It's obviously a very hurtful situation for the indie team, as they themselves say
We have to rely on storefronts like the App Store to better curate their content.- Unpacking ? January 25, 2022 This is what our notifications look like right now - and this is just the past 12 hours! /2VxOJnYNUO- Unpacking ? JanuWe're a tiny indie team and even with the success we have achieved, we still don't have the resources to pursue companies trying to use our game's distinct look and feel to make a quick buck. It then goes on to highlight similarities with side-by-side comparison showing art from each game: In fact, they've been advertising so heavily that we're drowning in alerts from concerned fans encountering these ads on TikTok. Witch Beam goes on to say that they have obviously seen plenty of imitators already, but that this one is particularly bad as it's gained a ton of traction and been aggressively advertised on both TikTok and Instagram. They sure seem to want to give the impression that it is, though! ? /d3ULxxbmSA- Unpacking ? January 25, 2022
If you've happened to catch an ad for a suspiciously similar-looking game to Unpacking? on mobile recently, please know that this is not our game. To the untrained eye, the rip-off - which is very cheekily titled "Unpacking Master" - looks pretty much identical to Witch Beam's game in screenshots provided by the dev, albeit without the stylised pixels of the original. Now, however, Witch Beam has taken to social media via the game's official Twitter account to warn fans of an "ad-riddled" knock-off of Unpacking which has shot up the charts on both the iOS App Store and Google Play store. We gave it a fabulous 9 out of 10 in our glowing review, saying that it "deftly applies established game design ideas from completely different genres."
Indie developer Witch Beam's Unpacking was one of the surprise gaming hits of 2021, at once a relaxing zen-like puzzler, creative and delightfully tactile play space and thoughtful musing on the unstoppable passage of time. Update: Unpacking Master has also now been removed from the Google Play store, meaning it's no longer available there or on iOS, great news for Witch Beam and good work everyone who got in there and lodged a complaint! Image: Witch Beam