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Comment by aluhut | Hacker News Reader

That is true but I'm (as a customer) still happy with it since I got one single game out of it that I can't stop playing and this is a feeling I had not since...college.

The game is Rimworld and it's a early-access clone of prison architect. The game is far from done, the dev left for a long extended break but the game is still a endless source of joy. And I haven't even touch the mods.

The sheer diversity and new ideas that Indiepocalypse brought is a reaction to the mainstream sequelcalypse. I just can't see it anymore. I also don't buy those games anymore because I know they'll last for a weekend or two and then I'll be pissed that I wasted money even though I knew it won't be better then the one before.

Big studios may save us from low-quality but not from broken or cloned games. They are just more expensive.

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Another Rimworld player here. The parent post was complaining about knock-off survival-style games, and Rimworld assuredly isn't a knock-off. The developer, Tynan Sylvester, put a ton of thought into the game mechanics and created a simulation masterpiece--made even better by the extensive modding community.

Tynan also wrote a book, "Designing Games," which is worth checking out.

Also, the similarities to Prison Architect are coincidental. I've played and followed both games for a long time, and neither is a clone of the other. (However, I do wish that Tynan would clone PA's user interface--Rimworld's UI is clunky by comparison.)

Rimworld looks like a sci-fi Dwarf Fortress with Prison Architect interface.

Calling it a clone of Prison Architect is pretty weird. There's very little shared except for the graphics style. Even the basic "click to place walls" construction system is broadly different, given that in Prison Architect you have to lay down foundations and then build on top of that.

I've never played Prison Architect. I got this "clone of prison architect" from the community.

The arty styles are very simple and it's practically the same genre so at first glance it seems like a clone.

In the past they were more similar, at least the NPC art style was. When they first started Rimworld they used a sort of Prison Architect art style for their NPCs as placeholders until they got their own art in (which they have now).

If anything, both Rimworld and PA are "clones" of Dwarf Fortress.

Except Dwarf Fortress has so many mechanics (not a complaint) that almost any game could be considered a "clone" of Dwarf Fortress!

Meh, Dwarf Fortress is just a clone of Dungeon Keeper with worse play-balancing. :p

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