I dont want this post to come across the wrong way, because I totally feel for you, but for me, and I imagine a lot of the people who brought Murder Miners - we did so because it plays a lot like Halo 1. Theres no other way to get anywhere close to a Halo 1 experience on Xbox Live, so this game is perfect.
Im willing to bet that the block aspect is less of a selling point for this game, I mean a lot of the guys I play with play with destructible blocks off. Of course its awesome to have such a flexible map editor, one which allows us to make Halo 1 maps - but blowing those maps up isnt the unique selling point for Murder Miners - the Halo 1 gameplay is.
It still sucks that they took the unique selling point of your game and took it to market in a rush, but if its any consolation... that unique selling point probably hasnt stolen your audience anyway... its the Halo guys on here who seem to be into the game for the Halo aspect. I really hope Guncraft works out well for you guys, and builds up an audience around the Minecraft style gameplay it has going on.
Yeah they pulled off the Halo 1 mechanics very well. I mean you'd think they'd have ripped the code straight from Halo itself. I'm not trying to tell you not to buy it. I think if you think it's fun, then by all means, you should play it. It's probably the most polished shooter on XBLIG to date anyway.
However, I had tried to keep an open mind on JForce, despite hearing nothing but terrible things from the people in the XBLIG community. I mean when they joined our alpha game, I thanked them for helping us test and was really happy to have fellow developers putting time into our game. To steal our selling point like that, and rush to market so they can be first before us, is just the lowliest thing someone can do. I mean that's some Zynga crap. This just kind of confirmed everything I heard and I've completely lost all respect for them. They aren't good people.
I would be VERY happy with that. I want Halo 1 multiplayer on my Xbox, if Microsoft wont give it to me but another company will that's brilliant. - I imagine that's how a lot of the customers for Murder Miners think.
As for your second paragraph, I totally feel for you man, it sucks that things went down that way.
Neither one are terribly original ideas. There are always clones in a genre and what really matters is the execution.
No offense, but they "stole" your already stolen idea. And there are already plenty other (crap) Minecraft+ shooter games on Xbox indies that came before this, and probably before your beta started too.
I'm pretty sure 99% of the XBL indie games are knock-offs of popular games anyway.
Next thing we'll hear the creator of FortressCraft complaining about people copying his game.
Actually, when we began development, there were zero minecraft + shooter games on XBLIG. We did not "steal" the idea from anyone. We were talking in the office about why we didn't care much for Minecraft's open ended gameplay and how cool it would be to be able to blow up the Minecraft levels. We actually started Guncraft because we thought there were zero period. It was only after we started that we discovered Ace of Spades, the only Minecraft + Shooter that existed at the time.
We are well aware of the idea of cloning a game. Like I said before, if they had cloned our game after it was well established, then I'd have less of a problem with it. I mean you could make an argument that we are cloning Minecraft (which we aren't exactly, but I won't get into that).
The problem is that they played our game before it was available to the public, and only a few hundred people had it, and then stole our entire game idea and just made it so the Halo 1 mechanics were what the FPS part was based off of.
Only a complete jerk/loser steals an idea from someone, especially a fellow small indie game company, before they've actually made it public.
Also, if "Minecraft + CoD" was such an original idea, then why hadn't it really been done before? Both games had been out for a few years. It's just one of those instances of "why didn't I think of that?" Ace of Spades was first, but still pretty unknown at the time, so we missed them in our immediate search.
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My problem with Murder Miners is they stole the idea of Guncraft and rushed out Murder Miner's before Guncraft finished.
Back in like February, when Guncraft was running private alphas, JForce joined the game and played around. It was only like 3-4 months later that they posted their first rough video about Murder Miners.
As much flak as Guncraft gets for being too much like Ace of Spades, it was at least an original idea that didn't come from playing that game beforehand and deciding to rip it off. It was an idea created purely off the fact that we wished we could blow up the awesome maps people make in Minecraft.
You really should've handled this in private with JForce Games from the start. Coming in here with your first post being "GunCraft > Murder Miners" won't get you much support.Now that all the trolls and flamers have shown up with their half thought through responses and are protecting JForce for the sake of being "Devil's Advocate", I'm leaving. I have no intention of getting into a word war with people who clearly don't understand what I'm trying to say or are just opposing me for the sake of opposing me. Plus, works over for me anyway, so I'm off to play Guild Wars 2 =P.
no intention of getting into a word war, first post is fanboy level drivel, game x is better than game y!11Good lord... Everyone, pay attention, please. I realize that games copy other games. I have no problem with that. It's how games evolve.
My problem is that we invited JForce to play our game, in private, with the intention of them helping us out. Instead, they ripped our game idea and rushed it to market just to beat us. That is entirely different than copying a game that has been released, like Fortresscraft did. It's also different from the many other games out there that clone or improve on established ideas. Entirely, utterly, different.
Also, if "Minecraft + CoD" was such an original idea, then why hadn't it really been done before? Both games had been out for a few years. It's just one of those instances of "why didn't I think of that?" Ace of Spades was first, but still pretty unknown at the time, so we missed them in our immediate search.
Now that all the trolls and flamers have shown up with their half thought through responses and are protecting JForce for the sake of being "Devil's Advocate", I'm leaving. I have no intention of getting into a word war with people who clearly don't understand what I'm trying to say or are just opposing me for the sake of opposing me. Plus, works over for me anyway, so I'm off to play Guild Wars 2 =P.
Ok, first off, the facts:
We started full-time work (besides school) on this game in October (Jonny actually had the voxel engine going before then). Here is our first blog post referencing the game.
And here's the first pic we posted of the game, Jan 30th.
Name one thing we stole from Guncraft. And don't say we stole the whole concept of a voxel-based FPS. That's plain ridiculous. We played your alpha to check out the competition/see how far along you were. Of course we want to be first to market. That's business. There's nothing wrong with that. And yeah we were open to taking some ideas when we played, but honestly, we didn't take one single thing. We concluded your game wasn't going to be anywhere near as good as Murder Miners.
I can load fine with the dashboad update but I have been getting a couple code 4's here and there.
I like Murder Miners because it reminds me of Halo 1. The Minecraft part is just a bonus. Honestly I'm not a big fan of being able to create and destroy blocks during matches so I turn that off every time I set up a server. Your game looks like it mixes modern shooters with Minecraft which doesn't appeal to me personally.
Also, I'm pretty sure there have been enough other games that combined Minecraft and shooters before. I remember playing one quite a while ago, can't remember what the name was though. I'll try and look it up.
I suppose Guncraft will inevitably be more polished and well rounded than Murder Miners (since we have a bigger staff)
I'm getting the Code 3 error as well.
Ok who wants some maps? I got lockout, hang em high, chillout, guardian (made by A BOOMSHOT), complex and facility. Send a message saying "inv" to my gt "J Force Games" and i'll invite you to party and game.
Someone get on and help me! D:
I can help. Send me an invite.
Minibar is fantastic. The name is incredibly accurate.This Zanzibar remake is such a bitch, I am like 90% done then I have to delete the floor level that was originally holding everything. Since it is small I am going to call it Minibar
I don't know if its possible but if you guys could add an option in for shrinking the player size I would love you.
EDIT: So proud of my work lol
Give me a heads up when you're online please, I really want to see Guardian.Monkey, that looks awesome!
Thanks to Jforce I have: Lockout, Hang 'Em High, Chillout, Complex, Facility, and Guardian. I'll be on tonight to give them to people who don't have them yet.
I'm working on a retooled showdown (one of the default maps) for team and more competitive play.
Give me a heads up when you're online please, I really want to see Guardian.
Minibar too.
I'll be on later today. I'll pm you if you aren't online.
I will probably be on at 11, did about a 2 hour safe check on the map for spawn zones, barrier exploits and ECT, everything is 100% good to go now.Give us a shout when your on next Monkey!, Would love to try out the map!