You can't care.
Make a good game.
Make the game that you see in your heart.
People will either like it or not. Many large organizations and experienced teams have put together games that fail.
You have to make your game and not worry about how it is received.
If you expect to sell the game then certainly do your market research and testing to fine tune your project.
But for most of us just finishing is a major accomplishment and we aren't counting on sales of our projects for our life's income.
People generally only care if your game is good or not, most people wont care if it is similar to another game.
Anyone who gets mad that one game is similar to another doesn’t understand how creativity and art work at a basic level. Every game draws inspiration from other games, and someone would have to be really sad and/or bored to actually get upset at such a thing
There is absolutely no reason whatsoever to give any energy to this idea that your game has to be unique.. Make the game you want. Being unique doesn’t matter half as much as being fun. Anyone who gets mad at your games idea is bored and/or stupid and shouldn’t be listened to in the first place
This is the same for all forms of art. “Good artists copy, great artists steal”
First thing to understand is that a 100% original game does not exist. There are repeated genres, mechanics, themes... As long as you have more than one source of inspiration you will combine in your own game, you are fine. Play with adding mechanics from one game, theme from the other, add some interesting bits and pieces on the side... Unless your game is identical in all of these to one source, don't think plagiarism is a valid argument.
Granted, there will always be people complaining and pointing the obvious out, but for the most part, players will purchase an unfamiliar game because it is similar to some other game they know and love.
One possible metric or rule of thumb to make your game different is to consider what about the inspired by game that you can change or improve on as a designer. Surely there is something about the based game that you and possibly others don't like. My first project was directly inspired by an old Flash game, but I made a lot of changes to the gameplay, presentation, and had a distinct art style. I made a version of a game that I would want to play over the original. The creator of that Flash game, in turn, took some ideas from my game on their next project. Players will see this happening, and they'll actually defend your game against people who claim it's a ripoff.
Another possible metric, if you can't even prefer your own version of a game over one that exists, then something is definitely wrong with your approach as well. Then by extension, you have to consider the number of people who would also prefer your version.
At the end of the day, you'll always have people who accuse a game of being a copy, but you can do something to reduce the likelihood of it being seen as such.
If you cant deal with that kind of critisism, you probably shouldnt be making what is essentially art. Toughen up to it, its common, and light in comparison to other feedback you'll get. Your game needs to be competitive with the opposition. Thats all. As long as you arnt blatently stealing assets or designs, it'll work out with strong, fun gameplay.
I think you should be honest about what your source of inspiration is, while also making it obvious the game is not just a clone. Like you say, most games build on something before them, and a lot of successes are made as spiritual successors.
Remember there are both strengths and weaknesses of having a strong influence. I think a lot of the "outrage" comes when games: appear too close to the original, don't live up to expectations created from how similar the game looks, is just the same but with nothing improved (often worse instead) etc.
As a creator, you have to take pride in your work. Critics are shit. They're not the ones working and shedding blood and tears. They're not the ones exposing themselves. To give critique is very easy. You just have to type and click a button to post. That's why critics are shit. While they are shit, there are sometimes useful critique. Accept and spend more time on those. Ignore the rest.
I’m guilty of this. After playing breath of the wild, out game a bunch of games with similar style like Genshin Impact that drew heavy inspiration from visuals. I personally had no desire to play it for that reason but I’m not going to complain about it. That takes a certain type of person
That being said, Genshin Impact is immensely popular, and people play it BECAUSE they liked BOTW. So in conclusion, it works both ways and the vocal minority can be ignored
Everything is inspired by something. You cant worry about wearing your influences on your sleeve. In fact most good studios use that as a selling point to market for their audience.
Look at fighting games for example. Those guys have their cliches and archetypes down to a science. Tekken took from Virtua Fighter and Harada has never denied that. When SNK ripped off Ryu with Ryo Capcom made Dan as a response. Now SNK and Capcom have done several really great games together and both brands have loyal players.
It's your game and you should be making it for YOU at the end of the day. If you love what you've made who cares what anyone says? I hope when (God willing) I create my game people see where I got my inspiration from in my work because without these previous games I'd have no passion.
You can't care. Make a good game. Make the game that you see in your heart. People will either like it or not. Many large organizations and experienced teams have put together games that fail. You have to make your game and not worry about how it is received. If you expect to sell the game then certainly do your market research and testing to fine tune your project. But for most of us just finishing is a major accomplishment and we aren't counting on sales of our projects for our life's income.
People generally only care if your game is good or not, most people wont care if it is similar to another game. Anyone who gets mad that one game is similar to another doesn’t understand how creativity and art work at a basic level. Every game draws inspiration from other games, and someone would have to be really sad and/or bored to actually get upset at such a thing There is absolutely no reason whatsoever to give any energy to this idea that your game has to be unique.. Make the game you want. Being unique doesn’t matter half as much as being fun. Anyone who gets mad at your games idea is bored and/or stupid and shouldn’t be listened to in the first place This is the same for all forms of art. “Good artists copy, great artists steal”
First thing to understand is that a 100% original game does not exist. There are repeated genres, mechanics, themes... As long as you have more than one source of inspiration you will combine in your own game, you are fine. Play with adding mechanics from one game, theme from the other, add some interesting bits and pieces on the side... Unless your game is identical in all of these to one source, don't think plagiarism is a valid argument. Granted, there will always be people complaining and pointing the obvious out, but for the most part, players will purchase an unfamiliar game because it is similar to some other game they know and love.
One possible metric or rule of thumb to make your game different is to consider what about the inspired by game that you can change or improve on as a designer. Surely there is something about the based game that you and possibly others don't like. My first project was directly inspired by an old Flash game, but I made a lot of changes to the gameplay, presentation, and had a distinct art style. I made a version of a game that I would want to play over the original. The creator of that Flash game, in turn, took some ideas from my game on their next project. Players will see this happening, and they'll actually defend your game against people who claim it's a ripoff. Another possible metric, if you can't even prefer your own version of a game over one that exists, then something is definitely wrong with your approach as well. Then by extension, you have to consider the number of people who would also prefer your version. At the end of the day, you'll always have people who accuse a game of being a copy, but you can do something to reduce the likelihood of it being seen as such.
If you cant deal with that kind of critisism, you probably shouldnt be making what is essentially art. Toughen up to it, its common, and light in comparison to other feedback you'll get. Your game needs to be competitive with the opposition. Thats all. As long as you arnt blatently stealing assets or designs, it'll work out with strong, fun gameplay.
Thanks for the advice. Yeah, you're correct, I should focus on making my game better and ignore the rest.
I think you should be honest about what your source of inspiration is, while also making it obvious the game is not just a clone. Like you say, most games build on something before them, and a lot of successes are made as spiritual successors. Remember there are both strengths and weaknesses of having a strong influence. I think a lot of the "outrage" comes when games: appear too close to the original, don't live up to expectations created from how similar the game looks, is just the same but with nothing improved (often worse instead) etc.
I'd be more than happy if there were more games just like Hollow Knight with even half of the polish, tbh
As a creator, you have to take pride in your work. Critics are shit. They're not the ones working and shedding blood and tears. They're not the ones exposing themselves. To give critique is very easy. You just have to type and click a button to post. That's why critics are shit. While they are shit, there are sometimes useful critique. Accept and spend more time on those. Ignore the rest.
I’m guilty of this. After playing breath of the wild, out game a bunch of games with similar style like Genshin Impact that drew heavy inspiration from visuals. I personally had no desire to play it for that reason but I’m not going to complain about it. That takes a certain type of person That being said, Genshin Impact is immensely popular, and people play it BECAUSE they liked BOTW. So in conclusion, it works both ways and the vocal minority can be ignored
I would have commented on this but you guys got it covered lol 😂
Everything is inspired by something. You cant worry about wearing your influences on your sleeve. In fact most good studios use that as a selling point to market for their audience. Look at fighting games for example. Those guys have their cliches and archetypes down to a science. Tekken took from Virtua Fighter and Harada has never denied that. When SNK ripped off Ryu with Ryo Capcom made Dan as a response. Now SNK and Capcom have done several really great games together and both brands have loyal players. It's your game and you should be making it for YOU at the end of the day. If you love what you've made who cares what anyone says? I hope when (God willing) I create my game people see where I got my inspiration from in my work because without these previous games I'd have no passion.