud of what we created and the success it brought us. So it's a shame to discover we're not alone in think of it.

The core Boxikon design was inspired by Tetris, but nothing else (we're going back almost 15 years now.) I even got into trouble when Handango refused to sell the game because of a clampdown on "Tetris Clones". Imagine my frustration having to email lawyers of Tetris giving my case But also my surprise to get a good response from them and a thumbs up

[Andy]

The core Boxikon design was inspired by Tetris, but nothing else (we're going back almost 15 years now.)

Fun thing really that we were always considering that our design was inspired by pentamino - I mean that real (physical) one. We were pretty well defended though because Tetris father was on Game Design from MS side at that times.

...and Yes Paul. We've got more than enough money from this small game from my lovely MS.

[shoecake]

Fun thing really that we were always considering that our design was inspired by pentamino - I mean that real (physical) one. We were pretty well defended though because Tetris father was on Game Design from MS side at that times.

I was more refering to the way lines disapear when you make a solid connection from one side to another. That was the key concept I took and twisted it to both directions... and the way you have to keep going without running out of space is the other bit.

I took it another stage further for the boxikon sequel, TaMiGoN but instead of pentamino inspired shapes I used Tangram style shapes It still uses the concept of "avoid lack of space" but I couldn't carry on the "linking lines" idea. The end result isnt quite as realised as boxikon is, but I'm still working on it.