OMG, well they say Imitation is flattery right?

check this:

http://www.blitzbasic.com/gallery/view_pic.php?id=1709&gallery=&page=1

then compare to my game:



Oh and mine does have a snowman graphic on a differnet level and 3D rendered crackers too ;-)

Qube: Do you have a demo for this game or was the picture just a joke?

Well, tile matching games aren't that original either... ;)

Bigfish Games alone sells literally a hundred of them. Maybe not everyone is Christmas based, but Christmas isn't original as well. :)


I year ago I was working on a bombjack like game for halloween (graphics and tile engine were almost ready) which starred a cute vampire as the protagonist, but never released anything about it... lately though I found that another blitz coder developed the exact same concept. I guess the idea wasn't very original in the first place.

lol, no it's not a joke it's full finished game. There are other festive match-3 games besides yours you know, right? :)

Mine plays different to yours though and does have mini games too so it's different enough. When doing a match-3 festive based game there's not a whole heap of choices to make regarding the tiles but I do have ones you don't which is a good thing.

Don't worry, I'm not out to copy any ones games though. The one I'm working on now is a 100% original puzzle game (can't find anything similar on google).

Besides it was my first attempt at a game in max doing all the graphics and music myself. A learning experience, so now it's on to the good stuff :)

SNAP!

Lol

IPete2.

haha, yeah of course I realise tile matching and indeed Christmas games are not original but hey Qube's is UNCANNY ;-)

Anyway good luck with it! You got a demo we can check out? Good luck with your next game.

No demo yet. I'm waiting to hear back from a few people so there will be a demo after that, more likely early December.

This was my first and last match-3 based game though, so I certainly won't be doing any theme based variants :)

As I said, no demo just yet but you can see / read more here http://www.syntaxbomb.com/forum/index.php/topic,961.0.html

Yours goes Score, Level then Time, and Qubes goes Score, Time then Level... See completely different ;)

lol, exactly Rob :) Plus my timer goes up and his goes down. Most of all I have rotating Santa's, woohoo.

Oh and mine runs at a silky smooth 60fps on old hardware :)

Nice post mortem!

"Never underestimate the amount of time it takes to *finish* off a game. Those little things like in game GUI's for simple menu system take far longer than you think"

Yep, you've got that 100% correct, and I also recently found out that mini-games can takes ages too!

I'm relaunching my game this year on the same portals and some new ones but I contacted them a few weeks ago. I hope you manage to make it in time but it'll be touch 'n' go with some of them. Many don't accept ANY seasonal games btw.

The plot thickens ;-) Hey, you did play my game though right? I don't mind btw.





(well I guess my star has only 5 points and there are a limited number of Christmas-themed shapes as you no doubt discovered)

Yeah, I know I'm probably too late but I'm not too bothered as doing it served it's purpose in learning quite a few things. I always said I'd treat the first game as a learning experience so I'm not going to lose any sleep over it :)

The one I'm working on now I'll be putting much more time and effort into it, so much polish you'll see it shine for miles, lol.

That's a good attitude. Finishing a game is SUCH good experience that many have never had. Now you know how to do it quicker a better next time. Onwards and upwards dude!

What am I looking at here? - the star board? the different shaped star board?

Of course there's a star board, stars are one of the key things of Christmas. There's also boards of a snowman, tree, bobble, mince pie, anything I could think of that's festive.

Lol, if you're gonna compare christmas based things you'll find dozens of similarities.

Yes I played your game last year and no, i've not seen that screen of the hut thing.

Oh don't tell me you have a background with a large snowman too? or one set in doors where the presents are being opened?

Actually my hut background thing was based on a basic flip version of this, but my 3d skills were not that good when I first started :

fair enough ;-) I'm just kidding with you a bit.

That's ok :) - No doubt you'll find similarities in my frame work I'll be releasing soon too ;)

GASP!

Qube I think you ruffled GA's feathers! lol

I think GA's wishing he hadn't mentioned it now, lol.

So, is the music of HB still not cloned meanwhile? :P

Don't know until we can play the demo :-)

I've just published my new game called clones bonus... lol

Umm don't tell me HB has music too, gosh this is sureal, well my music does have notes which form a tune and jingling bits to sound festive. Oh my, it does sound like cloned music for that very reason. I shall change it to white noise immediately ;) You don't have white noise in HB do you?

Arrrggghhh, "It's a festive match-3, of course you're gonna see similarities" - I'm never doing a match-3 game again *huff*, well maybe, perhaps ;)

only 5 months to easter ;)

haha. Yeah and don't forget halloween, you can render some pumpkins. I nearly made one but never got time in the end.

Thanks for the tip, what about bats? :)

I'm sorry Jake, I didn't realise you had a monopoly on theme based match-3 games :/ are you the only other person that's done them?

Don't worry, my next game wont resemble anything you've done :)

twins ! - lol, well we're all part of the blitz family ! :)

A psychologist would have a field day with all the emoticons, good luck messages and 'just kidding's.

Would it be due to Qubes match 3 looking better that Greys?

I can understand why GA is upset, but as has been noted, match 3 is match 3 is match 3... guess what, there's only so many variations you can have, especially if you're theming it with a diluted bastardised 'religious' festival then what do you expect?

Listen, you can see why I was surprised at the similarity, just look at the see through ice coloured stats panel for a start. I'm not upset by it though, my game is out there doing it's thing. I read Qube's post mortem and I understand where he's coming from, I think he has a good attitude and I genuinely wish him luck because I'm a postiive kinda guy. That's why he's got smileys, so show that I'm not gonna sue him ;-)

Oh is that what's bothering you? I thought it was more because it's a festive match-3. I did want to do a chimney type panel to show santa going up the chimney, but as I didn't have time left he now slides up a boring line.



lol, that's the best laugh I've had all day. You've got more chance of success with popcap suing all makers of match-3 clones :p

Wow, all in one post this time along with the not mentioned before [quote]I'm not gonna sue [/quote
Anybody got Freud's number?
;)

I think this has been exhausted!