Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I am thinking of making a game similar to Harbour master, won't I get sued?
no. Thats like saying there can only be one FPS on a console and one rpg and one rts. You can make same genre games.
Flight Control isn't the first game of this genre. Also wrong section this should be in General Game Discussion and Questions.
That's like asking, "Why hasn't Nintendo sued everyone else that made a platform game?" Harbour Master is a different game than Flight Control. It's similar, but there are differences in the play mechanic (as well as the setting, graphics, sound, etc). In addition, it's not like Harbour Master is based on a reverse-engineered version of the Flight Control software. Now, if that were the case, then Firemint could go after the Harbour Master devs. --DotComCTO
It doesn't matter, although a lot more people are going to flame you... A lot of people will just think that Harbor Master is a copy of Flight Control and that will make it have lower sales than it should. In my opinion Harbor Master is a lot better than Flight Control.
Yeah I love Harbour Master, in fact it's the inspiration for be becoming a dev (got alot to learn first!)
Funny Fact: The Harbour Master developer forced another developer to remove a "copy" of one of their word games some months ago.
No offense to the people who made harbor master, but it is very similar to flight control (I have both) and it came out whilst flight control was up high in the 25. Because of this they don't deserve as many sales, mostly due to timing. Now I'm not saying HM or FC are brand new concepts but it appears HM was trying to ride on FC's success.
Not unless you use their graphics or steal their source code, those are copyrighted. You cannot patent an idea either, only a technical solution.
I think, the true rip-off is the one with controlling the taxis. They even stole the style 1:1! This is very brave...
That was about 7 months ago and they settled it. The developer of Harbor Master (Imangi Studios) said that it was their first game and they didn't know the full way the App Store worked back then. Read the whole of this thread if you want to find out what happened.
MrSnap (some one on this forum) posted this link of one of the original games in this genre: http://www.sonicpowered.co.jp/bokukan/ Flight Control was the first one on the iPhone though.
Imangi (the devs of Harbor Master) gave some guys from firemint a personal demonstration of the game at WWDC. This was before the game was approved by Apple as Harbor Master was submitted only a day prior. The guys from firemint didn't have an issue with it. Someone referred to Imangi trying to get another app off the appstore. This was because the other was an almost exact copy of their first game and priced cheaper. They had been making games for all of a month when this happened. They learned later that certain things in video games can not be copyrighted. Though it should be noted that the game in question was still removed. Harbor Master isn't a copy of Flight Control. It's the same genre of game and uses a similar art style but that's it. They wouldn't sue you for making a game of the same genre because they now know the copyright issues with video games. So unless it was an exact copy you would be fine
Facepickle, glad you're enjoying Harbor Master. Please feel free to expand on the traffic control genre, as we have. If you want to see a pre-Flight Control game in the same genre, check out Air Traffic Controller - ATC 4.0 (Lite version here). It's a great game that's been around forever, but Flight Control made the graphics much more sleek and modern, and made the controls completely intuitive to use, which drastically improved the game. As long as you don't use our name or assets, please develop away - we'd love to see what you come up with. This is a great genre with plenty of room for more
Hello, thanks for the reply, I would never dream of using your name or assets, and I have along way to go to ever compete with your masterpiece! But it's really reassuring to know that big devs like you have that attitude, and with I that wish you great success (although I think you've already got it!) with Harbour Master!
flight control has been in the top 25 for like 2-3 months. basically since it was released and it will be there for a lot longer. So your saying they have to wait 6 months until its gone. Thats just stupid.
