Many video game clones are affectionate tributes that pay respect to the IP they're using as inspiration — while others use the skeleton of a popular work to forge their own path. These are just a few clone titles that have become major successes, eclipsing their inspirations in the eyes of gamers.
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00:00Many video game clones are affectionate tributes that pay respect to the IP they're using as
00:05inspiration, while others use the skeleton of a popular work to forge their own path.
00:11These are just a few clone titles that have become major successes,
00:15eclipsing their inspirations in the eyes of gamers.
00:19Let's go to a place where everything is made of blocks, where the only limit is your imagination."
00:27Zachtronics Infiniminer is a game in which a spelunking player must hunt
00:31through a block-based environment for crafting materials and to build new structures,
00:36and all of it is rendered in a quirky, pixelated art style.
00:39If you think that sounds a whole heck of a lot like Minecraft, boy, do we have news for you.
00:44Minecraft began life as a zombie game with the working title of Ruby Dung.
00:49Though creator Markus Notch Persson was enjoying his time tinkering with it,
00:53the project wasn't quite coming together.
00:55Inspiration struck when Persson encountered Infiniminer for the first time.
01:00Persson explained in a blog post,
01:01"...I found Infiniminer. My God, I realized that that was the game I wanted to do."
01:06As Persson continued development, he posted clips of his in-progress work,
01:11directly referring to the project as an Infiniminer clone I'm working on, per GameByte.
01:16Persson also added touches of his own,
01:18including more role-playing mechanics and a fantasy-oriented tone.
01:22This clone game eventually evolved into the base version of Minecraft,
01:26and the rest is gaming history.
01:28Since then, Minecraft has expanded to be very much its own entity,
01:32with story mode spinoffs and even a big Hollywood movie on the way.
01:35As explained by Infiniminer creator Zach Barth in his book,
01:39Zach-Like,
01:40"...I believe that Minecraft is a very different game that I would never have made."
01:44But on the other hand, it's obvious how Infiniminer directly inspired Minecraft,
01:48which makes it easy to conflate the two,
01:51especially when other people treated me like I'd somehow been wronged.
01:54These feelings were somewhat exacerbated by the fact that Minecraft went on to earn
01:58billions of dollars. However, Barth added, quote,
02:02"...weirdly, I'm kind of proud of it now."
02:05You really had to be there for the plastic guitar boom of the mid-2000s.
02:08Guitar Hero had kids learning songs by queens of the Stone Age and Blue Oyster Cult,
02:13mashing buttons and strumming as fast as their fingers could manage.
02:17The 2005 game was a smash hit, spawning multiple sequels and a 2007 imitator that upped the ante,
02:24an imitator developed by the same folks who made Guitar Hero.
02:28After development of Guitar Hero was handed over to Neversoft following the first two games,
02:33original developer Harmonix began work on Rockband.
02:36Expanding from a single guitar to a whole set of instruments and a mic for aspiring vocalists,
02:41Rockband also encouraged a much more communal approach to virtual jamming.
02:46Sure, Guitar Hero had a two-player mode, but Rockband made you and your buddies feel like
02:50you were in a, well, a rock band. Comparisons were wholly inevitable,
02:55with Forbes calling Rockband a shameless knockoff of Guitar Hero.
02:58Thankfully, the game ended up being so much more than that.
03:01Rockband was released to positive reviews and huge sales figures. At one point, EA was concerned
03:07that the company wouldn't be able to produce enough copies of the game to meet holiday
03:11shopping demands. The parent series quickly took notes, with Guitar Hero expanding to more
03:16instruments in later games.
03:19You've been selected to receive the sneak peek about a phenomenon called Pokémon!"
03:23No one is discounting the influence and popularity of Pokémon. It's a truly revolutionary franchise,
03:29and the earlier entries in the series are still considered among the greatest video games of all
03:33time. However, newer releases in the franchise have left players wishing that Game Freak and
03:38Nintendo would take more risks with the beloved series. Powerworld has stepped in to do just that.
03:44Powerworld has also proven to be one of the more controversial indie games in recent history.
03:49Though some have accused the Pokémon with Guns open world title of stealing ideas
03:53and assets from the beloved monster-catching franchise,
03:56defenders of Powerworld developer Pocket Pair have maintained that this game is more of a
04:01loving homage. While it's true that some of the creature designs may veer wildly close
04:06to recognizable Pokémon, Powerworld really uses the former's capture-and-battle mechanics
04:11as a starting point for a base-building and resource-gathering survival game.
04:15Reviews for the game have been mostly glowing, noting that Powerworld is just as much in common
04:20with the likes of Fortnite and Rust as it does with Pokémon. Some longtime fans of the Pokémon
04:25franchise have even argued that Powerworld exceeds recent official Pokémon games in terms of quality.
04:32Though it's still being expanded while in early access, the game's survival mechanics already
04:36allow players to do so much more than some of the more narrow-minded mainline Pokémon entries.
04:41It's still difficult to top the Game Freak franchise's early years,
04:45but it seems Powerworld is scratching an itch that Pokémon Scarlet and Violet simply did not.
04:51What if Harvest Moon could go on forever? That was essentially the thought process
04:55behind Eric Concerned Abe Baroni's creation of Stardew Valley, a slice-of-life farming
05:00sim that has pretty much eclipsed the series that inspired it. The solo developer has explained that
05:05he was inspired to create his own Harvest Moon Story of Seasons clone because of what he saw as
05:10a declining level of quality in the series. Specifically, Baroni felt that more recent
05:15entries had become too repetitive and similar to one another, with too much of a rigid focus
05:20on farming. Additionally, he wanted a game that continued on past the usual time limit
05:25of a Harvest Moon title. To this end, Baroni developed a game in which characters can live
05:30whole virtual lives. In an interview with Gamasutra, he explained,
05:34"[My idea with Stardew Valley was to address the problems I had with Harvest Moon,
05:38as well as create more purpose with tried-and-true gameplay elements
05:42such as crafting and quests."
05:44Baroni did just that, creating a game that proudly wears its influences on its sleeve,
05:49yet has a bit more of a modern flavor in its execution. He also turned to fellow gamers,
05:54asking Harvest Moon fans on social media to chime in with features they'd always wanted
05:58to see in a live sim. To this day, ConcernedApe continues to update the game with new locations,
06:04items, and gameplay modes, making it the everlasting experience
06:08that Harvest Moon could only dream of being.