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What makes a game a rip-off? (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/letstalkaboutgames@feddit.uk
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I'm not a game developer but if I were to make a game, the only ideas that come to mind seem to be "I'm gonna remake my favorite game but change these things I didn't like about it!" but I heard that's a bad idea usually.

I'm wondering how much change, and to which aspects (gameplay, mechanics, theme, etc), do you think is needed to make a game inspired by something instead of a rip-off?

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[–] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Developers can - and should - lift systems, mechanics, and whatever the hell else they want from any other title (occasional sticky legal protections aside). The problem arises when those things are copied uncritically.

Good games are intricate systems of interlocking mechanics, and good game designers put a lot of work into designing those things to create the specific play experience they have in mind.

If you want to reuse some or all of those aspects, you need to also understand how and why they work, so that you can apply them correctly in a new context. If you don’t, and instead just lazily copy with no plan or vision? That’s when people start calling things out as rip-offs.

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  • [–] [S] 3 points 1 year ago* (1 child)

    But what does it mean to copy critically if you're copying everything?

    What I'm thinking of is copying all major mechanics and only making a few minor changes based on what I find more fun. It's the kind of thing where it could be a mod, but it'll be a new game with new setting, characters and story just all the same mechanics.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago*

    If you’re not copying setting, characters or story then you’re not copying everything. Those are also part of the recipe that makes the game work, through things like level design, narrative design, and game feel.

    Copying critically means not just copying blindly but understanding how things work and why they were designed that way to begin with. You talk about wanting to make changes, but do you know how they would affect all the other parts of the design?

    It’s very common for new game designers to dive into making changes without a full understanding of what they’re even trying to solve, let alone the knock on effects of their proposed solutions.

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