Limbo of The Lost

Plot

Limbo Of The Lost is a point-and-click adventure game, that follows real-life captain of the ship Mary Celeste, Benjamin Spooner Briggs. In 1782 the ship was found empty, leaving no one with any clue what happened to the cargo and crew. The game places Captain Briggs in "The Keep Of The Lost Souls" where he must aid Destiny in its fight against Fate.

Development

Development of the game started in the 1990s for the Atari ST, by Steve Bovis and Tim Croucher. A demo was shopped around to publishers who said they were only interested if the game was complete, with finishing the game in mind the creators attempted to expand their team to complete the game. After attempts to finish the game, it was shelved due to a lack of interest in publishing for the Atari ST platform. Development resumed in 1995, with Bovis, Croucher, and a new teammate began developing the game for the Amiga A500. A publisher was found, but the game was once again canceled due to a lack of interest in publishing for the A500, A1200, and the Amiga CD32. The final chapter began in 2003 when Bovis and Croucher learned of 3D development tools. The game was published in late 2007 in Europe, and in 2008 Tri Synergy said they would publish it for North America.

Plagiarism

On June 11, 2008, gaming website GamePlasma, posted an article showing that several of the static backgrounds in the game were literally made from screenshots of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. After this news hit the web, other people looking into the game found scenes plagiarized from many games, including Sea Dogs, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, and World of Warcraft.

Also the game has plagiarized several aspects of live-action films also, including a scene and dialogue from Spawn, an image from Beetlejuice, and scenes from the first and third Pirates of the Caribbean films. Additionally, the head of a Lord Of The Rings Nazgul was used in a background image as a sculpted bust.

Technique

Upon investigation, it seemed that Limbo of the Lost's developers had taken screenshots from other games, edited them and used them as backgrounds for their own title. Also in many cases, items from other games were screen-capped and used as items the game, or additional "flavour" to the background images.

Response

On June 12th, Tri-Synergy announced that they had stopped distribution of the game while investigating the plagiarism allegations. They also stated they had no idea of the use without permission.

Then on June 24th, Majestic Studios were quoted as saying:

"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. [...] To the best of our knowledge no one at Majestic, [European publisher] G2Games or [North American publisher Tri Synergy, Inc.] knew about this infringement and knowingly played any part in it."

Stolen assets

Opening cutscene: Spawn (1997 movie Director's Cut version)

Flute song: Serious Sam's Indiana Jones easter egg

Main menu interface: The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth

Scenarios: Enclave, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Thief: Deadly Shadows, Diablo II, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Unreal Tournament, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, Silent Hill 4: The Room, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, Painkiller