Did New Adventure Game Swipe Oblivion Assets?

A new adventure game is in an awkward spot following reports that it has lifted graphics and textures directly from the hit Bethesda RPG, The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion.

Eric Franck, a reviewer at GamePlasma, noticed something "oddly familiar" about the new point-and-click adventure game from Majestic Studios known as Limbo of the Lost. That familiarity turned out to be the result of near-identical similarities between several settings in Limbo of the Lost and The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. GamePlasma posted several examples, which include not just textures and architectural designs taken from Oblivion, but tabletops and bookshelves filled with identical items, set in identical arrangements.

In response to email inquiries, Limbo of the Lost publisher Tri-Synergy said it currently has no comment, but is "conferring with the developer" on the matter and will issue a statement shortly. Bethesda Softworks Public Relations Rep Danielle Woodyatt was a bit more to the point, telling Strategy Informer, "We aren't going to comment. Screens pretty much speak for themselves. Legal is looking into it." Meanwhile, you can look into it yourself here.

Permalink

Did they think nobody would notice? wtf.

I hear one of the developers' last names is Frey.

...At least give ur hot goods a new coat of paint before putting them back on the market :-D

Maybe it'll end up being a collector's item.. before it gets pulled from the shelves, that is :).

Oh dear, someone's gonna get sued...

I wonder if these people began their thieving careers on Deviantart, before graduating up to full corporate piracy. Could this be the start of a trend?

Wow.

That's all I really need to say.

What the guy above me said.

What the guy above the guy above me said.

I have another hypothesis. Limbo of the Lost was purposely set in the most generic and disgustingly unimaginative medieval world one could ever conceive. After the LotL developers painstakingly achieved this goal, the end result looked exactly like Oblivion.

I know, it's hard to believe at first, but I think you'll eventually come around to realize that I'm right. The only crime here is how both games look horribly cliche and unoriginal. ;-)

Limbo no swiping! Limbo no swiping! Limbo no swiping!

Oh...Wow. I've said before that Oblivion could be any fantasy world. These guys obiously thought so too.

"So guys, there's this game out for the PC, PS3, and X-Box 360 that I swear NOBODY plays, and I was thinking..."

These guys must be lazy. I mean I never thought somebody would go so far as to practicly try to sell the same game under a differnt name and say that they made it.

Any more screenshots? Supposedly they ripped from the following games, as well:
- Thief: Deadly Shadows
- Unreal Tournament 2004
- Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines
- Diablo 2
- Silent Hill 3
- Painkiller

And Return to Castle Wolfenstein, apparently. The hits keep coming.

This is absolutely unprecedented in my experience.

Thats Skingrad castle I think, I remember sliting someones throat there!

I can understand oblivion, who plays that. But to intrude upon the awesomeness of THIEF!
The bloody bastards...

The teaser trailer for the game rips scenes from pirates of the caribbean and apparently spawn, but i can't see that one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqwNejK2x6Y

at 1:47 theres a fly past of an island which looks suspiciously like Crysis

Interesting...after 20 years of shooting and fighting in generic brown castles and grey caves, people are just now starting to accuse each other of stealing ideas.

The thing about brown castles or generic green islands is that at a certain point they all start to look the same. Games are inevitably going to have overlap if they keep taking place in the same kinds of environments. You could make a decent argument that a castle or map layout isn't actually protectable (if they ripped their texutres it's a different story). The balance scale is at what point do you start to inhibit game development (and the precious, precious, money) if you let people sue over a castle in one game resembling a castle in another.

Pity they'll probably settle this out of court. It'd be an interesting case.

*edit*

I just got a minute to check the comparisons. Wow...scratch that.

L.B. Jeffries:
You could make a decent argument that a castle or map layout isn't actually protectable (if they ripped their texutres it's a different story).

I'd agree with you if the games were working from a common, real-world example... but in this case it's clear (to me, anyway) that the geometry and textures were simply exported from one title to another. It's one thing if two artists make similar drawings when drawing the same subject; it's another for one artist to photocopy another's drawing and then alter the signature.

-- Steve

Anton P. Nym:

L.B. Jeffries:
You could make a decent argument that a castle or map layout isn't actually protectable (if they ripped their texutres it's a different story).

I'd agree with you if the games were working from a common, real-world example... but in this case it's clear (to me, anyway) that the geometry and textures were simply exported from one title to another. It's one thing if two artists make similar drawings when drawing the same subject; it's another for one artist to photocopy another's drawing and then alter the signature.

-- Steve

Yeah, just got a chance to look them over. Didn't know they were that bad.

http://www.quandaryland.com/jsp/dispArticle.jsp?index=795

Reading this interview, I almost burst out laughing at the irony and sheer hypocrisy the developer showed.

So the question is: was this a single artist who copied it and hoped nobody would notice until he got paid, or was there a specific policy of plagiarism? Not that it makes much difference from a legal perspective.

The funniest quote from one of the interviews

Gordon: So have any more recent games influenced your current project?

Steve: 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. Limbo of the Lost is an experience first and foremost, secondly wrapped up in a game media and genre.

and how the hell did they almost spend 10 years making this? according to the interview

I wonder if anyone at the ESRB noticed this during the review process but then thought "Nah. No one would be that obvious. I must be imagining it."

After finally seeing the comparisons at Gameplasma (my work PC blocks that site so had to access from home) I can honestly say that yep, I think those developers are completely screwed!
Found out what they look like too - three blokes from the pub! Love this article from their local newspaper prior to their "secret" being uncovered (see link). Would be interesting to see if there is any follow-up.
I'll leave you with my favourite quote from the article:

"Between the three of us we researched, wrote, designed, animated, scripted and developed the whole game from home."

http://www.kentmessenger.co.uk/paper/default.asp?article_id=9644&slide_id=1&newspage=2&searchkeyword=&searchpage=1

fix-the-spade:
I wonder if these people began their thieving careers on Deviantart, before graduating up to full corporate piracy. Could this be the start of a trend?

Possibly...

SilentHunter7:

fix-the-spade:
I wonder if these people began their thieving careers on Deviantart, before graduating up to full corporate piracy. Could this be the start of a trend?

Possibly...

Ugh, this isn't looking so good...

Skrapt:
and how the hell did they almost spend 10 years making this? according to the interview

Ctrl + C and Ctrl + V is hard work, guy!

Or maybe they were just waiting for suitable games to be made for them to rip off.

Audio assets too. There are some half-back-masked evil chuckles that are Aaron's ghost from Clive Barker's Undying (by Clive Barker) in both trailers. (See 1:24 approx. in the first trailer. As our hero gets on to the elevator.)

I have to say, I think these guys are genius. Seriously, to repackage someone else's product and sell it as your own takes a lot of balls. Or stupidity. One of the two.