Here’s a weird one. A video game developer was contacted by another developer and the two shared some tips and advice with each other. Then a year later, one of those devs turned around and cloned the other’s game and, when questioned about it, replied that this kind of thing happens “every day homie.”
As reported by PC Gamer on June 5, indie game developer kindanice claims that he was recently contacted by another developer, Terry Brash, who he’d previously spoken to and shared some advice with back in 2023. This time, Brash who was excited to show him his new game, Wildcard. The thing is, the game appears to be an almost identical clone of kindanice’s Dire Decks—out now on itch.io. That’s not my or kindanice’s opinion, by the way. In DMs reportedly shared with PC Gamer, Brash introduced Wildcard, which already has a Steam page, to kindanice as a “clone” of Dire Decks.
As you might expect, kindanice was confused and shocked by this whole situation. He reportedly asked Brash if the developer thought it was cool to just take art and concepts from one game and use them in your own. Brash replied that the game used new, redrawn art and original code. Brash then apparently asked kindanice if he wanted an “inspiration” credit.
“Bro… there’s ‘inspiration’ and then there’s blatantly copying an entire game,” kindanice replied, according to PC Gamer.
Kindanice and Brash then discussed copyright laws and if Wildcard violated any before kindanice told Brash that, regardless of what the laws might say, copying someone’s game wasn’t good. He told Brash that his friends also found the situation weird.
“I’m confused, what’s weird here?” Brash replied in DMs, “I liked the game, so I made a clone with extra stuff. Happens every day homie.”
Kotaku reached out to Brash, but didn’t hear back before publication.
Kindanice has asked Brash to remove Wildcard from Steam, but Brash has refused. When kindanice warned that this move could hurt Brash’s reputation among developers, he didn’t seem to care, replying: “The decision’s been made. I accept my fate.” That would be the last time they directly chatted with each other, according to PC Gamer.
On June 3, kindanice publicly posted about the odd and frustrating situation, alleging that Brash had “copied” Dire Decks and was releasing a clone on Steam without his permission. He wasn’t sure what to do next, but is thinking about a copyright claim against Brash as he prepares to release Dire Decks on Steam. However, he would prefer if Brash just removed the game from Steam on his own. That seems unlikely.
Over on Brash’s Twitter account, the developer has posted tweets seemingly referencing and joking about the whole situation. He’s also claimed that Wildcard will be free when it launches on Steam.
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