The independent developer of a successful Kickstarter called Roam has accused 505 Games of plagiarism.
Creator Ryan Sharr has described himself as a whistleblower and has accused 505 Games of copying his project’s art direction and gameplay mechanics in its own title, How To Survive.
In an update on Roam’s Kickstarter page Sharr said, “I watched the trailer and as soon as 505 Games popped up it sounded familiar. I did some digging in my inbox and found that 505 Games had indeed contacted me about a Roam publishing deal.”
The Roam developer posted what he alleges to be an email from a 505 Games senior producer named Evan Icenbice, in which it appears the latter makes an early inquiry into publishing Roam on Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network.
“This particular theft is blatant and 505 Games took advantage of the situation knowing full well what they were doing. This shows how much respect they have towards the industry and their fans.”
Sharr described frustration with the risk of sharing the details of a project in order to secure crowdfunding, only to see those ideas appear elsewhere.
“Due to the nature of Kickstarter I had to post all of Roam’s design ideas online to get funded. I threw everything I had into this. I put everything on the line for this project and took a huge risk.”
Sharr concluded by inviting the public to compare the two projects and draw its own conclusions. Let us know what you think in the comments.
Comments 14