Remember my previous article on how Zynga rips off people’s games shamelessly? Well another company that does the same thing picked a fight with the wrong people. Spry Fox, upon hearing that Yeti Town was basically a clone of Triple Town, took action against 6waves.The suit says that Yeti Town plagiarized the wording of the tutorial, the gameplay style, the user interface, and even the price of store-bought items to the letter and number. They also cite several quotes from sites like InsideSocialGames and Gamezebo who have also said that Yeti Town is just a complete reskin.
Now, here’s the nail in the coffin, 6waves was in confidential talks with Spry Fox to publish Triple Town, meaning they infringed AND violated an NDA in one move. A very good way to get yourself pulled into court with a record of what has been discussed. They also say that the day Yeti Town was released, an Executive of 6waves sent them a message that the negotiations were off.
Spry Fox were reluctant to start a lawsuit, feeling that these kinds of things should be settled out of court, but the situation turned into this when they had the audacity to tell Gamasutra how they had developed the game independently. They say it was difficult as time in court takes away time that can be spent developing games.
You can find the full legal complaint and other citations here on the founder’s blog.
Anyone who screws over indie developers is scum. Period.
