FingerGaming

StoneLoops! of Jurassica

StoneLoops! of Jurassica, one of the iPhone’s most popular puzzlers, has been removed from the App Store following a complaint from Luxor publisher MumboJumbo.

According to a blog post at Codeminion’s website, MumboJumbo accused the StoneLoops! developer of “infringing Luxor copyright, confusing customers, stealing Luxor’s look & feel and even stealing their source code.” Apple notified Codeminion of the complaint earlier this month.

Luxor

MumboJumbo also claimed that App Store customers searching for Luxor would instead find StoneLoops! listed among the search results, due to Codeminion including a review quote that cited a similarity between the two games.

Codeminion volunteered to remove the quote, and then heard no further response from Apple. On October 23rd, still with no reply or prior warning from Apple, StoneLoops! was removed from the App Store.

Atlantis Sky Patrol

Curiously, Codeminion notes that the decision was not Apple’s. According to the developer, Apple instead asked MumboJumbo whether Codeminion’s offer to remove the offending quote was a sufficient enough act to drop the complaint. Mumbo Jumbo persisted, and StoneLoops! was delisted. Similar titles like Tumblebugs, Blackbeard’s Assault, and Atlantis Sky Patrol are still available for sale.

It’s worth noting that StoneLoops! was released several months before the iPhone version of Luxor. StoneLoops! was also a much more successful game, charting among the App Store’s top 10 sellers in the games category for its first two months of North American release. Luxor dropped out of U.S. top 100 soon after its release.

Puzz Loop

The irony here, of course, is that neither StoneLoops! nor Luxor features an original game concept. Both games borrow heavily from Mitchell’s Puzz Loop, which itself was cloned in PopCap’s more successful Zuma.

Granted, Luxor and StoneLoops! both differ from Puzz Loop’s formula in that players shoot orbs in a vertical line from the bottom of the screen rather than from a rotating launcher, but many crucial mechanics remain the same. In all games, three balls of the same color will disappear when matched. Trails of orbs will reconnect after a match to create a combo. All games feature similar sound effects, the same gameplay strategies, and a level-based progression.

Tumblebugs

While StoneLoops! bears a closer resemblance to Luxor than it does to Zuma or Puzz Loop, it’s questionable that Apple has granted MumboJumbo the exclusive right to determine which Puzz Loop clone deserves to remain in the App Store. We’ll be watching this case closely for future updates.

Tags: clone, codeminion, luxor, mumbojumbo, puzz loop, Puzzle, Removed Game, stoneloops, zuma