Search
Search
Sign on Options
Theme: [Light Selected] To Dark»

Attack of the Clones

Tiny Tower vs. Dream Heights

  • Image 1 of 10
  • Posted 01/27/2012

Earlier this week, indie developer Nimblebit sparked a round of Internet drama with a tongue-in-cheek thank-you note directed to Zynga. Stripping away the faux gratitude, the three-person Nimblebit team was accusing Zynga of producing a brazen knockoff of its hit iOS game Tiny Tower. Both Tiny Tower and Zynga's Dream Heights let players build and manage their own high-rise apartment building, as well as oversee the lives of its occupants.

While accusations of game design thievery have run rampant on mobile and social platforms in recent years, this is by no means a new phenomenon. Gaming has a long-standing tradition of plagiarism that has been equal parts shameful and crucial to the medium's development. There is a fine line between imitation and iteration, and popular games have always spawned projects that straddle that line. Here are a handful of examples pulled from throughout the last 30 years to help drive that point home. Some were found guilty of cloning in court; others were merely convicted in the court of public opinion. Let us know in the comments if you think these cases crossed the line, and which acts of gaming thievery we might have overlooked!

Image 1

45 Comments

  • mled

    Posted Feb 26, 2012 11:30 am GMT

    @grim0187 Consider this, for you Dream Heights looks better, but some people enjoy the old school look of Tiny Tower. What this means is that deciding which one looks better is relative.

    Zynga didn't do anything new with Dream Heights, they didn't even change a bit of the gameplay, they just copied Tiny Tower and used the type of flash graphics that are so appealing to some of the new generations.

    There is a difference between copying and use part of a concept, i.e.: all Final Fantasy games use the main concept for Role Playing Games but still managed to create something different, or Devil May Cry that uses the Action Game concept and also manages to create something different, these games although similar to other games are not copying.

    Plagiarism like Dream Heights should be condemned, not encouraged.

  • skyx26

    Posted Feb 20, 2012 9:49 am GMT

    @Entropis Bub, I've been playing games waaaaaaay before you stopped sucking your thumbs, so I know what I'm talking about. Refusing to see something that is right in front you it's called blidness. So let's see, can you build a tower?, yes (check on both), can you fill it with people?, yes (check on both), can you build new floors?, yes (check on both), can you add elevators?, yes (check on both), can you gain money?, yes (check on both), can you have residential, comercial, and bussines?, YES (check on both). So, how many things have to be different to you to not consider a game a rip off of another???. Like it or not Tiny Tower IS a rip off of Dream Heights, wich is a rip off of SimTower, just like F.E.A.R. is (pretty much) a rip off of Half-Life, just like Need for Speed is a rip off of Test Drive, just like ANY FIFA and MBL are just rip offs from ANY baseball and soccer games released before. Maybe you are a Zynga fan and don't want to admit the truth, but like it or not, you, nor anyone, can cover the sun with a finger and neither can deny the fact that both, Tiny Tower and Dream Heights, take the basic conceptfrom SimTower. Just google "SimTower vs Tiny Tower" and read the 3 first results, in EVERY SINGLE article you are going to read SimTower, not because it's some sort of conspiracy agaist Zynga, but bacause that's the game from wich they took the original idea...

  • nintendoman555

    Posted Feb 8, 2012 4:00 pm GMT

    How about Golden Axe Warrior? It was totally a Zelda rip-off

  • dw9872

    Posted Feb 1, 2012 4:07 pm GMT

    You forgot Simpsons Road Rage. EA actually got sued by Sega for ripping off Crazy Taxi.

  • Torres_

    Posted Jan 31, 2012 8:55 am GMT

    It's idiotic to even compare Darksiders to these blatant ripoffs presented here. If Darksiders should be here so should Dantes Inferno and most other action adventure games out there. Plus all FPS games and so on. Yes, Darksiders borrowed many things from other games but it's totally different from re-making a famous title.

  • lyncer777

    Posted Jan 31, 2012 3:50 am GMT

    @bahamut_au I Agree with you, Darksiders should be here.

  • lilflex1

    Posted Jan 30, 2012 5:53 pm GMT

    tiny towers a decent game still play it though

  • flashn00b

    Posted Jan 30, 2012 5:08 pm GMT

    I'm surprised that "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare" and 50% of the first-person shooters that are churned out since then aren't being compared.

  • Giancarlo GameSpot staff member

    Posted Jan 30, 2012 4:15 pm GMT

    @bahamut_au Because if we used your criteria then almost every game in existence would be on this list.

  • grim0187

    Posted Jan 30, 2012 3:48 pm GMT

    @mled Butthurt?

  • mled

    Posted Jan 30, 2012 11:16 am GMT

    @grim0187

    No one is thinking that, and if you think that "looks better" means it's a better game then you understand nothing about games.

    And even if it "looked better" it would still be plagiarism.

  • grim0187

    Posted Jan 30, 2012 10:22 am GMT

    Dream Heights looks better. Sorry, hate me all you want for not being "cool" and supporting the indie guys. Im just speaking what everyone else is thinking.

  • almossbb

    Posted Jan 30, 2012 6:30 am GMT

    @ShadowofSonic
    lol well not THAT old, i was born like at the beginning of the SNES generation, but my parents had an NES and plenty of games. also as i grew up i still played my NES and SNES and so did a bunch of my friends for some reason so we just traded games constantly since we all had big collections.

  • EndRhyme

    Posted Jan 29, 2012 10:03 pm GMT

    To be honest, I like the whole pixely look than the weird flashy look.
    I'd still never play either of them, though.

  • ADDADAC

    Posted Jan 29, 2012 7:44 pm GMT

    both are a ripoff of sim tower, been playing that game since i was 5

  • bahamut_au

    Posted Jan 29, 2012 5:43 pm GMT

    Where is Darksiders and the 5+ games it has ripped off? Or is Gamespot too scared to insult a publisher that pays for ad space here?

  • solar3137

    Posted Jan 29, 2012 1:44 pm GMT

    Looks like a total ripoff to me. (with better graphics!)

  • Entropis

    Posted Jan 29, 2012 10:35 am GMT

    @skyx26 : Tiny Tower is nothing like SimTower besides the fact that it is a tower. I'm sick of seeing these comparisons. That's like comparing the Ace Combat series and X-Plane because in both you control planes. Making generalized statements without any actual knowledge of the subject is called ignorance.

  • MonkerzX

    Posted Jan 29, 2012 8:51 am GMT

    CoD 4 MW, CoD MW2, CoD MW3...

    Bazinga.

  • SauhlGood

    Posted Jan 29, 2012 8:43 am GMT

    if cloning is an art form, id like to see another comparison of less obvious rip-offs... or companies that water down their own brands, by releasing the same game over and over and over again.

    still good feature thou, enjoyed it, invoked alot of nostalgia, as well as some anger