Quick Jump Daily Digest

Thank you for your interest in the Quick Jump Daily Digest. Get notified of all new content on QJ in our free Daily Digest. To subscribe, enter your email address below and click the subscribe button.

Cancel and Return to page

iPhone game accused of plagiarizing flOw

Posted Jun 24, 2009 at 11:11AM EST by Karl B.

Listed in: News, Games Tags: Jenova Chen, thatgamecompany, Twitter, YouTube

flOw - Image 1

When flOw burst onto the PS3 (and PSP) scene, a lot of people appreciated its minimalist and serene design. Creator Jenova Chen eventually released the game's source code for people to learn from, but now it seems as though someone didn't just learn from it but actually just copied it instead.

That's what Chen thought when he first saw Ketara Software's iPhone game Aquatica. On his Twitter page, Chen accused the Aquatica developer of plagiarizing flOw:

I released flOw source for people to learn. I didn't expect to see it on iphone without quoting the creator

I just gave out source for people who wants to learn Flash programming. However, according to them, they wrote it from scratch.

Chen also gave 1Up the following statement:

The image and animation in Aquatica is almost identical to the original web game I created. I felt maybe they are one of the many who asked me for the flOw source code. But according to the comments the creator of the Aquatica made on the youtube, they didn't use my source code.

...

I thought the creation of Aquatica is a very flattering thing because they mimic the game I created in the university and somewhat realized my dream for a flOw game on the iPhone. It could be a very sweet thing if they did this as a fan ware and put it out for free. But the fact they didn't mention flOw at all and call it a 'new, unique game completely in a class of its own' is disappointing.

Ketara, meanwhile, had this to say in the comments section of their YouTube trailer for Aquatica amidst more accusations from commenters:

Actually, all the source code is completely, 100% written from scratch. Please check your facts before you make such baseless accusations.

Also, what's wrong with adapting a general idea of one game to the iPhone? No one had done this before, and we wanted to play it with tilt controls. In general, most games within each class are practically the same, just different graphics.

It's noteworthy that Ketara's website for Aquatica now says that the game is "an iPhone from-the-ground-up re-make of the famous flOw game created by Jenova Chen of the ThatGameCompany fame."

Ketara has also since posted the following comment on the Aquatica YouTube trailer:

We deeply apologize for this. We simply (naively) did not think it necessary, since we did indeed write absolutely *ALL* the code ourselves, and were not even aware flOw's source was released. We can easily prove it by releasing any part of the code anyone requests.

We have corrected this by posting proper credits everyone (they will show up in iTunes in several hours, as all changes do).

We will also be contacting Jenova Chen to apologize.

Aquatica is currently available for free on the App Store, but that's only for a limited time promo. Here are videos of both games so you can judge for yourself if this is indeed a clear-cut case of plagiarism or not.

Aquatica gameplay

flOw gameplay

TL;DR?

100% of voters think this story ROCKS!

Vote Now!

(2)

(0)

I just attempted to download Aquatica for free on my iPhone I got this message:

"This item is currently being modified. Please try again later."

If it's free i'll download it, but I'm glad I read this article, because I might have paid $1.99 for it, but now that I know it's a Blatant Rip Off, I will never give them a penny.

It's like you had to pay for it for PS3, but the flash version online was always free. I always think it's crap when Free online games are "sold" on the iphone. If a games good I'll pay a few bucks for it for my iphone, but I prefer Free ad supported games instead...

# What!?.... — GUNBEHINDTHESUN 2009-06-24 14:26

"Ketara has also since posted the following comment on the AquaticaYouTube trailer:We deeply apologize for this. We simply (naively) did not think it necessary, since we did indeed write absolutely *ALL* the code ourselves, and were not even aware flOw's source was released. We can easily prove it by releasing any part of the code anyone requests.We have corrected this? by posting proper credits everyone (they will show up in iTunes in several hours, as all changes do).We will also be contacting Jenova Chen to apologize."

Yeah whatever! What are the chances that they made it almost exactly the same without knowing?! Fraud, I calling fraud! Man I even feel insulted by them trying to feed me that bull*****.

# LMAO — hush404 2009-06-24 14:35

AHAHHA That made my day/

# . — m3rox 2009-06-24 14:44

Jenova was Sephiroth's MOTHER.

# lol — haru3173 2009-06-24 14:54

It looks excatly the same even the main character. They should of at least the look of the characters.

# Rip off — Keith K 2009-06-24 14:58

This is an even bigger rip off than Rolando is of Loco Roco.

I don't think iPhone is going to get anywhere as a gaming platform as long as loser iPhone devs keep ripping off real game devs.

# Promo's over — Guest 2009-06-24 15:13

To make things worse the promo is allready over and theyre charging ?1.19/$1.96 :( o well would of downloaded it otherwise flow was a great game.

# mm — emcp 2009-06-24 15:17

for those saying sure their asses

they wont get through the first barrier

you cant own a gameplay although in the very very unusual circumstances you can "own" an element of gameplay, but its never used

personally i see enough distinction to believe that this is a clone and not a port

even so the creator has absolutely no leg to stand on

they only time he would be capable of proving license infringement is if it was compiled on the same platform

and a memory dump was taken, showing identical results

I dont like to see people make money from clones

GET YOUR OWN *****IN IDEAS

however i think the focusing on this couple may be unfair

anyway the dev should never have released the src if he was afraid of this

he knew it would happen, trust me, he knew

anyway the only thing i would be pissed off about is the fact that it says this is a totally new game

for that id love to see their asses sued,

BUT IT IS NEVER EVER GONNA HAPPEN

# Holy sh*t — Vman00 2009-06-24 15:17

APPLICATION DESCRIPTION

Aquatica is an iPhone from-the-ground-up remake (FAN VERSION) of the famous flOw fame created by Jenova Chen of the ThatGameCompany fame.

We deeply apologize for not properly crediting him earlier - our mistakes were out of naivety, not malice.

***

they you have, its all good now, but we should complain anyway about it not being free :)

# greed... — phongthan999 2009-06-24 15:26

greedy company...

# :/ — emcp 2009-06-24 15:57

i know how dare ppl make money for their work

so me any contributions you made, im guessing a tetris clone in lua compiled

# Free for now... — ps3juggalo 2009-06-24 16:00

Attention if ya want it free - I just downloaded it for free as of 11:00pm EST.

# So.. — VashioKun 2009-06-24 16:20

They did know that flow did exist..? But yet they're playing it as they don't? Nice nice..

# yup... identical — seamonkey420 2009-06-24 16:50

i'd say its nearly identical to flow; seriously is it the same music even? (may have to fire up my psp to see)

yea, thats a pretty blatant rip off/copy.

# ! — HIDEO KOJIMA 2009-06-24 17:58

I just downloaded it off my iPhone. The info says it was based on a classic FLash/PC game.

# that was his only beef... — Miclowgunman 2009-06-24 19:59

All he cared about was getting credit for it being a clone of his game, and would have been flattered if it was marketed as such. But they were marketing it as a "new and unique game". That is where the offense came. He should be fine now that they credit him.

# indeed... — astaroth001 2009-06-24 20:30

First Loco Roco, now this...whats next...Patapon copy? come on apple...get original games...

# ... — astaroth001 2009-06-24 20:42

It's all good now...the game still the same, music, graphics...and even gameplay (not controls since iTouch has no buttons)...they first sayd they didn't know flow existed in a comment on youtube...now they say is a remake version...BS...they're afraid to get sued because they'll loose it...

# yeah, — enigmaticdude 2009-06-24 21:30

and the Iphone is supposed to be a threat against SONY.

# yeah — SeRosiS 2009-06-24 21:46

you would know, *****got...

# Winger — slither2009 2009-06-24 22:48

What a spanking winger.....you can clearly see they both ripped off the age old classic 'snake'????

Lesson learnt for next time....don't go open source if you expect people to never rip off your work...

# lol — CityNightRush117 2009-06-25 03:38

That is about as copied as ever. Freakin' Apple, learn to make your own games and stop leeching off your competition. flOw is god, you aren't. Oh, and where the hell does the name "underwater adventure" and "Aquatica" come in? How is this copy anything like an underwater experience!? The PS3 version seems more underwater to me, but this copy seems more like a game or Parasites :/

# ... — Perfectionist 2009-06-25 04:07

They didn't say they made it the same by accident, they just said they didn't use the source code Jenova gave out and thus didn't think it was necessary to give credit to Jenova

# WTF — thexile 2009-06-25 04:52

It's exactly the same. No wonder has to be pulled off from iTunes App Store. What a loser!

# no longer avail? — Guest 2009-06-25 04:59

I just tried downloading it and after finding it in the appStore, and attemtping to download it errors out. "The item you tried to buy is no longer available. Boo!

# They deleted it :P — magmar126 2009-06-25 05:24

Quote from their youtube vid:

--

Please note that we have decided that it is in the best interests of everyone to delete this game from the App Store. We will also do our best to make sure nothing like this happens in the future.

--

Probably alot of users from here who spammed the comments xD

# poo — bluemonkey101021 2009-06-25 06:45

well *****... i wanted to get it. now its gone

# I'd hope they get sued, but I don't think they can — kupomogli 2009-06-25 06:59

Games are ripped off left and right nowdays as you'll rarely see an original game in most cases(rarely.)

I think the iphone developers know this so they're using it to there advantage.

There is atleast one good thing about this. It means that Apple must think that Sony has the better games, yet the bad thing about it is that if you can purchase everything of Sony's that you can on the iphone, then why by a Sony product?

The only possible way that it'll be won if they get sued is if Sony uses the fact that this ripoff could possibly be making them get less systems off the shelf, causing them lose more money than just the game of Flow, since these titles are exclusive and if people wanted a copy they'd have to buy a PS3(or in case of Patapon, a PSP.) I'm sure though that Sony has lawyers going back and forth through each detail in an attempt to make a case.

# aww — KylBlz 2009-06-25 07:43

poor origional creator for flOw. they made a crappy copy of his game, the ripoff one has less animation and particles and background to it, so i think they should have at LEAST gave credit where it was due. also its not that hard to port actionscript to C languages.

# Yeah... — Shatterdome 2009-06-25 07:46

This Katara guy has a point, that most games within a genre are basically the same code with a different face.

His problem here is that this looks almost exactly like Flow. They didn't even bother to change the look of the "main character".

Changes the colours, make the circles squares...do SOMETHING different....

# SO.. — Guest 2009-06-25 08:45

if i paint a picture identical to the monalisa, call it dave and say i used a different paint brand, then sell it, do i still get sued?

# ... — FreePlay 2009-06-25 11:04

You have no idea what you're talking about. Clearly not a programmer.

# Yeh. — FreePlay 2009-06-25 11:07

At least Rolando introduced novel gameplay elements like giving different abilities to different characters and using the touchscreen to move stuff around. This is just blatant, unabashed theft.

# Yay! — FreePlay 2009-06-25 11:09

Hey guys, I'm working on a new game. It's called Car Stealing Mob Adventures. You play a Serbian guy named Nico who moves to Liberty City and has to do odd jobs around town like working for the mob and helping save his cousin from his gambling debts.

It's new, unique, and in a class completely on its own!

# flow — Guest 2009-06-25 11:35

definite copy

# Wow total ripoff — Dudeman3 2009-06-25 11:41

To me it looks exactly the same as the flOw I got it on my PS3 and PSP and a free copy of the flash version, I love it but they are ripping this guy off, he really should sue them for doing this without his permission.

But thats just my opinion, and I like his first name.

# Well...it's faster... — damonous 2009-06-25 12:06

I don't think that qualifies as "not ripped-off", though. And, I sure hope he sues their pants-off if they start charging money for "Aquatica". Regardless if they used his source or "coded from the ground-up", they still STOLE THE WHOLE GAME CONCEPT.

# Coding to Painting — AzN_PlaYEr 2009-06-25 12:41

Apples to Oranges

# lol spore like — vizard00 2009-06-25 15:03

but they are bouth like SPORE lol watch out bouth of you

# .. — Popson 2009-06-25 23:17

Why are you blaming Apple? As much as I hate them, they are not the developers (or copiers in this case) of Aqautica.

# fool! — iamback(unregistered) 2009-06-26 04:37

You do realize that copyrights only apply for 75 years, right? Leonardo diCaprio has been dead for a little over 75 years (I think it's been about 90 years since he died, after cutting off his right ear).

Besides, I'm pretty sure it was photoshopped, so who cares?

[/bait]

# fl0w was created first — Guest 2009-06-26 07:00

Release date of fl0w

Flash Version - April 14,2006

PS3 version - February 2, 2007

PSP version - April 24,2008.

Spore

PC - September 4, 2008

iPhone/iPod - August 25, 2008.

Every version of fl0w came out before even one version of Spore came out.

# The game has been removed — EugeneE 2009-06-26 15:12

According to the author's website at http://www.ketara.ca/aqua.html , he says that the game was removed and they give an apology to Jenova Chen.

The author should have asked Jenova Chen in the beginning for his permission.

# Leonardo DiCaprio??? — buttheadrulesagain 2009-06-26 16:25

hahaha, I thought it was really a mistake, now I realize its only a joke. Good one.

# @iamback — Guest 2009-06-27 00:36

"Leonardo diCaprio" lol

the titanic film isn't 75 years ago ;)

p.s. i was creating an analogy, forget it......

# Downloaded it two days ago — Guest 2009-06-27 09:00

until i found this...

# ... — gtarjohn 2010-09-06 13:12

In June 2009, Jenova Chen accused the creators of an iPhone and iPod Touch game, Aquatica: The Underwater Adventure, of plagiarising Flow. Chen asserted that the game was almost graphically identical, but that he would have been flattered had the game's creators released it for free and credited Thatgamecompany in some way. In the game's description on the App Store, Aquatica was described as a "new, unique game completely in a class of its own". Chen had publicly released the source code of the Flash version of the game as a learning tool for Flash programmers, but did not expect it to be re-released without attribution. Aquatica's creators called the accusations "baseless", saying that all of the code had been written from scratch and that "most games within each class are practically the same, just different graphics". They later publicly apologised, calling their earlier remarks naïve, and acknowledged the fact that Aquatica was indeed a fan remake, though written with original code. In a limited promotion, the game was released for free in the App Store.

Refresh comments list

Add comment

JComments

QUICK JUMP DAILY DIGEST

Welcome to QJ.Net!

If you want your comments to go live without waiting for moderation, you need to be logged in. Being logged in has its benefits:

Logged in members do not wait for their comments to be approved.
Logged in members can create Profiles to be seen by other users.

So why wait? Create an account or login now! It's easy, quick, and free.

To get started, use the LOGIN boxes, or the REGISTER link below!

Want to learn more about the team who brings you the QJ news?

Read about them now!

HOT FLASH GAMES

PSP Categories

• Accessories
• Add-ons
• Applications
• Artwork
• Batteries
• Cheats
• Deals
• Emulators
• Events
• Featured Articles
• Firmware
• Flash Applications
• Flash games
• Game Demos
• Games
• Hacks & Exploits
• Homebrew Applications
• Homebrew Demos
• Homebrew Development
• Homebrew Emulators
• Homebrew Games
• Homebrew Themes
• How-To
• Humor
• Imports
• Interviews

• Magazines
• Mods
• MY QJ
• News
• Off Topic
• On Shelves This Week
• Opinions & Analysis
• Podcasts
• Previews
• PSP Go
• PSP Minis
• PSP Slim & Lite
• QJ How-To Series
• QuickJump QuickGuide
• QuickJump QuickPeek
• Reviews
• Rumors
• Scans
• Screenshots
• Site News
• Titles
• UMD Movies
• Videos
• Weekend Warrior
• Wi-Fi

Sitemap

Newest Downloads

05/16/2013 - 05/26/2013

BwE Nor Validator v1.30: Down But Not Out	05/24/2013
Want an Update? Find It With the Final Build of Simple PS3Updates	05/23/2013
IrisManager version 2.45	05/22/2013
PSP Homebrew: Cube Runner Advanced v1.3 - 20 More Levels	05/20/2013
PS3 Homebrew: Super Pixel Jumper v1.2	05/18/2013
Grab the latest IrisManager Update. Version 2.42 is Out.	05/18/2013
Bite v1.5.1: PS3 Minis and Emulator Support	05/18/2013
PSP Homebrew: Cosmos Lunar v1.01	05/17/2013
PSP Homebrew: Cube Runner Advanced v1.2	05/16/2013
PSP Homebrew: Xonergy	05/16/2013
IrisManager 2.41: New Payload, Updated Discless	05/15/2013
PSP Homebrew: Wagic 0.19.0	05/15/2013
PSP / PS3MInis Bite v1.5: Homebrew Support	05/14/2013
This Tool Makes Playing PSP Games on PS3 EZ!	05/12/2013
Iris Manager v2.40 Has Some Cool New Features	05/11/2013

Most Comments this Month
QJ How To: What Emulators..	(5)
QJ Shootout: PSP Vs. PS Vi..	(2)
PSP Homebrew: Camxpspx123..	(2)
PSP homebrew - Audio Boost..	(1)
PSP homebrew - Snes9x Euph..	(1)
PSP homebrew - PSPdisp v0...	(1)
PSP homebrew - LameCraft	(1)
Sound Off: Best Game Song..	(1)
The Walking Dead Tops PSN'..	(1)
PSP Dungeons 3D v0.7 Relea..	(1)
Tutorial: How to unbrick y..	(1)

Top Jumps this Month
PSP Homebrew: Camxps..	(127)
WiFiHack Now Availab..	(60)
PSP homebrew - LameC..	(55)
PSP GBA v1.2: Gamebo..	(41)
Custom Firmware PRO-..	(37)
PSP Comics Reader v2..	(31)
Speed Gamers Are Pla..	(28)
QJ How To: What Emul..	(23)
PPSSPP: A Windows an..	(23)
Treyarch Responds to..	(20)
PSP homebrew - Mario..	(19)
PSP Homebrew - PSPDi..	(17)
Minecraft PC Hits 8..	(16)
PSP Fans Unite! Toda..	(16)
PSPE (PSP Emulator f..	(14)
PSP homebrew - Save..	(13)
The Walking Dead Top..	(13)
The World Is In Trou..	(13)
QJ Shootout: PSP Vs...	(12)
PSP CFW: 6.60 ME & L..	(12)
RE6's "On disc DLC"..	(10)
PSP homebrew - GoTub..	(10)
PSP homebrew - Audio..	(10)
PSP homebrew - PMPla..	(10)
Gamescom: Sports Gam..	(8)

Quick Jump Daily Digest

iPhone game accused of plagiarizing flOw

Related Stories:

Comments

Add comment

Newest Downloads