Do you guys think this game could end up removed from the store?

[Juliano]

With all the controversy and stuff... I am waiting for my payment to buy it, but I wonder if it may not survive the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥...

[Kashra Fall]

It's entirely possible. Copyright infringement doesn't work well with steam if it is reported/investigated throughly. There was a game that was released a few months back, a Mongul survival game that was removed from steam completely out of the blue. Why? It had an ex ARK survival evolved dev on the team that openly used the code ARK used in their new game. Well even if they helped develop the code, they did so under a company contract, so they no longer owned it and it cause a copyright infringement incident and the game wasn't pulled, but it was ceased from being purchased while the investigation was going on (It still is.)

[Phobos]

Originally posted by Wicked Sick:

With all the controversy and stuff... I am waiting for my payment to buy it, but I wonder if it may not survive the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥...

Or another option:

1) remove current version
2) re-release as an early access

[Corgi-Beast]

Most of their animations are stolen from other games. Even the flashing stab of the big monster is from the monster hunter. They tried to hide it with over-the-top flashes of lightning.

This is an obvious asset rip game. It'll take just 1 company to send them a letter and steam will remove it from the store just like they did with "Myth of Empires".

With the amount of evidence, it's game with obvious copyright hell.

[Juliano]

Originally posted by Kashra Fall:

It's entirely possible. Copyright infringement doesn't work well with steam if it is reported/investigated throughly. There was a game that was released a few months back, a Mongul survival game that was removed from steam completely out of the blue. Why? It had an ex ARK survival evolved dev on the team that openly used the code ARK used in their new game. Well even if they helped develop the code, they did so under a company contract, so they no longer owned it and it cause a copyright infringement incident and the game wasn't pulled, but it was ceased from being purchased while the investigation was going on (It still is.)

Wow, didn't know about this story, sad for them and for those new BFF's devs also. Hope everything turns out alright. Game seems fine given the small team, despite bugs I have read about,

[Phobos]

Originally posted by Vaflis:

sad old repeating song.

Think we've gotten your stuck swane-song from the previous hundreds of replies.

[Juliano]

Originally posted by Vaflis:

Most of their animations are stolen from other games. Even the flashing stab of the big monster is from the monster hunter. They tried to hide it with over-the-top flashes of lightning.

This is an obvious asset rip game. It'll take just 1 company to send them a letter and steam will remove it from the store just like they did with "Myth of Empires".

With the amount of evidence, it's game with obvious copyright hell.

I loved Elden Ring and I love Monster Hunter. Do you have the MH comparison?

[Corgi-Beast]

Originally posted by Wicked Sick:

Originally posted by Kashra Fall:

It's entirely possible. Copyright infringement doesn't work well with steam if it is reported/investigated throughly. There was a game that was released a few months back, a Mongul survival game that was removed from steam completely out of the blue. Why? It had an ex ARK survival evolved dev on the team that openly used the code ARK used in their new game. Well even if they helped develop the code, they did so under a company contract, so they no longer owned it and it cause a copyright infringement incident and the game wasn't pulled, but it was ceased from being purchased while the investigation was going on (It still is.)

Wow, didn't know about this story, sad for them and for those new BFF's devs also. Hope everything turns out alright. Game seems fine given the small team, despite bugs I have read about,

If he's talking about "Myth of Empires", that game is dead. They failed to prove its original code in court, acted weird about it, and lost the case or something.

Originally posted by Wicked Sick:

Originally posted by Vaflis:

Most of their animations are stolen from other games. Even the flashing stab of the big monster is from the monster hunter. They tried to hide it with over-the-top flashes of lightning.

This is an obvious asset rip game. It'll take just 1 company to send them a letter and steam will remove it from the store just like they did with "Myth of Empires".

With the amount of evidence, it's game with obvious copyright hell.

I loved Elden Ring and I love Monster Hunter. Do you have the MH comparison?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arcpDZU710g
slow down to 0.25.

not that we need any evidence.
Just compare any other "compare" animation done properly 1:1

https://imgur.com/a/OdsmR4Z
https://i.4cdn.org/v/1678529210230007.webm
https://i.4cdn.org/v/1678529134488882.webm
https://i.4cdn.org/v/1678572514636630.webm

[Kashra Fall]

Originally posted by Vaflis:

Originally posted by Wicked Sick:

Wow, didn't know about this story, sad for them and for those new BFF's devs also. Hope everything turns out alright. Game seems fine given the small team, despite bugs I have read about,

If he's talking about "Myth of Empires", that game is dead. They failed to prove its original code in court, acted weird about it, and lost the case or something.

I was indeed! I didn't know they failed the court case. Pity, the game looked rather interesting. Kind of like a mix of Mount and blade and conan exiles.

[amrulez]

The devs already explained that they purchased some of the animations in question. Was that true? They are also releasing patches and will be doing so every week until the game is right. Worth at least waiting around to see how much they improve the game.

[Wype]

i don't think it will get removed to be honest (although devs should take it down, finish it and then re-release it)

With game development you can buy assets weather it being models, animations or music. Majority of these company lease the same assets to multiple devs and is surprisingly common in indie games you just dont pay attention to it as much.

As silly as this game is, I would hardly think that this studio went and copy pasta'd the biggest game of 2022 knowingly...

the question is... did FromSoft create those animations themselves from scratch? or did they bring in another company to make them ... which may have also sold those duplicate animations to bleak faith devs.

[Corgi-Beast]

Originally posted by amrulez:

The devs already explained that they purchased some of the animations in question. Was that true? They are also releasing patches and will be doing so every week until the game is right. Worth at least waiting around to see how much they improve the game.

And they never played Elden Ring/Dark souls or any of those types of games to recognize stolen assets that seem this game was inspired by... suuuuuuure....
They never saw anything sketchy looking at the most iconic attack patterns found if those games... suuuuuuure.... None of them.... suuuuuuure....

Even making the same size of monsters for those animations was just a coincidence... suuuuuuure....

[Chacheya1G]

Originally posted by Wype:

i don't think it will get removed to be honest (although devs should take it down, finish it and then re-release it)

With game development you can buy assets weather it being models, animations or music. Majority of these company lease the same assets to multiple devs and is surprisingly common in indie games you just dont pay attention to it as much.

As silly as this game is, I would hardly think that this studio went and copy pasta'd the biggest game of 2022 knowingly...

the question is... did FromSoft create those animations themselves from scratch? or did they bring in another company to make them ... which may have also sold those duplicate animations to bleak faith devs.

FromSoft created these animations from scratch, and a guy on twitter even showed how they are ripped of from their games using a tool. The "From bought them from the same guy!" defense is honestly, something only a naive little kid could fall for.

[Wype]

Originally posted by Chacheya1G:

Originally posted by Wype:

i don't think it will get removed to be honest (although devs should take it down, finish it and then re-release it)

With game development you can buy assets weather it being models, animations or music. Majority of these company lease the same assets to multiple devs and is surprisingly common in indie games you just dont pay attention to it as much.

As silly as this game is, I would hardly think that this studio went and copy pasta'd the biggest game of 2022 knowingly...

the question is... did FromSoft create those animations themselves from scratch? or did they bring in another company to make them ... which may have also sold those duplicate animations to bleak faith devs.

FromSoft created these animations from scratch, and a guy on twitter even showed how they are ripped of from their games using a tool. The "From bought them from the same guy!" defense is honestly, something only a naive little kid could fall for.

Well i suppose time will tell, but i would expect this game to be gone already if Fromsoft did make the animations themselves. It is far more common even in big studios to lease out the donkey work to studios that specialize in animations (in this case).

Trust me im not trying to defend this garbage game... it is complete trash and devs were extremely lazy.
But the argument about assets stealing is silly without knowing the details, and if you know anyone in game development you would know it is an extremely common practice to lease out work such as animations to 3rd party companies... even the big companies do it.

[Kul The Swordsman]

Originally posted by amrulez:

The devs already explained that they purchased some of the animations in question. Was that true? They are also releasing patches and will be doing so every week until the game is right. Worth at least waiting around to see how much they improve the game.

If the animations they are reffering to was from some Unreal Marketplace pack, this can be true. I remember there was some problems rised after one of the monthly free animation pack having stolen/ripped off animation sets couple of months ago. I think Epic removed those and sent developers emails if the said pack(s) downloaded; informing there were copyright issues and they should not use the said pack (I know this because i am also an indie dev myself working with Unreal)

It is at least good idea to let these developers try to fix it, if that is the actual issue. I hope Steam does not crucify them too fast and let them prove themselves and let them fix their game.

Unfortunately as an indie developer you can not make everything by yourself and definetely can not hire different people to have all of your assets unique to your own. Marketplace assets are the only affordable option if you want at least some quality. Also, maybe because it is harder to notice but lots of AA; even some AAA companies are using ready to use assets, mostly for some ordinary props. So not every game using marketplace assets are asset-flips.

[Vell]

Originally posted by Wype:

Originally posted by Chacheya1G:

FromSoft created these animations from scratch, and a guy on twitter even showed how they are ripped of from their games using a tool. The "From bought them from the same guy!" defense is honestly, something only a naive little kid could fall for.

Well i suppose time will tell, but i would expect this game to be gone already if Fromsoft did make the animations themselves. It is far more common even in big studios to lease out the donkey work to studios that specialize in animations (in this case).

Trust me im not trying to defend this garbage game... it is complete trash and devs were extremely lazy.
But the argument about assets stealing is silly without knowing the details, and if you know anyone in game development you would know it is an extremely common practice to lease out work such as animations to 3rd party companies... even the big companies do it.

The details we have is that the developers bought assets from the epic games asset store from an uploader who supposedly already had a history of ripping animations from other games which let to some of his uploads being removed for infringement reasons, so at best the developers just did poor research to ensure what they are buying is actually legit.

But I personally dont buy the excuse that it was purely in ignorance or that they themselves havent even played the fromsoft games so they couldnt notice because they just so happen to have the abyss watcher enemy moveset applied to a design that pretty strongly resembles the abyss watchers from dark souls 3 themselves.

The strong evidence is now though that the game is running on infringing assets, intentional or not, and what any self respecting developer would do is to take the game from the store and work things out to make sure they arent trapping themselves in a huge potential legal struggle. Trying to defend themselves by saying they didnt know and they technically got the assets from an official store is not going to help them in such a case.