How is This Game Not Dungeon Keeper 3?

[eschaton3]

War for the Overworld is almost exactly like Dungeon Keeper 2 with several improvements and added features and mechanics. I don't exactly understand how the publisher has not been sued by DK's parent company, considering how similar they are; not that I would wish that upon them, as I love this game. Did they license it or something? Or are we supposed to believe the numerous similarities are a coincidence? Or is something else going on here?

[Noontide]

War for the Overworld is a dungeon management game that is heavily inspired by games like Dungeon Keeper. One could even call it a spiritual successor if you so wish given similar concepts, mechanics and settings. There's no denying that Dungeon Keeper was a core inspiration for us, we set out to make something that filled the gap left behind by that franchise's absence.

WFTO started as a fan-project to reignite interest in this incredible genre, on a forum dedicated to Dungeon Keeper. You can read all about that early history
and the rest of our story here[brightrockgames.com]. You can also read how important Dungeon Keper was to us as a source of inspiration in this post we did for its 20th birthday[wftogame.com].

As for legality. Ultimately there's nothing to sue over. Everything in the game is 100% original intellectual property and code created and belonging to us. Other than similar basic mechanics and concepts and some stylistic choices nothing is truly shared between the two games. Not a line of code, not a polygon of a model.

This is no different than two games sharing other genres. Many creative endeavours share similarities with others. If there wasn't scope for this there'd honestly be no iteration at all in many industries.

The closest we ever came to some issues with EA was actually a really funny story about how we almost unintentionally blocked them from using the talent of Richard Ridings for Dungeon Keeper Mobile. I think you'll find a lot of answers in this article[www.eurogamer.net].

Btw the guys at what was once EA Mythic were great with us at the time. Fair play to the boys over there, and it's certainly not the last time we've had pleasant conversations with people from EA. :)

[Scylon]

DK was closer to a simulation with dungeon management, where WFTO is more akin to Strategy game with dungeon management.

[Nova Solarius]

Originally posted by eschaton3:

War for the Overworld is almost exactly like Dungeon Keeper 2 with several improvements and added features and mechanics. I don't exactly understand how the publisher has not been sued by DK's parent company, considering how similar they are; not that I would wish that upon them, as I love this game. Did they license it or something? Or are we supposed to believe the numerous similarities are a coincidence? Or is something else going on here?

You can't sue someone for copying mechanics in a game because you don't own them. You own the code, you own the name. You do not own the idea.

[SCORP10N2000]

"and it's certainly not the last time we've had pleasant conversations with people from EA. :)"

Sure but NEVER sell your selfs to them!

[Lu2]

by your logic lot of games will be never released

dungeons 2-3 is like dungeon keeper and warcraft 3 combined . nor ea or blizzard sue them cuz
they cannot . you cannot patent gameplay nor style .

too bad some ion fury developers are ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and gets scared from iron maiden band and sjw .wtf [ ion maiden devs rather changed name to ion fury and remove childish mild gay jokes ]

iron maiden is torture device made in mediaval times

sad times we live