Bizarre finally tackles Grid Wars Related content
- Interview Geometry Wars: Retro Explained [9]
- Review Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved [209]
- News Over 1m GeoWars scores registered [4]
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Bizarre finally tackles Grid Wars tagopt_brief-feature_type-
tagopt_brief-feature_type- by Tom Bramwell
Having shown creditable restraint up to now, Bizarre Creations has finally cracked down on the distributors of Grid Wars 2, a game that's spookily and - Bizarre reckons - actionably similar to Xbox 360 title Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved.
Grid Wars' hosts have now removed archives of the software, which allowed PC owners to play virtually the same game for free, and posted the email request they received from Bizarre. The developer's "starting to feel the effect", apparently, and has decided to "more robustly" protect copyright - by asking people nicely not to infringe upon it.
Bizarre later acknowledged that there are subtle gameplay differences, appreciated by hardcore players, between Geometry Wars and Grid Wars. As you'll know if you've followed both closely, Grid Wars' handling of multipliers and the manner in which players are able to manipulate that game's gravitationally intense black holes make for quite a different high-end experience.
However Bizarre felt it had to take action, it said in a forum posting, because of the clone game's "lack of originality - particularly on the visual front". "Only hardcore gamers will be aware of any differences between a clone and the original game beyond the visual level. This potentially takes sales away from our product and weakens our brand - especially if-and-when we decide to launch a version of GW:RE on a platform where a clone is already available. All too often we have seen people confused, calling our game by the name of a clone, and a clone by our name," the statement read.
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Well Geometry Wars obviously owes a lot to Robotron in the same way many games owe a lot to those that came before. I mean Gradius V on the PS2 isn't THAT different from all the other Gradius games. The difference here is that Grid Wars does not attempt to look OR act any differently in any respect.
Imitation is flattery, but blatant plagiarism is just taking the piss. I think Bizarre are completely justified. |
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MrGrumpy.au
16/08/06 @ 11:32
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It's probably too late now for Bizzare because there has been such a large number of downloads of this game "AND" the BlitzBasic sourcecode is included with it, so I wouldn't be supprised to find Bizarre fighting spot fires all over the web.
Great game though and it stopped my from buying a 360, wasn't going to pay $699 for a next gen machine just to play GeoWars:RE (especially after reading that PGR3s version was so crippled you have to buy the marketplace version). /Goes back to enjoying Grid Wars on the PC complete with Xbox 1 Controller S hooked up. :) |
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Eighthours
16/08/06 @ 11:46
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I dont think legally Bizarre had a leg to stand on.
I'm 100% convinced that they did. |
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It'd be a VERY grey area in terms of copyright, as both games have in effect been done before.
You couldnt easily claim IP, as there isnt a easily identifiable main character. If the main spaceship was a bloke called "butch mckill", and the other game had a very similar looking character, much easier to prove. Games where you fly around shooting things with a moveable turret is hardly new though. So proving the ip has been copied is a VERY grey area. |
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I'm certain that if it infringes copyright, then it makes no difference whether you give it away for free or not.
I think Grid Wars is a victim of it's own accuracy and professionalism as a clone though, hopefully the author will apply himself to something slightly more original now. Having played it now, it does mean that if Bizarre release Geometry Wars on the PC i'll almost certainly pick up a copy.
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most recently on 16/08/06 @ 13:15
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Fozzie_bear
16/08/06 @ 12:25
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Not played geometry wars but downloaded grid wars on the basis that everyone was bloody raving about how good the 360 game was.
Glad i got it before it disappeared. Great fun. Can understand wwhy they've done it though. Having Grid Wars already i wouldn't feel any need to buy geo wars if / when it comes out on pc. |
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I am pretty sickened by the fawning attitude of the article's author. Regurgitating the companys press release with approval is not what we expect from Eurogamer
Geo wars itseld is a re hash of many games of the past. I will not be purchasing further games from bizarre. Companies like this are going to kill the industry. (not the other way around as the faceless suits want you to believe) |
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@ManicMinerUK
Copyright law works such that if you allow a person or people to use your copyright unchecked for a reasonable amount of time, subsequent copyright battles are harder to fight (as there's a kind of precendent). Even if the free version wasn't causing them any direct problems competitively (although in this case they seem to suggest it is), then if someone did come along with another clone that they then charged for, these evil newcomes could then use GridWars in their defence as an example of Bizarre effectively allowing the copyright to fall into the public domain. |
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TessaTickle
16/08/06 @ 13:37
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People seem to not realise how much more superior Grid Wars 2 is to Geometry Wars. When Bizarre plays the additions made in GW2 down as being only subtle changes, they're in fact wishing they could have done something that cool.
If you don't believe me, read this : http://worldofstuart.excellentcontent.co... Bizarre should STFU and crawl away in shame that some indie bloke was able 1) to emulate the basics of the "original" and 2) evolve on those so well that the original becomes a sub-set of a greatly enhanced game that ends up being so far superior to Geometry Wars. As far as I'm concerned Bizarre has just embarrassed themselves and would have done well to just not attract attention to the whole issue. I think the chap behind GW2 is probably laughing his ass off at the whole thing and has a brilliant career in game coding ahead of him. In a way Bizarre have done him a great service. |
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While it's true that good gameplay will often come from evolving or tweaking ideas or gameplay created by other people (that is to say good gameplay can not always be completely original), there is a bare minimum of effort that I believe should be expected of a developer when engaging in such behaviour, which involves at the very least attempting not to infringe the copyright of the work that inspired their game.
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Cakebread said in an interview that he only knew about Robotron well after making the first Geometry Wars. Granted, he did play different LeftStick=Move, RightStick=Fire games, but to be honest (and no disrespect to anyone doing a game like this) it's a pretty obvious game mechanic to leap to when you've got a two stick interface infront of you. More power to Jarvis for coming UP with the interface when he made Robotron (erm... assuming that was part of his design. Might not have been).
So yeah. The whole robotron control scheme is a pretty obvious mechanism, and there's soooo many other robotron style games, that it baredly warrents commentary. How-fucking-ever, I'm behind Bizarre on this. GridWars is far too blatantly inspired by Geometry Wars. Either, this indie guy is ape-ing GW, and failing (hence the "differences that only the hardcore notice"), or he's trying to take an existing game, and "fixing" or embellishing a couple of things he doesn't like. If it's the latter, then perhaps he should have thought about excentuating the differences, rather than trying to look like the exact same fucking game. I can't stand indies who won't make use their implicit fucking creative freedom (which you miss like the desert misses the rain when you're in professional development) to make something INTERESTING. Instead, this clone just cheapens something that's rather wonderful, in of itself.
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Grid Wars was made by a guy who loves the 360 version and wanted to make a computer version. It was free.
Number of people who played the PC version and then decided not to get the 360 version: probably round about none. Number of people who played the PC version and then thought about buying the 360 version: probably more than a few Number of companies who have shot themselves in the foot by pissing off fans: 1 |
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I don't understand the hostility towards Bizarre here. They created the original game, it's graphical style, spawn types, gravity wells etc etc. Someone has copied that and many of you here have backed up their argument that a freely available copy of their orginal idea is hurting GW's sales. Regardless of the tweaks that were made, it copies the style and many of the original idea's and as mentioned before, perhapse the creator of Grid Wars should have spent his time creating something orginal.
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@Normski
"Copyright law works such that if you allow a person or people to use your copyright unchecked for a reasonable amount of time, subsequent copyright battles are harder to fight (as there's a kind of precendent). " No. That applies to trademarks, not copyright. Copyright does not go away if not defended. |
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Eighthours
16/08/06 @ 15:09
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Grid Wars was made by a guy who loves the 360 version and wanted to make a computer version.
Which is basically a confession! :) |
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Carrybagma
16/08/06 @ 15:34
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Never played it before, so downloaded while I still could from the most Reverand Reverand.
ED: Thank-you!
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most recently on 16/08/06 @ 16:35
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They've probably made things worse by drawing attention to the Game by getting it withdrawn.
They're now guaranteed to have a created a multitude of mirror sites all hosting this 'ilegal' game and created an awareness of it. Wheras before it was a known but obscure free bit of software, that people enjoyed as no official PC version existed. There are already a multitude of robotron/geometry war clones on the PC this one has now been highlighted on every PC gamers radar by their actions. Also how much were they gonna charge for Geometry Wars? £5 maybe tops. The same people that downloaded the free version would probably still pay a fiver for the real version as well. And people that wanted it for free wont buy the real version either. They haven't lost anything and anyway where is their 'official' PC version. They should hurry up and get it released rather than dragging their heels then complaining about potential lost sales for their own slackness.
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most recently on 16/08/06 @ 17:20
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Rev. Stuart Campbell
16/08/06 @ 16:42
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Wow. It's depressing seeing how many people are shallow idiots who can't see past graphics. GWRE and GW2 look almost identical, but play radically differently. Bizarre don't have a legal leg to stand on, it's just standard futile counter-productive corporate bullying. GW2 will continue to be available everywhere except Mark's own site, and they're achieving nothing other than to make themselves look like greedy hypocrites.
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Predictable response there Stu. Bizarre definitely do have a legal leg to stand on, as the game definitely is ripping Geometry Wars's copyright. The fact that you think Grid Wars 2 is derived from It's The Wooluf rather than Geometry Wars just goes to show us who the real idiot here is.
The creator of Grid Wars 2 could have avoided all of this nonsense if he'd respected the copyright and made the game with different graphics. But then, where would his game be now? I think you see my point? The whole point of copyright is to further science and technology. It exists so that software such as Grid Wars 2 is forced to innovate, even if that amounts to adding new enemies and changing the graphics while keeping similar gameplay. However you look at it, Grid Wars 2 keeps too many elements from Geometry Wars to be considered different from the prior art. It's copyright infringement. The fact that the game plays slightly differently isn't enough to escape that fact. Nor is the fact that it's free. The copyright of the prior art should be respected, and the work itself used as inspiration rather than forming part of the new work. Grid Wars 2 was riding off its similarities to Geometry Wars, and got what it deserved. |
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"Wow. It's depressing seeing how many people are shallow idiots who can't see past graphics."
When I was first told about the game, it was described to me, with enthusiasm as "A free Geometry Wars rip-off". I happen to keep a pretty good finger on the pulse when it comes to indie games. When I replied to this guy mentioning a handful of other robotron-inspired indie shooters, I got blank stares. Apparantly, the association with XBLA's flagship title was the only reason this guy had stepped outside any kind of mainstream gaming. He didn't own an XBox, and now he had one less reason to care. Regardless of the quality of the game and regardless of its mechanical similarities, GW2 is unfortunately piggy backing another game's success by lifting its aesthetic. For all I know, the maker is just a big fan of Geometry Wars, wanted a coding project, wasn't one for doing his own personal design, and so tried to re-create it. And in doing so found that he could tweak the magic numbers to his own liking, hence the subtle but certainly fundamental changes made to the game... favouring black hole farming slightly more than Geometry Wars. Yep. Worlds apart. Oh! And don't let me forget a whole new enemy! Shit! That's fine, but changing even minute values within complex systems can give rise to radically different outcomes. That's the difference you're experiencing in gameplay: Same recipe as GWE with the ingredients slightly tweaked. Through emergence, it naturally creates new viable strategies, while making old ones less effective. But it's still only through changing minor ingredients. I'm not saying that's wrong. Burnout and GranTurismo are the same game on opposite ends of the racing spectrum. More than enough room for both. Considering that a lot of the robotron-alike games are equally as gripping (it's not a hard formula to fuck up very badly, quite frankly) it's a shame that this one sticks out the most simply due to its inhereted aesthetics, especially since, you're right, it manages to stand on its own two feet as far as mechanics go. I'd love to see if it gained as much popularity and as much credence if it had its own style from the start. I somehow doubt it. And that's the thing really. I'd have zero problem with Grid Wars as a whole if it wasn't so blatantly Pepsi to GWE's Coca-Cola. I mean the name alone! "Grid Wars"?? Shit! |
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Ah yes he's working on a new game isn't he. That's a completely different game to Marble Madness, Bezzy. Look at the font for example. Completely different.
Marble Insanity | Marble Madness Marble Madness | Marble Insanity Marble Insanity | Marble Madness edit: Aha. Homage it is: "Our mission is to remake and expand the Arcade Classic "Marble Madness". We want to bring it to a whole new level with enhanced graphics and extended gameplay." In which case, it seems like a good job. I don't have too much of a problem with faithfully remaking games provided they have permission to do so (which I doubt). I do wonder who owns the copyright now though. Probably not Mark Cerny. I'm pretty sure Mark Incitti didn't have permission to infringe on Geometry Wars's copyright, at any rate ;)
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most recently on 17/08/06 @ 00:57
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