Puki busted...

Miscellaneous Forums/General Discussion/Puki busted...

Read it and weep!

If only that website would load.. or did puki steal that website too? :P

Site is very slow at the moment, but I already read about it on tweakers.net.

The game uses screenshots from Oblivion and a lot of other games as well. How was it possible that this reached the market in the first place.

I wonder why you blame Puki for this... Did is miss something on this forum? :-)

Anybody got a link to a different [English] site that actually works? I can't find a spare three or four clear lifetimes in my diary to wait for gameplasma's rodent-powered excuse for a web server to get its arse in gear.

We here at GamePlasma are continually asked to review a bevy of different titles. Occasionally, we run across games from smaller developers that just blow us away with their new and creative ideas. Sometimes we even notice strange things about the games we play. This holds true especially in the case of Eric Franck, Staff Writer, and his attention to detail.

Eric was recently assigned a game developed by Majestic Studios titled "Limbo of the Lost." At first glance, this game appears to be your typical point and click adventure again. This time, however, something seemed oddly familiar to him. Eric, being the avid PC gamer that he is, noticed that there were some similiarties between Limbo of the Lost and The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion.

The first example of this can be seen in the screenshots from Oblivion and Limbo of the Lost below. Notice how everything is placed in exactly the same place and almost all of the textures are identical. In fact, the only real difference is the quality of the texture and overall graphical look. Even the portrait that can be seen under the stairs is exactly the same as the one that can be found in Oblivion. Also, take note of the placement of the rug in the middle of the floor and the placement of the stairways. These similarities lead to many questions. How rampant are situations like this in games that fall under the radar of the typical gaming crowd?


[Images won't load]

Bethesda, publisher of Oblivion, did not have a comment at the time of posting. Tri Synergy, publisher of Limbo of the Lost, also did not have any comments at this time. I can assure you, however, that GamePlasma will stay on top of this and notify you as details are released.

In the next set of images found below, you can see the placement of all the furniture is nearly identical to the placement of the furniture in Oblivion. Notice that the coat of arms on the wall shares the same exact textures as those found in Oblivion. Click the thumbnails for larger images.


http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=310683

Screenshots here: http://www.trisynergy.com/products/screens.asp?id=153

I haven't played Oblivion, so I wouldn't know if it looks the same :)

Here's another site discussing this, including comparison screenshots.

http://forums.beyondunreal.com/showthread.php?p=2142564

Another link.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=310683

What would puki say about all this?

"They have both stolen from my media library! But I shall investigate this and punish both "Bethesda" and "Tri Synergy", they can't escape, I see all and I know all, for I am largeness!"

"I wonder why you blame Puki for this..."


It's a joke I assume. Puki is always talking about how he's yanked this or that asset from some commercial game to use in his projects.

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

O_O

That's just... shameless.

It's been axed: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/limbo-of-the-lost-axed-amid-plagiarism-row

I was just about to start a thread with the exact same headline ;)

Puki always brag about stealing assets from other games, and I've seen him fondle the Oblivion meshes more than once ;)

I just love the text of the designers themselves in fredborg's link a bit up :


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



Designed? Using printscreen button and pasted rather...


"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."



They probably be even stopping their jobs sooner as they would have thougth XD


Amusing lunchtime read, thx.

I find it weird that nobody has mentioned the theft from Blizzard yet..

World of Warcraft official wallpaper:
http://www.wow-europe.com/en/downloads/wallpapers/wallpaper88.html

Every screen in Limbo of the Lost:


Hint, the border art ;)

That's just... shameless.

That's *truly* shameless... they "borrowed" media from at least *four* bestsellers! People have recognized assets from Thief Deadly Shadows, UT2003/2004, Painkiller othen than Oblivion... and blizzard artwork as Ashmantle mentioned. They pushed their luck a bit too much. :)

To be honest it should have looked a bit strange... static 3d renders without antialiasing, sometimes badly photoshopped too, and a poser-like model character which doesn't quite fit in with the rest?

EDIT: there's even weapons and armatures from Morrorwind, and flourish and borders from Diablo 2!

Notice how this behind the scenes only shows character models and not scenery: :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=li6-ewgKupA


Anyway, they put quite an effort into it... I wonder how the graphic artist thought they could do away with it without anyone noticing on the whole internet.

man, I came in here to post this exact joke and this thread already has 18 posts!

I wonder if this is the main company man: http://www.pokerpages.com/players/profiles/46740/steve-bovis.htm
?

If so, he'll be worth pursuing in the courts :)



This made me laugh...

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.


Gordon: During the long gestation for this game, what sort of changes have you made to bring it up to date.

Steve: 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.


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

It would be so much easier to develop games if this was legal :D

hehe, maybe bethseda stole their media ;P apparently they have been making Limbo of the lost for 10 years!!!

My guess is they had were borrowing venture capital and just intended to declare the company bankrupt and hide the "development expenses" in an offshore account somewhere.

Lol - they look shadey as f*ck!! Check the list on Wikipedia ... puts even "Puki" to shame!!!


Controversy

The title features apparently stolen graphics that, according to news site GamePlasma and gaming community NeoGAF, are identical to the game The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.[1] Further screenshots and video have suggested[2] that environments and features have also been stolen from Diablo II, Painkiller, Unreal Tournament 2003, Unreal Tournament 2004, Black & White, Thief: Deadly Shadows, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, Crysis, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, World of Warcraft, scenes from the 1997 film Spawn, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, and other games and movies.



heh, this kind of thing might be perfectly legal soon thanks to the Orphaned works bill. Any art work that isn't copyright registered properly (fee required) will be considered an orphan and anyone can use it as their own.

If it passes the old fashioned copyright rules will no longer count.

More info at:

http://www.sellyourtvconceptnow.com/orphan.html

Well you have to admit that it is really hard to decide who owns what. There are even cases where both parties can prove they owned it at exactly the same time.

In all fairness, fee or not, some sort of registration on property (created) would weed through a lot of crap that is claimed.

"We coined the term iPhone back in the 1920's" just to get a piece of Apple's pie will no longer hold water. They will go back to the records and say
"According to our records, you never had anything to do with the term iPhone, have a good day!"

It's bad enough you spend tons of personal time and revenue to create something just to have it stolen, it's worse when you create it and have to spend twice what you made (not including what you had to spend to make) from the product just to defend yourself against those who want the quick payout of "I came up with that first" when lawyers just settle out of court to shut them up most of the time anyhow.


Lol - they look shadey as f*ck!! Check the list on Wikipedia ... puts even "Puki" to shame!!!



Controversy

The title features apparently stolen graphics that, according to news site GamePlasma and gaming community NeoGAF, are identical to the game The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.[1] Further screenshots and video have suggested[2] that environments and features have also been stolen from Diablo II, Painkiller, Unreal Tournament 2003, Unreal Tournament 2004, Black & White, Thief: Deadly Shadows, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, Crysis, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, World of Warcraft, scenes from the 1997 film Spawn, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, and other games and movies.



LOL

That screenshot is Oblivions shop :)

So what one is puki?





What is most interesting is the silence from Puki's corner... ;-)

I think these guys are innocent, blame their freelance artist :-)

puki's the one at the back, right?

heh, this kind of thing might be perfectly legal soon thanks to the Orphaned works bill. Any art work that isn't copyright registered properly (fee required) will be considered an orphan and anyone can use it as their own.


Interesting... Particularly as there are a lot of international treaties on copyright.

In all fairness, fee or not, some sort of registration on property (created) would weed through a lot of crap that is claimed.

"We coined the term iPhone back in the 1920's" just to get a piece of Apple's pie will no longer hold water. They will go back to the records and say
"According to our records, you never had anything to do with the term iPhone, have a good day!"


Actually, those two things have little to do with each other: trademarks are a whole different issue from copyright. No one has copyright to a name.

June 12, 2008

Tri Synergy Discontinues Limbo Of The Lost On Stolen Asset Allegations

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=18999

Ouch.

What is cool is not always the right thing to do. There's a few lessons to be learned from this story. How about Puki learns to actually make his own content?

So what one is puki?

They're all Puki - that's why he's so Large.

What is most interesting is the silence from Puki's corner... ;-)

I think these guys are innocent, blame their freelance artist :-)

There must be a connection between these quotes... ;)


There's a few lessons to be learned from this story. How about Puki learns to actually make his own content?

Jokes aside, it's quite different from this episode. He only gathered the media for personal use and never published anything with it. It may break some eula's, but it should be perfectly legit.

I think these guys are innocent, blame their freelance artist :-)
If thats the case then i feel very sorry for them. Just goes to show how careful you need to be and get some kind of originality declaration or something for all 3rd party media used.

puki's not really doing anything wrong, he's using media from games he has purchased, as test art, and won't release anything publicly, especially for cash. He uses it for his own pleasure just like many of us do with models etc.

ps hopes he doesn't have to eat his words and puki is in the photo :-)

hehe, maybe bethseda stole their media ;P apparently they have been making Limbo of the lost for 10 years!!!
...eight of which were spent sitting around waiting for Oblivion to come out.

June 12, 2008

Tri Synergy Discontinues Limbo Of The Lost On Stolen Asset Allegations

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=18999

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
leave it to gamasutra to be perusing forums to find a story, and merely copy and past it into their own articles (no rewording at all) :-)

If those three were naive and never saw or played Oblivion etc then I feel sorry for them. Having said that, I'd be really surprised if someone into the kind of game they were making hadn't played oblibion.

Never seen such a dodgy looking trio outside of a spoof east london gangster show or something. The guy on the right looks like he could be one of mad frankie frasers relatives.

what would be REALLY funny is if it were just a re-packaged oblivion disk :-)

"Change a few models, done
re-package, complete
burn cd, done
ship to publisher, annnnnd done
Alright fellas, we just made 1 million by spending 120 bucks for a new main character model! we are geniuses!"

@Dark Half Thats already been done with several games but the original games must be purchased ie that really poor mod(? Expansion) of Painkiller.

Tbh I dont see any issues with repackaged games as long as they dont cost the same price as the original and the Gain and difference are noticable with seconds.(Legal and Promoted by Original Authors) If good enough I would consider buying a second copy.

But these So called Gold Editions or GOTY that just supply oldGame+patches for full retail price are a joke

As For the Media.
Im currently working on a few concepts/apps/games covering RTS/FPS/(TBC/RPG)
Since im a Solo this has no costs and progresses as I learn. But the actual need for good reference material is of the upmost importance.

Ie Currently Im researching MultiMesh/BodyMorphs For the Customisation of Characters so i do have a ton of assets lying around from various games to help me ie reference models,good topology,maximum Uv usage

But to Dream of Sticking them Complete back in a game thats Just Stupid
Come how dumb is it to at least reskin the Models

The Hardest Parts are (Concept/3dDesign) these are the bugbear of all Game Developement.

Textures are nolonger what make the game look good Uvs Can be redone im minutes if not seconds in Maya/Max/Xsi. Unique textures Generated in the Blink of an eye.The Vast amount Tools available for texturing is astounding.

God these Guys were Dumb :(

Yet this is the only post where puki doesn't appear? :)

It seems to me that this game with the plagiarized art is one of those point and click adventures. The graphics might be screenshots from other games and you figure out what you have to click on and stuff.

So, they played around in oblivion, found a good scene that had what they were looking for, screen capped it, and used it in their game.

So, it isn't like they made an Oblivion clone or anything. but, what they did is still wrong, way wrong... Fry 'em.

Yet this is the only post where puki doesn't appear? :)


He isn't posting fullstop. He gone awol :-)

The cheek of these guys is so bad it's crazy, who in their right mind would think that no one would notice. Crazy old fools, send them to the looney farm.

>>Crazy old fools<<

You will be surprised to see what age are majority of many game developers..

I think this was a case of 'let's do it and see if we get caught. If we don't awesome, if we do, we're screwed but we aren't rich anyway so the negatives are easily outweighed by the benefits.'

I wonder if they nicked the sounds too :-)

They never EVER had any way of getting away with that, hehehe.

...and why isn't Puki all over this thread ??



I hate fakers!

Just like Josh from Leadwerks faked his company by providing a picture of INDUSTRIAL BIOTECHNOLOGY CORP. in Sarasota (http://sharesleuth.com/atom.xml scroll down a lot)

lol @ csb_tbl i think it says puki on it if i'm not mistaken.

@kimotech why did you bring that into this thread, its not fair to equate josh to these guys, i don't like josh as much as some but i don't go posting that he's a horrible faker and such. on my website i have a picture of a workstation (not mine), not cause i want people to think i have that workstation but because it implies that i worked on an computer to create my art and games.

I agreed with mtnhome3d, unless Josh claim its his office building or something :)

I'm gonna guess that 'somehow' puki has access to, and therefore control of two logins... and has made atleast one comment in this thread. (not really but i wouldnt be surprised)

All right, i'll post a picture of the Microsoft headquater beside my address and phone number ;-)

It seems to, that there is nothing wrong with that :)

I DEMAND that PUKI makes official announcment aboit this, how is he connected to this, how does he feel abou this, is he larging him about this? Is he going to try to lift the media from limb of the lost to and use them in his own games?

Why silence puki?!?!?!?

Didn't you read the story? The guys are on 'vacation'.. So we'll hear from puki in a week or two ;)

This is the original picture of INDUSTRIAL BIOTECHNOLOGY CORP. in Sarasota:


This is the picture that LEADWERKS have on their company-page:


Leadwerks just erased the logo on the building and changed from GIF to PNG.
(He didn't even change the filename!)

I think it's pretty stupid too, but it's not suprising coming from Joshua Klint & Co.

Puki on vacation without even visiting an internet-cafè, C'Mon !!
..so like I said: *Puki*, comment !!

The pic is a bit silly, but I doubt anyone really believed it was his place of business, and its good to have something to aspire to if thats your thing.

As for Puki, there's a lot worse Puki could have gotten into trouble for online or off thats much worse than ripping off oblivion. Hope he's ok.

With all the content Puki claims to have stolen, he probably read the topic title, boarded up the doors and windows on his house, and is currently hiding under his bed!

I think it is going to be an expensive vacation for puki ;)

if leadwerks/josh built office blocks or leasesd/sold them then this would be a problem but he's a programmer, the stuff he does speaks for itself not pictures of buildings on his website!

Waits for puki's release by the government, brainwashed and probed :-)

This is the original picture of INDUSTRIAL BIOTECHNOLOGY CORP. in Sarasota:


Imagine where you will be and you will be there :D

I thought Leadwerks was next door to that payless shoes on S Rainbow...



moving to new premises too.



@D4NM4N

Did you make that image will Leadwerks new engine?

Well... The photo provided on the leadwerks certainly does look different to the postal address map view... But of course, looks can be decieving. And of course it doesn't actually say anywhere it's Leadwerks HQ.

http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCP&cp=q0mbp65cwszn&style=b&lvl=1&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&scene=5082286&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&where1=3675%20S%20Rainbow%20Ste%20107-104%2C%20Las%20Vegas%2C%20NV%2089103&encType=1

Thats what i said. Leadwerks doesn't own that big building on his web page. It's fake. :-S

@Leadwerks, please change that building just to shut Kimo up, your making his company jealous



LoL great story i wonder how this will turn out :)

And yes you can photos of bikini babes, starships and whatnot on your internet page. The context these are used in and copyright issues make it a possible case for lawyers.
Did he write something like 'This is the Leadwerks building' and put it in a financial plan or something? Does he sell the photo?
If not Kimo i'd say rest your case and start working on your 'engine' and 'company' ;)

i doubt bioworks own the building either
most companies lease room and floors of buildings not own them outright its too much of a financial undertaking

you never know he might have a 'room' there which would validate his claim ... perhaps it says janitor on it ;)

joking aside if he doesnt have a room or offices there the only people who could really be confused are any people visiting him via his postal info and not finding said building infront of them

I found the ending to Puki's game!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URcvdDtnM_0

LOOOLLL :)

The Leadwerks picture is actually just a realtime scene from a simple demo. You've seen those photo vs screenshot comparisons from Crysis too :)

I DEMAND that PUKI makes official announcment aboit this, how is he connected to this, how does he feel abou this, is he larging him about this? Is he going to try to lift the media from limb of the lost to and use them in his own games?

Why silence puki?!?!?!?


Personally, I think this is exactly WHY Puki hasn't posted in this thread; he'd be walking into a minefield!!! Look, I personally don't care if people lift stuff from games, as long as they don't use it in a commercial project. Getting money from someone else's work is wrong, but I don't believe Puki's done anything like that; cool it guys!

As far as this whole Limbo of the Lost thing goes, yeah, that IS pretty bad, and stupid too... I mean, did they actually think they could get away with it?! Some people will do anything...

but I don't believe Puki's done anything like that; cool it guys!

You know that they're joking, right?

It's been over a week. Is Puki usually away from the forum that long?

Interesting...

In gamespot "Limbo of the Lost" is N# 6 in the Most popular Games.

ROFL @ Tab

The developers of Limbo of the Lost also replied on this story, seems like they where unaware themselves...

Click here!

Classic case of buck-passing. Why don't I believe a word of their statement?

If what they say is true then they are completely ignorent