Unbelievably Blatant, Lawsuit-Worthy Rip-off of FTL: Faster Than Light

[Cragspyder]

This game is literally a direct copy of FTL: Faster Than Light, but with some bottom-dollar particle effects, and bare minimum changes to the top strategy layer. I literally could not believe my eyes when I played the tutorial. Every single thing is identical, no effort at all to even disguise your 'inspiration'.

I find it beyond belief that you have chosen to directly copy a game that isn't even obscure, but possibly one of the most popular indie hits of the last ten years.

Subset Games is a small studio but I hope they will have the resources to keep you from profiting from this nonsense.

[Sylfeyn]

Gameplay isn't something that's simply protected by copyright like that. Unless there's a patent filed by the FTL developers for some unique feature or concept in the game (which needs to be so specific that it's easily worked around), or actual assets such as graphics, sound or music were stolen, I doubt your lawsuit proposition would be taken seriously by any lawyer.

[Teran]

Man these internet lawyers are cringe.

[nevik92]

What exactly have you called out? This is very similiar to FTL, yes indeed, I give you this. But it's not a literal copy. You used "literally" way too exaggerated. Their symbols are maybe too close to FTL but that is because FTL did it already so good.

Considering your 250+ hours in FTL I would've expected at least some pleasent anticipation and open mind to a game which very much resembles one of your most favorite indie game.
However, you did not even really tried the game (like what? 12 minutes or such according to Steam).

[Cragspyder]

nevik92: I really don't understand this point of view. This game is more than similar to FTL; every game mechanic is identical except for perhaps the top level strategy layer and the fact that crew members can get perks.

They have just given it a bad facelift (which does nothing to improve the game), but was absolutely necessary because, as Knightscover mentions above, direct copies of art and sound assets make a lawsuit actually feasible.

There are many, many bad clones of successful games out there and I have played a fair few but this one is by far the most egregious example that I have ever encountered.

If you look further through my game time, you'll notice a fair few hours in Civilization 5 and that I also own Gladius: Relics of War, which is a Civilization-esque game based on the Warhammer 40k universe. Did I like or enjoy Gladius? Not particularly, but I could see that the developers tried their own take on a familiar concept. and even tried their best to innovate a bit and capture the spirit of Warhammer 40k as best they could in a format that does not suit it. In fact, I think it was a better game than Civilization: Beyond Earth, which was made by Firaxis themselves!

I am not sure how long I am supposed to play a game like this before I qualify for credibility in your eyes, but 15 minutes is more than long enough for a first impression. And my first impression was disgust and a fair bit of outrage, as you can see from this post.

[Pika! Pika!]

Originally posted by Cragspyder:

Knightscover: I'm quite sure you're correct, but calling out this behavior on a forum is literally the only thing I can do. I understand that it is feeble and futile but there you have it.

Teran: The only thing cringe here is your defence of this talentless money grab of a game.

Some people liked FTL and hoped for more FTL. I think even the developers of this game stated that they hoped the original developers of FTL would build a new FTL-like game (as openly admitted superfans of FTL), but since that was not forthcoming they decided to build their own with even more options in the game. So what do you expect? Fans of FTL to simply have nothing new to look forward to, just because the original FTL developers will not develop it? Diablo 2 has countless games built in its image as it was an astounding success. I would see it as a compliment, not as an insult and I think the current developers see it that way as well and do not intend to disrespect the original FTL creators. If the developers do as promised the game will be 1 to 2 years in development and it can also change quite a bit from what FTL was in that time frame. There clearly seems a demand for the game and meeting demand seems better than purposefully not meeting it in my opinion. As to monetary compensation.....there are a lot of things that might potentially unfair in the world, but I do not see game development exactly topping the list relative to more urgent matters. Many people also merely talk about doing something, but never do and then are upset if others have success, because they could have done it, but never did. I do not think there is a perfect solution that will satisfy everyone, but who knows.....if you come back in two years it might possibly be different enough from FTL to command some of your respect.

Sometimes fans of the original game can build a truly great successor. It is not sure whether this will be one of those. It could be or could not be. Time will tell.

[Cragspyder]

PikaPika: I do see your point and I do envy you having so much optimism, but I wish you could see that the comparisons you are making here differ by an order of magnitude. Compare Diablo 2 and Path of Exile, or League of Legends and DOTA 2, or PUBG, Fortnite and Apex Legends, or Doom and Quake, and you can see that these game have largely the same mechanics but they differ wildly, or sometimes not so wildly, in theme and execution.

This is not what this is. This is barely one step removed from an Angry Birds/Flappy Bird situation.

EDIT: By an Angry Birds/Flappy Bird situation, I don't mean that they are similar to each other, but that both games spawned numerous cloned copies that were barely different, but aimed to capitalize off the success of the former games.

[Sernur.tech]

Hey! First of all, I thank you for noticing the game and taking the time to try it and give your opinion.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion and we accept any of them.

The community of players around our game has split into two large camps. Those who consider the similarity to be a disadvantage and those who are happy to find a game similar to their favorite game.

Everyone decides for himself because there are thousands of examples. All the core mechanics in genres are similar today. Action-Shooters are like shooters, platformers are like Mario, and we have hundreds of RPGs with d&d mechanics. And due to the number of games in those genres, we no longer notice this.

Let me leave here a little introduction of ​​us that could be found on our website.

" Initially, there are two of us. We have a goat farm and we are making goat cheese for a living. When we were kids, we would play our favorite video games for hours. We grew up, but nothing has practically changed – we still enjoy our hobby. Just like you do, we have a list of favorite games. Among them is FTL. It seems, only yesterday we played it after classes, however, ten years have passed. We waited for the sequel, but, unfortunately, the authors announced there wouldn’t be one. And that’s how we decided to make a dream game ourselves. We’ll try to make the perfect sequel, keeping the best and adding things that were missing. "

Therefore, we are trying to make the game of our dreams. In Early Access, it will not have everything we want to implement, but it is important for us to get feedback from other players because we know that a lot of people were waiting for the sequel. And we will take into account the proposals and wishes that will be supported by the majority.

Thank you for your support and interest in our game.

[Blizz]

Hey Devs I think trying to create your own sequel after hearing there won't be one is a noble pursuit but after playing the demo I do have to agree that the similarities in this game to FTL are a bit TOO on the nose. I think you really just need to do some re-naming of things, and you'd have a much better reception even if it's directly lifted from FTL mechanics. There's a point where inspiration starts to become plagiarism and it does feel you guys are bordering that line a bit too heavily.

[FireStorm]

I would buy this Game in a heart beat if the developers of FTL approved it. Is the Game similar.....Yes........is it better than FTL graphics wise......Yes.....I Just feel that Subset Games Should give their approval. I also feel that the developers should clearly indicate that it is based on FTL.

[Cragspyder]

Originally posted by Sernur.tech:

snip

I appreciate your response, but I'm afraid I can't buy it (neither the game nor your response).

I am no game developer myself but I can certainly understand and empathise with the challenges indie developers face. But being a two man team herding goats to pay your bills does not give you the right to plagarism, even on a temporary basis. You cannot release a reskinned version of someone else's game with the intent to add innovative features two years down the line. Besides, if you cannot be innovative now, why should we believe you can do it in the future?

Not to mention, Early Access can and has been exploited in the past by developers to promise features that are never realized, with the excuse that 'the support wasn't there'. Doesn't anyone remember the Spacebase-DF9 fiasco?

I had already made the same comparison between similar game mechanics in a previous post. There are games that skirt the line more than others. This is beyond similarity; it is the same game with a new face.

I truly hate to be negative towards indie developers, especially since big name developers can get away without innovation with no issues. But not all indie developers are hard-working, long-suffering saints that will eventually produce a hidden gem. Some are looking to exploit nostalgia, Fear of Missing Out, and the typical gamer's constant thirst for MOAR CONTENT, at any cost, in order to make off with a quick buck.

Thank you for your response to my thread; if nothing else, I appreciate the fact that you chose a measured response to criticism, even though that type of response is of course in your best interests.

[Craiss]

Is this game similar to FTL? Sure is.
If I had a dollar for every game that copied old school Doom....
If I had a dollar for every game that copied old school Age of Empires...
If I had a dollar for every game that copied Harvest Moon....

Listen folks, the internet lawyers of steam (video game enthusiasts) need to lighten up and appreciate a game for what it is and let the litigation (if even applicable) to actual lawyers. Enjoy your gaming and stop being mad about things for the sake of other people you don't even know and never will know on a personal level.

[ゲ-で]

While I agree with op that game is essentially Ftl 2.0, it utilizes almost FTL's mechanics. Argument about all fps being a copy of original doom is invalid here, this Game straightforward uses every single mechanic that ftl has, it's not it's based on FTL's concept, it is FTL 2.0.
Just tell me it's not an Engie ship, and these are not engie, also this ship uses DRONES
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2519479404
Combat is the same, ship management is the same, even races are pretty much the same, story is also very close to it's precursor. This game just has additional depth to it, like different ammo for rocketlaunchers, deeper crew system, etc.
I personally don't see it as an issue. I agree from a certain viewpoint this game can be considered to be a blatant copycat.
But again, it doesn't seem to be a cheap copy aimed to grab a quick buck, I mean if developers wanted to just make money they would pick something different than a kinda niche game from 2012.
I see it more like an attempt to make of them to make their own version of the game they like and that's it.
My main issue with this game - is readability. FTL has a very simple, yet clear graphics, and this game is very heavy on your eyes and less clear about what's going on.
Ну даже если ребятки просто решили скопировать игру ну это их дело, шо вы сделает? Хотя я надеюсь что таки помимо срубить бабла у вас реально добрые помыслы.
Читаемость происходящего на экране как и оптимизон у вас конечно хромают.

[10ebbor10]

The problem is that it's not FTL 2.0.

It's FTL with a bunch of systems stuck on top of that generally degrade, not add to the experience. You know the old adage "A Design is perfect when there is nothing more to take away." In this case, taking away the superfluos stuff would basically be a return to standard FTL.

The graphics are hard to read , the camera angle is annoying, and the decision to show ships in a different orientation in the hanger vs elsewhere is just annoying. The little crew traits make management more annoying, while not adding much. Ironically, despite having more traits the system is still more limited than standard FTL because you can't crosstrain your spacecrew, as far as I can see.

Same thing happens with weaponry. Having ammo specifically for one weapon or the other is an annoying hassle to keep track of, and it strongly discourage the player to vary their build. So, the game adds features, but all they do is drag the player down and make hte game less fun to play.

Same with shields and all that. FTL's shield system had a simple elegance to it, with big noticeable differences between 1 shield, 2 shield, 3 shield and 4 shield enemies. This game has a much more granular shield system, probably because it has organized it's weaponry into loot tiers, so you need a slightly more granular shield so that you can have a slightly better weapon mean something.

This seems like a feature from loot collecting RPG's that was added with little thought of how it meshes with the existing game. Essentially what it does is it turns all of FTL's relatively unique enemies and weapon patterns into an indistinguishable mush.

[Sernur.tech]

Hey everyone.

I will not hide my feelings this topic makes me hurt. And I still don't understand how to react to such comments correctly. The fact that someone would not like the game, I was ready for that. But the specific note is that it is similar to FTL. Well, all platformers are like Mario. Character, movement, jump, hit. Why this causes such a reaction from the players is still a mystery to me. But all I can do is keep doing what I believe in and try to do well.

This is my first attempt in gamedev, my first game and I really don't know how all works. But I am trying to do every part of this best I can. I am a little bit artist, musician, writer, manager and etc. I don't want to upset FTL fans, because I am one of these. Sorry if I did.

I am very glad to have the opportunity to talk with every one of you and appreciate all your feedback and comments. It helps me make the game better. Thank you for that.
My dream is to complete the game as I see it from day one. And I will die trying.

[Destroying Angel]

Don't feel bad about it. If you coded it yourself it's all you and just fine. Wait until the kids get old enough to realize that every single song is a "sample" of someones else music. Or that Disney ripped off everything they ever did from old dead storytellers, and then viciously defend the intellectual rights.
Anyway, looks good so far, maybe you could do something like street fighter series, guilty gear, mortal kombat do to make themselves distinctly different lol. Just make up a new genre and let your product be free of judgement. It can identify as a T.actical S.pace C.rawler.