Potential Plagiarism?

[airgid-sionnach]

Was looking at the new demos for my own amusement and found a game called A World of Little Legends. It's chicken and slime sprites look almost identical to SDV, just slightly worse quality? Not pictured in the snapshots, but the beta is still up. Whats the best thing to do?

Link to the game in question -
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1476680/A_World_of_Little_Legends/

[ChrillBill]

I don't see much of Stardew Valley in the chickens and I can't spot the slimes? What strikes me the most (from looking at the trailer) is how similar it is to the style in the old SNES classic "Legend of Zelda - A Link to the Past" o.o Some of it looks like it was straight up copy/pasted and then brushed up a bit. That doesn't feel very good to be honest.

[lizardmang]

I don't see any particular resemblance in the chickens. They actually look like an entirely different style of pixel art chickens to me.

The slimes do seem heavily inspired by the ones in Stardew Valley, but the sprites don't appear to be copied, so I believe it's well outside the realm of copyright infringement. I don't even know that that style of slime originated in Stardew Valley. It's not exactly a complex design.

It is uncanny how much some of it looks like ALttP though. In fact, that's more what the chickens remind me of as well.

[airgid-sionnach]

Originally posted by ChrillBill:

I don't see much of Stardew Valley in that. What strikes me the most (from looking at the trailer) is how similar it is to the style and sprites in "Legend of Zelda - A Link to the Past" o.o Some of it looks like it was straight up copy/pasted and then brushed up a bit.

The sprites that look like they are from SDV aren't in the pictures or the videos. I only found them by messing around in the demo. But yeah, one person in the discussion tab said some of the sprites looked like Zelda. The dev said they made all of them on stream and locked the thread so not a good look...

[airgid-sionnach]

Originally posted by silentprotagonistsays:

I don't see any particular resemblance in the chickens. They actually look like an entirely different style of pixel art chickens to me.

The slimes do seem heavily inspired by the ones in Stardew Valley, but the sprites don't appear to be copied, so I believe it's well outside the realm of copyright infringement. I don't even know that that style of slime originated in Stardew Valley. It's not exactly a complex design.

It is uncanny how much some of it looks like ALttP though. In fact, that's more what the chickens remind me of as well.

I've never played any of the Zelda games, but if its that similar there has to be something that can be done, right?

[ChrillBill]

Originally posted by airgid-sionnach:

Originally posted by ChrillBill:

I don't see much of Stardew Valley in that. What strikes me the most (from looking at the trailer) is how similar it is to the style and sprites in "Legend of Zelda - A Link to the Past" o.o Some of it looks like it was straight up copy/pasted and then brushed up a bit.

The sprites that look like they are from SDV aren't in the pictures or the videos. I only found them by messing around in the demo. But yeah, one person in the discussion tab said some of the sprites looked like Zelda. The dev said they made all of them on stream and locked the thread so not a good look...

Oh okay, I edited my first post here to clarify what I meant. I get what you are saying, and it is a bit suspicious that they responded in such a way. I guess time will tell but it does look too similar to A Link to the Past. Nintendo is not someone I would want to go up against x.x

[airgid-sionnach]

Originally posted by ChrillBill:

Originally posted by airgid-sionnach:

The sprites that look like they are from SDV aren't in the pictures or the videos. I only found them by messing around in the demo. But yeah, one person in the discussion tab said some of the sprites looked like Zelda. The dev said they made all of them on stream and locked the thread so not a good look...

Oh okay, I edited my first post here to clarify what I meant. I get what you are saying, and it is a bit suspicious that they responded in such a way. I guess time will tell but it does look too similar to A Link to the Past. Nintendo is not someone I would want to go up against x.x

Fair, but the dev is german and international law is difficult for anyone, including a massive superpower like Nintendo.

[airgid-sionnach]

I guess the best I can do is try to report it and hope the dev changes sprites.

[Amberbaum]

It's like someone mashed the overworld sprites of a Link to the Past together with the item sprites from Stardew Valley. Certain inventory items look almost like a one and one copy (cloth...)

[Nakos]

Uhh... the chickens are pretty similar ... but I don't believe they're identical.

And ... if you're working with pixelated graphics ... the amount of variation possible is going to be a bit limited.

[airgid-sionnach]

Originally posted by Nakos:

Uhh... the chickens are pretty similar ... but I don't believe they're identical.

And ... if you're working with pixelated graphics ... the amount of variation possible is going to be a bit limited.

I understand that, but look at the different chicken breeds alone. Even better would be to warp the formula followed by games and create your own animals that do the same "basic" things, but look and act entirely different. Whats stopping them from having a world where snakes produce eggs?

[ChrillBill]

Like silentprotagonistsays mentioned, even the chickens are identical to those in ALTTP.

They could easily have drawn those assets themselves, but it is also obvious what the source of "inspiration" was, which is not mentioned or given credit to as far as I can tell. When it is that similar it kinda stops being "inspiration" I think and instead becomes "copying". This actually blew my mind a bit and in this case I can understand why people are reacting.

I don't think pixel art is that limited to be honest :> Just look at the fabulous modding community for Stardew Valley.

[NBOX21]

Originally posted by ChrillBill:

Like silentprotagonistsays mentioned, even the chickens are identical to those in ALTTP.

They could easily have drawn those assets themselves, but it is also obvious what the source of "inspiration" was, which is not mentioned or given credit to as far as I can tell. When it is that similar it kinda stops being "inspiration" I think and instead becomes "copying". This actually blew my mind a bit and in this case I can understand why people are reacting.

I do think it's important to note that there's a major difference between being inspired by other work and trying to copy other work.

Stardew Valley feels like the kind of game that was inspired by the old Harvest Moon games while doing its own thing with it, using PS1 style pixel graphics instead of SNES era pixel art, having a unique art direction despite the pixel art limitations along with many original ideas of its own to stand out, and that's coming from someone that hasn't even played a single Harvest Moon game before. It also feels like a spiritual successor to those older games in many ways.

There are so many "clone" games that try to copy the success of games like this or the older HM games without actually trying anything unique to stand out on its own.

[MCthurg]

I appreciate you sharing this game, I was a bit bored and tried the demo.

About the sprites, I've seen that the slimes look like they were taken directly from Stardew Valley. (There were no chickens in my game :c.)

Other than that, they will probably change it (or at least I think so) , just like Stardew Valley which had a graphical evolution over time.

I found the game interesting and I think it has potential, what surprises me is that it is more expensive than Stardew Valley.

[airgid-sionnach]

Originally posted by 風:

I appreciate you sharing this game, I was a bit bored and tried the demo.

About the sprites, I've seen that the slimes look like they were taken directly from Stardew Valley. (There were no chickens in my game :c.)

Other than that, they will probably change it (or at least I think so) , just like Stardew Valley which had a graphical evolution over time.

I found the game interesting and I think it has potential, what surprises me is that it is more expensive than Stardew Valley.

I really hope they change it. Honestly the price is WAY too much for what it seems to be, since the only "unique" thing is a very basic random generation. I would recommend either Cattails if you enjoy the exploration/decor/family aspect of SDV. Or, Kynseed if you like the RPG element. Both of these are similar but completely unique games, and both go directly to development!