“Good Artists Copy, Great Artists Steal”

That quote from Steve Jobs in 1996 holds true for more reasons than are apparent at first thought.

I’m currently working towards completing my first ‘real’ game on iOS but with a 2 person team it will take an exhaustive amount of work to produce something that fulfils our vision.

Cutting scope is the easiest thing to do but also shortsighted. Chopping off features limits your ability to compete in this highly competitive market. You need to ship something, but can’t afford to cut vital features.

Originality is overrated. It is high risk and an uphill battle. People (for the most part) cling to the familiar so producing a game that is utterly unique and original is like trying to replace thanksgiving turkey dinner with tofu and seaweed salad. Thank you for trying but what I really wanted was turkey.

The better approach is to take what you can from the existing best of the best and find areas you would like to improve upon and then work towards that goal. Having actual physical manifestations of similar products and features vastly reduces the burden of figuring out how to steal them for yourself.

Starting with the reference for 90% of the work removes the need to communicate how every detail needs to work and so you can get right to implementing it. The few unique parts you bring to the table serve to evolve the platform and make your game even better.