Limbo of the Lost caught with stolen assets

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

I propose a name change for photoshop friday to:  LIMBOSHOP LOSTDAY.

[Anteater]

This is hilarious. Evidently, even the concept art from ten years ago was stolen. The image for Grunger was a traced off of a D&D expansion, and another sketch is a rip off of a character from Legend, an obscure (but very good) fantasy/adventure movie from the 80's. This just keeps getting better and better!

[evenwolf]

And less and less surprising.

[LimpingFish]

From Majestic's official response:

"In response to the shocking notification that some alleged unauthorized copyrighted materials submitted by sources external to the development team have been found within the PC game Limbo of the Lost..."

Translation:

"It was...um...that guy from...Canada...who we hired to do...something...But it wasn't us!"

Shovel/hole/deeper.

[ManicMatt]

*Back from short holiday*

So erm.. what did they make themselves? The end credits?

[Paper Carnival]

Translation:

"It was...um...that guy from...Canada...who we hired to do...something...But it wasn't us!"

Shovel/hole/deeper.

Well, it's the next best excuse one can figure out after "we didn't think anyone would notice" or "we didn't think it was that big of a deal". Did they actually specify who this so-called external source is?

Also, check this out http://lotl.wikia.com/wiki/Limbo_of_the_Lost_Wiki

A collection of all the comparisons.

[evenwolf]

Also, check this out http://lotl.wikia.com/wiki/Limbo_of_the_Lost_Wiki

hahahahaha, the snow they just painted over looks such crap.

[Paper Carnival]

Actually I don't get it. Is this some sort of a publicity stunt or are just plain stupid? And here I was thinking programming requires brains...

That would be because if you look at the forms for Wintermute (the engine for the game) Steve Bovis requested assistance numerous times on help for scripting the code for the game. So they (Majestic Studios, three people) could not even program the game.

So they ripped: Backgrounds, Menu Art, Models, Audio, Video, Concept Art (wtf ) and who knows what else. Add that they couldn't even fully program the game themselves.

Now I only feel sorry for Tri Synergy studios. They're the ones who lose, and they have no fault at all (unless they knew about this, something which we all doubt)

I hope Majestic Studios will end up in Limbo until they make the game from scratch, using their own art, to redeem themselves.

[LimpingFish]

The fact that they were ripping off designs and art back in the '90s, for the Amiga version, makes their claims of an "external" party being responsible for their current situation a little weak.

To say the least.

[Ozzie]

To be honest, I don't think that they ripped this one graphic off in the Amiga version. Sure, the lines are exactly the same, but the colours are totally different, basically they used the outline and redrew the rest.
Not to forget that the Amiga version was never comercially released so we don't know if they would have replaced the image in the final version.
I say this because I'm not sure if Steve Bovis was already that deranged at the time or if it came with the years, whatever. Also, the art direction and the concept arts looked a lot better back then.

You know, those pixelly graphics are a lot easier to accomplish by a single guy than a big bunch of pre-rendered 3D art.
It may be that he ripped those graphics off since he knew he could never accomplish them in a reasonable time, and with a halfway good looking result. He would be right there.
But the puzzles are the high point.
You somehow have to mix a liquid that looks green as a result. You have to give saffron, which is yellow, into water, so it turns green. Uh-huh.........wait, WHAT? WATER ISN'T BLUE!!!

Really, absolutely crazy...

[Paper Carnival]

it IS blue, you fool!

See?

Seriously now, you missed this part, and this.

Notice how the concept art is also ripped off and how it was used in the game. We only have a few Amiga screens, and two of them have plagiarized material. And they're in-game screenshots, I doubt they'd replace that for the final product.

It's wonderful how they even released a DVD with the game that has concept art and bonus features. It seems to me they totally overrated themselves.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

It's pretty clear to me that as amateur developers they expected their adventure game to go under the radar since they aren't that popular anyway and are only reviewed by fringe magazines and websites (unless they are really good).  I think they've gained a lot of unwanted attention.

[evenwolf]

Dude,  there's no way an intelligent fucker would expect EVERY SINGLE PLAYER not to notice one plagiarized image.   I mean I would recognize Oblivion just from the shape of the wine bottles in the background.   This was not brilliant detective work.

Just someone saying, "Uh, that's not yours."   And now its happening thousands of times a day.   If these guys are shocked, the shock should be at the fact that they are such idiots.   They released that stupid statement shirking responsibility.   Even Sandman from Spiderman 3 had a better concocted story than these guys.   There's no way to justify their innocence or their ignorance.   It's just plain "what did you guys expect?"  and then shaking heads.  Unbelievable.

[EldKatt]

Looking at the trailer and screenshots (random example: "You must be of big importantness for them to lock you all up!"), it's kind of a shame that it wasn't released. It must have sucked hilariously.

[Buckethead]

ohw I didnt see those shots from UT2004. I actually know the guy who made the map. It wasn't a commercial project though. But considering that he made it all in his precious spare them it's pretty awfull.

I really really want to know what will happen to these idiots. 

[Ozzie]

Seriously now, you missed this part, and this.

Notice how the concept art is also ripped off and how it was used in the game. We only have a few Amiga screens, and two of them have plagiarized material. And they're in-game screenshots, I doubt they'd replace that for the final product.

It's wonderful how they even released a DVD with the game that has concept art and bonus features. It seems to me they totally overrated themselves.

Well, for more there's still the demo....I'm too lazy to configure an Amiga Emulator for it but it's certainly interesting enough out of morbid curiosity.........I ask myself if the writing was already that bad back then! From the screenshots it looks like it had a parser......man, if they were as lazy back then as with the released version where the character says mainly "Hm......interesting" when you command the character to look at an object or says "That doesn't work" when you didn't guess the right solution then it must have been even worse! There you probably had to guess the right words additionally. Look, yes; examine, no. Ugh.... *shudder*

[Darth Mandarb]

Now I only feel sorry for Tri Synergy studios. They're the ones who lose, and they have no fault at all (unless they knew about this, something which we all doubt)

I have only been keeping up with this topic a little bit ... but if Tri Synergy Studios is the company that produced/distributed the game for them they are every bit as much at fault (in my opinion).

I would never consider [commercially] releasing a game for somebody without thoroughly investigating and testing it to make sure it's legit.

That's like Bush wining, "I received bad intelligence!" trying to lay the blame off on somebody else.

[LimpingFish]

Indeed. A number of these small producer/distributors seem desperate for product, and sign pretty much anything. Something like this was bound to happen, eventually.

To this extent, though? I don't think anybody could have predicted that. And Tri-Synergy really should has spotted it earlier.

[Dave Gilbert]

Most publishers prepare for this kind of thing.  A contract will usually stipulate that the work you're giving them is your own and not stolen.  So that way if you do steal art/assets the it's you who gets sued by the copyright holder and not them.  In addition, the publisher can sue your butt for breach of contract if they are really feeling vindictive.  I doubt any publisher could have prepared for THIS, though.  It's totally unprecedented. 

I can't believe someone made a wiki about this.  This is the biggest thing to happen to adventure gaming since... well, anything.

[Andail]

Either way, that's a crapload of backgrounds. Looks boring as hell!