
Doodle Jump Recreated in HTML5 ...with source - game_man
http://cssdeck.com/labs/html5-doodle-jump/8
======
arn
It's one thing to make a Doodle Jump-like game. But this is being called the
trademarked name Doodle Jump, and you've copied the artwork straight from
Doodle Jump.

Seems certain this isn't an official licensed version. In which case, you
should change all those items immediately. It's illegal and it's just not
cool.

Here are the guys you are ripping off. Igor and his brother. Igor is a very
nice guy:

[http://allthingsd.com/20120823/how-to-become-an-app-store-
mi...](http://allthingsd.com/20120823/how-to-become-an-app-store-millionaire-
make-a-hit-app-and-dont-make-anything-else/)

~~~
tomjen3
If he has created the art in photoshop himself, then no copyright is infringed
even if they do look very similar.

As for the name, this will only matter if the original name was trademarked.
If not, he can call it whatever he wants.

~~~
arn
if it's not copyright infringement, it's trade dress infringement.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_dress>

either way, he's in the wrong. and the name is trademarked.

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k-mcgrady
"The name of the game and images are © copyrights by the respective creators
and Lima Sky"

This reminds me of the fair use copyright clause people put on YouTube videos.
Just because you acknowledge something is copyrighted doesn't mean you can
infringe it.

It's cool that you were able to build it but ripping off the artwork (if you
did create that from scratch it's very good because I couldn't tell the
difference), the name, and open sourcing it is not good. The developer is
still selling this and making money from it and you've just produced a free
web version.

~~~
hmottestad
Is open sourcing it really all that bad?

I presume anyone with some skill could recreate such a simple game, and there
are tons of copies on the app store.

Showing that it's possible to create the game in html5 and showing the source
is amazing and very helpful for anyone wanting to create a real game with
html5.

Of course, making it look exactly like Doodle Jump isn't the best of ideas,
although it doesn't compete with the actual product since it doesn't work on
mobile.

~~~
csense
> Is open sourcing it really all that bad?

Your views on the ethics of open source don't really have any bearing on
whether this application infringes a copyright.

> I presume anyone with some skill could recreate such a simple game, and
> there are tons of copies on the app store.

An independent implementation of a similar game _engine_ would presumably be
neither technically difficult nor legally problematic. The problem is that, at
least according to many of the comments here, he's copying the game _assets_.

From a copyright perspective, independent implementation of the same
technology is usually OK (see the Oracle/Google lawsuit, the court ruled that
Google's independent implementation of Oracle's API was OK). It's direct
copying of code and data that requires permission from the copyright holder,
even if it's mixed with your own original work (the case here seems to be
direct copying of art mixed with original code).

I'm guessing that, from a practical perspective, this whole debate doesn't
matter in this particular case, since Google probably doesn't care about this
one. They may even have open-sourced the doodle eventually on their own
(anyone have information about whether past Google doodles have been open-
sourced?)

Mandatory disclaimers:

1\. IANAL

2\. I can only speak for the situation in the USA

3\. I haven't personally seen or played the original, I'm basing my opinion of
what's copied or not copied on other comments

~~~
gizmo686
> From a copyright perspective, independent implementation of the same
> technology is usually OK (see the Oracle/Google lawsuit, the court ruled
> that Google's independent implementation of Oracle's API was OK).

I am not a legal expert, but as I understand it, the Oracle/Google decision
was based on the fact that APIs were not copyright-able. However, I believe
you are that independent implementation is not a copyright violation, because
patents protect technology while copyright protects specific works. If anyone
actually knows about this, feel free to correct me.

------
jamoes
Fun way to play the game: try just holding the right arrow key down at the
beginning. Since there doesn't seem to be a limit on horizontal velocity, it's
kinda like you're on multiple horizontal positions at once. You can still fall
down, but you if you actually control the horizontal speed somewhat, you can
make it pretty far.

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jamiecurle
I'm not a legal professional but even though the author claims that the "logic
and graphics" have been created by scratch, doesn't that make no difference to
the fact that he's almost (the movement isn't as nice) recreated someone
else's stuff verbatim and is claiming that it's now open source?

Don't get me wrong, it's a very nice job and all, but with just a few drops of
creative thought the author could be on his way to creating his own ideas
instead of imitating others.

~~~
tomjen3
Freedos is a clone of the old DOS systems -- so much so that it runs the old
dos programs you may have lying around.

And nobody seems to have a problem with that.

So why should this be an issue?

~~~
jamiecurle
Mainly because the author of the Doodle Jump clone stated that because he
created "the logic and graphics"from scratch he has the legal right to release
it as open source. I can't see any evidence to suggest he has the authority to
do that.

Also is it possible to compare an OS with a game, isn't that like comparing a
human to the Earth? On the one hand we're all made of the basic elements, but
on the other we're fundamentally different things.

~~~
hmottestad
It's his own work. Of course he has the right to release it as open source. He
should however have a nice good old fashioned disclaimer against liability.

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comex
So, as someone who's planning to implement a game using Canvas, I was annoyed
to notice that there seemed to be occasional frame drops despite the extreme
simplicity of this script. I went tested on Safari, Chrome, and Firefox, and
although it used only a small fraction of CPU, it wasn't perfectly smooth in
any of them: subjectively, Chrome was the best, Safari dropped frames a bit
more often, and Firefox was quite laggy. I added a trivial FPS counter to the
JavaScript and the results sort of mirrored my impression - Chrome almost
always got 60 FPS but sometimes 59, Safari got 59 more often, and Firefox was
sometimes lower - but I'm not sure 59 FPS adequately explains the glitchiness
I experienced, especially in Firefox, which was subjectively quite awful.

Anyway, I'd like to learn where this frame dropping is coming from. I'm a real
stickler about lag, and even though the effect here is pretty minor (except on
Firefox), I find it unacceptable. Maybe I should try reimplementing this in
WebGL or even pure HTML with image tags. Though, again, this game and mine are
simple enough that all these approaches should be able to run at 60 FPS, the
differences in implementation might be enough to push it over the edge and I
have to make do with what exists.

------
kushsolitary
Oops! I didn't know the game got HN'ed. I was improving the details adding
license info, you can find them there now.

~~~
forrestthewoods
"I respect the original creators Igor Pusenjak and his brother for their great
work."

Uhhh no you don't. This is textbook copyright infringement. You can't copy
without permission and then claim you respect them. That's not how things
work.

~~~
Jach
I would argue that this is fair use.

In any case, I'll invoke the maxim "imitation is the highest form of flattery"
as an argument. Why do so many people new to game development make (and are
encouraged to make) Pacman clones, Snake clones, Tetris clones, Asteroids
clones (one is still on the front page with no shouts of "copyright
infringement!!!"), etc.? Because they're fun, respected games that are easy to
clone with modern tools. This game is no different apart from not having as
many people thinking it's a good game.

This platform mechanic is over a decade old (and mechanics can't be
copyrighted anyway), the platforms themselves are probably too simple to
qualify under copyright. (The alien sprite you might have a better argument
for, but that's very easy to change and if I were the author I'd do that not
to play it safe but because the standard alien doesn't look very good.) The
only thing I would suggest the author really bother changing is adding the
word "clone" or "recreated in HTML5" to the title of the project even though
that information is already in the description.

~~~
forrestthewoods
Fair use? For your own sake I highly recommend you take a class on copyright
law. I don't say that to be mean. Copyright law is both complicated and
important. But if you think that's fair use then you risk fucking yourself or
your employer.

~~~
Jach
I can imagine it being successfully argued the other way by a persistent
prosecutor. But considering all the fair use tests I think a _reasonable_
interpretation is to let it be. Of course US law and judges are anything but
reasonable a lot of the time, and if someone is looking to fuck you over there
are plenty of ways to do so. I'd wager there are more than one patents being
violated by this game (and the original it was cloned from) for instance.

The other consideration is that the developer is in India, which unless he's
doing things on the scale of Dotcom allows him a "come at me bro" attitude if
he felt like it. Fortunately he seems like a decent fellow, so it's a non-
profit learning exercise of something with a lot of prior art in terms of
gameplay, it's not a complete clone, and I doubt it hurts sales of the
original (which he links to).

I guess you're in agreement with me otherwise?

------
moonlighter
Samsung lawyer: "We respect the original creator Apple for their great work."
... comes to mind.

------
jaredsohn
Is there a way to restart via the keyboard? From what I can tell, you need to
play the game using the arrow keys on the keyboard so it loses addictiveness
when you have to reach for the mouse every time you want to restart.

~~~
kushsolitary
Press the space bar to restart / start the game :)

------
alexwolfe
Even though you are being honest and straight forward about the creators of
the game and the copyright they have does not mean you can infringe on it. You
still need to ask for permission. I would suggest doing so before you release
any more code or updates to this page as you could incur severe legal
penalties.

That said, nice work. Hopefully the authors of this game don't mind and will
support your efforts or work with you on an HTML5 version of this game. Good
luck.

------
TazeTSchnitzel
That runs incredibly smoothly in Chrome, far better than on my iPod or phone
when I had them :)

~~~
Jyaif
Yes it's very impressive, it's almost as smooth on my 2.53 Ghz dual core than
it is on my 600 Mhz phone. HTML5 FTW.

~~~
TazeTSchnitzel
Oh the irony.

------
dotborg
I don't know what "doodle jump" was, but this thing reminds me about Icy Tower
game: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icy_Tower>

~~~
jdjb
Which itself is a clone of XJump from long ago..

~~~
dotborg
so the whole outrage about copyright infringement is kinda...

~~~
arn
...still an issue. being a "clone" is far less offensive than taking someone's
name and artwork.

If it was just a clone called "HTML Jump" with original graphics, but the same
gameplay, there would be no outrage.

Imagine if app.net called itself "twitter.net" and copied twitter's design
exactly? There would (rightfully) be outrage

~~~
akldfgj
Unless it used Bootstrap...

------
shell0x
Congratulations, I couldn't tell the difference to the original version of
doodle jump. I read here that a lot of people are worried, because you
recreated a game which is protected by copyright, but I wouldn't worry too
much, because you don't earn money with the game and did it for fun. But
still, it would be the better choice if you had released it under a nickname
instead of your real name.

~~~
flatline3
Stealing someone's name and graphics is OK if you use a nickname?

~~~
shell0x
I haven't said that it's ok, i just said it would be the better choice to use
a nickname, because this would help you to protect against a lawsuit if they
try to sue him for any reason. His best option would be to ask the producer if
he is fine, when the guy release his open source version of doodle jump. I
think they would agree, because he doesn't earn money and doesn't seems to do
anything else with it. Also it's a good ad for the product doodle jump and he
also recommend to buy a copy of it.

------
MojoJolo
I think there are some difference with the physics.

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novalis
Congrats on this great exercize. It plays great.

------
fnaticshank
wow! congratulations on the excellent work!! I never knew that one could
recreate the whole game with htmk5 and css.

------
mkolodny
Cool, but it needs some music!

------
jtokoph
player.isDead = "lol";

~~~
nikcub
55 comments and I had to scroll to the bottom to find a single comment on the
actual code or somebody who had also read it.

------
jQueryIsAwesome
There is a bug because I win points "standing still"...

Screenshot: <http://i.imgur.com/k6ejH.jpg>

------
wilfra
2889 beat that!

edit: 3630 died trying to catch a spring ><

~~~
kushsolitary
[https://twitter.com/SolitaryDesigns/status/23923144911764684...](https://twitter.com/SolitaryDesigns/status/239231449117646848)

~~~
wilfra
<https://twitter.com/Franceschine/status/239280096173776896> (6560)

~~~
dingfeng_quek
<https://twitter.com/dingfengquek/status/239445632832643073> (9160)

~~~
kushsolitary
that tweet is protected but.. OH MY GOD!

~~~
dingfeng_quek
<https://twitter.com/dingfengquek/status/239451710278483970> (13119) Removed
tweet protection.

It's a pretty interesting game to master - the challenge isn't in hand-eye
projectile-estimation/control. While that's important, it seems pretty easy to
reach a satisfactory amount (as long as one doesn't need to cross the edge of
the screen and wrap-around, which the human brain doesn't seem to handle
well).

The parameter to optimize, at least at scores of 8k to 13k, is to quickly
evaluate the best upward paths to take.

I've tried 5 games, all which ended above 6k, which ended when I hesitated on
the path. Curiously, it isn't the situations where only 1 path is available
where I lose. It is the situations when two somewhat equal paths exists, and I
hesitate. At areas with white blocks, where the jumping height required to
reach the next block is maxed, and the next block is horizontally displaced,
there's very little time to think.

Hitting springs are the worst, as it changes the screen very rapidly, making
it very hard to assess the situation (3 losses to this). The next worst is a
series of whites at max height, which results in a high upwards speed (1 loss
to this). Last loss was due to dropping a bag of chips.

~~~
kushsolitary
[https://twitter.com/SolitaryDesigns/status/23958498854111232...](https://twitter.com/SolitaryDesigns/status/239584988541112320)
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