6waves Lolapps defends plagiarism accusations

6waves Lolapps, the studio behind Ravenwood Fair, has defended itself from accusations of plagiarism after the release of its first iOS title, Yeti Town.

When the game hit the app store in December, 2011, some players noted a similarity between it and Spry Fox's popular Facebook title Triple Town, which operates on many of the same 'match three' mechanics.

At that point, Triple Town was a Facebook only game, but now the title has seen its own release on the App Store, the accusations take on even greater import, especially given the recent controversy over Zynga's Dream Heights and its alleged similarity to Tiny Tower.

Yeti Town was developed by recent 6waves Lolapps acquisition Escalation, which had originally begun work on it as an inter-project experiment not meant for publishing. However, playtesting proved the game's appeal and it went on to become the parent company's first foray into the mobile market.

Speaking as part of an interview with Gamasutra, chief product officer of 6waves Lolapps Arjun Sethi defended the decision to take the app to the storefront.

"There are a lot of other match-three games out there that are similar, and I think that being criticized like that is just part of a natural process," said Sethi.

Escalation's Mark Tardiff sees no issues with the two games' similarities, either, explaining that he would like to see their development diverge as the titles mature.

"Even if you look at something like Minecraft and Infiniminer," Tardiff told Gamasutra. "They started off in similar places, but Minecraft has evolved so much in the last year or so into something completely different, and we want Yeti Town to take the same approach."

Spry Fox has been contacted for further statement on the defence.