Register, Others Call Plagiarism in "Limbo of the Lost" Game

Fallen Andy writes "'The Register' has an article describing 'Limbo of the Lost' (developed by Majestic and sold in the U.S by Tri Synergy) which seems to have 'borrowed' copiously graphics assets from other games. Over at the GamesRadar forum there is a thread with some screenshots. Finally, this game has its own Wikipedia entry. Warning to all — move the soft drink away from the keyboard and monitor before you look at those screenshots. Blatant this is, very blatant indeed."

I don't see what the big deal is

The original creators of that stuff didn't lose anything, its all bits man.

Re:I don't see what the big deal is

I know you were going for humor, but even people who download music, etc. aren't taking credit for creating said music.

Re:I don't see what the big deal is

Most important they don't try to make any money off of it.

Re:I don't see what the big deal is

The problem with your analogy is that they are making a profit on it (well, they won't now). The people who use the argument you are talking about for copying music/games/etc don't turn around and make mixed CDs, package them, and sell them as their own work (except puff daddy).

Re:I don't see what the big deal is

And furthermore copyright law has been subverted by corporate interests and is just a shadow of what the found fathers wanted it to be. Copyright is OUR rights not theirs it makes sure WE get the copyrightable content but it has been changed around to give CORPORATIONS all the control.

Guess what? The CORPORATIONS that own this stuff are composed of people and owned by people. You can become one of those people for about $50 a share. A corporation is the modern expression of the Right of Free Assembly, and is used to administer cooperative division-of-labor and ownership of property.

Would you prefer that property can only be owned whole, by single individuals? Do you realize that it would be impossible to undertake any large, capital-intensive project in that environment?

Re:I don't see what the big deal is

That wasn't thunder you just heard, that was something breaking the sound barrier as it went over your head.

Re:I don't see what the big deal is

so all corporations are teh evil incarnate eh?

Am I an evil corporate scumbag because I own a limited liability company? Am I magically less evil if I make the same games as a sole proprietor? Or is all commerce evil and only working for free in a hippy commune an acceptable way to live?

These guys were scum who took other peoples hard work and tried to profit from it. They should be sued to death. If you tolerate this, then that means you would prefer all modern games to just be re-mixes of the 8 bit textures from games of twenty years ago. After all, why the hell put any effort into creating original stuff when you can just rip off people who can do better work than you.

Re:I don't see what the big deal is

Except one's breath.

Hey, as long as you were getting philosphical...

Screenshots

It's all screenshots from Oblivion, Thief 3, Unreal Tournament series, Diablo, and other games. Limbo Of The Lost doesn't render those things in 3D but uses it as background image for the adventure game. Really lame that the developers of that game thought they were going to get away with it. I wonder what was going on there, they couldn't find a graphics artist to draw the backgrounds so they just photoshopped screenshots from other games together. Still a bit of a shame for the (if there were any) good points of the game, that are now gone down together with the whole game due to this plagiarism.

If you steal from one or two it's plagiarism

Three or more, it's research.

It isn't "borrowing"...

...it is sampling, just like in the music industry.

For example, listen to the opening sequence of Queen's Under Pressure featuring David Bowie. Then, after having your stomach pumped as a precaution, the opening bits of Vanilla Ice's Ice, Ice Baby.

For the Google impaired, here is a YouTube link [youtube.com] doing a comparison.

Just equate Limbo of the Lost with Ice, Ice Baby and you will understand. Of course, that would mean Majestic Studios is really Vanilla Ice...

Re:It isn't "borrowing"...

I dunno... It would require listening to Vanilla Ice... Is it okay if I just take your word for it?

Re:It isn't "borrowing"...

For example...

You are aware that Vanilla Ice reached an out-of-court settlement [wikipedia.org] with the copyright holders of "Under Pressure" for using the material?

The worst part is ...

... The scene where the protagonist is leaping over barrels thrown by a large orangutan. It's a dead giveaway.

Hard work, though...

Heh, that's some of the hardest work I've seen gone into plagiarism. That is, outside of academia and Hollywood and politicians where everyone pretty much copies everyone else...

Limbo of the Lost Graphics

It's about an adventurer who wanders from game to game to solve the mystery of the plagiarised graphics.

Interview with the designers

"Our hope, if everything goes well with the sales, is that within a year we will all be stopping the day jobs and doing this full time." [kentmessenger.co.uk]

Epic

Bits from interview with the game creators

"everything was re-written from the ground up, everything apart from the initial concept and some character design ...and the rest is history."

"The project is more influenced by film and literature rather than other games, we want the experience to be as original as possible and as such we have made a calculated effort to keep away from other games in the genre."

"All of the game (apart from initial background story and some character designs) had to be re-written, all the characters had to be created in 3D and animated, all the background scenes re-created, all the sounds, coding and music?..basically everything had to be redone or newly created for the PC version. This is not an old game that has been dressed up. This is the original concept, dusted off and re-created."

Also, the game has been in production for 10 years and rewritten few times. I think these guys deserve a "Hard core audacity" award...

Full Article [quandaryland.com]

So I guess...

...it's OK to pirate this one then??

I can see how this could happen...

Not that I approve. Some people can write code, design game concepts etc but be incapable of drawing pictures. When I look at the photo of the 3 main developers I don't see a picture that looks like three guys that would play typical cutting edge games. They come up with game logic that kinda works but is butt ugly. They hire someone who claims they are a shit hot CG artist, complete with examples of "their" work. This person then proceeds to rip other peoples' work.

The developers are of course stoked by the amazing art "developed" for their game, and give lots of bonuses. Then they discover that they've been sounded robbed, as their game (and their reputations) are soundly denounced.

I'm not saying this has happened in this case, but I've seen scenarios like this before (when I did work in the games industry).

I'm also not saying that this justifies it. If anything it reveals "technology blindness" where the developers are so in love with their own product that they don't bother looking at what else is on the market.

Re:Oblivion

I'm guessing the company that made this game will be sued into oblivion

Re:Oblivion

But it's already got Oblivion in it... that's going to be a nasty feedback loop.

Re:Oblivion

FWIW, "Limbo of the Lost" is a 1990s-era point-and-click adventure game with static backdrops, and those backdrops just happen to be screenshots of other games.

Even if they hadn't plagiarized other games, I can't see anyone buying the piece of crap. Everything about it - plot, graphics, audio, game engine - reeks of amateurism.

Re:Sad

There are no 'Devs'. This was done by 3 con-men who apparently met a pub. If you dig though some of the links and other forums about this mess you can get more of the pathetic details.

They used an out-of-the-box-create-your-own-2.5D-adventure software and just imported in screenshots from other games. I don't think any of them know a lick about coding whatsoever.

It's amazing that these guys got published when some real independent shops with real talent can't get anything going.

Re:Instant legend

Antiques Road Show - 2085 AD

Expert: I say, that's a jolly good thing, a shrink-wrapped copy of the infamous "Limbo of the Lost" game!

Owner: Why? Is it famous?

Expert: Well, you see, the creators of the game (and I use the term "creator" generously here) basically stolen static screen shots from a number of other games, and using a crappy adventure game generator, produced this wonder, which they actually managed to get published and distributed.

Owner: So how much is it worth?

Expert: A top-notch undamaged shrink wrapped copy like this would go at auction for at least three million dollars!

Owner: Wow! I mean wow wow wow!

Expert: Indeed...

Owner: So what about this shrink-wrapped copy of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion?

Expert: I'll give you twelve bucks.