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Anyone else find games with the same idea as yours?

A topic by TheLoveDoctor created Aug 05, 2019 Views: 432 Replies: 20
Viewing posts 1 to 13
Submitted(+1)

The first comment on my game after I posted it was "same idea here...", then a link to another game with a similar concept to mine. After checking that one out I went to browse some submissions and was greeted with yet another game with the same concept. Overall, I really enjoyed all three of them, but I noticed that even though we had the same initial concept,  we all took it in a slightly different direction. I definitely tried to focus on actions that require you to combine buttons and making the player juggle those. The second definitely felt like a more traditional platformer shoot'emup that forced you to conserve and plan out your resources, and that third one really played like a puzzle game rather that a platformer.

I definitely had fun with them, and it was interesting to see not just different takes on the same theme, but different takes on the same mechanics.

My game: Full Press

Second Game: Shutting Down by felipedev

Third Game: First Impressions by Mr Rutabaga

Submitted(+1)

Yeah, I stumpled about this PICO-8 game which is build around a very similar mechanic my game is using. In both cases you solve puzzles by holding keys in different colors. The details differ however: the former limits you to one key at a time, that can be used multiple times and destroys it once swapped against a different key. In my game, you can hold multiple keys, but only one per color. Each key will only work one time and is destroyed when used.

I'm still amazed how similar the premise of both games is and how different they turned out still.

Submitted

I haven't found anything mechanically similar (yet) but I have found one other game that shares a theme.

Single Sighted (mine) and One Pixel both use "only one pixel" specifically referring to the viewport size. Mechanically, however, they couldn't be further apart - mine is a simple exploration game while One Pixel is a precision platformer. I feel like 1x1 viewport as a theme could be diverse enough for a whole game jam itself.

I saw you on a earlier thread where I mentioned how my game seems to be similar to yours.

https://itch.io/jam/gmtk-2019/rate/462219

Submitted

oh yeah, I thought guy commenting on my game was referring to yours but it's actually a completely separate game, also about a broken robot that can use each button once.

Submitted

Yep, both my game (https://itch.io/jam/gmtk-2019/rate/461822) and this game (https://itch.io/jam/gmtk-2019/rate/463198) went with "only one power socket", but we went in drastically different directions from there!

Submitted

that's an interesting connection, they don't share a mechanic or really even a theme, but the main narrative element is the same.

Submitted(+1)

Haven't seen any other "2 players 1 weapon, 1v1" games like ours. Altough I'm happy with the result, it doesn't get a lot of reviews because not a lot of players can play it since it requires 2 controllers and a friend. So I kinda see now how it might've been a slighty bad idea for a game jam.

Submitted

Just because it doesn't get the engagement of other games doesn't mean it wasn't a fantastic idea, I don't think game jams (or at least this game jam) are supposed to be about winning, but about learning something and exploring new concepts

Submitted (1 edit)

Yea you're right, we had really fun doing this and learned a lot so I don't really regret anything. I kinda just want feedback to know what we could do better for next time.

Submitted

that makes sense, I'll definitely play your game when I get the chance, it looked pretty fun from the screenshots

Submitted

Thanks :)

Submitted(+1)

No, but oh my gosh, my runner up idea was to make a 1D game, and SOOOO many people did that. I was amazed, i thought it would be an original concept.

https://newkryptonite.itch.io/the-lonly

Submitted

Very different execution but I found another one that uses the same idea of having only one second/moment to look at the level. Periodically in my case but for the entire level in the latter!

Submitted

yup i found two that had the same idea as mine. i thought it was pretty original though );

Submitted

Yep, just discovered https://hwkeyser.itch.io/one-engine-left, which just like our own https://visknut.itch.io/5-rights-make-a-right restricts the player to only one rotational direction. They went a completely different direction and ended up making a 3D precision landing game. We stayed 2D and went on to create a top-down racing game. I'm really curious if anybody else made something similar- I thought this theme would be much more common than for example the 1D one.

Submitted

I'm sure there are plenty more out there, I've played many games even outside of the jam with that mechanic

Submitted

Yes exactly, which is why I was surprised to see so few now. Maybe I just haven't hit upon the treasure trove.
*shrugs*

Submitted

I found a game that was oddly similar to mine. We both made games about helping Merlin find something -- which seems rather coincidental!

Their game is called "Guide Merlin into the Kingdom" and ours is called "Merlin's Mess"

Submitted (1 edit)

I actually don't know the names of the similar ones but a streamer played mine and said it wasn't that original and there were other ones with the same idea but implemented better, it kinda got me down but most people are saying positive things about it. If you know any of the games like this please reply with them. https://itch.io/jam/gmtk-2019/rate/461359

Submitted

Yep I'm another one with the same concept as you! https://itch.io/jam/gmtk-2019/rate/463424