Ex-Bungie artist plagiarizes art for marathon (Up: Bungie confirm, offer to do right by the original artist)

TheKratos said:
Lazy ass work from home employee stealing online art. There should be internal controls for this.
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The fact that it's damn near the artist's entire portfolio lifted and used for the design ambience of the whole game — and the fact that multiple Bungie employees including the art director followed the account without interacting — thus wasn't just some rogue WFH employee slacking off.
 
I'm amazed the whole situation with Bungie hasn't resulted in some kind of misrepresentation/misconduct feud between Sony and the leaders of Bungie. It's been nothing but bad news since day 1 tbh.
 
Haint said:
Most of this art and style looks like it was straight lifted from Wipeout, particularly Wipeout HD.
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Sure, the keyword is "looks", but roll back tape backwards and a hundred years later we're at Bauhaus.
There's nothing wrong with learning and borrowing design language from others, Bungie however dug too deep and greedily here.

Just like copying homework, don't make it too obvious.
 
HeisenbergFX4 said:
I don't blame them for trying to strike it big with a GAAS game, one monster and you are rolling in cash for years

I have said this about Spencer about not being able to see a good game and the same goes for Jim in my eyes about looking at Concord or those other games that eventually were killed and for him to think "yeah gamers want this" is wild
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My read on this is that Hulst played a part in this too. He probably advised Ryan in some form.
 
Nydius said:
The fact that it's damn near the artist's entire portfolio lifted and used for the design ambience of the whole game — and the fact that multiple Bungie employees including the art director followed the account without interacting — thus wasn't just some rogue WFH employee slacking off.
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If it's not slacking off wtf is it then? Personal vendetta with the artist. Not one but two WFH lazy fuckers slacking off and stealing art to meet deadlines.
 
TheKratos said:
If it's not slacking off wtf is it then? Personal vendetta with the artist. Not one but two WFH lazy fuckers slacking off and stealing art to meet deadlines.
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Oh it was slacking off but your post buys into the "it was a single person" narrative that Bungie has claimed. This is far deeper than "not one but two WFH lazy fuckers". The entire art department is complicit.

Taking an image or two would be the work of one or two lazy people. Designing the entire visual aesthetic around a plagiarized artist's portfolio? That's an entire department of lazy fucks. It's not just some WFH dude calling it a day on a Friday with some last minute copy/paste. The entire game is based on art theft.
 
The artist skills fell so low that they cannot even have skills to modify the stolen art (I am not even asking to create something using the stolen art as the inspiration, it would be too much for these morons).
 
Nydius said:
The fact that it's damn near the artist's entire portfolio lifted and used for the design ambience of the whole game — and the fact that multiple Bungie employees including the art director followed the account without interacting — thus wasn't just some rogue WFH employee slacking off.
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Yup.

No proof yet, but IMO all those Bungie people were in on it.

But not surprised one bit at the Art Director guy claiming everything was due to one former Bungie employee. Happens all the time. When something at work fucks up, often times the people handling it will say it's not their fault. When Bob left the company he's the one who left us with his crap. And because nobody is ever going to go after Bob, everyone turns a blind eye and just trusts the current people that it's not them but Bob.

Path of least resistance and embarrassment is to blame the guy not even at the company anymore.
 
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Dr. Suchong said:
Very reminiscent.
Man, I'd kill for a new WipEout with Designers republic involved again.
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Antireal's (I know it's in l33t5p34k) art is clearly inspired by Designers Republic's stuff. It makes sense, given that they are both from the UK. The graphic design work that DR did for the original WipeOut games had a pretty big effect on pop culture design. Art is such a tricky thing when it comes to ownership. You can be inspired by another artists work and make your own original art based on it.

But in this case, the art director from marathon followed Antireal on Twitter/ X.com and just flat out ripped publicized art directly from their twitter/ x.com account and apparently placed it on what is known as a 'mood board', which is a pinboard used to capture a mood of the game. The art was placed on a texture sheet and it became part of the game's visual language. Which is pretty bad look for Bungie. You can't blame the entire development group on the stolen art pieces that became the art direction for the game.

I feel like Antireal needs to contact a lawyer. Though this is some great publicity for her, I will admit.
 
MrCunningham said:
Antireal's (I know it's in l33t5p34k) art is clearly inspired by Designers Republic's stuff. It makes sense, given that they are both from the UK. The graphic design work that DR did for the original WipeOut games had a pretty big effect on pop culture design. Art is such a tricky thing when it comes to ownership. You can be inspired by another artists work and make your own original art based on it.

But in this case, the art director from marathon followed Antireal on Twitter/ X.com and just flat out ripped publicized art directly from their twitter/ x.com account and apparently placed it on what is known as a 'mood board', which is a pinboard used to capture a mood of the game. The art was placed on a texture sheet and it became part of the game's visual language. Which is pretty bad look for Bungie. You can't blame the entire development group on the stolen art pieces that became the art direction for the game.

I feel like Antireal needs to contact a lawyer. Though this is some great publicity for her, I will admit.
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Not sure why you quoted me, but I echo your sentiment.
 
Dr. Suchong said:
Ah OK 👍
Thought I was being lectured lol
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I kind of forgot that I quoted you to begin with.. >< It is the issue I have with using a wide screen horizontal monitor. Sorry about that. But I do agree that Designer Republic needs to work with Studio Liverpool on a new WipEout game. Which could lead to Designer Republic contracting AntiReal... since her art seems to work so well in Marathon...
 
MrCunningham said:
Antireal's (I know it's in l33t5p34k) art is clearly inspired by Designers Republic's stuff. It makes sense, given that they are both from the UK. The graphic design work that DR did for the original WipeOut games had a pretty big effect on pop culture design. Art is such a tricky thing when it comes to ownership. You can be inspired by another artists work and make your own original art based on it.

But in this case, the art director from marathon followed Antireal on Twitter/ X.com and just flat out ripped publicized art directly from their twitter/ x.com account and apparently placed it on what is known as a 'mood board', which is a pinboard used to capture a mood of the game. The art was placed on a texture sheet and it became part of the game's visual language. Which is pretty bad look for Bungie. You can't blame the entire development group on the stolen art pieces that became the art direction for the game.

I feel like Antireal needs to contact a lawyer. Though this is some great publicity for her, I will admit.
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I think the really big issue that Bungie is in here is that the stolen parts of their design were so obvious and in some cases like the ASCII style characters also things used in multiple places, that it puts many more aspects of the design into question.

the ASCII style characters they ripped 1 for 1 were probably already turned into a font they planned on using for elements in the game and might also already have been used in some textures etc.

I really wonder what exactly they will do and how much will change
 
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MrCunningham said:
I kind of forgot that I quoted you to begin with.. >< It is the issue I have with using a wide screen horizontal monitor. Sorry about that. But I do agree that Designer Republic needs to work with Studio Liverpool on a new WipEout game. Which could lead to Designer Republic contracting AntiReal... since her art seems to work so well in Marathon...
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No worries 🙂👍
Let's hope the old saying "There's no such thing as bad publicity" is applicable in her case.
 
Topher said:
Jon Stewart What GIF
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The concept art* and trailer art* the ingame translation/conversion to ingame graphics is simply horrible and ends up looking like a low detail cheap aa style akin to no man's sky.
 
MrCunningham said:
Antireal's (I know it's in l33t5p34k) art is clearly inspired by Designers Republic's stuff. It makes sense, given that they are both from the UK. The graphic design work that DR did for the original WipeOut games had a pretty big effect on pop culture design. Art is such a tricky thing when it comes to ownership. You can be inspired by another artists work and make your own original art based on it.

But in this case, the art director from marathon followed Antireal on Twitter/ X.com and just flat out ripped publicized art directly from their twitter/ x.com account and apparently placed it on what is known as a 'mood board', which is a pinboard used to capture a mood of the game. The art was placed on a texture sheet and it became part of the game's visual language. Which is pretty bad look for Bungie. You can't blame the entire development group on the stolen art pieces that became the art direction for the game.

I feel like Antireal needs to contact a lawyer. Though this is some great publicity for her, I will admit.
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Ive tried following this debacle, but of course admit I dont know all the details.

But for the part you said about the art director stealing antireal's art and doing moodboards or whatever, is there a timing issue where he could literally say "it wasnt me. I just got passed the stolen art from other people and posted it trusting other people's work"

Or has it been confirmed he was an active part of theft and was pulling pics himself? Even though I think there's more to it than said, there is chance he might be a follower of antireal, but never cared checking her site. It's like me bookmarking YT channels in Chrome (I dont YT sub). A guy can do creepy shit in a video, but doesn't mean I ever saw it. Some bookmark YT sites I have Ive only looked at a few times out the 100s of videos uploaded.

I dont know. All I know is Bungie's claim (through Joe Cross himself) that it was one rogue ex-employee years ago who stole it. And it was supposedly left in the alpha the whole time as nobody caught it.
 
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Haint said:
Most of this art and style looks like it was straight lifted from Wipeout, particularly Wipeout HD.
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Designers Republic created that visual design style thirty years ago. That anti real fella/gal is just creating more work in the same vein.
 
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Who runs these companies? idiots?

The artist is literally saying how poor they are in every other tweet, they could throw them some cash, credit them in the game and put out nice happy "we considered re-doing these assets, but upon reflection, their work is such a great fit for our vision that we've come to an agreement to keep it in the game"

But nope, instead they'll delay pre-orders and probably pull some artist off this mythical unseen "third map" they claim is the best one, to re-do a bunch of shit needlessly.
 
SidViscous said:
Who runs these companies? idiots?

The artist is literally saying how poor they are in every other tweet, they could throw them some cash, credit them in the game and put out nice happy "we considered re-doing these assets, but upon reflection, their work is such a great fit for our vision that we've come to an agreement to keep it in the game"

But nope, instead they'll delay pre-orders and probably pull some artist off this mythical unseen "third map" they claim is the best one, to re-do a bunch of shit needlessly.
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Negotiations is probably going on right now between the artist's agent/attorney and Bungie . They will eventually reach an agreement for an undisclosed amount(the non disclosure being an important part of the agreement) whereby Bungie acquires the rights to the designs.
 
SidViscous said:
Who runs these companies? idiots?

The artist is literally saying how poor they are in every other tweet, they could throw them some cash, credit them in the game and put out nice happy "we considered re-doing these assets, but upon reflection, their work is such a great fit for our vision that we've come to an agreement to keep it in the game"

But nope, instead they'll delay pre-orders and probably pull some artist off this mythical unseen "third map" they claim is the best one, to re-do a bunch of shit needlessly.
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I'd actually try to employ the artist (either just as a contract employee for the project or as a full-time in-house artist). I mean, if his/her stuff is good enough to be used for a game they're making, he/she should be good enough to work on the game.
 
The artist also said she was too poor to hire a solicitor so.......I imagine she's had lots of DMs to represent though. For free. The opportunity to win a slam dunk case against a big name brings too much cred.

After listening to the statement again, I find it interesting when they said the asset was 'checked in' during 2020. That indicates there is a time when the asset wasn't checked in, and there is a process where an asset goes from not 'approved/authorised' to suitable for use.

I do sympathise a bit. I know everyone is out for blood but I just don't see a way this goes beyond self policing as a professional. Let's imagine there is 900 assets coming across your desk this week. You approve some and drop others. How would you test this 500x500 decal didn't exist anywhere else on the Internet, on discovered portfolios etc.

I genuinely think people think this would be as easy as a reverse image search.
 
This game legit has no chance of being the mega hit they need it to be. The well is poisoned and better games are coming out that people will spend their money on.
 
cormack12 said:
The artist also said she was too poor to hire a solicitor so.......I imagine she's had lots of DMs to represent though. For free. The opportunity to win a slam dunk case against a big name brings too much cred.

After listening to the statement again, I find it interesting when they said the asset was 'checked in' during 2020. That indicates there is a time when the asset wasn't checked in, and there is a process where an asset goes from not 'approved/authorised' to suitable for use.

I do sympathise a bit. I know everyone is out for blood but I just don't see a way this goes beyond self policing as a professional. Let's imagine there is 900 assets coming across your desk this week. You approve some and drop others. How would you test this 500x500 decal didn't exist anywhere else on the Internet, on discovered portfolios etc.

I genuinely think people think this would be as easy as a reverse image search.
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I find the situation fishy as hell. But you never know, maybe it was just one shady employee who did it 5 years ago.

I just find it odd that somehow in only 24 hours after this news got on the net on Thursday that Bungie already did a thorough investigation, claimed it was only guy in 2020 who did it, and already had time to make a formal apology statement as if everything is case closed by Friday at the 4 pm live chat.

Seems to me they want to sweep it under the rug asap.
 
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This is free marketing for Bungie though, has people talking about the game. Same with those new Battlefield gameplay snippets on the subreddit.

It's almost as if things like these are supposed to leak, and generate discourse.
 
nnytk said:
This is free marketing for Bungie though, has people talking about the game. Same with those new Battlefield gameplay snippets on the subreddit.

It's almost as if things like these are supposed to leak, and generate discourse.
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It worked so well for Concord.
 
cormack12 said:
After listening to the statement again, I find it interesting when they said the asset was 'checked in' during 2020. That indicates there is a time when the asset wasn't checked in, and there is a process where an asset goes from not 'approved/authorised' to suitable for use.
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This implies to me that there was a system they could use, but it wasn't used thoroughly enough for them to see this coming.

This way they somehow got the bloat of an onerous process AND the scandal all at once. Amazing.
 
proandrad said:
At what point do we consider there is something wrong with bungie's hiring vetting process, if they are continually hiring frauds that steal work from others.
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Says a lot about company culture if this is a repeat offence. It's not just about the hiring process for designers. This is also a managerial issue and possibly a lack of risk assessment issue.
 
nnytk said:
This is free marketing for Bungie though, has people talking about the game. Same with those new Battlefield gameplay snippets on the subreddit.

It's almost as if things like these are supposed to leak, and generate discourse.
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It's not marketing; it's PR (and a bad one). The morale is in "free fall"/Devs told leadership about the marathon's problems years ago; that's meant to leak.
 
Probably the best thing they could have done to help his/hers career.
 
Why the fuck does PlayStation still give them carte blanche ? We know they're hacks, a shadow of their former self. Shut them down and be done with this shitshow, and fire Hermen and every other idiot who pushed for this acquisition.
 
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Guardian Monkey said:
Why not just fucking hire her and pay a huge bonus. Isn't that the easiest way forward?
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My guess is bungee just wanted to rip off the design language. They may have even had meetings about it internally. But one talentless hack took the lazy way out and used assets from the artist with their own alterations to hide it. Cause that's what they did in college when they had to write a term paper (before AI anyway).

Crazy oversight for people that follow the real artist on Twitter.
 
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