“You know, it kind of puts me off sharing progress when there are slop ghouls on every corner, AI or otherwise,” Holmér wrote in response to the spread of these preemptive clones. “Luckily, these people are incapable of original thought and don’t know how to elevate this concept beyond what they’ve already seen.”
McPixel Developer Sos Sosowski has documented numerous examples of fellow indie developers complaining about AI-generated clones making wholesale copies of their efforts. Sosowski says the situation puts indie developers in a desperate bind when trying to promote their work: “Don’t share your game – no sale. Share your game – it’s stolen,” he wrote. “How do you survive as an independent in today’s landscape? It’s insane.”
Charlie Greenman, who posted one of these AI-powered clones of Holmér’s rotation system Tetris match earlier this year, told 404 Media he saw nothing wrong with what he did. “I feel like I got this whole new creation,” Greenman said. “When you get to that point, is one song copying another? Is one game copying another? Whoever made Blox, is Jenga copying Tetris?”
Some believe that increased complexity and originality is the best real protection against blatant clones in this type of environment. “If AI can copy your game overnight, it wasn’t a real game. It was just a quick cash grab built on a single mechanic, with no soul or vision,” Ivan Lago of Howltide Games wrote on social media. “AI doesn’t clone real games. It just creates cheap knockoffs of things that were already asset flips to begin with.”
But even if your game idea gets cloned by AI trash dealers, that doesn’t mean you can’t create the best version you’ve always imagined. “At the very beginning, that first week, every day there was a new AI clone (of the rotation system). Tetris prototype). “I was like, OK, well, fuck me, I guess,” Holmér told 404 Media this summer. “But there’s a lot less commitment (now), and I feel more secure in taking my time to do something good, something good that I can be proud of, and not just release it as soon as possible.”
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