This Has to be The Most Blatant Video Game Rip-Off You've Ever Seen

It seems that the old saying about a rotten apple in every barrel applies even to the indie game development industry – a sector of gamedev generally cherished and seldom mired in controversy – for over the past few hours, indie gamers witnessed what could be the most blatant video game rip-off of all time, courtesy of developer Terry Brash.

Earlier today, Terry took to Twitter to promote Wildcard, a "real-time roguelike deckbuilder with online leaderboards", just released on Steam as a free demo. However, instead of praise, the developer was immediately bombarded with comments from attentive gamers, who noticed that Wildcard heavily plagiarized Dire Decks, a game created by kindanice and shared on Itch.io in 2023.

From the visual style and UI to gameplay mechanics, Wildcard appears to have copied Dire Decks almost exactly. The original developer, kindanice, joined the backlash, comparing the two games and providing additional information about the situation. According to the creator, attempts were made to contact Terry and have the game removed from Steam, but these efforts were unsuccessful. "Not sure what to do in this situation," commented the robbed developer.

Following the overwhelmingly negative response from the community, Terry attempted to play it cool by doubling down on the situation, and, instead of offering a detailed response or removing the game from Steam, replied to the accusations with a meme, which, unsurprisingly, got ratioed into oblivion:

Soon after, he shared another update, emphasizing that the copied game is and will remain free, presumably attempting to console the infuriated crowd, which responded by pointing out that a stolen product given away for free is still a stolen product:

As of now, it seems that the situation continues to unfold in real-time, and it is impossible to predict how it will eventually end. While we await further developments, you can check out kindanice's Dire Decks by clicking this link and learn more about the developer's other projects here.

Don't forget to join our 80 Level Talent platform and our Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Reddit, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.