
“1024,” “2048″ And Other Copies Of Popular Paid Game “Threes” Fill App Stores - ychw
http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/24/clones-clones-everywhere-1024-2048-and-other-copies-of-popular-paid-game-threes-fill-the-app-stores
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saurik
I have not played 1024; but, I will say the mechanic of 2048 is very different
from Threes: it would be like saying that Bejeweled is a "clone" of Tetris
Attack, that Sonic the Hedgehog is a "clone" of Super Mario Brothers, or that
Flappy Bird is a "clone" of Lunar Lander. These games all have many
superficial similarities, and even share similar control mechanics, but they
are in fact very very different to people playing the games: the strategies
are different, the tactics are different, and someone could easily find one
"incredibly fun" and the other "intensely boring".

~~~
jmduke
I strongly disagree with this, and I've played a lot of both Threes and 2048.
The only serious mechanical difference is starting off with 1s and 2s instead
of 2s and 4s -- everything else is exactly the same (from a gameplay
perspective: Threes of course has way more polish). I think it's incredibly
disingenuous to say that the similarities are superficial.

I mean, hell, 1024's marketing copy literally says "no need to pay for
ThreesGames."
[https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/1024!/id823499224](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/1024!/id823499224)

~~~
stevejohnson
Pedantic corrections to follow (but useful ones, I hope).

There is one substantive gameplay difference between Threes and
ArbitraryPowerOfTwo.

In Threes, a swipe moves the game board one square.

In ArbitraryPowerOfTwo, a swipe applies gravity to the game board in the
swipe's direction until it settles.

I've played both, and that difference does not significantly affect gameplay
or strategy.

~~~
jmduke
Yep, you're correct.

~~~
saurik
So, I have also played both of these games, and am now at the point where I
can beat 2048 with reasonable probability.

This slide/move difference actually has massive effects on gameplay as it
means there are situations you can get into while playing 2048 that are
difficult or even impossible to recover from that you can easily extricate
yourself from while playing Threes. To make up for this, the way you have to
match 1s and 2s together (as opposed to simply matching the values, as you can
in 2048) makes organizing the lowest level of the board slightly more
complicated.

I frankly bet if we asked the developer of Threes about the 1st and 2st thing
he'd say he toyed with the idea of a game where the matching was more direct
(as its pretty obvious consider it) and realized that it felt "too easy": the
only thing making 2048 continue to be difficult is the lack of explicit
control over the tiles; though, that also makes it easier, as you can move
items much more quickly around the board without more clutter appearing.

I would say this is similar to how in Tetris Attack you can horizontally swap
any two tiles, but in Bejeweled you can swap tiles vertically or horizontally,
but only temporarily: they have effectively the same mechanic (you need to
match tiles of similar color), the same overall physics (items drop to fill in
gaps), the same kinds of tactics, but the amount of control you have over the
game board and what moves you have are quite different in feel due to the
seemingly minor control changes.

(FWIW, I find Tetris Attack and 2048 "fun", and I find Bejeweled and Threes
"infuriating". This is likely somewhat to do with the fact that I find Tetris
Attack and 2048 "easier" than Bejeweled and Threes, but I would hope that it
is more to do with some of the things I really enjoyed about Tetris Attack--
the speed of movement, the building of structure, and the intricacy of "skill
chains"\--not being tactically relevant in Bejeweled, and in the case of
Threes that the 1s and 2s are randomized in such a way where I often feel
"this game isn't even winnable: I have a board full of 1s... this isn't even
fair", which is a situation fundamentally impossible in 2048.)

------
mildtrepidation
The idea that somehow we've hit a point where clones should be rejected or
purged misses the fact that this has been happening constantly almost since
the inception of the app stores.

They state there's only one Flappy Bird clone in the top 20 on iTunes, but
look at the rest of what's there. If you're going to be concerned about games
that are clones/copies of what's essentially pre-existing game mechanics, you
might want to think about how little comes through that's actually original in
_any_ respect.

City builders, TCG's, match 3, slot machines... and we've covered the vast
majority of popular apps. Go a little further and you have hidden item games,
runners, etc.

The only reason it's so obvious with games like Flappy Bird and 2048 is that
the mechanic is so simple and requires so little in terms of effort and
resources that anyone with even an elementary skill set on a mobile platform
can throw together one of these clones and puke it onto the internet to ride
the wave (or at least the foam, as most of them never even get into the surf).

~~~
brownbat
> happening constantly almost since the inception of the app stores.

Or maybe since the inception of gaming:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artillery_game](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artillery_game)
[http://www.pong-story.com/mypongs.htm](http://www.pong-story.com/mypongs.htm)
[http://www.mobygames.com/game-group/asteroids-
variants](http://www.mobygames.com/game-group/asteroids-variants)
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centipede_(video_game)#Clones](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centipede_\(video_game\)#Clones)
(etc.)

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watwut
Is that the usual quality of techcrunch articles?

OMG I just found out that people are writing simple free apps and some other
people are trying to earn money on extremely simple apps?

I actually found all those flappy clones happening great. Of course there is
nothing useful about them. It is just that I like idea of people building
things just for fun and for the heck of it. Kind of like when musicians
improvise together or when aspiring writer play those cooperative writing
stories. Except with small simple games.

Basically, it is meme web 2.0 version.

~~~
YooLi
_" I actually found all those flappy clones happening great."_

Me too. I especially liked the clones that built upon the basic game play of
Flappy Bird (single-finger control of vertical impulses) but added additional
challenge, like Heli Math (solve math problems to fly through the gap).

------
eugmill
Funny, I didn't buy threes until after I got hooked on 2048. I bet this just
gets him more sales. Threes has a great soundtrack and a good feel to it that
the clones will have a hard time replicating. These viral game crazes tend to
be pretty short lived anyway, so I guess we'll know soon enough.

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MBCook
I really love Threes, I've been sad to see this mess continue. I feel so bad
for that guy, making such a great app and then having a rip-off take so many
sales. Truth is he's lucky he got 2 or 3 weeks before it happened.

This is still a big problem Apple has though. I have a hard time with the
whole "curated app store" thing when nearly every search turns up screen after
screen of low quality copy-cat garbage. How long was Pokemon Yellow on the
store before it _finally_ got pulled? How many 'strategy guides' and 'Angry
Falcons' and 'Crash of Clans' are there?

~~~
JohnTHaller
While they are similar in many ways, the way the games operate is quite
different, too. And I say that as someone who bought 3s on Android and enjoys
2048 in its many variants.

~~~
MBCook
I'm glad that 2048 at least changed the formula some as opposed to being a
pure rip-off. And they obviously got some gain from the fact the game could be
played online without needing a smartphone.

Making 1024 and putting something akin to 'Why waste money on Threes, here's a
copy' in the app description was just classless though. I don't see any
redeeming value in that.

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protomyth
Games that fit well in the "I am waiting in line"-scenario have simple,
addictive mechanics. The mechanics of these games are not hard to clone[1].
Angry Birds is an artillery game with many predecessors, but was done in a
distinctive and new package. Its mechanics are very simple as it needs to be
to sell as a super casual game.

Programmers seem to like these games with simple rules. This is not a new
phenomena just look at the history of Life. When the code is open (e.g. 2048)
it tends to allow for a lot of experimentation.

All that being said, I don't think 2048 is a Threes clone since it has a
different feel and works by different rules.

1) I'm not saying the clone will be as good

~~~
oneeyedpigeon
'Move numbered tiles around a tiny 2-dimensional grid, combining same-numbered
tiles to create higher-numbered tiles in their place. New tiles spawn each
time you make a move, and the game continues until the board is completely
full and you can't make a further move. Score points for higher-numbered
tiles.' There are nuances, but that pretty much sums up most of the gameplay
of Threes and the 2048 clones; I don't know how you can claim, with a straight
face, that the latter are not clones of the former. Even if some ancient prior
art surfaces, the timing and the direct references in app descriptions pretty
much guarantees this.

~~~
protomyth
By your definition and not being allowed to use "ancient prior art" then yes
it is a clone but so is Sonic the Hedgehog. I felt it plays much different.

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watwut
Flappy jam has a lot of to do with all those flappy clones. Basically, someone
organized game developers to create flappy clones. It was meant as action
against all hate and bullying the original flappy bird developer had to deal
with.

Flappy jam: [http://itch.io/jam/flappyjam](http://itch.io/jam/flappyjam)

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TazeTSchnitzel
Holy crap, my site was linked to by TechCrunch:

[http://logarithmic-flappy-2048.ajf.me/](http://logarithmic-
flappy-2048.ajf.me/)

Though my Logarithmic Flappy 2048 was just Flappy 2048 with Math.pow(2)
applied to all the draw calls. I deserve no credit.

EDIT: Oh great, now I'm being attributed as creating Flappy 2048 :(

[https://www.yahoo.com/tech/some-mad-genius-combined-
flappy-b...](https://www.yahoo.com/tech/some-mad-genius-combined-flappy-bird-
and-2048-the-two-80173661108.html)

EDIT 2: Wow, Google Play already!
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=me.Ofear.Flapp...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=me.Ofear.Flappy2048)

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lugg
Has anyone found a 2048 clone that is fast and nice to use on android? I find
the swiping mechanic painful compared to keyboard online.

~~~
idlewan
As far as the clone itself uses CSS transforms (if it's Cordova/Phonegap
based), it should be fine and usable on mobile. You can recognize the clones
using Cordova/Phonegap/Webview if they use the exact same style as G.Cirulli's
2048. Now, to recognize the clones using CSS transforms, that's more
complicated. Check for their last release date, it should be strictly after
2014-03-13 (as CSS transforms were added to 2048's repo that day
[https://github.com/gabrielecirulli/2048/commit/7c6fd1b2a4acb...](https://github.com/gabrielecirulli/2048/commit/7c6fd1b2a4acbd7d5fc58f76ee7ba139535e2fe7)),
and from there, test the apps.

I rewrote the whole game's code as an exercice soon after it was released, and
took special care in using CSS transforms and not creating/forgetting
javascript objects constantly (I wish I knew if that last point made a
difference in performance on mobile, but I wouln't know how to measure it). I
also added a tutorial screen and an animation for a forbidden move.

That's why I can personally recommend my ad-free clone ('shameless plug' and
all that), that you can find here:
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.erwan.game...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.erwan.game2048)
or by searching "2+2=2048" in the play store/windows phone store. The swiping
mechanic works great with it, so please tell me if you find any issues with
it.

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kevin818
Could someone explain to me how they were able to get theirs released so
quickly? I submitted mine last week and I'm still just waiting for review, not
even in review. Is there some secret or tips to getting reviewed faster?

~~~
overcyn
Know someone at apple.

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moron4hire
A general purpose AI evolved out of a mom-and-pop ISP's virus-laden web
server, having been left unattended in a closet in Billings, MT, for the last
15 years. The only reason The Robot Wars haven't started is because the AI
figured out it was easy to enslave humanity through crappy video games.

If only we could peek into its core dumps. The isolation of having existed for
so long on a single ISDN line must have been maddening. It might have finished
Emacs 25, even!

------
benched
Funny. I've played threes and 2048 quite a bit, and although I can see the
similarities as well as anybody, they feel like completely different games to
me. On the other hand, I find Candy Crush to be exactly the same game as
Bejeweled, even though a lot of people find them different enough.

