here's a little trailer of our incoming game:
Quicktime is required, broadband impaired..hmmm...run to the nearest cyber café :)

Click here to watch the trailer. (http://www.phelios.net/abracadabra/)

Patrice.
Phelios PC and Mac Games (http://www.phelios.com)

Very cute... looks like a great Solomon's Key version. BTW, does anyone remember Spherical on the ST/Amiga? Another very cool take on the genre.

And great idea to do a trailer like that!

Yep, spherical/solomon's key etc..

here's the clone page
http://web.tiscali.it/no-redirect-tiscali/fabiosanna/solomon/clones/clones.html

Guess they'll have to add this one :)

pat.

Well damn... I *knew* someone was going to finish a Solomon's Key clone before I finished mine. :( That makes me 0/2 on game ideas I've completed before a competing version came out.

Looks great though!

Wow, now that I've watched the trailer... I think it looks a little *too* good.

I believe the original copyright holders to this game (Namco?) are still alive and kicking. I would be *very* cautious with this if I were you. Unless you've licensed the rights??? Some of your graphics look a tad too derivative to me. Your artist is obviously very talented... I think you should give them free reign to come up with some new designs rather than basing most of the graphics off the original.

Seriously, I'm not trying to scare you out of publishing a competing game. :) But I would do some hard thinking about distancing your game from the original a tad more. Remember, even if you're legally in the clear, that doesn't stop someone from persuing legal action!

I'm not sure if this is an announcement or a feedback request; I'll assume the latter. :) It's a good trailer; the game looks nice, the action is interesting, and the voiceover is well-written.

The one thing I think you could improve on would be the actual vocal performance. The slang rolls off the speaker's tongue unnaturally. When he says, "Bust loose, baby-dolls and daddy-o's," for example, he sounds like he's reading something, rather than actually calling me Daddy-o.

Anyone who calls me "Daddy-o" should say it with gusto.

I would also be concerned about how closely this resembles the original. In fact it looks flat-out identical. Seems to play exactly the same too. I reckon this has gone beyond legal grey areas into "not a leg to stand on" territory.

Unless of course you have bought a license.

Damn it,i am planning a Solomon's key-like game,too. Trailer looks very nice. Yes,the similarities to the original version are striking (graphics,game elements).

Originally posted by Pyabo
Seriously, I'm not trying to scare you out of publishing a competing game. :) But I would do some hard thinking about distancing your game from the original a tad more. Remember, even if you're legally in the clear, that doesn't stop someone from persuing legal action!


Well if i'm lucky i'll get sued, go to jail ( since I will not be able to pay them ) and don't have to worry about rent ! and i'll be able to code other games without the rent factor :) ( let's hope they have broadband in jail )

yeepee!

Anyway i'll guess they'll have to close all these mame romz sites too if they sue me... ( that is real piracy )

pat.

Yes, they are closing down mame rom sites just as fast as they can, if you hadn't noticed.

Still, it might be worth noting that mame rom sites aren't trying to charge people money. What you are doing isn't piracy though - it's plagiarism.

I would imagine the most likely outcome if anyone got word of this, would be that you'd be made to take your game down - which is punishment enough I daresay, after all the obvious hard work that's gone into it.

True, anyway we'll see what happens. It's far from being the first and the last clone done...

pat.

I'm reasonably sure that in the EU you can plagiarise quite an awful lot without actually breaking any copyright or trademark laws providing you are very explicitly not stepping on any trademark or attempting to mimic the artwork in any way. I've never seen Solomon's key so I can't comment on the graphical or aural similarity but the gameplay could be identical and they couldn't touch you.

Even if the graphics are similar they'd have to actually be really genuinely similar rather than just vaguely alike for a court of law not to fall in your favour, as it is easily proved that you have developed all your own assets from scratch.

Cas :)

Good trailer, fast loading and does spark interest.

Good work.

Alex

For those who haven't seen the original, here's a good selection of screenshots:

http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?letter=&game_id=9617

Broken link?

Cas :)

Well I think you haven't to worry about copyrights holders...
It is a clone, ok, but how many SPACE INVADERS, PAC-MAN, TETRIS, etc clones you find around? :D
Also we're talking about a shareware game... not a retail one.
Never seen a shareware game being sued.
Lol, even my game could be considered by some means a Championship Manager clone... and all I got was a congrats post from CM4 Lead Programmer (Mark Vaughan) for USM!

I honestly think they have better things to do than trying to sue a small shareware dev to get 1000-2000$ back...!! :)

So what new elements have you added to the gameplay then? I'm a big fan of Solomon's Key (to the point that I'd love to make a game in it's vein some day) so I'm interested in what direction you've taken the game to expand upon the original.

I'm confused as to why you kept much of the design of the game identical to the original, though. Generally it's the mark of a shameless rip-off when people copy the minutae as well as the basics, although it may well be that your game starts out in familiar territory and then boldly goes off into new grounds.