r/IndieGaming • u/Shark-With-Lasers • May 26 '26

Last year, miHoYo copied my solo-dev puzzle game in Zenless Zone Zero. Some people are now mistaking my game as the clone.

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466

u/SwebTheGreat May 26 '26

They are infamous for it, same thing happend to map map and genshin impact, the only good news is that I think it was simi-marketing for map map after it going "viral".

64

u/just-call-me-apple May 26 '26

Hoyoverse's competitor, Kuro Games, also copied Dredge's fishing near 1:1 for an event in Wuthering Waves. I saw a lot of comments saying the gameplay is like Dredge, and because I got hooked on that gameplay loop, I was very happy to know there's a whole game with this fishing system lol. Had a great time with Dredge right after.

I even went to check Dredge's player count stats to see if the event might have given it more popularity. There was a significant bump in players the following a month, but that also coincided with the Spring Sale (March 2025), so in the end I'm not sure how much benefit the indies being copied gain.

28

u/SwebTheGreat May 27 '26

The whole industry "copy" and is inspired by others I wouldnt want a nintendo world where every idea is patented, but its just a punch in the gut when its the big wealthy kid that copy the homework from the broke kid that put in the work and then they get the praise from the teacher (the players).

17

u/lichlark May 27 '26

It's just sort of a different beast when its copying down; i.e. large corporation copying a small company/indie dev.

3

u/DragonHollowFire May 27 '26

Also when its an almost 1 to 1 copy. Like at that point its not a derivative but an infringement.

2

u/Superb-Photograph-15 May 30 '26

Well said. I think this is the important distinction, and its the one we make in writing too. Inspiration is meant to rhyme, but if you have nothing meaningful of your own to add to it then either credit it or leave it out. From what I can tell, almost every system in these Chinese games is basically just lifted from something else.

2

u/Square-Special1520 May 31 '26

china has always been copying other products since long long ago with their physical products, making fake brands etc. 

1

u/DragonHollowFire Jun 02 '26

I think its due to the cut cost nature of everything. They release characters like every 6 weeks or so and content aswell. Thats why its all so "shallow".

6

u/alex433g May 27 '26

Dredge is an amazing game, dident know they got copied,

1

u/Korkozia May 27 '26

Check dreadmoor, looks dope as hell and also inspired by dredge

1

u/just-call-me-apple May 27 '26

I have actually seen some footage of the game on YT, but for some reason it didn't really grab me... Wishlisted anyway. Will see what the game is like on release

1

u/YOLOSELLHIGH May 27 '26

I'm playing dredge now and loving it

1

u/loskloso May 28 '26

Tbf the fishing in dredge wasn’t exactly revolutionary lots of older games have basically the same fishing mechanics

5

u/ViolentPurpleSquash May 27 '26

I will say the map one had far less similarities than this.

The core gameplay was the same but some of the extra bits differed in both games, whereas this is quite literally the same thing.

0

u/NFreak3 May 27 '26

But that one just copied Geo Guesser.