Magnetized makes it to mobile after its clones were removed
UPDATE: Developer still sore at plagiarists. "It is unforgivable!"
UPDATE: Curious what Magnetized creator Rocky Hong's reaction was to those who cloned his game without his permission then apologised for it, thinking he wouldn't mind? Apparently he's still sore at the plagiarists who offered him a few hundred bucks in revenue as a mea culpa.
"I denied the proceed, and then they announced to the public that they'd give it to charity, but I never knew which charity received it, and they never contacted me again," Hong explained to me in an e-mail. "They just cloned my game without my permission, and made profits on it, as [my] web version is totally free. What if I didn't discover their clone? Would they ever have contacted me? It is unforgivable!"
"I had my own plan on a mobile version of Magnetized since the beginning. I spent more than six months developing it and pursuing perfection, making it better and better, but they only spent two weeks to copy it? It is really insulting to the art of game design."
"In the end, Magnetized became nearly perfect and much better then web version," Hong stated. "It really deserved me spending six months to complete it. I'd love to make it to every platform, but absolutely not by this way [having it cloned by copycats]."
ORIGINAL STORY: Taiwanese developer Rocky Hong had quite the upset last summer when he discovered that someone had ported his minimalist arcade game, Magnetized, to XBLIG and Google Play without his permission. Thankfully, the clones have been removed and now Hong has finally released his wonderfully addictive collection of physics-based challenges on iOS and Android.
Priced at $2.99 (about £2), Magnetized tasks players with guiding a little cube through corridors by making magnetic spots re-calibrate the square's trajectory. Simply holding your finger down pulls the avatar towards the magnet, while releasing your finger leaves the square to continue on its current path like Sandra Bullock in Gravity.
There's a loose narrative to the game - something about chasing dreams - but it's unfortunately riddled with grammatical errors as English isn't Hong's first language. It's a shame this wasn't tightened up prior to launch, but it honestly hardly matters as the core gameplay is as universal as they come.
Magnetized has been free on Kongregate since April, but only now can it be played on the go. Check out the free version to see if it's your bag.
