One subject that's come up a lot lately is how popular League of Legends is. Something that's really interesting about LoL is that it's basically just a copy of a Warcraft 3 map turned into a stand alone free to play game. This made me wonder why no one has made any clones of SC2. Back when SC1 was new there were tons of copies of it. Does anyone remember Submarine Titans or that Star Wars one?
The demand might not be enough to succeed as a mainstream game, but a SC2 copy with features like LAN and different units would have a lot of potential with the tournament focused community.
Last edit: 2012-07-02 09:49:06
Torte de Lini Canada. July 02 2012 09:50. Posts 27065
There were some games if I remember that basically stole SC1 engine and graphics and basically added new units and different maps etc etc, and a different system. I also remember blizzard attempting to place a lawsuit on the game but thats all I heard of.
basically just if u try to copy any SC game then blizzard will come after u
Last edit: 2012-07-02 09:51:12
Monochromatic United States. July 02 2012 09:51. Posts 635
Because SC2 is not the kind of game you can easily copy. MoBA games are much simpler from a design perspective (it's just a single map) and considering that a majority of the fun that is in those games is experimenting and using different heroes, people are actually willing to play different MoBA games to try out various kinds of heroes.
SC2? You have to first design three races that are balanced yet different which is by itself incredibly challenging, and then you have tons of other gameplay and map elements to mimic. It's incredibly difficult to do it all correctly, and if any of it sucks, the whole game sucks.
MoBA games can have one or two bad heroes, and as long as their others are good the game doesn't suffer. SC2? If a few gameplay elements are off the entire game suffers as a result.
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Sovano United States. July 02 2012 09:55. Posts 1265
It's hard to advertise for a "clone" game when SC2 is already really out there. AoS/Moba games can be copied more so because you can come with your own heroes and skills, and is generally easier to balance than say an RTS game where there are MANY cause and effect relationships. Generally the RTS market is pretty tough, and Blizzard is the top dog on this moutain.
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d3_crescentia United States. July 02 2012 09:56. Posts 3669
On July 02 2012 09:48 BrosephBrostar wrote: One subject that's come up a lot lately is how popular League of Legends is. Something that's really interesting about LoL is that it's basically just a copy of a Warcraft 3 map turned into a stand alone free to play game. This made me wonder why no one has made any clones of SC2. Back when SC1 was new there were tons of copies of it. Does anyone remember Submarine Titans or that Star Wars one?
The demand might not be enough to succeed as a mainstream game, but a SC2 copy with features like LAN and different units would have a lot of potential with the tournament focused community.
Who would have the resources to outcompete Blizzard in a market it's cornered (and through no real effort on its own)? The legend of Starcraft as the game to become the premiere ESPORT in South Korea is a pretty tall order.
As for a game-design perspective, I think most RTS developers want to create something "different". A lot of RTS developers moved away from the "gather raw resources -> build a base/army" formula and instead have been working with points of influence/control instead.
SC2 has the fan base now... it's kinda like how there's cola out there that might very well have the exact composition as Coke... but they've got the name...
trying to steal the fans from sc2 when everyone has already dedicated so much time into it is going to be nigh impossible...
Well, basically, copying a great game made by a great company would be kind of stupid. Why would people play the clone of SC2? Chances are the original is far better.
But it's not the same thing for DoTA, LoL or DoTA 2. Dota was a moba custom map in an RTS engine that wasn't well suited for it. It wasn't even a real game, only a map made with WC3's map editor, so there were plenty of room to do better with a real game, real engine, real moba controls, etc. This is why HoN and LoL came out around the same time. You don't try to clone a game that is made by one of the best and most successful video games company out there.
On July 02 2012 09:57 meeple wrote: SC2 has the fan base now... it's kinda like how there's cola out there that might very well have the exact composition as Coke... but they've got the name...
trying to steal the fans from sc2 when everyone has already dedicated so much time into it is going to be nigh impossible...
Make it free and you win bajillions of fans.
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CursOr United States. July 02 2012 10:01. Posts 5524
Because the internet community is generally such a welcoming and complementing crowd, that the anticipation of too much competition probably drives off most developers who would usually venture to make such a game.
Bagration United States. July 02 2012 10:02. Posts 10858
An assymetrical RTS like Starcraft truly is a work of beauty if done right and balanced properly. You have 3 very different races that need to be difficulty-wise, roughly equal in terms of playability, and 3 non-mirror matchups (TvZ, ZvP, PvT) that all need to be balanced to a reasonable extent.
This is a very complicated game and it is hard to replicate.
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BrosephBrostar United States. July 02 2012 10:02. Posts 436
You actually almost answered your own question. Action-RTS (LoL, DotA, HoN) is killing typical RTS.
It takes less resources to create/maintain/balance, fits perfectly with micro-transaction models, and has significantly more upside financially (or is at least perceived to). So many of the companies who would be making the latter, or instead trying to do the former.
There are many many on the horizon, and very few typical RTS coming.
Fortunately SC2 and DotA are assembling pretty good mod tools (eventually), so there is still life to the genre. It is just much less in the hands of large studios.
A few studio projects are on the way, but RTS has been slow for more than a while.
On July 02 2012 09:57 meeple wrote: SC2 has the fan base now... it's kinda like how there's cola out there that might very well have the exact composition as Coke... but they've got the name...
trying to steal the fans from sc2 when everyone has already dedicated so much time into it is going to be nigh impossible...
Make it free and you win bajillions of fans.
Traditional RTS games cannot possibly function under the microtransaction model.
Age of Empires online is trying it, and it sucks. Badly.
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RMonkeyF July 02 2012 09:54. Posts 45
