What makes this game different from Celeste?

[Shad0w]

From everything I look at it seems like a knockoff/ripoff of Celeste

[Ander]

It does look a lot like Celeste, but controlling Josie feels different from controlling Madeline, you can't wall jump etc

From the game's website:

Sunblaze is an upcoming precision platformer with pixelart graphics and more than 300 levels.

The game is inspired by Celeste but with a heavier emphasis on puzzling, and with different mechanics.

I guess the appeal of it is bigger if you're done with everything you wanted to do in Celeste and want more stuff like it.

[Grimscribe]

The look is similar-ish, the gameplay is quite different. Sunblaze is a good game that stands on its own, and is far from just being a knockoff.

[Stain]

I got news for you buddy;
Every game is based of another game.
Every skill every movement everything you do as a human being is copied or taught by someone else.
in case you wondered, Mario and zelda are basically the foundation of modern day gaming
the formulae just gets improved upon, FF for example gets ripped off all the time, nobody cares.
Doom, Duke Nukem, Wolvenstein, Cod, BF, Counterstrike...
Come on man..

[Shad0w]

Originally posted by Stain:

I got news for you buddy;
Every game is based of another game.
Every skill every movement everything you do as a human being is copied or taught by someone else.
in case you wondered, Mario and zelda are basically the foundation of modern day gaming
the formulae just gets improved upon, FF for example gets ripped off all the time, nobody cares.
Doom, Duke Nukem, Wolvenstein, Cod, BF, Counterstrike...
Come on man..

I just ask because the game has the exact same art style and gameplay as Celeste. Even down to the grabbing walls, climbing, and single air jump. The game even has similar physics to Celeste. The games that you listed at the very least add new stuff to their genres. Doom had way more items and weapons along with enemy variety compared to Wolfenstein 3D. Duke Nukem was actually made in a 3D engine so you could look up and down, plus it had the entire comedic aspect of the game. CoD and Battlefield are slightly similar, but Battlefield focuses on larger maps and more war style gameplay where as CoD does more closed in smaller maps with more variety in gamemodes. Then CS is completely different as it's a competitive shooter based on different mechanics for aiming more accurately and many weapons doing near instant headshots for those most skilled. On top of that CS has the actual T vs. CT gamemode which neither CoD nor Battlefield really have. I ask because this game just feels like a blatant ripoff of Celeste or at the very least a cash grab for fans of Celeste. If the game was free or it's influence was made explicit I would be more understanding, but overall it seems like everyone is in a weird state of defending this game like it's a completely original indie masterpiece

[Shad0w]

Originally posted by Stain:

I got news for you buddy;
Every game is based of another game.
Every skill every movement everything you do as a human being is copied or taught by someone else.
in case you wondered, Mario and zelda are basically the foundation of modern day gaming
the formulae just gets improved upon, FF for example gets ripped off all the time, nobody cares.
Doom, Duke Nukem, Wolvenstein, Cod, BF, Counterstrike...
Come on man..

Oh also the fact that the suit changes color when air jump being ready like Madeline's hair changing color

[moonandstar]

this post might give you some insight: https://gamesfromearth.medium.com/why-im-making-sunblaze-a-celeste-inspired-game-b7b1dde27c41

[Shad0w]

Originally posted by Moon and Star:

this post might give you some insight: https://gamesfromearth.medium.com/why-im-making-sunblaze-a-celeste-inspired-game-b7b1dde27c41

I'm reading through this and it really does feel like this should have just been a free fan game or made different. It's priced almost the same as Celeste and makes no indication on the store page acknowledging those similarities.

Also the developer isn't truthful in this blog post. For example a quote from his statement about the fireball mechanic "So I basically added an idea from an old game of mine, and somehow I was ripping off Celeste again :) I chalk this up to Celeste doing so much."

I looked up it, his old game Zig Zag Boom was published in January 2015. It has mechanics identical to wave mode in Geometry Dash. Wave mode was added in November 2014 to GD.

"Sunblaze is different in my opinion. It isn’t a straight up clone. There’s no denying the inspiration, but it has its own feel to it (see the “Setting It Apart” section for more on that), custom levels, different art style, original music, etc."

I do not refer to this game as a clone; the levels, music, and assets are different. But there comes a point when a game being sold at 75% the price of the original game gets so close to be more than just inspired where it feels dirty to me

[normal player]

大概是操作上不一样吧，我用键盘玩Celeste非常麻烦，斜上方冲刺需要同时按两个键，而sunblaze只需要操控冲刺键就可以了，简单了不少

[HighDensityLipo]

Originally posted by T.w² | Shad0w:

Originally posted by Stain:

I got news for you buddy;
Every game is based of another game.
Every skill every movement everything you do as a human being is copied or taught by someone else.
in case you wondered, Mario and zelda are basically the foundation of modern day gaming
the formulae just gets improved upon, FF for example gets ripped off all the time, nobody cares.
Doom, Duke Nukem, Wolvenstein, Cod, BF, Counterstrike...
Come on man..

I just ask because the game has the exact same art style and gameplay as Celeste. Even down to the grabbing walls, climbing, and single air jump. The game even has similar physics to Celeste. The games that you listed at the very least add new stuff to their genres. Doom had way more items and weapons along with enemy variety compared to Wolfenstein 3D. Duke Nukem was actually made in a 3D engine so you could look up and down, plus it had the entire comedic aspect of the game. CoD and Battlefield are slightly similar, but Battlefield focuses on larger maps and more war style gameplay where as CoD does more closed in smaller maps with more variety in gamemodes. Then CS is completely different as it's a competitive shooter based on different mechanics for aiming more accurately and many weapons doing near instant headshots for those most skilled. On top of that CS has the actual T vs. CT gamemode which neither CoD nor Battlefield really have. I ask because this game just feels like a blatant ripoff of Celeste or at the very least a cash grab for fans of Celeste. If the game was free or it's influence was made explicit I would be more understanding, but overall it seems like everyone is in a weird state of defending this game like it's a completely original indie masterpiece

This is such a dumb and ignorant thing to say. The dev spent a significant amount of time making this (I believe something like 2 years) and it hasn't sold amazingly well. He even talked to the devs of Celeste and asked permission before making this, showing them early protypes/demos and letting them know that Celeste was a major inspiration. I suspect that you have played at most 3 total precision platformers. I say this as someone that has reviewed about 40-50 different precision platformers on steam and what I noticed was that every single one shared some things from others in the genre. However, every single one has something that makes it unique. Sunblaze has different jump heights, different sizing of rooms, and places far greater emphasis on specific prioritization (which is why he describes at as more puzzler than Celeste). It's unbelievably dumb to call a game made by a dev that loves this genre, loves Celeste, and just wanted to create a game that was influenced by his favorite games, especially when he didn't make much money at all form this game. His hrly return is probably lower than minimum wage, so grow up, and stop this toxic thing that so many uninformed and ignorant ppl are doing, which is calling every game that comes out a clone or money grab. Play more games in this genre and you might learn how to distinguish between the best games in the genre, good games in the genre, and games that are not as fun as the rest.

[Shad0w]

Originally posted by HighDensityLipo:

This is such a dumb and ignorant thing to say. The dev spent a significant amount of time making this (I believe something like 2 years) and it hasn't sold amazingly well. He even talked to the devs of Celeste and asked permission before making this, showing them early protypes/demos and letting them know that Celeste was a major inspiration. I suspect that you have played at most 3 total precision platformers. I say this as someone that has reviewed about 40-50 different precision platformers on steam and what I noticed was that every single one shared some things from others in the genre. However, every single one has something that makes it unique. Sunblaze has different jump heights, different sizing of rooms, and places far greater emphasis on specific prioritization (which is why he describes at as more puzzler than Celeste). It's unbelievably dumb to call a game made by a dev that loves this genre, loves Celeste, and just wanted to create a game that was influenced by his favorite games, especially when he didn't make much money at all form this game. His hrly return is probably lower than minimum wage, so grow up, and stop this toxic thing that so many uninformed and ignorant ppl are doing, which is calling every game that comes out a clone or money grab. Play more games in this genre and you might learn how to distinguish between the best games in the genre, good games in the genre, and games that are not as fun as the rest.

I mean I really don't care how little you think the dev is making. Also I am curious of this "talked to the Celeste devs" thing you're mentioning. When I look at the blog post from 2 years ago detailing the development of the game they said they were in the livestream chat of a community mod stream put on by the devs and simply asked if they were okay with games inspired by Celeste. to my knowledge this is the only input from the Celeste devs ever given and they have never seen Sunblaze itself. My other issue that I brought up was that the dev for Sunblaze has lied about the originality of their game mechanics to make it seem like Sunblaze wasn't as inspired by Celeste as it is. They claimed the fireball mechanic is original, I agree it's not a ripoff of the feather in Celeste, serves the same function but not ripped. However, it's not original. Their old game they cite as the source of this mechanic came out a year after the Wave mode in Geometry Dash released. The wave mode acts in the exact same way as their game Zig Zag Boom. This reveals that the dev is willing to lie to appear less like a ripoff of other games. On top of this I simply don't believe the claim that in a game called Sunblaze there was no way to make the main character appear on fire rather than just change the color of a part of their body to indicate a dash can be used. There were ways to do something different, the dev chose to be like Celeste to cut corners

[HighDensityLipo]

Originally posted by T.w² | Shad0w:

Originally posted by HighDensityLipo:

This is such a dumb and ignorant thing to say. The dev spent a significant amount of time making this (I believe something like 2 years) and it hasn't sold amazingly well. He even talked to the devs of Celeste and asked permission before making this, showing them early protypes/demos and letting them know that Celeste was a major inspiration. I suspect that you have played at most 3 total precision platformers. I say this as someone that has reviewed about 40-50 different precision platformers on steam and what I noticed was that every single one shared some things from others in the genre. However, every single one has something that makes it unique. Sunblaze has different jump heights, different sizing of rooms, and places far greater emphasis on specific prioritization (which is why he describes at as more puzzler than Celeste). It's unbelievably dumb to call a game made by a dev that loves this genre, loves Celeste, and just wanted to create a game that was influenced by his favorite games, especially when he didn't make much money at all form this game. His hrly return is probably lower than minimum wage, so grow up, and stop this toxic thing that so many uninformed and ignorant ppl are doing, which is calling every game that comes out a clone or money grab. Play more games in this genre and you might learn how to distinguish between the best games in the genre, good games in the genre, and games that are not as fun as the rest.

I mean I really don't care how little you think the dev is making. Also I am curious of this "talked to the Celeste devs" thing you're mentioning. When I look at the blog post from 2 years ago detailing the development of the game they said they were in the livestream chat of a community mod stream put on by the devs and simply asked if they were okay with games inspired by Celeste. to my knowledge this is the only input from the Celeste devs ever given and they have never seen Sunblaze itself. My other issue that I brought up was that the dev for Sunblaze has lied about the originality of their game mechanics to make it seem like Sunblaze wasn't as inspired by Celeste as it is. They claimed the fireball mechanic is original, I agree it's not a ripoff of the feather in Celeste, serves the same function but not ripped. However, it's not original. Their old game they cite as the source of this mechanic came out a year after the Wave mode in Geometry Dash released. The wave mode acts in the exact same way as their game Zig Zag Boom. This reveals that the dev is willing to lie to appear less like a ripoff of other games. On top of this I simply don't believe the claim that in a game called Sunblaze there was no way to make the main character appear on fire rather than just change the color of a part of their body to indicate a dash can be used. There were ways to do something different, the dev chose to be like Celeste to cut corners

You dont care that it made no money? Then how can it be a cheap cash grab? You realize this dismantles one of of your main points. A cheap cash grab is a game that cuts every corner, steals ideas from others, and profits off of others. When evaluating whether this is a cash grab or a passion project, these pieces of information are very helpful. Name one “other cash grab” that writes a two page essay on how one game was their major influence. There are examples of devs that clearly stole ideas from others that refuse to acknowledge that they were influenced by other games. Im becoming convinced that you are as smart as a toaster. You are now claiming that the devs are lying as evidence when I could just claim you are lying about them lying. Maybe you are just too brain dead to see the intricacies that differentiate this game from Celeste and will “be right” at all cost, including being intellectually deceitful.

[HighDensityLipo]

You also didn’t dispute my claim that you have played at most 3 games in this genre. Ppl constantly do this in this genre, bc of the popularity of Celeste and Super Meat Boy. Play more games in this genre, and youll learn how similar but also all the tiny distinctions that make each game unique.

[Shad0w]

Originally posted by HighDensityLipo:

You also didn’t dispute my claim that you have played at most 3 games in this genre. Ppl constantly do this in this genre, bc of the popularity of Celeste and Super Meat Boy. Play more games in this genre, and youll learn how similar but also all the tiny distinctions that make each game unique.

Going to reply to both comments here. I never called it cheap, Sunblaze clearly has development put into it and I think it's a good game overall, but I think it borrows too much from Celeste to not explicitly make it clear in the store description that it's inspired by Celeste. My issue is not making that influence clear and selling the game for a price that makes it a direct competitor to Celeste. Second I think it's very clear that the Zig Zag Boom mechanic came from the wave mechanic in Geometry Dash. If the dev truly didn't see it, I still think it's wrong to call it original when a very popular mobile game used the same mechanic a year prior to yours. Finally, you're correct. I haven't played a lot of 2d precision platformers in the same genre as Celeste. But you clearly have. Can you please provide examples of ones you've played and mechanics a lot of them share? I'm curious to see if Sunblaze is a unique case of being visually and mechanically similar to another game. Or if this is actually common for the genre and I'm just unware.

[HighDensityLipo]

I followed the dev of Sunblaze for about a year on twitter leading up to it's release and really enjoyed watching the progress. I have no connection to the game/dev, have never met him/her, and don't stand to gain anything from this game. I want to get that out of the way right off the bat. I'm not sure exactly what the store description says, but I do remember when he released the two page explanation on twitter of his inspiration for the game and some of the problems he ran into. He talks about one major problem w/ a game being as good as Celeste in a genre as narrow as 2d precision platformers is that every time he intentionally made a choice for the game that was different from Celeste just for the sake of being different, it made his game worse. A lot of devs have talked about this phenomenon and other genres have faced this issue when a generational game is created. Hollow Knight in the metroidvania genre comes to mind, Slay the Spire in deckbuilders, Hades in dungeon crawlers, etc. The bar of expectations for prospective buyers goes through the roof, and usually these generational games are years ahead of the curve. They tend to put all of the pieces together in a perfect way that makes a truly spectacular game that transcends the genre. I love the precision platformer genre, but it's arguably a dying genre that has never really thrived. Super Meat Boy arguably created the genre (borrowed heavily from 2d platformers on NES), but outside of a handful of games, very few have much financial success. Celeste and Super Meat Boy are the only two to have millions of sales across all platforms and players that have no interest in the genre still buy. Games like N++, The End is Nigh, and Slime San have done well, but never really thrived in the same way. JMPR is a Super meat Boy inspired precision platfomer that came out in 2020. It's incredibly well designed, very challenging, offers a ton of content, but almost no one played it. I have never heard anyone call it a ripoff (I assume b/c almost no one played it and b/c it has a very differnt visual style from SMB even if it actually plays very similarly). I have a feeling that the reason that the Sunblaze dev made the visual style somewhat similar to Celeste was b/c he wanted it to to be obvious that this was heavily inspired by Celeste. He was extremely transparent w/ his development process and what games inspired him. There have been examples of clear ripoffs, and in those cases, they get review bombed to eternity, the devs refuse to acknowledge that they were inspired by certain games, and usually aren't nearly as transparent. It just seems odd to me, in that, if this dev wanted to blantantly ripoff a game, that he would go to this length to let everyone know how much Celeste was an influence to him and his dev process. I'm not sure about the zig zag mechanic you are referring to. I have Geometry Dash but I've only played it for a handful of hrs. You mentioned the change of colors matching the change of Celestes hair color, which lets players know that they have a dash/jump available. One of the major issues w/ a 2d precision platformer is that you are extremely limited on your options. You have to either jump, dash, slide I guess, or use magnets (Super Magbot), or use a grappling hook. My point is, that there are only so many options. You need to let the players know that they still have a jump/dash available, and a change of color is the easiest/least invasive way of doing that. I have played pretty much every game in this genre that I can find since 2010ish and I have seen something shared in every single game. You can click on my reviews and I go into great detail on every game (Most of my precision platformers were reviewed in 2019-2021 b/c there haven't been many new ones lately). The reason I really detest when ppl call a game a ripoff is b/c it discourages future devs from making games inspired by their fav games. I love this genre, and want as many precision platformers as possible. I will not that I personally think Sunblaze is more of a hybrid and plays kind of like a puzzle platformer/precision platformer hybrid where Celeste is a true precision platformer.

[wixxo]

nobody gives a fuᴄk its a great game