http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-GB/Product/FortressCraft-Chapter-1/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80258550821

i just got the trial version and it's damned near identical but with severe over use of shiny bumpmapping.

Link not working for me, but if it is a rip of Minecraft then YAY! A lawsuit is just what we need to stunt updates and keep Minecraft in Beta forever...

Bleh.

It's not a ripoff if the characters looks BETTER.

sorry bout the link. search youtube for FortressCraft and you'll see it.

meh the characters are just avatars c/o microsoft. no programming needed there.

although it's got alot of "inspiration" from notch's work there are now (after digging deeper) notable differences.

it just goes to show if notch switched from java to c++ he could get silky smooth frame rates (was getting at least 50 at a guess at 1080p on my 360 with a mere 500mb ram) and much nicer looking gfx.

hate to say it but if this gets ported to pc (not hard given how easy it is to convert a pc title to xbox) notch may lose many customers

I think I've mentioned it before, but coding in Java was not the wisest choice. Then again, I don't think Notch expected it to become as big as it is, either. Might be he thought Java was fine for just a "project" (that took off completely), and now he's come to the point where he can't be assed to change to another programming language, considering how much time he's put into Java.

Just speculating.

epic plagarism, it even has "craft" in its name...

Yeah, and we all know that silly World of Warcraft ripped off Minecraft too, right? Because it's got "craft" in it...

I saw a Hobby-craft shop the other day. Damn plagiarising scallywags!

The fact that fortresscraft will be asking money for each "episode" means that it won't ever be a "minecraft killer", which gets updated for free.

It's also been stated that episode 1 has been "inspired" by Minecraft Classic and that the following episodes will be going into a different direction.

yeah i read that too flight. i'm curious to see what ep 2 has although leaked info suggests it's only crafting. still, i think my point stands that if you can make a minecraft clone look that damned good with only 500mb ram, notch has no excuse

lol i'd turn 360 degrees and walk away.

Nope, dont see the resemblance at all *pokerface*

Been around a little while now fortresscraft. Its spoilt by laser guns. .

and now he's come to the point where he can't be assed to change to another programming language

Kahr

Java seems to be his main programming language. Thats the problem when it comes to switching to another language. He would have to learn the other language so that he gets to the stage where he is fluent in it.

Java however isn't the main problem. Its notch's code. The only bad thing about Java is the fact it uses a Garbage Collector. Which means that memory is never free'd directly after its nolonger needed, instead it could be quite a lot of seconds before its free'd (So your memory usage could get to say 100-200MB higher than it needs to be because its not giving memory back to the system instantly). CPU wise however you won't notice a major difference between Java and C++.

Notch and company has already seen and commented on that game quite a while ago. He stated very clearly that if it doesn't use his code (which it isn't) or their art (which it isn't) or their name/trademarks (which it isn't) then they won't sue.

Also, to clear up a few things regarding the legality of this game.... its not plagiarism since the game creator is not copying the look/feel of the game verbatim, then claiming it as his own idea. Nor is it copyright 'theft' since the creator is not copying the code directly. Nor is it trademark infringement since its not using the name "Minecraft" or "Mojang" to market the product. This is simply someone copying the basic idea of Minecraft's gameplay. A perfectly legal thing to do.

People are getting trained by the big media and recording industries to treat all ideas as property. Ideas are not property, they have no intrinsic value on their own. Its the work, effort, and labor involved in making that idea a reality that causes the idea to become something of real value.

Notch and company have put in the effort to turn an idea into a viable product that people are willing to spend money on. The fact that there will be clones of the game is not a bad thing. This should inspire him to keep innovating to keep ahead of the pack. Its better for consumers in the long run to have healthy competition for their dollars/pounds.

Think about this.... if I had an idea for a video game back in the 1980's, and I made a crappy side scrolling game just like everyone else who was making games at the time, but my game was the first to have the ability to jump up to platforms.... if there existed the "ideas as property" mind-set that exists today.... that the idea of jumping to another platform was some how "protected" by imaginary copyright/trademark restrictions, then we never would have had the slew of excellent video games, from Mario to Sonic. We would be stuck with one crappy 1980's game that, since it was 'first', it is preventing any one else from copying that idea of jumping.

Ideas alone are not worth the calories expended by a brain to generate them... unless the work is put into it to see the idea become a reality. And then, once the idea is out there, everyone else is free to expand on that original idea and come up with even more useful and innovative ideas. Most creative ideas that seem groundbreaking are really just building on ideas that came before. Even Notch himself has said he got his Minecraft idea from Infiniminer and Rollercoaster Tycoon. He simply combined two good game premises, mixed in the idea of the first person shooter.... and tada..... Minecraft was born.

There are very few examples of complete black-box innovation that doesn't pull from some prior source. Its part of the creative process to see someone's idea, and figure out how to make it better. If we don't have that creative process, nothing "new" will ever be made again.

Oh wow OK now I understand.

INT +10

I agree that everything Block said SHOULD be true, and it's refreshing to see Notch/Mojang not jumping on the lawyer train immediately.

However, in the current climate, were this a different company, the maker of this game would be sued to high hell. He's not copying code, or using their artwork or claiming it was his idea, but in a world where Facebook can trademark the word "Face," and Apple can sue HTC over trademark infringement because their phone has a "slide to unlock" feature, I doubt this XBLA game would stand up to court scrutiny.

That said, I'd prefer to live in the world that Block described, where it takes a bit more than money to successfully sue someone for copyright infringement.

I agree that everything Block said SHOULD be true, and it's refreshing to see Notch/Mojang not jumping on the lawyer train immediately.

beagrie

Minecraft started out life as a clone of Infiniminer. So Notch can't go around sueing people because they are making clones of a clone. Granted Notch has distanced Minecraft from Infiniminer(Not hard considering Infiniminer was only developed for a month) but that doesn't change the fact that Minecraft is basically a clone.

http://notch.tumblr.com/post/227922045/the-origins-of-minecraft

This is a very early test of an Infiniminer clone I'm working on. It will have more resource management and materials, if I ever get around to finishing it.

Notch

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9t3FREAZ-k

note that i corrected myself in my 3rd post and said that there are differences when i got under the hood.

at first i was like WTF? but then after playing it, it is a different game. it just LOOKS similar. but then all first person shooters LOOK similar, as do platformers, simulators etc. so yeah you're right block, but i'd already came to that conclusion hehe

lol i'd turn 360 degrees and walk away.

404thread

Really? 360 degrees? Then you'd be right back in your original position.

^ well spotterd Kahr *laughs*

Hah, yes, well spotted Kahr.