Nimblebit lashes out at Zynga over Tiny Tower clone

News by Brenna Hillier Contributor

Published on Jan. 25, 2012

Tiny Tower developer Nimblebit doesn't seem at all happy about Zynga's latest mobile effort, Dream Heights.

Designer Ian Marsh, one of Nimblebit's three staff members, posted a letter to Zynga on Twitter, embedded below.

"Dear Zynga, (all 2,789 of you!)" it begins. "We noticed you are about to launch a new iPhone game called Dream Heights! Congratulations!

"We wanted to thank all you guys for being such big fans of our iPhone game of the year Tiny Tower! Good luck with your game! We are looking forward to inspiring you with our future games!

"Sincerely, (all 3 of us) - Nimblebit."

The text is superimposed around side-by-side comparison screenshots of Tiny Tower and Dream heights, showing marked similarities - and not just in terms of basic premise; even some of the GUI elements are noticeably homogenous.

Zynga has come under fire in the past for pushing the boundaries of derivative, and has also itself taken competitors to court over games which share too many common elements.

Tiny Tower won Apple US's iPhone game of the year, and clocks up over 10 million play sessions per day.

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