Clones of popular mobile games spring up all the time, but it’s not often that they get released on the App Store with a name that simply tacks on the word “cloned” in front of the original’s title.
Yet that’s precisely what’s happened with
As noted above, high-profile mobile games are cloned all the time–cloned source code of games such as Flappy Bird is frequently sold online–but it’s not often that they are so blatant. Earlier this year, 2048 was criticized by many for being so similar to Threes. While it was a clone of sorts of a game (1024) that copied Threes, it does at least make some changes to its progenitor’s formula–even if those changes make it a weaker game (just ask Threes’ developer).
Clones are an unfortunate reality of the mobile game development business, but Apple does have an approval process, and for something like Cloned Blek to make it through is somewhat astounding.
That said, Denis Mikan tells GameSpot it has filed legal complaints with Apple in the past over games that used the Blek name or icon, a process which has resulted in “five or six clones” being forced to change those things. Asked if he was taken aback when Blek began being copied, he told me by email, “No, I was not surprised.”
He pointed me in the direction of a website that has begun offering a cloned version of Blek that you can customize and sell. “Blek is finally here. The top game on the App Store for over a month, there are no clones out there,” the site reads. “It’s your time to make some money. A Blek clone is all you need to get you started. It has all the levels and all mechanics working smooth as the real game. It is very easy to reskin, simply by replacing the assets and you are done.”
As soon as Mikan saw that, he says he could see what was coming. “A few weeks ago, I’ve found this site,” he told me by email. “So I knew that the clone invasion is about to happen. Actually, what really surprised me was that nobody made a good clone… But on the other side, if somebody is a good developer, she or he wouldn’t make clones, I guess.”
Beyond that, Mikan says he simply chooses to look on the bright side of the experience with Blek. “Honestly, I try not to get frustrated, but to focus on great things,” he says. “Apple featured Blek a few times already; they gave as an Apple Design Award; for 5 weeks in a row, Blek was #1 in the iPhone Paid App Charts; etc.”
Blek is available now on the App Store for $2.99, with an (official) Android version currently in the works.
| Chris Pereira is a freelance writer for GameSpot, and you can follow him on Twitter @TheSmokingManX |
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