I think I'm also going to have to disagree.
What I mean is that there is no point in chastising the community for not making enough "original" games. The Arduboy has a similarly large number of game clones. What you're asking for is more highly-polished original games, and the only way we will get that is if we have multiple highly talented individuals in this community that are working to make games. There is a long tail of games for every platform that are not the "killer app" games, so those will be made regardless, and I welcome all games. It is easier to make a copy of a game as a first game, and eventually someone can improve their abilities to make an original game. Also, the Gamebuino community is smaller than the Arduboy community, meaning less people producing games.
There have been multiple efforts in this community to make original games. Just take a look at some of the community threads. Even the people discussing the Pokemon clone tried to differentiate it. However, many of the original concepts get too ambitious and fail in the early stages. Again, I think it all comes down to having experienced people. The newbies of today are the experts of tomorrow, so the Gamebuino may eventually get more advanced games over time.
In fact, I think the real reason that Arduboy games seem better is in large part due to Team A.R.G. Having both artists and programmers working in a team to create polished, fun, and pretty games is a huge draw to the platform and sets a standard to follow. However, even many of their games copy other games. Blob Attack is influenced by Puyo Pop Fever. Reverse Mermaid Hockey is basically Pong, except with a wacky premise and nice graphics. Shadow Runner is just another infinite runner, but it looks fantastic. Sirene is just a horizontal shmup, although the setting feels fresh, and again the visuals are excellent. Epic Crates of Mass Destruction is based on Super Crate Box!
Therefore, I think that what's more important than a completely "original" game is one that has polish and a sense of identity, but the ability to produce this comes from experience.
In summary, it's true that there are more *polished* games on Arduboy, but I would not say that the best games are all that unique. Let's compare the official games lists on both platforms (it's true that the official games list on Arduboy is missing a lot of the good games on the platform, but they should keep it updated!). I'm being *very* generous as to what I consider "original". If the game has any variation from the original at all, I'm saying it's original. I'm sure I have some mistakes in here, so feel free to give corrections:
- Code: Select all
Arduboy Gamebuino Based On Original? (not EXACT clone) (G = Gamebuino original, A = Arduboy original)
ArduBreakout Breakout Breakout
ArduboyLife ( Conway's Life ) Conway's Game of Life
Atomic Puzzle Pack puzzle games A
Battle for Zuthsrah vertical shmups A
Begemmed Shariki/Bejeweled A
Blob Attack Blob Attack (port) Puyo Pop/Dr. Mario A
CrazyKart Mario Kart/racing games A
demoScene cool demos A (not a game)
Dice of Fate real life dice A?
Epic Crates Of Mass destruction Super Crate Buino Super Crate Box
Fatsche tower defenses sort of A
Flappy Ball flappy birdo Flappy Bird
FlappyHalloween horizontal shmups A
Glove Gauntlet A
Helii Copter helicopter games
Mazogs Mazogs
MicroCheckers Checkers
picovaders Invaders Space Invaders
Reverse Mermaid Hockey Pong/tennis games A
Shadow Runner infinite runners A
Sirène horizontal shmups A
Space Knife horizontal shmups A
Sudoku Sudoku
TeenyTank (MicroTanks) Artillery Worms/Scorched Earth A?G? (Unique terrain?)
Tiny 2048 Gamebuino 2048 2048
a2k 2048
Tiny Depth SuperDepth
Tiny NS-tower NS-TOWER
Tiny Sokoban Sokobuino Sokoban
Trolly Fish horizontal shmups A
Virus LQP-79 top-down shooters? A
You Won't Survive horizontal shmups? A?
armageddon Missile Command
b-rally racing games G
crazycar ?? (something) G
the ship LCD games (I don't know if these are based on a specific LCD game)
robotron LCD games
balls LCD games
glaci glaça management games G
Microhexagon Super Hexagon
Digger Digger
Smash and Crash ? G
CastleDefence tower defenses sort of G
NightDriver racing games G
Descent Into Hell Binding of Isaac G
Blockdude Blockdude (TI-83+)
Gambipaint drawing programs
Mandeluino fractal drawing progs
Copter Strike Desert/Nuclear Strike G
Zombi Escape arcade beat em' ups? G
Conduit puzzle games G
Tron Tron
Simonbuino Simon Says
Stick Fighter fighting games G
whg World's Hardest Game
Maruino Mario platformers G? (It does have different levels, but...)
Bomber Bomberman
S-Copter Choplifter
GW-Player media players G (not a game)
Taxi Fou Crazy Taxi G
Spin Spin Spinbuino! Kuru Kuru Kururin G? (New levels?)
101 Starships horizontal shmups G
Lander Lunar Lander
Bub puzzle games G
Killrace ? G
Catcher falling thing games
Tetrino Tetris
Blocksbuino Tetris
fxsynth synthesizers G (not a game)
Snakeabcbuino Snake
Snake Snake
Shootbuino vertical shmups G
Asterocks Asteroids
Asteroid Asteroids
Ufo-Race racing games G
Paqman Pacman
Minesweeper Minesweeper
Crabator top-down shooters G
Superspaceshooter horizontal shmups G
Lights Out AD Lights Out
Death Maze mazes
Senet Senet
Stack Challenge Stack Attack
From this very unscientific study, it appears that the arduboy has 17 "original" games (18 including nongames), while the Gamebuino has 22 "original" games (24 including nongames). Of course, good games are missing from the official lists of either of them (e.g. Star Honor for Arduboy or Operation Fox on Gamebuino, though the latter was removed from the list due to SD card issues, and it is a demo). In addition, there might be more games missing from the Arduboy list than the Gamebuino list. Regardless, both game libraries are filled with various game clones.
I would add games from the forums that are not listed in the official lists, but this already took forever, so this is good for now.
It's very hard to determine what makes something "original," because everything copies from something else; it all depends on the *degree*. Are all platformers in which you jump on enemies Mario clones? What makes one original?
Also, I think it's really the screen resolution and the construction quality of the Arduboy that draws people in, not the games, because just like for Gamebuino I think a lot of people want to make games too. For a lot of people I think the slick look and higher resolution are priority features. It's a shame, because I think convenient game switching is much more important, and Gamebuino's SD card is a big selling point to me.