At Ars, we have frequently addressed the video game industry's persistent issue with blatant game cloning and the evolving legal and ethical landscape surrounding this topic. Recently, however, we encountered an exceptionally clear-cut case of alleged game theft involving the trending iOS App Store title My Baby or Not! This situation appears to have crossed the line from simple cloning into outright code theft from the recent indie web game Diapers, Please!.
The small but passionate five-person team at VoltekPlay developed Diapers, Please! during a recent week-long Game Jam. This engaging game was launched as a free-to-play HTML5 title on itch.io on February 23. The gameplay is straightforward yet captivating, requiring players to choose a baby that resembles the visual traits of two pictured parents, all wrapped in a style reminiscent of the acclaimed game Papers, Please!.
Just three days after the launch of Diapers, Please!, on February 26, My Baby or Not! appeared on the iOS App Store, showcasing screenshots and gameplay that were not merely similar but astonishingly identical to the web release of Diapers, Please!. Alarmingly, both games shared the same description, which reads: “Immerse yourself in an alternative 1920s world where a totalitarian state and impeccable bureaucracy conceal deep secrets.” The premise continues, describing the player's role as the Custodian of Bloodlines at a maternity ward where a fire had destroyed all records, necessitating the manual matching of newborns with their parents.
By Wednesday, the developers of Diapers, Please! took to their itch.io devlog to voice their concerns, stating that the version available on the iOS App Store was simply a copy of their original game, “wrapped in a mobile shell.” They emphasized that this unauthorized port was created without their permission and that the individual who uploaded it had no involvement in the game's development.
In a post on Reddit, VoltekPlay explained that they became aware of My Baby or Not! after noticing a suspicious surge in traffic on their itch.io page, all originating from Google’s organic search results. It wasn't until they added a player poll asking how users found their game that they discovered popular TikTok videos featuring the iOS version. Thankfully, some TikTok users mentioned the original game title—Diapers, Please!—allowing thousands of players to locate the original game. However, it’s conceivable that many others ended up on the App Store page of the alleged thief.
Earlier this week, the iOS version, priced at $2.99, was rapidly ascending the paid games charts, with estimates suggesting it attracted around 20,000 downloads, according to Sensor Tower. The App Store listing attributed My Baby or Not! to Marwane Benyssef, a new iOS developer with little to no prior history in the game development community. Benyssef's only other iOS release, Kiosk Food Night Shift, was launched last August and also seemed to be a direct copy of another game available on itch.io.
In response to the situation, the team at VoltekPlay stated on Reddit that they had filed a DMCA copyright claim against My Baby or Not!. Apple subsequently shared this claim with Benyssef, encouraging both parties to resolve the matter directly. As of this morning, when Ars reached out for a comment, Apple had yet to respond. However, it appears that Apple has removed Benyssef's developer page and all associated games from the App Store.
Apple’s App Store guidelines explicitly instruct developers not to replicate existing popular apps or make minor adjustments to another app’s name or interface to present it as their own. Yet, the prioritization of protection for games released within Apple's ecosystem often overlooks the rights of those creating games using open standards like HTML5. This disparity became evident in 2022 when the web game Wordle inspired numerous iOS copycats, which Apple took days to remove from the App Store.
Interestingly, VoltekPlay noted in their Reddit discussion that their use of the Godot Engine for Diapers, Please! makes it relatively easy for others to decompile and modify their game for different platforms using open-source tools. To combat potential code theft, other developers in the thread recommended using encryption and obfuscation techniques to safeguard their projects.
While it remains uncertain whether Benyssef will retain any revenue from his now-removed iOS titles, it's clear that the original creators at VoltekPlay will not benefit financially from this ordeal. “At this moment, our team has earned $0 and has paid for a lawyer consultation,” they stated on Reddit. Their legal advisors indicated that pursuing the thief in court would be futile, underscoring the ongoing challenges faced by independent developers in protecting their original creations.
