Soulslike game Bleak Faith: Forsaken was released earlier this week on Steam to some rather negative backlash. Not only are Steam users complaining about the game’s bugs but the developers have come under fire for reportedly stealing Elden Ring assets in order to help make the game.
For those who don’t know, Meowmaritus is a well-known Dark Souls modding developer who created a tool called DS Anim Studio. It is a tool used to aid in exporting animations from certain games in order to use them across other content. For example, you can export the character’s running animation, sword attack and perhaps a blocking of a shield. These animations can then be mapped to new models on other software and games.
READ MORE – The Pokemon Company is Dabbling in NFTs and The Metaverse
With that in mind, Meowmaritus posted a video on Twitter this weekend where they stated that Bleak Faith: Forsaken had stolen various animations from Elden Ring by using the DS Anim Studio tool. The video shows the character attacking using a claymore in Bleak Fiath: Forsaken and it mimics the Straight Sword animation from Elden Ring exactly.
Saw this footage floating around. Bleak Faith: Forspoken is 100% using animations ripped directly 1:1 from Elden Ring.
I do NOT condone people using my DS Anim Studio software to aid in exporting animations to include in commercial products or sell them on Epic Games Store. pic.twitter.com/9JHGMeu9as
— Meowmaritus (@meowmaritus) March 12, 2023
The case gets more interesting. While the developers behind the Bleak Faith: Forsaken game claim they purchased the animation from the Epic Games Store as part of a so-called “asset pack”, Meowmaritus also claims that the game includes animations from the Abyss Watchers. If you haven’t played Dark Souls III, these are enemies in the game which make up a boss fight. The animations for the bosses are found in Bleak Faith: Forsaken.
In a statement from a developer named überfaith42, he claims that these assets were all purchased legitimately on the Epic Games Store. He says that he bought some animations from the store as well as worked on additional animations which were needed for the game.
“The only other things from the Epic Marketplace that I use is for generic VFX that was a waste of time to make since I’d make things that looked virtually the same anyway, and things that are so generic (like some rocks) that didn’t require artistic direction.”
überfaith42 then goes on to compare the development of Bleak Faith: Forsaken to other triple-A games by saying only 10% of the game’s art is outsourced in comparison to 70% in other games. He follows up by saying that he is now working on alternative animations for the game which will replace the current cloned ones.
“I want to stress this decision comes currently purely out of an artistic lens, as an artist I take pride in all the manual work and unique things I’ve built over the course of these many years. I wanted the game to stand out and bring its own flare in as many ways as possible. I definitely wasn’t aware any of animations were really similar to anything else, I just thought we were doing business with a legitimate entity and that their work fit our vision of the combat. If it turns out that this seller is illegitimate, we will have all been victims of nefarious behavior.”
