Just how similar is Dream Heights to Tiny Tower?

On January 25th, NimbleBit's co-founder Ian Marsh posted an open letter to Zynga on Twitter, sarcastically congratulating the 2,789-strong studio on the release of its latest game: Dream Heights.

Using a series of damning side-by-side screenshots, Marsh suggested that Zynga's tower-building game is a barely disguised clone of NimbleBit's Tiny Tower.

It was the perfect underdog response: the plucky independent team standing up to the creatively bankrupt corporate giant. NimbleBit's open letter quickly got reprinted on gaming blogs and social networks. But, not everyone was necessarily on NimbleBit's side.

Kotaku, for instance, ran a piece which included an open reply to NimbleBit, pointing out that Tiny Tower "wasn't exactly divinely inspired, either".

That reply suggested several games that may have served as inspiration for Tiny Tower, and included some advice for the indie developer: "If you want anyone to have respect for you guys at NimbleBit, don't whine about these things over the internet."

But, highlighting the fact that Tiny Tower was inspired by other games is missing the point. No matter what language was used in Marsh's somewhat snarky open letter, the allegation Marsh makes against Zynga isn't simply that Dream Heights was inspired by Tiny Tower.

No, the allegation is that Zynga cloned it, taking all of its ideas from a single source and presenting customers with little more than a re-skin.

So, IS Dream Heights just a clone?

First impressions would certainly suggest so, and as you scroll through your vertically stacked apartments and businesses, all perched atop a ground floor lobby and connected by a numbered elevator shaft, the similarities are striking.

(Please note: Tiny Tower is pictured on the left below and in all subsequent screenshot mash-ups. Dream Heights is pictured on the right.)

Were it not for Tiny Tower's distinctive pixel-art aesthetic, you'd barely notice a difference between the two games. The perspective, layout, and on-screen content are basically the same.

As any gamer will tell you, though, it's not the looks, but the gameplay that's important. So, Tiny Tower has you building a tower block floor-by-floor by constructing businesses and accommodation for your residents. And so does Dream Heights.

Tiny Tower allows you to assign each resident a job in one of your tower's businesses, manage stock, and expand ever upwards as you collect money from rent and store profits. And so does Dream Heights.

The mechanics are identical: right down to the details. In both games, each apartment holds five residents. Each store stocks up to three different products. You control the tower's elevator to deliver visitors to their desired floor.

These are not similar ideas. They are the same ideas, implemented in the same way.

Even some of the most incidental elements of Tiny Tower's design appear to have a direct analogue in Zynga's title. For instance, both titles allow the player to scroll downwards from the ground floor lobby to get a look at the earth beneath their residents' feet.

There's no need for players to be able to do this, and both games have their own little joke buried in the mud. Tiny Tower offers those curious among you a glimpse of long-deceased pet skeletons, while the wholesome chaps at Zynga show buried treasure.

However, it's worth pointing out that Dream Heights does offer some features which don't have an equivalent in Tiny Tower. An online storey called the Skybridge injects some light social elements into the game, and the slick Zynga interface differs from Tiny Tower's in terms of both aesthetics and functionality.

And as much as it would probably pain NimbleBit's co-founder to admit, Zynga does include some charming touches in Dream Heights. As your tower grows higher and higher, for example, real-world monuments are displayed on-screen as visual targets to overtake. There's a sense of achievement when you shoot past the Taj Mahal, for instance, or outgrow the Statue of Liberty.

There's just no hiding the fact, however, that Dream Heights is incredibly similar to Tiny Tower. Even in terms of business model.

Both titles are free-to-play experiences, with in-game currency providing the revenue stream for the two developers. The games' respective premium currencies are spent on largely the same in-game actions, such as hurrying construction or quickly moving tenants into a new residence.

And whether you're spending Tiny Tower 'Bux' or Zynga dollars, you can upgrade your elevator speed with premium currency in both games.

Gameloft has enjoyed great success in recent years on mobile, often by delivering smartphone experiences which replicate the gameplay of popular console titles.

It may not be the most honourable way to earn a crust, but Gameloft spotted a demand for these games on other platforms, and set about fulfilling it. Arguably, the consumer wins, then, even if the makers of Grand Theft Auto, Halo, and Uncharted don't.

But, this is different. Tiny Tower and Dream Heights are available on the same digital store, and are competing for the attention of the same group of players.

Those who download Gameloft's N.O.V.A. are unlikely to feel any less inclined to pick up Halo for their Xbox as a consequence.

But, someone who downloads Dream Heights is less likely to play Tiny Tower, or at least less likely to make premium purchases in-game, if they've already done so in Zynga's Dream Heights.

An observer could be forgiven for thinking that Zynga has simply spotted a profitable title and is attempting to muscle its way into a share of the profits, and it's hard to dispute that any success Dream Heights enjoys won't have come at the expense of NimbleBit and Tiny Tower.

NimbleBit fans clearly feel that this is the case, and have taken action to make their displeasure known, with Dream Heights currently taking a battering in the form of one-star App Store reviews.

But, besides anything else, Tiny Tower is the better game. It's simply more charming, more generous, and more compulsive than Zynga's offering, with wonderful graphics and tunes that'll keep you humming for days. Trust me.