Today while browsing Hacker News, I came across a post from the creator of 2048, about how he built the game in a weekend just for fun as a side project. All he did was post it into the Designer news (not with the intention to promote it) to get a feedback, and it burst out.

Those of you who don’t know 2048 is an addictive puzzle game - inspired by threes as the author attributes.

The game eventually became a huge hit. It made to the top of Hacker news and became the third most upvoted content in that site. News sites covered it, and even the creators of Threes, the Game 2048 was based upon, showed an concern about how their true hardwork is covered up by the clones and ripoffs. This isn’t the first time a Side project making its way to the top of something. We have seen, yinstant (claimed to be built in 3 hours), Flappy bird, and many others. These kind of projects are sensational hit and not only gaining fame to its creators, but also makes a big way for lot of copycats.

For instance, once the ytinstant became an hit, new sites emerged for creating instant results for many major sites. After Flappy bird was taken down from playstore by its author new clones started cropping in which even made Google and Apple to block any apps with the name Flappy in their respective app stores. 2048 wasn’t an exception either, once it is widely recognized as addictive and everyone are loving it, people started to develop clones and mobile app based on the game in which one of the app even became the top of the chart in the play store.

One way, I think the reason for these copycats emerging out of an hit product is maybe because it is an Side-project to its creators? Because, no one cares about copyrighting, advertising, and properly registering a project they worked just for fun. They don’t realize it was a mistake until it becomes an talk of the town. But one thing to note here is, none or most of the founders of these insanely hit projects doesn’t care much about fame / money. They think its fun to code and so they do it.

Think of it, what if Flappy bird was advertised and marketed and filled with features? It is highly doubtful that it would have garnered such popularity. The Irony here is, indeed copying the success product, people has started to do side projects more and more thinking that it may be a huge hit as one of these.

Well, Best of luck to them.

This clearly shows that something you do with love and passion will payoff even you do nothing but build with love and care.