Whenever a game celebrates even a sliver of success on the App Store, you just know that a few fraudulent developers are waiting in the wings to rip-it off and rake in some easy profits.
It just happened to
Topia World Builder, with a scam iPhone app called
Topia World.
Josh Presseisen, founder of publisher Crescent Moon Games, describes the phenomenon as getting "
Temple Run'd", as so many
Temple Run clones "have passed through the approval doors at Apple" (before getting pulled days later).
"In some ways its flattering that another developer would want to copy
Topia," says Presseisen, but he's "curious if the clones actually help the original app or hurt it."
The screenshots are actually from PC games, like Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs
So, rest assured, this £1.49 / $1.99 app has nothing to do with
Topia World Builder. "This game is nothing like it is advertised," one commenter vents. "It's not even good," says another.
If you want the real Topia game, you can download it
here. We said that "if you like your world building open-ended and enjoy experimentation more than actual gameplay, you're in for a right old treat," in our review.
And ignore this clone. It "reminds me a bit of when you'd see movies only out in the theatres available at side street stands as DVD copies," says Presseisen.
GameHubs
