Joust Devs Hit Back At Clone Apps, Reveal Mobile Version Planned

The motion-sensing PlayStation Move-enabled game Joust has been cloned and the original devs aren’t happy.

Cloning apps is a big problem on iOS, and one dev has gone public with its disapproval

Cloning apps is a big deal on iOS, and not new: one of the most popular first-person shooters on the platform – N.O.V.A – has been heavily compared to Halo due to its sci-fi shooter theme. It now seems app clones have become too prolific, as one developer has gone public with its lack of endorsement

That developer is Die Gute Fabrik, the developers of Joust, who said on its blog that it has never given a developer permissions to make a clone of any of its commercial products. It added it doesn’t believe game mechanics should be copyright, though. The studio went on to say it has never asked a developer to pull an app; rather, it’s up to the developer to decide when an app has copied too much from the source product. However, Fabrik did say that developers should be encouraged to be inspired by – not copy – elements from other games. Great games are great for a reason.

Protracted development time

The studio also answered fans’ questions on the game’s release date, which has been drawn out and largely quiet despite various codes being given out. The devs said on the blog discussions between it and publishers have been taking place in late last year, and the company is also looking to maintain full control of its intellectual property so it can make the game open source.

They added a publisher will help to widen the reach of the game; at the moment it feels fairly nicne, I think. If you’re not part of gaming communities regularly reading websites and forums, I doubt you will have heard of it. And the PlayStation Move isn’t the most popular motion-sensing peripheral either.

On a smartphone version, Fabrik said they have had discussions on a version and importantly do plan to do it. Considering we don’t even have the console version yet, though, we may be waiting a while and the studio said it wants to explore numerous options before creating a prototype. No doubt that’s a shot fired at the iPhone clone.