Hey there, followers of The Increment.
Unfortunately, the tone of this post is not positive, but we think it’s in everyone’s best interests to be perfectly open and clear on this issue, seeing as opinions of the project so far are obviously largely based on our released media.
We’ve recently learnt that certain assets in our build were taken illegally from other sources, or “ripped” as it’s more commonly known. At present we’re not sure as to the exact extent of this issue, which is why we’ve taken steps to remove any and all potentially ripped assets from our build whilst we investigate.
As for how this came about, we place full trust in our developers and expect them to follow both internal guidelines and basic development ethics. Regrettably in this case, this trust was breached. To prevent this situation from happening in the future, we’re now looking into implementing a more robust artist review process within the team.
For the time being, we’ll be minimising our PR output. Development will continue onwards at a steady pace, but we want to be 100% sure that what we’re presenting is our team’s work. We’ll be sure to let you guys know once we’re back!
Edit:
One small addition to the above - we've changed our ModDB URL from:
Indiedb.com
to
Indiedb.com
Just so you're aware and can update any bookmarks/saved links you have with us on. :)
That's a shame :(
See a lot of the images were removed too. Would actually be interesting to know what those assets were, nothing too crucial or complex to the game? (like small props, background objects etc)
Seems to be mostly props etc from what we can tell right now. Unfortunately, lots of screenshots include props...
More of these guys? :( its pathetic... hope you didn't have to remove too much.
Oh no, this can't be true. But whatever the person thought by doing this it doesn't derogates the fantastic work of every person in your team. You're on the right way!
Been part of several teams that have had the same thing happen, it really sucks. I hope you guys bounce back fast and find all the ripped assets so that you can remove them :)
I hope you find all the ripped material its sad when people decide to take the work of others and say its their own i hope the developer who did this is dealt with accordingly and wish you all the best for the future of this project. Not sure however how you can police it except look very carefully at artists portfolio work and maybe ask them to show you some modeling via a screenshare on skype or teamviewer.
We'll be overlooking our current asset review process, and change it up a bit to make sure that we see progress of the assets being developed from the start; this will also help improve the quality of models etc from collected criticism.
@ Possibly ripped assets in our build; yeah it won't be easy but we'll not risk shipping ripped assets with a retail build so assets we're unsure of will most likely be removed entirely.
such a shame that someone thinking they could get away with taking a short cut has actually created much more work for the rest of the team. Hope you guys can identify and remove the offending articals quickly so you can get on with making the awesome game we're all looking forward to.
Also, qudos for the honesty, I know this must be frustrating for the rest of the team that have genuinely put alot of effort and hard work into the project.
Especially when a shortcut like that could make the company risk a lawsuit
Awww come on. I just can't believe people keep doing this. You guys don't deserve this :( (I guess no one does)
Just take care of business and get right back to work lads - what else can you do ?
Thats upsetting - sorry to hear about this, guys. People like that **** me off.
I'll be waiting for you guys to come back publicly :)
i understand that you don't want to name names of those who did this to your game, but it would help to know who these guys are for future indie game devs. so they know who not to trust.
when they did this to you then you are free to name these guys by there full name, now they can keep doing so, just because people don't know who they are.
other then that, a real shame, and please just continu, your game is looking great and doesn't need stolen assets!!
success,
leon