The story behind the smash hit Ridiculous Fishing
Has your best idea just been ripped off? Here’s how a small game studio bounced back from a clone attack to make one of the year’s hit mobile games.
Few think of the app stores as hostile, but mobile developers struggle every day to survive in an increasingly crowded market. They cast their lines in murky waters, cross their fingers, and hope players will bite.
Game developer Vlambeer was unlucky. It found a shark in those waters. Now, it has bounced back from a near-fatal cloning incident to claim one of the most popular games on iOS. “For a while, we just lost all faith in creativity as a way to earn a living,” Rami Ismail, one of the two members of the Dutch studio, told us.
Vlambeer’s extreme-sports game, Ridiculous Fishing, launched last month to massive acclaim and sales success. It’s based on the studio’s first-ever title, the Flash game Radical Fishing, which a rival ripped off at an unfortunate time. In July 2011, Gamenauts released a clone called Ninja Fishing just as Vlambeer was preparing to announce its remake.
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