POSTED BY

Brandon Boyer

AT 12:06 PM
Wednesday June 24, 2009

Indie • iPhone

aquatica • flOw • ketara • thatgamecompany

Toronto devs Ketara release unauthorized flOw clone to iPhone

And then this happened: none less than thatgamecompany's Jenova Chen notes that Toronto iPhone developer Ketara -- whose mission statement contends they were founded as "an outlet for new, interesting ideas" -- has just released Aquatica, a game that is nothing less than a direct copy of the original Flash implementation of Chen's flOW, straight down to the peripheral sonar-like pings of its ascending/descending markers.

Chen told 1up that he had released the original Flash source to a number of people who emailed and asked for it, though Ketara have commented that "all the source code is completely, 100% written from scratch."

But, at issue for Chen, apparently, is not necessarily one of code theft -- telling 1up that an iPhone version was something he wanted to pursue himself, if its IP weren't now tangled up with Sony -- but rather the fact that Ketara make no mention of his or thatgamecompany's name as at very least its inspiration:

I thought the creation of Aquatica is a very flattering thing because they mimic the game I created in the university and somewhat realized my dream for a flOw game on the iPhone. It could be a very sweet thing if they did this as a fan ware and put it out for free. But the fact they didn't mention flOw at all and call it a 'new, unique game completely in a class of its own' is disappointing.

Ketara, for their part, contend:

What's wrong with adapting a general idea of one game to the iPhone? No one had done this before, and we wanted to play it with tilt controls. In general, most games within each class are practically the same, just different graphics.
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4 Comments

KyleWallace

#1 – 6:01 PM June 24, 2009

Fucking ridiculous and inexcusable. At any rate, this news had made Ketara change some of the about info on the game.

Please note: Aquatica is an iPhone from-the-ground-up re-make (FAN VERSION) of the famous flOw game created by Jenova Chen of the ThatGameCompany fame. We deeply apologize for not properly crediting him earlier. Our mistakes were caused by naivety, not malice.

Check it out here. http://www.ketara.ca/aqua.html

Even more interesting, if you look at game in iTunes, they aren't capitalizing off of it.

Yet.

Their description reads:

FREE FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY.

So were they planning on making money off of a game they stole?

Yes.

rey-o

#2 – 6:56 PM June 24, 2009

This leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Even though Ketara has now covered their tracks (flimsily), it doesn't change the fact that the game has whole-sale plagiarized fl0w.


superbrothers

#3 – 3:22 PM June 25, 2009

'Aquatica' is a transparently plagiarized edition of Jenova Chen's signature flash and PS3 creation 'flOw' and while 'Aquatica' may not be judged illegal in a court of law it is clearly shameful and deserves to be judged harshly in the court of public opinion.

Not only does 'Aquatica' speak to a serious error in judgement by the staff at Ketara, it also implies a deep lack of respect for Jenova Chen and pioneering creators everywhere. Ketara have distinguished themselves as a studio of ill repute and this issue is an unfortunate stain on Toronto's otherwise solid reputation as a source of creative & worthwhile videogames.

Ketara's initial comments and behavior were both comedically naive & worryingly anti-creative.

THE 1 CONSOLE encourages Ketara Software to seek to make amends in future, without re-writing their short history in light of this controversy.

THE 1 CONSOLE also commends 1up.com, Offworld, Abootplay.ca & anyone else for helping to bring this strange issue to light.

Josh Cothran

#4 – 6:13 PM June 25, 2009

Whoa... apparently this post (and others like it) have had their intended effect. Ketara have pulled the plug on Aquatica with a pretty heavy mea culpa:

Aquatica was an iPhone remake/fan version of the famous flOw game originally created by Jenova Chen of the ThatGameCompany fame. We deeply apologize for not properly crediting Jenova initially, and have already written him with a personal apology, as well. We also apologize to anyone we have upset and offended - please be assurred that we had no slightest intention of doing so. Our mistakes were caused by naivety, not malice, and we never meant to be disrepectful to anyone.

Because the game seemed to be upsetting so many, we have decided to remove it completely. We will also make sure nothing like this ever happens in the future - we understand our mistake, and will be working very hard to correct it and make amends.

Of course, this means now we won't get to play the game.

"This is what happens when you f@^$ a stranger in the a@%!" -Walter Sobchak, The Big Lebowski

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