Whenever a game becomes an unexpected hit there’s a flurry of “Well it’s like (recent hit game) but with…”
Partially this happens because it’s an easy way for people to understand/pitch a new concept in relation to a known idea and partially because people who fund games easily fall into the trap that they can compete with an existing product by having their own. It’s different than cloning in the sense that there is a value add, but usually not enough to really stand out and usually years later consumers only remember the one that made it big.
The hit game doesn’t need to be innovative enough to found a new genre, Everquest was around before World of Warcraft but not many companies were rushing to crank out their own spin on that. It’s hard to think about social games before simulation-Ville games and the spin-offs that followed.
Rocket League spin-offs just strike me as something that could get more comical.
I’m hoping in a few months we end up:
- Cars play Basketball
- Cars play Volleyball
- Cars play Baseball
- Cars play Poker ( vs dogs and cats or licensed characters from Telltale Games )
- Cars do synchronized swimming
- Cars do dressage ( Stephan Colbert’s Sport of the summer 2012 )
- Cars do track and field ( including foot sprint races! )
- bonus if this variant features surgeon simulator/QWOP style controls
… Actually after typing all those I’m fairly sure I would enjoy a gamejam with this theme.