After an independent game becomes popular, the first thing to follow is not a sequel, but a copycat. “Meccha Chameleon”, a multiplayer hide-and-seek game that has recently become popular on Steam, has attracted a large number of players in just three weeks after its release. Unexpectedly, it has now encountered another more difficult problem. A number of Roblox imitations have emerged one after another, and the total number of players has surpassed the original “Meccha Chameleon”, once again triggering discussions among players about game plagiarism and platform ecology.
In less than a month, Roblox is already full of copied versions
“Meccha Chameleon” focuses on the hide-and-seek gameplay of disguising yourself as scene objects, using drawing tools to color yourself, and integrating with the environment. It quickly became popular with its innovative ideas and sold more than 15 million units in less than a month after its release. However, Roblox soon launched a number of highly similar works such as “Paint or Seek” and “Paint to Survive”, many of which were free to play and successfully attracted a large number of players.
According to tracking data, the total number of simultaneous online players in multiple Roblox imitations has exceeded the number of online players in the original version of “Meccha Chameleon” on Steam. Although a single work has not caught up with the original one, the combined scale is already quite astonishing.
The faster it becomes popular, the faster copycats come.
In fact, “Meccha Chameleon” has only recently sparked discussion due to the emergence of AI fast-following works on Steam. Now a large number of copied versions have emerged in Roblox, which has also made many players lament that as long as a game becomes popular, the time left for the original team to enjoy success seems to be getting shorter and shorter.
Of course, the gameplay itself may not be protected by copyright, but when free imitations appear in large numbers and are even more popular than the originals, the person who is really hurt is often the person who first came up with the idea. It can only be said that in the current game market, “making it fast” may be important, but “being copied faster” seems to be the new fate that hit games cannot escape.