Indie Dev Worried About Being Seen As A Ripoff After Discovering A...

"There's plenty of room to do Gunforged better than I did," says its creator.

One of the most amazing things about modern games is that if you can think of a game you want to play, it probably exists somewhere. Yet while this is great for players like me, I can understand why it might be disheartening if you're a developer trying to stand out.

One indie developer recently found themselves in such a moment of crisis, to the point where they considered abandoning their project over its perceived similarity to another game. Fortunately, they were pulled out of the spiral, by none other than the creator of the game they'd worried about in the first place.

This all transpired over on the subreddit r/IndieDev, on which neophyte indie designer Sbibble relayed his concerns in a post titled "The game I've been working on for months is exactly the same as a game I just discovered today. What do I do?"

Explaining the situation, Sbibble wrote that he started a new project in October built in the Godot engine which is "sort of like Enter the Gungeon, but with a spell system like in Noita." While aware that the concept "isn't exactly original" Sbibble felt the blend of the two ideas lent the game sufficient novelty.

Then, while looking through Godot's newsfeed, Sbibble discovered a game called Gunforged, which he lamented is "remarkably similar to the project I have been working on, to the point where Steam even compares it to Noita and Gungeon specifically on the store page."

Sbibble's concern is that his game would be "seen as just a ripoff", even though he wasn't aware of Gunforged's existence. Yet these concerns were quickly laid to rest by Gunforged's creator, Firebelley.

Responding to the thread, Firebelley urged Sbibble not to give up on his project. "I would say don't be discouraged. There's plenty of room to do Gunforged better than I did, especially if you can do something unique. But even just improving my game's deficiencies can set you apart enough to sell some copies."

Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.

As well as being kind and reassuring, Firebelley's comment speaks to the reality of how most games are. Our hobby is a highly iterative medium, typically building upon ideas and mechanics laid down by someone else before us. Genuinely new concepts are rare. Ripping off a game, meanwhile, tends to involve the copying of artwork and characters as well as systems. When that happens, you

Source: PC Gamer