Potentially useful Plague Inc. interview

[Ndemic Creations]

Hey guys

I recently gave a detailed interview / podcast on Plague Inc and its development. I give a few of my top lessons learnt etc in it and thought some people here may find it helpful / motivational.

Content starts around 3 mins in. Development stuff a few minutes later.

http://bit.ly/QQbYba

[racingspider]

Thanks for sharing it, it's a great interview and congratulations on the game's success! Well done.

[ChaoticBox]

I don't want to come across as too assholeish here, but it sounds like your business plan was "hire people to clone a popular flash game". This obviously worked out well for you, and I'm sure plenty of hard work and new ideas went into the game, but this whole story just kinda sticks me in an uncomfortable zyngaesque way :/

[Ndemic Creations]

Originally Posted by racingspider

Thanks for sharing it, it's a great interview and congratulations on the game's success! Well done.

Thanks

Originally Posted by ChaoticBox

I don't want to come across as too assholeish here, but it sounds like your business plan was "hire people to clone a popular flash game". This obviously worked out well for you, and I'm sure plenty of hard work and new ideas went into the game, but this whole story just kinda sticks me in an uncomfortable zyngaesque way :/

NP, everyone is entitled to their own opinion
I was absolutely inspired by pandemic 2 and I have always made this clear. However, there was no cloning here. I wanted to make a game that improved significantly on pandemic 2 in every way and was its own unique game. I believe I achieved that and the vast, vast majority of fans and reviewers seem to agree with me.

(ChaoticBox - a question - have you played Plague Inc yet?)

[Afftor]

Congrats - good job on your game! Are you planning on making more games from now on, or concentrate on keeping Plague afloat?


to ChaoticBox
The thing is - most of casual games are clones and remakes on each other or older flash games (Angry Birds or any Tower Defense or almost anything else - you name it). There is nothing bad in using ideas and mechanics someone else invented - if you do it well, implement new features and make your game great experience for players.

[Zenout]

Highly enjoyed your interview thanks for sharing. You and your team sound great, I like the details.

[ChaoticBox]

Originally Posted by Ndemic Creations

(ChaoticBox - a question - have you played Plague Inc yet?)

I haven't (haven't played Pandemic either) but I've read reviews and seen videos of both...

Originally Posted by Afftor

to ChaoticBox
The thing is - most of casual games are clones and remakes on each other or older flash games (Angry Birds or any Tower Defense or almost anything else - you name it). There is nothing bad in using ideas and mechanics someone else invented - if you do it well, implement new features and make your game great experience for players.

Inspiration, borrowed/mis-matched mechanics fine - ideas are built on older ideas - not arguing that. And I'm not sure I'd label Plague a "clone" exactly - though the Pandemic guys might disagree However, the theme/atmosphere of Plague is so similar to Pandemic that it's a real fine line. I wouldn't blame a user for thinking Plague was a sequel.

[Ndemic Creations]

Slightly relevant - a fan pointed a game out to me on twitter today

Contamination - an 8 bit game from 1985! http://cpcrulez.fr/GamesTest/contamination.htm

Haven't investigated it in detail but it looks slightly familiar

[ChaoticBox]

Originally Posted by Ndemic Creations

Contamination - an 8 bit game from 1985! http://cpcrulez.fr/GamesTest/contamination.htm

Well that's one way to win a cloning argument