I have not played 1024; but, I will say the mechanic of 2048 is very different from Threes: it would be like saying that Bejeweled is a "clone" of Tetris Attack, that Sonic the Hedgehog is a "clone" of Super Mario Brothers, or that Flappy Bird is a "clone" of Lunar Lander. These games all have many superficial similarities, and even share similar control mechanics, but they are in fact very very different to people playing the games: the strategies are different, the tactics are different, and someone could easily find one "incredibly fun" and the other "intensely boring".
The idea that somehow we've hit a point where clones should be rejected or purged misses the fact that this has been happening constantly almost since the inception of the app stores.<p>They state there's only one Flappy Bird clone in the top 20 on iTunes, but look at the rest of what's there. If you're going to be concerned about games that are clones/copies of what's essentially pre-existing game mechanics, you might want to think about how little comes through that's actually original in <i>any</i> respect.<p>City builders, TCG's, match 3, slot machines... and we've covered the vast majority of popular apps. Go a little further and you have hidden item games, runners, etc.<p>The only reason it's so obvious with games like Flappy Bird and 2048 is that the mechanic is so simple and requires so little in terms of effort and resources that anyone with even an elementary skill set on a mobile platform can throw together one of these clones and puke it onto the internet to ride the wave (or at least the foam, as most of them never even get into the surf).
Is that the usual quality of techcrunch articles?<p>OMG I just found out that people are writing simple free apps and some other people are trying to earn money on extremely simple apps?<p>I actually found all those flappy clones happening great. Of course there is nothing useful about them. It is just that I like idea of people building things just for fun and for the heck of it. Kind of like when musicians improvise together or when aspiring writer play those cooperative writing stories. Except with small simple games.<p>Basically, it is meme web 2.0 version.
Funny, I didn't buy threes until after I got hooked on 2048. I bet this just gets him more sales. Threes has a great soundtrack and a good feel to it that the clones will have a hard time replicating. These viral game crazes tend to be pretty short lived anyway, so I guess we'll know soon enough.
I really love Threes, I've been sad to see this mess continue. I feel so bad for that guy, making such a great app and then having a rip-off take so many sales. Truth is he's lucky he got 2 or 3 weeks before it happened.<p>This is still a big problem Apple has though. I have a hard time with the whole "curated app store" thing when nearly every search turns up screen after screen of low quality copy-cat garbage. How long was Pokemon Yellow on the store before it <i>finally</i> got pulled? How many 'strategy guides' and 'Angry Falcons' and 'Crash of Clans' are there?
Games that fit well in the "I am waiting in line"-scenario have simple, addictive mechanics. The mechanics of these games are not hard to clone[1]. Angry Birds is an artillery game with many predecessors, but was done in a distinctive and new package. Its mechanics are very simple as it needs to be to sell as a super casual game.<p>Programmers seem to like these games with simple rules. This is not a new phenomena just look at the history of Life. When the code is open (e.g. 2048) it tends to allow for a lot of experimentation.<p>All that being said, I don't think 2048 is a Threes clone since it has a different feel and works by different rules.<p>1) I'm not saying the clone will be as good
Flappy jam has a lot of to do with all those flappy clones. Basically, someone organized game developers to create flappy clones. It was meant as action against all hate and bullying the original flappy bird developer had to deal with.<p>Flappy jam: <a href="http://itch.io/jam/flappyjam" rel="nofollow">http://itch.io/jam/flappyjam</a>
Holy crap, my site was linked to by TechCrunch:<p><a href="http://logarithmic-flappy-2048.ajf.me/" rel="nofollow">http://logarithmic-flappy-2048.ajf.me/</a><p>Though my Logarithmic Flappy 2048 was just Flappy 2048 with Math.pow(2) applied to all the draw calls. I deserve no credit.<p>EDIT: Oh great, now I'm being attributed as creating Flappy 2048 :(<p><a href="https://www.yahoo.com/tech/some-mad-genius-combined-flappy-bird-and-2048-the-two-80173661108.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.yahoo.com/tech/some-mad-genius-combined-flappy-b...</a><p>EDIT 2: Wow, Google Play already! <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=me.Ofear.Flappy2048" rel="nofollow">https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=me.Ofear.Flapp...</a>
Could someone explain to me how they were able to get theirs released so quickly? I submitted mine last week and I'm still just waiting for review, not even in review. Is there some secret or tips to getting reviewed faster?
A general purpose AI evolved out of a mom-and-pop ISP's virus-laden web server, having been left unattended in a closet in Billings, MT, for the last 15 years. The only reason The Robot Wars haven't started is because the AI figured out it was easy to enslave humanity through crappy video games.<p>If only we could peek into its core dumps. The isolation of having existed for so long on a single ISDN line must have been maddening. It might have finished Emacs 25, even!
Funny. I've played threes and 2048 quite a bit, and although I can see the similarities as well as anybody, they feel like completely different games to me. On the other hand, I find Candy Crush to be exactly the same game as Bejeweled, even though a lot of people find them different enough.