I'm hard at work on my latest mobile phone game. I wanted something extremely casual, inspired by small games (I mean short/quick levels) like Cut the rope and angry bird. I've design successively 3 prototypes and finaly settle on a very promissing game proto. This is my game (still WIP): Now, look what I find very recently: I'm so gutted The mechanism is almost identical, but luckily, the gameplay is different. JC
I wouldn't worry about it to be honest. Look at FPS games, they're all pretty much identical with the odd difference and they still sell like hotcakes. Besides you say your gameplay is different anyway and your art style is different enough I'd say.
And consider that players could play more games of the same kind (especially for short games, like the ones for mobile devices); when I was younger I played almost every beat'em up. On the contrary, it could happen that some players of the other game will buy yours when they finish it (if they liked it and search for similar titles). Yours is not the case of expensive games where a purchase necessarily excludes another one.
Your graphics look good. I really wouldn't worry about being first to market, being first to follow Angry Birds wouldn't be a bad thing at all. We tend to like what we like for awhile and once tired of the thing that got us into a genre we go and look for more of the same.
As @lennard said, your game looks really good, so ignore the others. having some elements which people have seen before could even be an advantage in the app store.
Yep building off existing mechanics and adding some new stuff works in casual because players like familiarity. Go for it and see how it works out!
It's crazy. I've got the impression that every game i ever thought of can already be found in the app store.
Thanks for the nice feedback folks. To be honest, I think I was very disappointed that I didn't create the mechanism, when I though I was... > I've got the impression that every game i ever thought of can already be found in the app store. Must be very close from the truth... JC
JC, your game appears to have a lot more charm and personality than the one you linked to, that goes a long way in my book. Keep up the good work!
I would say don't necessarily try to make something new. Make something better instead. Any game you play that leaves you saying "this game would be really cool if only it had _______ or did _________ " is a prime candidate. Good luck, don't give up!
@dannthr You should play the game before saying something like that. Parachute Ninja is actually very very well done. Interesting side note, the core mechanic used in the developers second iOS game Cut the Rope was first conceived when developing this game. @jcottier There may be similarities but that will only challenge you to find some ways to make it more unique. Play the game for awhile and see what you can do differently/better.
Yep, that is what I'm doing of course. Like I said, funnily enought, I did based the gameplay with games like cut the rope in mind: very short levels/challenges. Parachute ninja, is more like a long travel game, with longuer levels. My game has very short levels with instant death, witch is obviously very different from parachute ninja. JC
Of the three prototype, 'Get back to your half' is by far the best imo. I can see the female audience digging this.
Actually, the 2 first prototype were differents games (1 with a monkey and 1 with some kind of weird creature). the 3 screens here are the same exact games. I talked about my prototyping stage to make it clear that I really had a designing stage and thought I came up at the end (3rd prototype with the birds) with a new original game mechanism. That's why I was a bit gutted to find out someone already had this idea JC
Fair enough, the thing is this: Visually speaking, I GET JC's concept--I don't even feel like I need to read directions, I feel like I can visually metabolize all the important information in one pass and bam, I'm ready to go. The other one, Parachute Ninjas, one look and I'm still very unclear on what I'm supposed to do, what my objective is, etc. There is a lot of clutter and the visual design is a bit scattered.
Fair enough It didn't do nearly as well as it might of... probably has to do with lots of others feeling the same way you did.