Remember the brouahah that erupted when some people thought that STALKER had lifted a few rather generic textures from other games?
Yeah. Wow.
I looks like something from a clipart library.
I think it’s funny that the publisher never noticed. It means either the publisher’s reps never played Limbo but published it anyway, or they don’t play other games because Limbo rips off enough games that surely, if they played games at all, they would have recognized some of the stolen scenes!
It was explained quickly, at least. This…this can’t possibly have an explanation which will calm down
the attack laywers which must be readied right now. Gonna be a busy month in the courts of Kent.
I hope it doesn’t hurt 1c, they published it in Russia. I dont think I’ve even heard of the other publishers.
I can even see a publisher being fairly clueless about what they’re putting out, but 1c you think would have known better.
Just as an update, NeoGAF found the subway and it’s not in any of the Silent Hills. It’s from Unreal Tournament 2k4.
I would bet these guys don’t think they’ve done anything wrong.
They think it was a ton of work to grab all those screenshots and even change them a bit in photoshop, and then do the poser work, and make sure all the voices played at the right time, and, y’know, make the game work.
One of my colleagues got an original play written by one of her students for a major project. It was Sartre’s “No Exit” with the student’s name on it (I don’t think he even changed the title). He didn’t think she’d notice because, well, it was by some French guy and she taught American drama.
Here’s a thought: what if only one of the three guys is crooked/lazy?
These three buddies want to make a video game, having only a passing knowledge of games at all. They dole out assignments and one of the trio is left with sole responsibility of creating the background images for their point-and-click adventure.
They start toiling away and the other two work start to marvel in wonder at the great and varied work the crooked friend is producing. Crooked friend never realizes how serious the other two are about putting the game out, and gets caught in his own web of lies.
Whaddya think, huh? It’s like Murder, She Wrote over here!
The same guy would have to have been assigned to creating the audio for the game too, since we’ve seen that some of that is stolen too.
I think it’s entirely possible to play through the game without making the connection, unless you’re a hardcore gamer or played the other games very recently. I mean, several reviewers failed to identify the ripped assets as well. The Oblivion backgrounds look pretty generic at a glance and the Diablo ornaments might just as well be any generic gothic ornaments.
Personally, the only one that would’ve instantly gotten my attention was the Keeper Library from Thief, and only because I just played that level a while ago.
Are these the same Steve Bovises?
If the poker guy has lost a lot of weight over the past three years, he could well be the guy in the middle of the article pic.
Personally, I feel bad for games that weren’t ripped off. How’d you feel if you were a developer and heard that some moron had ripped off every game in history…except yours? They’re the true victims in all of this.
More!
So, the developer used this “Wintermute” engine to create his game, and had been active on their forums for years asking questions.
Now the forum wants to know where he is, but he isn’t responding.
However, this is his status, as of today:
Name: SBOVIS
Posts: 404 (0.277 per day)
Position: Frequent poster
Date Registered: June 14, 2004, 10:35:29 AM
Last Active: Today at 10:33:28 AM
Also, here’s the forum. The top banner has already been hacked:
I think you’re on to something there.
According to this:
http://www.pokerpages.com/players/profiles/46740/steve-bovis.htm
He made 257,000 at poker. Enough to pay for 3 dudes to live in a house for a year ripping screenshots and assets to create a game, for sure.
Hacked, or the people running it have a sense of humor.
I like the first response to Bovis’ post re: artists for the sequel:
I like that it’s just promo stills, which make a great meta-joke if intended.
Awesome. :)
Another great post from the dev on the Wintermute boards:
Do we know it’s been hacked? The wintermute forums guys might have a sense of humour…