Kotaku: limbo of the lost

Limbo Of The Lost Devs Protest Innocence

Luke Plunkett — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 21:40:00 MDT

So Limbo of the Lost is a game built upon the bones of other, better games. We've all had a laugh at their expense. But are developers Majestic guilty as charged? They'd like to think that, no, they are not. Not as a whole, anyways. They've today issued a statement claiming they knew nothing of the game's thievery, despite being. You know. The developers of the game.

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, we (the development team) have given our consent and full cooperation to both publishers who are recalling all units from all territories immediately.

Please be assured that we do not condone in anyway the use of unauthorized copyrighted materials and if we had been made aware earlier, we would of course have ceased development of the product and rectified the issue prior to the publication process.

Having had a week to pick over the wording, it's certainly a well-prepared statement, one which basically boils down to "blame the art guys!". Though they seem to be forgetting that, like an elephant, the internet never forgets. Tipster John points us towards this forum post from 2004, in which the game's creator - Majestic's Steve Bovis - takes credit for the creation of the game's background art. Oops.

Limbo of the Lost devs respond to plagiarism charges [GameSpot]
Re: LIMBO OF THE LOST PREVIEW & SCREENSHOTS [Wintermute, thanks John!]
[Image: Acker]

Spoilers: Limbo of the Lost's Terrifying Ending

Maggie Greene — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 16:30:00 MDT

Ok, so don't hit play if you don't want to spoil the ending of Limbo of the Lost, the game accused of grand theft assets from a lot of different games. Reader Ryan M. tipped us off to the two videos, the one above and the one that implies that there could be more Limbo in store; over at Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Kieron Gillen notes that "The pianist is possibly the scariest thing I’ve seen in my life." I'm simply left speechless.

Limbo Of The Lost Creators Made It Themselves

Mike Fahey — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 10:00:00 MDT

Last week we posted a story about Limbo of the Lost, a PC game from Majestic Studios, who have been accused of lifting large portions of other games and placing them directly into their own. While comments from the developers themselves don't seem to be forthcoming, CVG managed to dig up this little gem from an interview in a local paper with the three person dev team from back in early May.

Mr Francis, a former landlord of The Pilot pub, Upper Stone Street, and now a mature student, said: "It is a sort of comedy come horror. A bit like Monty Python meets Evil Dead. "Between the three of us we researched, wrote, designed, animated, scripted and developed the whole game from home."

Seems like comedy come horror is amazingly appropriate for the situation they now find themselves in. Hit the link for a feel-good story that, in retrospect, doesn't feel quite as good.

Pub pals pin hopes on US game success [Kent Messenger via CVG]

So What Else Did Limbo Of The Lost Steal From?

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 04:00:00 MDT

To recap: PC adventure game Limbo of the Lost has been busted stealing art assets from nearly every PC game released in the past ten years. The list of games it stole from - and the way it used said stolen assets - is hilarious. Almost as hilarious as some of the entries in a competition held over at Rock, Paper, Shotgun, to see who could come up with the best "mocked up screenshots for other levels that might have appeared in Limbo of the Lost". Who'd have thought Majestic would manage to steal something from Peggle. I've included a few of the entries here, but really, you should check out the full catalogue of entreies over at RPS. Good times.

Compo Of The Lost Gallery [Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

Cheeky PC Adventure Game Accused Of Grand Theft Assets

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 20:00:00 MDT

To a certain extent, copying in this industry is inevitable. It's a creative industry, built on ideas, and ideas are mostly built on ideas you like that other people had. A nicer way to describe it is the "creative process". But straight-up stealing assets? To the point where almost your entire game - architecture, UI, the works - is built upon other people's work? Less accepted. PC adventure title Limbo Of The Lost, by Majestic Studios - a real, commercial title (hence the legal issues) stands accused of just this, with an original discovery that some locations in Limbo looked awfully familiar to those found in Oblivion leading to discoveries of other parts of the game lifted straight from Morrowind, Silent Hill and Thief, just to name a few. Needless to say, Bethesda's lawyers are now involved. Tri Synergy - the US publishers of the title - have also told us they've "discontinued distribution" of the game, didn't know about the similarities, and are "just as shocked as everyone else" following the revelations.

Limbo of the Lost stole from Oblivion, Morrowind, UT2K4, Diablo, Silent Hill, more? [Bobby1234SI @ NeoGAF]