Indie dev accused of plagiarism reminds players that "it's okay if you steal ideas from yourself"

Feb. 2, 2024

Players say RPG Knights Run “completely stole” elements from another game, but both are made by the same person

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Accusations of plagiarism are fairly common when it comes to games. In the last few weeks alone, we’ve seen players say new survival sensationPalworldis a ripoff of Pokemon, andNintendo is in the midst of sending its lawyers after an entirely different Pokemon clone. Yet while creators being accused of stealing the ideas of others isn’t anything new, one developer found themselves in a rather more unusual, not to mention awkward, situation when they were called out for plagiarizing a game they themselves had made.

Over on theIndieDev subreddit, NotFamours307 recounts their experience of posting a gameplay video of their latest project, Knights Run, a roguelike RPG and tower defense mash up. Some in the comments were quick to spot similarities between it and another game, and they weren’t shy about leveling accusations of plagiarism.

“Had someone say that it looked like a complete ripoff of another game called Lone Tower,” NotFamous307 explains. They add that others said they had “completely stolen and plagiarized the menu and UI design” of this game, which is a roguelike also involving tower defense. “I kindly let them know that I am the developer of both games,” they say.

With the misunderstanding all cleared up, the conversation then turned into a “friendly exchange” with people who were probably feeling more than a little sheepish. From NotFamous307’s point of view, there are no hard feelings, and they were left rather amused by the whole thing. “[It] was pretty entertaining all in all,” they write.

So while it’s a case of all’s well that ends well and pointing out suspected plagiarism is certainly encouraged, it’s always worth getting all the facts before doing so as, as NotFamous307 puts it, “It’s okay if you steal some ideas from yourself or your past games!”

For all the brilliant and bizarre indies coming your way in the year ahead, look no further than our guide toupcoming indie games.

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