I took a look at one of these (Gun Brothers). It's a reskinned version of Nuclear Throne using the original GameMaker source that was released for throne (years ago, but it's not a difficult game to create). As for FukTopia (great name) I've seen this style/UI stuff somehwere else so I'll dig through my archives to find it. I know it's a template just can't recall which one it came from off the top of my head.

If I had a dollar for every UnitZ asset flip... I'd probably be as rich as these douche canoes that are selling them.

Just curious why the need to know exactly the asset(s) used for these games?

We know for a fact they were built with Construct 2. They're obviously just a clone of a platformer tutorial or maybe an asset then graphics are swapped out and new titles are created.

While I understand the desire to be specific about this stuff, I'm not sure I follow why each and every specific asset has to be tracked down? The problem with this set of games is they're using generally similar graphics to many packs.

While a couple have been found (like the zombies) others are out there but is the time spent trying to hunt down a specific image worth it? That's like trying to find a specific RPG Maker character sprite amongst the thousands that people have created. Knowing what specific asset this game used when the graphics are similar to so many other packs and artists out there doesn't make the game any more or less valid.

It's Construct 2 (I bought one of them to take a look at the assets). I can't find the specific platformer tutorial or kit it's coming from as there are a lot of them, but it's from just one of the many that are there. The developer just clones it and replaces the graphics and sounds and pumps these out for a few bucks each.

Most of the graphics are pretty boring and probably from asset packs from the Construct store. A lot of the graphics might be from BrashMonkey and their asset packs:

https://brashmonkey.com/

I can't find the specific one for these games but I know I've seen that helicopter before so trying to track that down.

In any case, this person is simply copying a template and replacing graphics to mass produce a butt load of craptastic titles.

If I can track down the original assets specifically I'll post the sources here but otherwise this isn't that big of a mystery IMHO.

Originally posted by Hibachi:

You don't have to wait for $1000 in sales, or whatever the actual number is, before gaining money.

Once you manage to get $130 in sales (since Valve gets 30%) you're back to where you started.
Everything else is net gain.

Well, there's still taxes but you get the idea.

Duh. Totally didn't think of that. Yeah, $130 isn't much for even a $1 title. Thanks.

You know one thing that I have to wonder about is that each game is $100 to submit. You get it back if you make $1000 in sales (I think that's the number). So either some rich wank is funding these things (maybe through money they make from the whole trading card farming that's probably going on with these crap titles) or they're making enough sales to get the reimbursement from Steam.

Originally posted by Avantyr:

Looks like a re-skin. Same palette and scale. Probably took the files from SV and partially redrew on top of them.

Not a professional opinion, but my first impression. If I had a look at the game files, I could say more.

It's probable this is what took place with some assets (like the trees) as they've very close, close enough that I took a SDV tree and drew a 1 pixel black outline around it and recoloured it a bit, it might be a direct match. However I don't find that with a lot of the other assets so it's hard to say. I'm not willing to shell out $16 bucks to these guys to see what the original assets look like so you could compare them better at that level.

I'm not one to defend these guys but I've looked over all the assets in Stardew Valley and all the screenshots for this and sorry to say but while the graphics are *very similar* they're not a direct lift.

I've looked at all the floor tiles I can find, plants, buildings, etc. The trees are very close but the two primary differences with these assets are a) they're more pronounced than SDV ones are with a clear black outline around most of them vs. Stardew Valley where the images are anti-aliased and b) the graphics just don't match when it comes to things like plants and animals.

Is it a copy of the style of the artwork? For sure, but then you can say the same with any SNES style game (Stardew Valley, any RPG maker game, Terraria, etc.) where it's pixel art. Is the game similar? You bet, looks like there's farming, you have a house with a similar style to SDF, etc. Is it a ripoff of assets from SDV? Nope.

It's whats called the Lichtenstein effect. Roy Lichtenstein was an American artist who created pop art during the 1960s. His work was essentially copied from comic books from the 50s, to the point where you could compare them side by side and they're nearly identical. Nearly. Obviously he copied art from comic book panels but there were slight changes here and there that made it his own. There's been controversy over his work but nobody has been able to sue him for copying their artwork. I see this as the same thing. Chinese app with artwork copied (in all cases the same style, in some the same colour palette) but not stolen.

Everyone in the forums on the game have gone off the handle saying they're stealing Stardew Valley assets but I find no proof of that when I compare them at a pixel level and don't see anyone showing any kind of proof of theft here. Like I said, strikingly similar and obviously enough to set people off claiming it's ripped but it's original artwork as far as I can tell at this point.

There's a lot of talk in the forums about this being a rip off (with a lame excuse that they've been working on it before SDV was released).

Just putting together the screenshots that I can from their video and store page and comparing it to the tileset in Stardew Valley.

They (the develoeprs) won't care, but at least it'll show people it's not simply "similar" but an actual lift of assets (if it is) and I'll point the Stardew Valley people to it (they've taken down decompiled versions of the game from github and other things of this type).

PS if anyone has a copy of this game that can send it to me I can rip it apart to see what assets it's using for a better comparison against Stardew Valley (and other games).

Was talking with SidAlpha and IAmPattyJack on Twitter. His main account and all the sock puppet accounts are shut down. He'll be back, but this is a win. SidAlpha is working on a video now.