I think there are two ways to make a great game: take a new good concept and implement it well, or take an existing good concept and implement it EXTREMELY well. Many of us miss the dear old Stoneloops of Jurassica - it was a great marble popper, hardly original though! The irony is that it was taken off by the Luxor guys that basically ripped off the same concept, but made a much worse game! Since the aim of the thread starter isn't even to make a groundbreaking game, I'd say go ahead, take a concept and make it playable. Try adding something personal where you feel comfortable to do so and do your best.
Dont be too quick to state that I wont aim at implementing my own games. But as i have repeatedly tried to make clear is that at first, in a learning phase, it seems logical to try and partially clone an existing game or 2. This reduces all the things we have to worry about. Also mimicing a number of varied games will test the foundations of the engine we are composing. With varied games I mean a combination such as board game and a platformer. Two fundamentally different types, so how do they overlap codewise and why cant certain parts of the first type be reused for the second type. Only if the test setup seems convincingly strong enough then we might consider taking it a step farther. Truth be told, I dont think that this will happen any time soon (if ever). The initial question also has the following in mind. Many really addictive games have not yet seen on the mobile devices. Not that we plan on making a outright copy (resulting in a cease and desist notice as posted in another thread ). I think that trying to copy a game is a good excersise to see whether or not you, as a team, are capable of delivering the same quality of work. And yes it is important to realise tha that quality of work is only mechanical. There was no creativity regarding the ideas, the finetuning. The first game apparently got all the things right which resulted from their experience, creativity and level of standards. Simply mimicing something only copies the results of the entire creative process. Anyhoo .. many bands start out as cover bands. By studying the quality one sees around him, by decomposing that in order to re-assemble it again he can learn alot. This is what we have in mind. At first. As a learning process. Not a commercial venture. If something very playable is the result then it might/could go up cheaply or free. Hense the title of the topic. Im thinking of putting up more posts on the things that we are learning in the process. There is just so much stuff that is involved with game development. It's kinda overwhelming.
I think the app store is pretty efficient. The games that are high priced and not yet cloned are because they are not so easy to clone. Go ahead and try then you will learn why it's not so easy. Which game did you have in mind as being "overpriced"
