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Our game was stolen. We need your help!
Laufman
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
If you own an iPhone or know anyone who does PLEASE DON'T BUY THE BLOCKS COMETH that is in the iTunes app store.
A really shitty thing happened to our small independent game studio Halfbot. Last November we released a flash game called The Blocks Cometh and recently we started to port that game to IOS. As it turns out, on Jan 6 2011 that flash game was stolen from us, the name, art assets, concept and all were ripped from our game and made into an iPhone game. Last Thursday that game was featured in the App store(when we noticed it and shit ourselves) and rocketed into the Top #100 games in the US app store. We were devastated when we discovered this had happened and we've been feverishly trying to contact apple with minimal success. They claim that the matter is being looked at by legal but yet this game still remains on the app store top charts earning money for the pricks that stole it from us.
This is a large community of gamers who care about shit like this when it goes down and we can really use your help to spread the word. We're trying to get the word out as much as possible, pleading for people to not by this game and wait for the real version to be released by us it's rightful creators. We're a company of 2 guys and getting your game in the top #100 is not an easy task for any company. That should be us but right now it's not.
If you want to read a bit more about it I encourage you to check out our blog at www.halfbot.com
Cheers,
Derek
A really shitty thing happened to our small independent game studio Halfbot. Last November we released a flash game called The Blocks Cometh and recently we started to port that game to IOS. As it turns out, on Jan 6 2011 that flash game was stolen from us, the name, art assets, concept and all were ripped from our game and made into an iPhone game. Last Thursday that game was featured in the App store(when we noticed it and shit ourselves) and rocketed into the Top #100 games in the US app store. We were devastated when we discovered this had happened and we've been feverishly trying to contact apple with minimal success. They claim that the matter is being looked at by legal but yet this game still remains on the app store top charts earning money for the pricks that stole it from us.
This is a large community of gamers who care about shit like this when it goes down and we can really use your help to spread the word. We're trying to get the word out as much as possible, pleading for people to not by this game and wait for the real version to be released by us it's rightful creators. We're a company of 2 guys and getting your game in the top #100 is not an easy task for any company. That should be us but right now it's not.
If you want to read a bit more about it I encourage you to check out our blog at www.halfbot.com
Cheers,
Derek
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( http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/01/17/justice-for-desktop-dungeons/ )
Keep at it.
Good luck
Makes me wonder more about the lax requirements for getting something on the app store.
This right here is some spectacularly solid advice. Good luck!
I've contacted everyone. Even Jerry!
This sotry has done some good tho. We just received an email from another dev asking us how to contact apple when he discovered that the same company stole art from his game. This Edison Game company is fucking poison.
The game got another feature today in the "What's Hot" section and I pretty much blew a gasket. This has been a stressful week and we didn't think it would take more then a few days to get it pulled down. However Apple informed us this evening via email they are contacting the devs that made the rip off. What does that mean? More waiting for us I guess.
I never asked for this!
I'm sorry to hear this.
I cannot give you specifics, but you may be able to legally force Apple to help you out considerably in fixing this, particularly going forward, even if existing money has disappeared into the ether.
This being said, getting ripped off like that is ridiculously lame. Best of luck to ya'll.
We are forever grateful:) I'd like to thank fate for stepping in with the girl in her skivvies.
Apple deals with a lot of shit, and a random complaint gets lost in the pile. A legal notice must be dealt with.
Just for comparison, here's how Android handles it:
http://www.google.com/android_dmca.html
Follow their instructions, use their language, except obviously send it to Apple. No lawyer needed.
We did receive a response from apple last night and were told that they have contacted the Developer in question. I assume they have a process and that is the first step.
This is one of the biggest dick moves I've ever seen pulled on an indie studio and they fully deserve the punishment of ridicule, fining, and being forever banned as a studio from contributing to the marketplace. This can't be allowed to set a precedent that studios can get away with this; hopefully they won't.
Here's hoping you're able to rip those arses a new one and get all the money that they made off your game. Best of luck from all three of us here at BMS.
Click here to visit our thread on Penny-Arcade
I mean, there are companies like Zynga that steal shit all the time. Its their goddamn MO. An infamous quote from their CEO is literally "I don't fucking want innovation" and it gets even worse when he continues with "You're not smarter than your competitor. Just copy what they do and do it until you get their numbers." And perhaps even worse then that, you have the below as well and its all on the very first page. Read beyond that and it becomes even more detestable faster than you could photoshop an existing game cover, making minor adjustments, and then make a post saying that you've got a totally awesome new game coming out.
But while there is nothing that excuses what they do and the fact that the way their entire business runs is based upon some downright shady and and quasi-illiegal bullshit, they at least never profit directly on whatever game they are unsubteldy ripping off. So while Zynga deserve the worst fate that a company could possibly have and deserve shame, humilition, and their collective corpse dragged over hot coals and thrown into a darkness where there shall be weeping and nashing of teeth (But before all of this there is still the being savagely raped as aforementioned, obviously. Oh, and the last bit is a pretty hardcore revelation type reference that I think just sounded cool in the way that what Jewels from Pulp Fiction always said before shooting a motherfucker was), it seems like this Edison Games company deserves it just as much. Maybe even more. And yes thats a lot of vitroil and I realize that, but this is one of those things that really pisses me off. Fuck them.
So yeah, good luck!
It sucks so bad that it happened to the OP but I'm sorta glad I got wind of it so that we can take the necessary precautions to make sure something similar doesn't happen to us.
http://androidcommunity.com/stop-davincidevelopers-app-thief-20110113/#
hopefully this sort of thing doesn't become more common in the future.
I just tweeted that article. Fuck that is seriously messed up! The mobile space is a deadly place for these thefts. This whole mess has really opened my eyes to how desperate of a situation this is becoming.
Is Apple going to help you receive some compensation from the developers?