Copying games - just read this and all I can say is what has changed in 30+ years?

matarua

Initial Development of the classic game Defender.

Space was a popular setting for video games at the time, and Jarvis felt the abstract setting would help obscure simple graphics that lacked realism.[1] Initially, Jarvis spent 3–4 months developing color variations of Taito's Space Invaders and Atari's Asteroids.[7] First inspired by Space Invaders, he created a similar game with new gameplay mechanics. After spending a few weeks on the design, however, the team abandoned the idea, believing it lacked enjoyment. Development then shifted to emulating Atari's Asteroids, but hardware differences between Asteroids and Defender's proposed specifications were problematic. Asteroids displays vector graphics on a special monitor, while the staff planned to use pixel graphics on a conventional monitor. The team experimented with recreating the game with pixel graphics, but also abandoned it because they felt the gameplay lacked enjoyment and visual appeal.[8]

Believing their first attempts to be too derivative, the developers held brain storming sessions. During a session, they agreed that one of Asteroids's favorable elements was its wrapping effect.[Note 1][8] They felt a game that allowed the player to fly off the screen would be exciting, and decided to create a game world larger than the screen displayed. The game's environment was made longer than the screen, with the visible area scrolling horizontally.[1][8] Expanding on the idea, they envisioned a version of Space Invaders rotated 90 degrees. By changing the orientation of Space Invaders' design, the ship moved up and down while flying horizontally. Large asteroids, an element from Asteroids, were then added to the game world, but were later removed because the staff felt it lacked enjoyment.[8] Jarvis intended the screen to only scroll from left to right; fellow Williams employee Steve Ritchie, however, convinced him the game should be able to scroll in either direction.[1][8]

I had this whole justification for why you were there and what you were doing. A lot of games fall short. They just put you there, and all of a sudden you're beating people up and you start to wonder. "Why am I beating these people up?" There was actually an old TV show called The Defenders about attorneys back in the 1960s, and I kind of liked that show. You know, if you're defending something, you're being attacked, and you can do whatever you wanted.

Eugene Jarvis on the premise and name of Defender[1]
After six months of development, the team felt the game had not made enough progress. They examined other games and concluded that survival was a necessary component to implement. To achieve this, they devised enemies to present a threat, the first of which was the "Lander".[8] Jarvis enjoyed violent, action entertainment, and wanted the game to have those elements. However, he felt the action should have a reasonable objective. Inspired by the 1960s television show The Defenders, Jarvis titled the game Defender, reasoning that the title helped justify the violence.[1] He added astronauts to expand on the space theme and give players something to defend while they shot enemies.[1][8] The element of flying over a planetscape was added after a brainstorming session between Jarvis and Ritchie.[9] The landscape is depicted as a line only a pixel wide, primarily because the hardware was not powerful enough to generate anything more detailed.[8]

Article from Wikipedia

quantumsheep

Interesting read, thanks!

I think the phrase that jumped out at me most was:

"removed because the staff felt it lacked enjoyment."

Knowing when something works or not is part of game design. Taking something out that doesn't work is just as important as putting something cool in

QS =D

P.S. Love Defender - a true classic -and rock hard! :P

jamie_c

Yeah, very interesting. I was a total Defender fanatic at one point in my life, it definitely had enjoyment when they were done with it!

matarua

It is quite hard in some ways to be original - my games are original but also highly derivative of my own experiences - I would say that might be true for a lot of people too - the ones who grew up with and love gaming

quantumsheep

It is quite hard in some ways to be original - my games are original but also highly derivative of my own experiences - I would say that might be true for a lot of people too - the ones who grew up with and love gaming

I'd also add that execution is everything!

I met up with a user from here about four years ago - BinaryBiscuits I think - and he showed me a game he was working on.
Four years later, I'm working on a similar game with the same inspiration behind it, but it's very different to what Mr. Biscuits was working on.

Jeff Minter (a hero of mine!) has made numerous versions of the arcade game 'Tempest' as well as others - but though the inspiration is obvious, the end games are actually very different to the 'source'.

I think anyone can 'copy' a style/type of game. Whether it's any good though depends on what you bring to the table

QS =D

matarua

@quantumsheep and Jeff is still making games these days, pretty epic huh?

Did you know that Tempest was the original source of inspiration for one of my current games in development? Now you do.

I think at the time when I got the wow - Tempest and Scramble were two of those stella memories in terms of space shooters when I was young.

Totally agree with everything you say there too.

All good