The time that Blitz Games Studio of Leamington Spa stole my game idea.

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Blitz Games Studio of Leamington Spa, stole my college final major project, a puzzle game, and then around the time of their closure would sell on the IP to the game. They took from me a game I would never receive any recognition or money for creating but also in that respect with a team of game developers under their roof they gave life to a game that I at the time could never have given it. A game that was released on Xbox live and is still widely sold today on mobile platforms.

The article also contains advice on how aspiring developers can best protect their IP from an incident like mine.

Please read the full story over at the original Medium article here.

I think it’s important that when blatant intellectual property thefts like this happen in the industry that light is shed upon them, not only to inform future generations of the risks they are likely to encounter and how to prevent them but also if not just to highlight that this problem exists, I am sure I am not the first person this has happened to and will not be the last, but the many people before and after me in most likelihood never felt like they had a voice to speak up about issues like this because of the way these companies talk you down when you try to do so. It has taken me the best part of 12 years to personally muster up the courage to have a voice, in the past I felt a number of reasons why and one of the more dominant reasons was that speaking out against them could have a negative impact on my future career in the industry and that I could just end up looking like some kind of “crazy person” particularly with the amount of effort they had put into disarming me when Blitz Games Studio was still in operation.

I know that most people are likely to share their opinions before reading any of the article or just having skimmed through it, but that’s the problem in the majority of replies I get. There is a whole account of how this transpired and not just a blind accusation.

I’m not forcing anyone to read the full article, but also, miss-informed responses make me have to re-iterate details.

A quick FAQ:

1. Did you produce the game or was it just an idea you had?
I did produce the game, to what a professional development team would consider a prototype due to the mediocre home made graphics.

2. What was the time period between you releasing your finished game and Blitz Games Studios releasing their version?
It was one year between be releasing my game (2008) and Blitz Games Studios releasing Droplitz (2009).

3. Are you sure Blitz Games Studios stole your idea, did they even know about you?
Yes they knew about me in my first year of University as my tutor Stan Zych was working closely with the company, the reason being, as to what he claimed, is that because the Studio’s founders went to Secondary School in the same town he had some leverage although the company Blitz where operating one of the largest outreach programs for young talent at the time so the reality was that they had their fingers in many educational pies so to speak. Stan Zych pitched my game idea to them and on one occasion Blitz Games senior staff attended my college to take a look at the prototype I had been working on some time early 2008.

Since posting my story I have had a response from James A. Parker the original claimant for the game idea his response can be read here (mirror) and in my counter response here (mirror).

To read more please visit my Medium article here.

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Welcome to the real world.

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Every year tens of thousands of people write down little “idea anecdotes” for books, then they put aside and never actually do it.
Then some professional writer happens to produce a similar story, because his/her stream of inspiration is similar to yours, and boom: “-this writer stole my story idea!”

This happens every year, a ton of cases go to court just so they find out that “ideas” cannot be copyrighted.
This is why many “professionals” make fun of the “idea guy”.

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What you’ve come up with there is exactly the same as Pipe Mania on the zx spectrum 48k and a million other games before you thought of it. Its near impossible to come up with an original game idea that someone hasnt already done in some way.

You just have to do it better than anyone else. Theres nothing stopping you from making that game, do a mobile app and sell it on the android/apple stores.

Blitz cant exactly sue you for making it, its just a puzzle game, theres no copyright on genre. If there was, Wolfenstein would be the only first person shoooter game ever made.

The amount of time you’ve spent wallowing in self pity and blogging about it you could have made that simple game and stuck two fingers up at Blitz. Use the experience as motivation to succeed rather than…whatever this attention seeking nonsense is.

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Hey BrUnO XaVIeR I did actually produce the game one year before Blitz games so I was not just “an ideas guy”, just encase there is any confusion here, there is a link to the original game in the Medium article. But sure in the UK at-least I know that mechanics / ideas cannot be protected and only names / graphics, same is of the food industry I do believe.

Well the Medium article supplies verifiable evidence to show that I had the idea and produced the game first.

Right so I did actually release my game one whole year before Blitz Games Studios released Droplitz, the thing is I can’t really compete with a full house of game developers, sure you could say “yes you can, lots of people make great games on their own” well I can’t I cannot make professional level graphics like the artists at Blitz Games Studios and the kind of money people charge on freelance sites or contractually, I’ve never really had the pockets to pay for. But more so, when I first created the prototype no one seemed to like it much, partly because the graphics sucked and Blitz Games Studios made one change to the game idea that made it more fun to play than my original. I don’t appreciate you saying “whatever this attention seeking nonsense is.” but you have a right to your opinion I just think it’s important people know what happened and what the industry can be like. I have a right to share my story and have a voice, I don’t think it’s particularly fair for you to belittle that.

It’s not so much that I wanted the fame and money of making it, it’s more that I am upset about how they went about stealing my idea without giving me any credit and then went on to claim they were being “altruistic” in relation to the Droplitz IP in articles like the one published by the Guardian in the UK.

I know that most people are likely to share their opinions before reading any of the article or just having skimmed through it, but that’s the problem in the majority of replies I get. There is a whole account of how this transpired and not just a blind accusation.