Summary
Palworldwas toPokémonwhatStardew Valleywas toHarvest Moon. These games took basic gameplay elements that seemed like they shouldn’t be owned by any one group and improved the formula to make a better game.
Stardew Valleyfans are lucky that Nintendo doesn’t actually ownHarvest Moonbecause, given Nintendo’sPalworldlawsuits, their favorite farming sim might have run into trouble years ago.
Stardew ValleyWas Inspired byHarvest Moon
The creation ofStardew Valleyis closely tied to theHarvest Moonseries, which has been around for a long time. The game’s developer, ConcernedApe, has said thatHarvest Moonwas a big inspiration for him. He loved the series’ cozy farm settings and the way it mixed farming with life simulation. However, he also felt that laterHarvest Moongames weren’t as good as the older ones because they became less creative, gave players fewer choices, and forced them through long, boring tutorials.
The classicHarvest Moonexperience is all about running a farm. Players had to grow crops, raise animals, and get to know the people in town. These games move slowly, letting players take their time to build up their farm. Later games started adding more restrictions, like forcing players to follow a set story or making them go through long tutorials before they could really play.Stardew Valleyfixes many of these issues. It keeps the same basic farming mechanics but makes everything smoother and easier to use.
Stardew Valleyalso balances its pacing well, mixing slow farming with other fun activities like exploring, crafting, and talking to villagers. It also adds extra things to do, like fishing, mining, and fighting monsters. The farming sim has benefited fromStardew Valley.However, it’s arguable thatthe cozy sim genre owe its popularity to this indie hit.
Nintendo’s Trademark Lawsuit AgainstPalworldSpeaks Volumes
Nintendo’s strong legal action against Pocketpair, the studio behind the monster-collecting gamePalworld, shows how complicated and risky intellectual property protection can be in the video game industry.Stardew Valleyreceived no lawsuit notices despite openly being inspired byHarvest Moon.
The lawsuit, which started in September 2024, wasn’t about copyright issues, it was about patent infringement. This is an important difference because Nintendo didn’t just go after obvious similarities in how characters or designs looked (which would be a copyright claim). Instead, it claimed thatPalworldcopied specific, patented game mechanics, like how monsters are caught and moved around.
Not many would think that basic gameplay mechanics like movement would be the issue. Instead of fightingPalworld, Nintendo is fighting every game that is close toPokémon Legendsbecause that’s the company’s venture into the 3D space. In my opinion, any company aggressively patenting basic gameplay ideasis bad for the gaming industry.
Nintendo’s case focused on the similarities betweenPalworld’s “Pal Spheres” and Pokémon’s Poké Balls and how players capture and interact with creatures. Nintendo argued thatPalworld’s systems worked too much like Nintendo’s patented designs, making it an infringement.
Nintendo didn’t go afterCassette Beasts, a game that looks and acts far more likePokémonthanPalworlddoes. It went afterPalworld, a very popular game that gave players the adult monster-catching game they wanted.
Nintendo chose to go after a successful franchise that could compete with its franchise, which reveals something about how the company thinks. In my opinion, it is less about stoppingPalworldbecause of true infringement and more about making sure no one can enter a genre and compete withPokémon.
EvenMinecraftWasn’t Completely Original
Minecraftwas a huge success, but people often forget that its beginnings weren’t all that original, just likeStardew Valley. Even though it became a groundbreaking game, its development history shows clear inspiration from earlier games. This proves how smart changes and unique design choices can turn familiar ideas into something completely fresh.
Markus “Notch” Persson, the creator ofMinecraft, has openly admitted where the original concept came from. One major influence was a 2009 multiplayer game calledInfiniminer, which randomly generated worlds of blocks that players could destroy.
However,Minecraftwasn’t just a copy ofInfiniminer. Minecraft’s brilliance came from takingInfiniminer’s basic ideas and expanding upon them, adding key changes that made the game feel entirely different. UnlikeInfiniminer, which was focused on competitive multiplayer,Minecraftstarted as a single-player game that emphasized exploration and creativity. Persson also mixed in elements from other types of games, like role-playing progression and survival challenges, adding features thatInfiniminerdidn’t have, like the ability tohost a server.
Minecraftcan’t be played likeInfiniminer, the same wayPalworldcan’t be played likePokémon; they only look similar. It would be hard to imagine theInfiniminercreator suing Notch (ifInfiniminerwasn’t open source) just because some aspects are similar or because the concept inspiredMinecraft.
The way video games develop over time is hardly ever a straight line of completely new ideas;Stardew Valley,Minecraft,SimCity, and more prove that. Instead, it’s more like a back-and-forth mix of copying and improving, where popular games often become the starting point for future ones.
Games likeDOOMandQuakewere groundbreaking in their time, but they set up basic mechanics that later games used as a foundation. Titles likeHalf-LifeandCall of Dutytook elements from those earlier games but added their own unique touches.Half-Lifehad story-driven gameplay,Call of Dutywith its realistic military action and the rise of competitive online modes. Even though these games relied on existing ideas, they still managed to create their own style, making the shooter genre better.
This same pattern of borrowing and improving shows up in many types of games. Real-time strategy games, for instance, have changed a lot sinceDune IIfirst appeared. Later games likeCommand & ConquerandStarCraftkept the same basic RTS structure but added new features like different factions, high-tech units, and fresh gameplay twists. There are plenty oficonic games you didn’t realize were knockoffs.
Competition isn’t always a bad thing, it creates a cycle where developers take ideas from successful games, change them, and make them even stronger, is good for the industry. Unfortunately, Nintendo is huge and has used its power and connections to stifle competition before. To name a few examples listed from theConsole Warsbook by Blake J. Harris (one ofthe best books to learn the history of gaming):
Nintendo put in patentsafterPalworldwas released, meaning Nintendo did not own those gameplay elements, which is a fishy thing to do when a game becomes competition with one of your biggest IPs. It shows how far Nintendo will go to protect any property from true competition.
I’ve named plenty of games that took basic elements and built upon them to form the industry we know today. IfStardew Valleyor any of those games were scrutinized like this, they most likely would not have been made, or at the very least faced legal challenges that led to their shutdown.
