I saw this game, like, 5 minutes ago and I can already say it looks bloody awful. It’s like they put all the buzzwords in a hat and decided to make a game from them.
I can see bits of Fotnite, Zelda, Pokemon, and every Minecraft clone under the sun. Not a single new thing brought to the table.
Combining things that haven’t been combined before is the quintessential creative act. Because as you said, there is nothing new under the sun. But there are new ways of combining those things.
You say that as if any of those games or series are truly original:
Fortnite
Fortnite just copied other survival games like Rust and Ark. Epic put their own spin on it by combining it with a battle royale - sorry, with a PUBG game mode.
Zelda
If you’re talking BoTW and ToTK, you can argue they just copied other open-world games like The Elder Scrolls and Far Cry and added a Zelda flair. Weapon degradation was even present in the older TES games.
Pokemon
Pokemon is just a kid-friendly version of the Shin Megami Tensei games without the fusion mechanic. Some of the Gen 1 Pokemon designs were also more or less lifted straight from Dragon Quest.
Minecraft
It was more or less virtual Legos when it first came out, and the survival mechanics gave it a unique spin.
So if you really wanted to, you can reduce all of the games you mentioned into their influences and what they straight-up copied. Funny thing is, these are all very well-received games because their core gameplay mechanics and designs were very good, and they added their own spin on things. Copying others isn’t a bad thing so long as you’re either iterating on it to improve it or to do something different to it somehow.
Factorio was inspired by Minecraft mods BuildCraft and IndustrialCraft, but yeah, few games have done what Factorio has, and those that have tried never quite reached it’s level. Sure, there are games that feature automation with complex recipes (Satisfactory, Dyson Sphere Program, Shapez), but only Factorio actually managed to pull off a sense of exponential scale.
Yeah, I’m aware of the Minecraft mods, but I wouldn’t have called the ideas established before Factorio came along. As for Satisfactory et al, they were inspired by Factorio itself, so obviously don’t count.
Look at how little hype it had until day one of release, no one was talking positively about it
Look at people complimenting it now, talking about how it fills a niche for adults wanting to play Pokémon when it is nothing like Pokémon and that niche is already filled
Sometimes a game just takes off like this and then dies back down to reasonable levels. Remember when Valheim was released? It dropped out of nowhere, everyone and their friends played it for a month, and then it decreased down to a lower level. Sometimes a game just scratches an itch people didn’t know they had and explodes for a while, which can explain why no one hears about it until the day it releases and people start telling their friends to play it too.
I saw this game, like, 5 minutes ago and I can already say it looks bloody awful. It’s like they put all the buzzwords in a hat and decided to make a game from them.
I can see bits of Fotnite, Zelda, Pokemon, and every Minecraft clone under the sun. Not a single new thing brought to the table.
Combining things that haven’t been combined before is the quintessential creative act. Because as you said, there is nothing new under the sun. But there are new ways of combining those things.
You see Fortnite? Because you have to make buildings piece by piece. It’s closer to most survival games.
And uh, yeah you see Pokemon in it. The creatures were obviously designed in that aesthetic.
Minecraft, really? Do you know of any other games? You can’t alter the terrain. It’s not block-based. Again, more similar to Ark, Rust, etc.
Some of the creatures were just straight up copied and bashed together from several Pokémon 3D models. That’s not designed, that’s theft.
Are you aware that Pokemon pretty much “stole” the creatures from Dragon Quest - an RPG from 1986?
Holy shit that’s so bad, they don’t have a leg to stand on here.
They haven’t sued, so they aren’t even trying to stand at this point.
It was when they announced the keychain Pokémon that I realized they aren’t exactly a bastion of originality.
Thank you for this! Truly fascinating!
Which and which did they mash up? What unique Pokemon parts did they take?
You say that as if any of those games or series are truly original:
Fortnite just copied other survival games like Rust and Ark. Epic put their own spin on it by combining it with a battle royale - sorry, with a PUBG game mode.
If you’re talking BoTW and ToTK, you can argue they just copied other open-world games like The Elder Scrolls and Far Cry and added a Zelda flair. Weapon degradation was even present in the older TES games.
Pokemon is just a kid-friendly version of the Shin Megami Tensei games without the fusion mechanic. Some of the Gen 1 Pokemon designs were also more or less lifted straight from Dragon Quest.
It was more or less virtual Legos when it first came out, and the survival mechanics gave it a unique spin.
So if you really wanted to, you can reduce all of the games you mentioned into their influences and what they straight-up copied. Funny thing is, these are all very well-received games because their core gameplay mechanics and designs were very good, and they added their own spin on things. Copying others isn’t a bad thing so long as you’re either iterating on it to improve it or to do something different to it somehow.
Are there any games from the last 10 years or so that aren’t just combining already established ideas?
Factorio, maybe?
Factorio was inspired by Minecraft mods BuildCraft and IndustrialCraft, but yeah, few games have done what Factorio has, and those that have tried never quite reached it’s level. Sure, there are games that feature automation with complex recipes (Satisfactory, Dyson Sphere Program, Shapez), but only Factorio actually managed to pull off a sense of exponential scale.
Yeah, I’m aware of the Minecraft mods, but I wouldn’t have called the ideas established before Factorio came along. As for Satisfactory et al, they were inspired by Factorio itself, so obviously don’t count.
Personally I’m really enjoying it. As are my kids. It’s also bloody stunning.
This is one of the dumbest takes I’ve seen about the game.
What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. - Ecclesiastes 1:9
Yeah everything about the game says it’s awful but they seem to have an unlimited advertising budget to put it all over twitch and YouTube
Not about it being new, it just looks like something “an idea guy” would have
You seem to not understand that people can stream games because they enjoy it and not because they’re getting paid by the devs
Look at the game, it’s clearly not that
Look at how little hype it had until day one of release, no one was talking positively about it
Look at people complimenting it now, talking about how it fills a niche for adults wanting to play Pokémon when it is nothing like Pokémon and that niche is already filled
Sometimes a game just takes off like this and then dies back down to reasonable levels. Remember when Valheim was released? It dropped out of nowhere, everyone and their friends played it for a month, and then it decreased down to a lower level. Sometimes a game just scratches an itch people didn’t know they had and explodes for a while, which can explain why no one hears about it until the day it releases and people start telling their friends to play it too.
Don’t forget Apex Legends either. It dropped with 0 marketing or even an announcement and picked up players fast.