Wait, did Jason say that Monster Grow was made for "kids and girls" implying that 1024 is too difficult for girls because of math? Or am I misinterpreting that?

If you search for 1024 in the App Store, here’s what comes up:

What do you define the "App Store" as Patrick? Anything that is not the Google Play store?

Naughty naughty.

I'm not sure why everyone is treating cloning like some new thing. It's not -- it's almost as old as gaming. I suspect what made Threes! more attractive to clone was that it was initially iOS exclusive for a while. It's probably more prevalent with mobile games because mobile games are usually conceptually simpler. But if someone gave me a choice between an industry with cloning or without? I would choose with. There's too much value in iterative design to let someone 'own' a game style. What if the creators of Rogue could stop the iteration on their design?

I'm not sure why everyone is treating cloning like some new thing. It's not -- it's almost as old as gaming. I suspect what made Threes! more attractive to clone was that it was initially iOS exclusive for a while. It's probably more prevalent with mobile games because mobile games are usually conceptually simpler. But if someone gave me a choice between an industry with cloning or without? I would choose with. There's too much value in iterative design to let someone 'own' a game style. What if the creators of Rogue could stop the iteration on their design?

A majority of people don't have an opinion because they haven't even played Threes. It's like saying McDonalds clearly has better food than Gordon Ramsay BurGR because more people eat there.

How deliciously embarrassing for Mr. Wahlberg.

No one would be mad if King actually sued people for infringing on their property. King sued devs who made games that King actually ripped off all because they could afford lawyers and other devs could not. Threes actually have been ripped off and can't do anything.

It's actually pretty amazing how many people are actually defending completely ripping off an original idea and profiting off someone else's work without giving them any credit. But it's sort of that society we've all grown accustomed to. No morals or ethics as long as you make money.

Yeah that's exactly what he means because the iOS one is called the App Store, and the Android one is Google Play. He even mentions that in the article.

Great article Patrick.

@starvinggamer: Point still remains that (some of) the others are more popular, so they did something better than Threes, even if it was just being free.

@patrickklepek: hey thanks man didn't know that.

Back when Threes was discussed during the Giant Bombcast a month or so ago, I actually went looking for it on Android and couldn't find it. So I downloaded Fives, a clone of it. I would've downloaded the original but it just didn't seem to exist at the time except on iOS. That, or Google really screwed them with their placement in the Play Store.

@lunnington I can confirm that you are not missing something; Threes was only released on Android a few weeks ago.

A well written, well researched article. If anything it makes me want to buy Threes.

I find that to be a pretty shitty point because all of the hard work went into the original product of Threes. It not being free was a design decision (I assume there are no adds in Threes). Whatever effort that was put into making Threes was clearly NOT replicated with the clones. Whip up a prototype, slap adds on it, make some money, and call it a day. Now I know that there was mention of one of the clones not being add supported so this refers to the more clones that are.

I see people saying that cloning has always existed, and yeah it has. But say that this is the same thing as Quake and Unreal Tournament... While true in theory, UT had to be completely remade on a different engine with its own design choices. These app clones have no where near the work required to make as UT did, and they do not have the same work required as the things they are cloning. And yes I know there is a fundamental difference in creating a FPS and a mobile puzzle game. Think in % of work instead of total work. This app clone crap bugs me, but not too much since I do not partake in the garbage that is 99.9% of mobile games.

It's not really a design decision, it's a business decision with only a superficial relationship to the game's design. Regardless of the nature of the decision, there's no question that the decision to release the game with an initial cost allowed these clones to gain the foothold they have. Ultimately it seems like that was a bad decision that undercut Threes' success.

If the Threes team put out a free version, supported by ads, or even a "lite" version to let people try the game a limited number of times before they drop $3, then these clones would likely be a lot less prevalent.

Also, you really shouldn't come at @christaran that way. His point is objectively accurate (as evidenced by rankings on the App Store), and even if it wasn't, you could disagree without calling his point "shitty". Jus' sayin'.

Wow, I didn't realize how damn many clones of this game there were, I feel kinda bad now. I'm just glad that the kid who made the web browser version of 2048 doesn't come across as an asshole like almost everyone else who cloned the game.

Cloning is actually kind of frightening - I wonder how many people had innovative game ideas and just decided not to make them, because they were afraid that people would clone their idea and the clone would become more popular. Man, that just sucks.

If you have an innovative game idea and you decide to not make it because it *might* get cloned and that clone *might* become more popular, I don't know what to say to you, you're a very odd person. If my mind worked like that I'd never leave the house; just one more chance for me to get hit by a truck.

Ultimately I don't think it's that hard to market around these sorts of clones but you need someone with business sense on the team who's willing to tell idealistic creatives; "it must be a free download, or it will get cloned to fuck and back before anyone gives half a shit about our version." You're going to have to make your peace with the IAP/ad-based revenue model if you want to succeed in the iOS marketplace (unless your game is so insanely unique or expensive to replicate that it makes cloning impossible). If that conflicts with your design sensibilities or ethical compass then you need to publish elsewhere (and even then, you will probably get cloned to iOS anyway).

Typo mister @patrickklepek let me let Mr. Bluth let you know. Always.

I'm in Australia (yes THAT place) on Windows Phone 8, and a search for "threes" here gives me a handful of OUTRIGHT clones of Threes. Not even changing the name or the graphics in any way, just straight up carbon copies.

Just to be clear, Threes has not been released for WP8. If anybody with a WP8 device hears about Threes from an iPhone-owning friend (and isn't savvy about games) one of the above apps is the real deal as far as they're concerned. To make matters worse though, turns out the most popular clone isn't a straight-up clone after all:

They added a coin system and microtransactions (!) to the game to get you out of having to restart. They then completed the bastardisation by throwing in one of these:

This made me ruminate on a couple of things, like just how brazen these cloners are when the original game isn't available in this particular marketplace. Also, the use of the word "clone" is this case is insulting to clones everywhere. These guys took a game, took it's name, stuffed a microtransactions bomb into its abdomen and released it into a place where it might be passed off as the genuine article (yes the GZ reference is largely unnecessary, but I thought the imagery was apt). It's less of a clone and more of a Frankenstein's monster.

Edit: I got carried away putting that together, forgot to give props to @patrickklepek for yet another excellent piece.

Great article Patrick, but one thing that is absent, understandably so because I'm sure they'd have no official comment, is the position of the app store owners (Apple, Google) that enable and benefit from this plagiarism.

In the past you have commented that Steam should open it's gates, despite every precedent in existence demonstrating this leads to a nearly unmanageable market full of clones and terrible games, and despite two companies full of very smart people not being able to suitably solve the problem. Software stores having an active approval process might mean some deserving games have a harder time reaching a larger audience than they should, but it also serves as a bulwark against games that are stealing the work of others or scamming consumers. Perhaps investigating this matter changed your opinion on unregulated markets a bit.

How many clones and variations of Tetris is there? Tons, same here, don't know what the drama is really. Every game was once first, and then there's clones. Recently we've been through the World War II era in FPS games, where every 2nd game was set in that setting, cloning each other, now we're in the zombies are & same story. Apply this to every genre of games and you get the big picture.

Wasn't cloning a big issue in the late 70s/early 80s game industry (see: any Pac Man clone ever)? Are we looking at a small scale recreation of the Video Game Crash of 83?

@patrickklepek for games writer of the year. I know it's only April. He's been that good.

Look at Patrick earning his journalism badge rather than the usual "press and publicity" badges many gaming websites have.

This is a great story. It says a lot about the industry and how difficult it is for developers to make money in an industry that is aggressively headed toward bottom of the barrel pricing. Clones make the industry improve while at the same time harming it.

wow, great article. Especially on reading from 1024 and 2048 developer's reactions to be considered clones. It's one of those "there are no winners" type of an article.

The difference is, at least in my mind, is that these are really small developers who can't market their titles that well - they rely on being in front of the store to make sales. Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, Battlefield, etc were all really big AAA efforts, and while the genres are the same, and the gameplay is likewise pretty similar in all three (and the many others), they had the backing power of big publishers to advertise for them, and gigantic fanbases to make up for any potential clones... Plus, if a game cloned Battlefield and actually called itself Battlefield, you know EA would go after their ass.

The developer of Threes! can't do anything to stop these blatant clones - 1024 and 2048 he can't go after of course even if he did have power, but they are still clones of his idea. However, look at the above post of the other games that blatantly rip off resources and images from Threes! and adds micro-transactions, despite the fact that it's illegal, he can't do shit about it.

The real problem that developers face is some wonky copyright laws that are not particularly relevant to either the industry or the tools available. Just for a primer, copyright protects the basic expression of the idea which does not cover the source code or gameplay concepts.

Given the scope of ios games, many times the entire game is one simple gameplay hook that most times is not legally protected. So therefore games like Threes can be disassembled and resold legally, with different packaging, rather easily. While we clearly do not want companies to be able to hold a monopoly in the market, it would be nice if authors like Wolhwend were able to better protect their creations.

Haha, I'm a person who doesn't like posting anything creative online because I know there's a possibility that someone could steal it and not credit me. Look at Imgur, reddit, and all those places and roughly 3/4 of it is probably people reposting something claiming it is their own idea or picture, or story, etc. If people give credit, it's ok, but most of the time people don't do that - so I just don't bother putting anything up on the internet in exchange.

That same idea could apply to video game development I think, but I wouldn't really know, I don't make video games, so I can't really comment on it. I just imagine it wouldn't sit well with me if everyone was cloning my idea and making money off of it, especially if it's like the douchebags in this article - just look at the quote, "Good Artists Copy, Great Artists Steal", I know what he means when he says that, but it still means that he stole the idea for his own financial gain, and that's just not cool.

Threes is not really original to begin with, there were plenty of puzzle games that had similar mechanics, where instead of numbers you combine colors, Clickr being the latest I can think from the top of my head.

And no I don't feel any more sad or sorry for a team of three as for a team of hundred people, when their games get copied. It happens, like you and me both agree, daily. The mobile platform is just young, easy to develop for (relatively) and doesn't require much investment regarding finances, so of course there's going to be a massive influx of clones, considering you can make quite a lot of money on the said mobile platforms.

EDIT: I agree that carbon 1:1 copies are distasteful to the original authors and should be filtered, but if you're so sure in your product and that you were the first to bring it out, why not take legal action? But insist on whining over the internet instead.

I can't really blame them for ripping off other games when the app stores they're on have zero fucks to give and don't care about protecting the developers making software for their platform. They're just a product of their environment.

I had no idea the 2048 game so many people have suggested I play, and I have enjoyed in my browser, was this 3 game that caused obsession for people on several podcasts I listen to. I can't say I'm happy everyone I know isn't crediting the original dev, and I'll do my part to fix this error.

So I bought Three for my iPhone from the original dev.

Keep digging Scoops. This shit is rampant in every facet of the internet. Just go to reddit and get your daily dose of people trying to take credit for million year old reposts. Then there's Zynga. And of course the app stores.

Isn't that just capitalism at it's core though? Copying someone else's formula and trying to capture some of their market share.

Shady.

Interesting article for sure, I had heard of Threes, but I'm not afraid to admit I wrote it off instantly when it had a price tag. I just don't fall in the mobile gaming audience, so I had no idea how crazy this whole cloning scene was.

@icyeyes: I see your point. Myself, I don't sympathize too much with some of the devs getting ripped off because they probably chose the mobile market for the same reasons as the people ripping them off. They wanted to be in that space of low effort with high returns.

It's also easy for us as gamers to be hypocrites here. Do we feel strongly about buying say some kitchen utensil in a dollar store that is a blatant ripoff? I know it's not the best comparison, kitchen utensils aren't high on the creative spectrum :), but let's be honest money is a big factor here, it's a business in addition to being an art.

Maybe I'm way off here, but I'll admit I have a low opinion of the mobile market so I have a hard time caring when games there get ripped off. I feel like a lot of the originators and their copycats are driven by the same motives and attracted by the same "cheap" aspects of that market.

I'm sure you are an otherwise respectable person, but thank you, Yeung Jason, for reminding us all that, more often than not, human nature is really shitty.

If there ever was a Zombie Apocalypse, I suspect it would be guys like you that make it truly terrifying.

I just downloaded that mobile version of 2048 last night, not realizing it was ad-supported (my thinking being that, having happily paid for Threes, I could play a free rip-off free of guilt). Now that I realize how it's making money off someone else's hard work, I think I'll delete it, un-played.

Ignoring the larger issue for the moment, I have less sympathy for Threes' developers than I otherwise would because of the constant Google Play nagging in a paid product. I find it almost as intrusive as ads in paid apps, and it's the reason I returned Threes after ten minutes of play.

@sean_npr: Really. Android has a thirty percent larger userbase than iOS, but still iPhone users act like it's a niche market.

People wanted games to be mainstream...mainstream is less concerned with how something is made and who makes it. That and phone games for all combine for more of this. Most people would probably shrug after reading this article, and that's why it will keep happening, especially since phone development is so much more accessible. Kinda bums me out. Can't wait for this unclonable game!

When everyone was talking about Threes, it wasn't available on Android. Then 2048 came along.

Fantastic, poignant article

As someone who has actually followed both versions of 2048's development it is kind of terrible that people are slapping ads onto 2048 and making mad dough off of them. When the game was first getting popular, there were 2-3 versions of 2048 released on Android with a price tag of $0.99 on them for a completely free game. I seriously don't get how those people live with themselves.

Also you kinda misspelled "Saming" as the original maker of 2048. Here's the thread that Saming/Samig made after he polished his version somewhat. http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1373525

Cloning sucks. That said, I never would have bought this if it hadn't been cloned as I very rarely buy games on my phone. Had to see why it was so amazing to spawn all these clones though, obviously.

I hope the attention this has had over the past couple of days on various sites helps boost their sales because it's charming and well designed.

It totally was a design decision because of how the article said that they considered a "pay to undo a move" feature. When the game is all about making moves, undoing a move is a huge change. And yes, in a world of stupid easy phone game cloning, not releasing it on every platform ASAP was a huge mistake. You need to assume people will steal your ideas in an environment of no consequences. (app stores) The clones would have come regardless, and it is a real shame that they took off like they did.

And I am more upset at the sate of the phone games, thus the "shitty" part of my comment. I just do not like the idea of people profiting greatly because of someones game idea. Sure, you can iterate on it and make your own game, but when the only change is the numbers on the tile (assuming, I have not playing anything extensively) I think that sucks. It is shitty. I get why you called out my comment, but I only called his point shitty. I didn't insult him personally, which happens ALL THE TIME on GB comments. But w/e it's no big deal.

I have never bought an iOS device in my life, and I love Android, but there are a lot of good reasons iOS is the premiere platform for mobile games. Raw market share is an extremely misleading stat to throw out in that debate.

The first problem is specs; when you're designing for iOS you have to account for what, 4-8 SKUs? All with the almost exact same OS. With Android you need to account for hardware spanning literally thousands of SKUs (provided you want all of that juicy marketshare %) and that is a MASSIVE development cost. iOS is simply more efficient in that regard, it's not even a contest.

Then you have to consider with the fact that Android apps are insanely easy to pirate, as compared to iOS, which could take a chunk of your revenue. This means you need to either accept the profit hit (which some devs have claimed is substantial) or design your game with F2P mechanics integrated which sort of circumvents the problem a bit.

Lastly, every study I've read indicates that iOS users flat-out spend more money on apps, including games. Which sort of makes sense when you consider how much a new iPad costs; these people have disposable income.

It's an unfortunate state of affairs for Android gaming, and sad though it may be, I don't see it changing any time soon. I still love Android as a mobile OS.

I think this is Patrick's best article to date! Good Job!

This is nothing new to puzzle gaming. Remember all of those copies/remakes of Tetris and Puzzle Bubble? Heck even Popcap has straight up ripped off Blasitic (Zuma} and Magical Drop (Astropop).Good ideas are always reused, this has now only become a problem because before people just paid for the game, now it's all funded by adverts.

App stores are a viral wasteland of unregulated opportunists. What seems to take off and what doesn't often seems arbitrary, and what does take off can lead to insane things like a $7 billion IPO. It's a lottery, and it sucks when you didn't create the winning ticket. Or you did, but someone else made a slightly more appealing ticket first. It's the game you play in the mobile/app market.

It would be easy to point out the obvious mistakes made here, but it would be salt in an open wound, and it seems like they are already hurting a lot over their missed opportunity as it is. My condolences, but don't expect honor in a den of thieves.

This is exactly why I have almost zero interest in apps these days, especially in relation to mobile games. Rely more on word of mouth then anything to find games worth my attention on mobile platforms (threes included).

This Jason / 1024 guy comes across as a complete idiot.