The developer for the upcoming Super Zoo Story has taken to social media to respond to the building accusations that the game "rips-off"' Stardew Valley. Many Stardew Valley fans have been quick to point out the similarities in art style and graphics for the upcoming open world zoo simulator. In fact, even Stardew Valley creator Eric Barone commented on the similarities. Now, the dev behind Super Zoo Story has shared their thoughts on the whole issue.

In a lengthy letter posted to their Twitter, the folks behind Super Zoo Story addressed the attention that the game was getting. In the post, co-creator Ihor shared that "My wife an I are heavily inspired by amazing games like Harvest Moon and Stardew Valley and we assure you that it was never our intention to copy art from other games. However, we must agree that some of the art appears similar to Stardew Valley."

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After acknowledging the similarities, Ihor went on to explain a little bit about the process of developing a game and how such similarities may have occurred; "Sometimes, as passionate developers, we get tunnel vision and it becomes harder to judge ourselves objectively".

He also notes that in his passion for the project, he may have lashed out in an inappropriate manner and become too defensive. He then goes on to apologize to "anyone and everyone" that may have been hurt in the process, especially the Stardew Valley creator as it was their intention to be inspired by his work and contribute to the genre, not harm or copy it.

Earlier this week the Stardew Valley creator, known on the Internet as ConcernedApe, responded to fans who shared the similarities between his game and Super Zoo. He responded to a Discord message about the game where he acknowledged the similarities and noted that if they did rip off any of his assets he would "not be okay with that at all". He also acknowledged that the game was "confusing" as it could be mistaken for his own work.

In his apology, Ihor did mention that any and all assets that are too similar to Stardew Valley will be redesigned. The developers will also be more transparent in the design process by posting updates about the "reinvented art production and design" for fans to see. At the moment, Super Zoo Story has not announced a release date or which platforms it will be available on.

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