Johann Sebastian Joust Is Latest iOS Cloning Victim

This could be the dumbest "game" on the iphone yet.... "Hey guys, let's rough-house while all holding our $500 phones/ipod touches but try not to drop it as I attempt to slap it out of your hand". Joust would have been cool if it came out in 2010 when the move launched, but after 2 years and no sign of coming out it's no surprise someone would take the idea to a different platform and copy it, kind of like minecraft.

The Sebastian Bach People should have made this for IOS/Android already. It will NEVER make it onto the Move Sony is not going to buy a lawsuit from kids bopping their move controllers off of each other.

No need to worry about anyone who saw that video playing the game by my estimation.

Well they are scumbags for stealing their game. And the worst part is that this happens much more than reported, but many original developers can't afford to take the offenders to court.

Worst use of dubstep, ever!

Wow that trailer is bad.

iphone gaming is the future you guys lol

the name of this game (JSJ) annoys me more than the fact that was ripped off...

Johann sebastian overly-long-name has one single game mechanic, the light changing according to movement. By that logic every game with a reload mechanic is a clone.

So are they actually victims, as the title says, or is it just one person's word against another's at this point?

It's sad to see the idea get ripped off so blatantly but JSJ is not a game most people will ever get to play, as it currently stands. Nobody has enough Move controllers. Until now, it seems like the only people playing JSJ are games press folks. It's a shame to see if get ripped off but, honestly, why the hell did the JSJ people not put it on iPhone from the start?

@RenMcKormack said:

The Sebastian Bach People should have made this for IOS/Android already. It will NEVER make it onto the Move Sony is not going to buy a lawsuit from kids bopping their move controllers off of each other.

Isn't Sebastian Bach a musician?

They removed comments and voting for the trailer. Ah, the great times we live in.

How long has JSJ been in development? I hate to say it, but shit or get of the pot!

I feel for the poor guys, but as a mechanic, it's pretty cool and I would love to be able to play it, but you can't copyright game mechanics, can you? If you can, ID's pretty well set all the FPS game ripping them off. Would have sold Move controllers to me if they had thought to release it in the last 2 years, too.

Hopefully, it spurs them to either keep a bit more quiet about their projects until they patent the game mechanic or just, y'know, bloody release them.

@laserbolts: hahah I always do that. Sebastian Joust. But also that musician should get off his ass and get on the Iphone.

@thelsdj said:

A game that is never going to come out that requires hundreds of dollars in peripherals that no one would already have? Versus actually putting out a game on a platform that millions of people already have? I can't see why someone might clone it.

Maybe they should have gotten around to releasing their game

Honestly, I don't even think it's fair to call it a "clone." I typically think of a clone as being on the same platform, or competing for the same customers. This is a completely different platform (which is better and worse for reasons that have already been stated), so it would reach a (potentially) completely different market.

Anything in writing, Ustwo? Because I'm pretty sure without that you're just a bunch of fuckers.

One person makes one clone of one game.....what about the 100 duck hunt clones on the app store??

This is a much bigger problem than one clone of one game

Are iPhone and PlayStation the same thing? Also, the big live live show was like 6 months ago. iOS game development can work a lot faster then that.

@RenMcKormack said:

@laserbolts: hahah I always do that. Sebastian Joust. But also that musician should get off his ass and get on the Iphone.

I remember seeing him on the trailer park boys but I can't remember what band he was in.

Wow, too bad things are shaking out this way. While I would want the Joust guys to be protected, iOS is actually a really great platform for this concept. Johann Sebastian Joust is a better title, too...

I'm willing to let the plagiarism slide so long as the iPhone-waving, ironic-shirt-wearing jackasses in the video get the ridicule they deserve.

"Yo, kids these days like DUBSTEP, RIGHT?! We gotta add some DUBSTEP!"

I sympathise but whenever I hear a story like this I always think of something a teacher of mine told me years ago when we were having a discussion about how to protect our concepts, he told me: 
 
"The best way to protect your ideas is to get on your horse and make them. An idea is only worth so much and if someone can come along and make it better and faster than you then maybe you don't deserve as much credit as you think". 
 
Maybe that's a little too dog eat dog but in this age you'd think developers (especially indies) would realise people are watching and waiting to make money off of their ideas. 
 
...and it's free? Dag.

You know, I think, I just think I've seen that picture before...

Even though they don't take another guy's work, I was lost in dubsteps

Thats sucks for DGF, but does he have total and exclusive licence for that type of game on all platforms? i would get probably not ,other wise id would be only one making FPS, yes thats a stretch, but believe it or not this is not even one of the bad ios clones, atleast they did their own art

I was always under the impression 99.9% of the crap on IOS is a rip off of a rip off of a rip off or something along those lines.

But i really can't speak with confidence on that issue because i don't own a smartphone or desire one but if the whole "inspiration" bullshit is just a nice way of saying nice idea, i am going to pathetically steal it and make money off it.

On one hand, I've always really wanted to play JSJ but never gotten to, and with the way their dev is going, never will. This will allow me to.

On the other hand, the guy who contracted Ustwo to make this is a gargantuan ex-reality star geordie twat and would never want to do anything to support or even associate myself with him, game IP stealing or not.

It's a tough one.

Also it seems that this game is not completely free, in order to use any other characters (which gives you taunts and sounds while playing) it's 99c a pop for another 4 characters. So there is some money to be made here by the douchebags.

Is looking like a douchebag required to play right this game?

So I guess I probably shouldn't release Rocketpack Thrillride.

@ADarkMatter said:

Is looking like a douchebag required to play right this game?

Yes

I can see where the confusion lies...

"Would you like some of this delicious cake?" translates perfectly to "Can we copy your unreleased game?"

Not sure how I feel on this yet. The game is a brilliant idea and I'd have liked to see the original creator be credited with that, but at the same time I'm kind of sick of this perpetual 'beta' bullshit developers have taken to in the past few years. If you're not ready to release a game, don't plaster it all over the place and allow people to show it off. And if you do, you can't really complain when a year later somebody manages to release your own game before you.

@Sin4profit said:

Girl in that Joust photo weirds me out. The fuck is she suppose to be doing?

She's in the "no!, please stop punching me! my move dropped" pose

On the plus side it's pretty much guaranteed that anybody who buys this will break the shit out of their iphone.

fucking worst video ever. get that dubstep outta 'ere!

@AngelN7 said:

@Sin4profit said:

Girl in that Joust photo weirds me out. The fuck is she suppose to be doing?

She's in the "no!, please stop punching me! my move dropped" pose

I'm more worried about the creepy dude coming up behind her...looks like there's a surprise in store for her.

On a serious note, leave it to an ex-big brother star to be the crux of this.

it woudn't be a patrick article without misspellings and such

"Just to be clear, we have never and would never approve, give permission, or encourage anyone to clone of any of our games."

“We genuinely care about what we do and out reputation in the indie community."

I hope that the JSJ folk will want to settle this shit with an actual, proper joust.

I am sympathetic to a point. Since JSJ has been in dev for soooooooooooooo long at what point does e dev community say that it's never going to get finished and run with the idea. Now that is obviously not the case here, this is some bold faced copying, but the question still stands.

What's next? Stem cell phone research?

Okay, the fact that the trailer used dubstep and used it badly just unsold me on it. The last time a trailer was done well with a dubstep soundtrack was Syndicate. Every trailer done with dubstep that I've seen after that was just irritating.

@patrick: you need to have Andrew Fitch copy edit your articles...please... Or do your articles in Google Docs first before publishing it. Great article though! Getting in with new amd releant news scoops!

You know, at some point I can't exactly blame them. Yeah, I've been hearing a lot about this game for awhile and it sounds fun but...I don't have a Move. I don't want a Move. I also like it when games actually come out. Sooooo, iPhone seems like a natural fit, these "rip-off artists" actually completed their version in a timely manner, and the Johann Sebastian Joust people have some lessons to learn for next time. Don't show your game unless you're about to actually release the thing.

Jdaman is right, they borrowed a mechanic they saw elsewhere. So what?

it sucks that it got cloned but... this just means now me and my friends can play this.... and i've told a lot of girls about this game and they said "can we play it?!" and i said it wasnt out.... now we can totally play it... oh wait some of them dont have smartphones FUCK!

Just when I thought I couldn't get any more sick of shitty dubstep in video game trailers...