Indie Game Dev Accused of Stealing Assets from Elden Ring

By | Niranjan Bhargav 13 Mar, 2023

Archangel Studios, a small team of three developers behind the action game Bleak Faith, has been accused of using stolen assets from Elden Ring, a popular RPG game developed by FromSoftware. The accusations started on 4Chan and quickly spread to Steam, Discord, and Twitter, with players claiming they recognized several animations and enemies from Elden Ring in Bleak Faith.

The Accusations

Players accused Archangel Studios of using animations from Elden Ring in Bleak Faith, including those of Malenia, a notoriously difficult boss, and an enemy from Dark Souls 3, the Abyss Watcher. These accusations caused an uproar on Steam and Discord, with some users also criticizing Archangel’s use of AI-generated art for the game’s icons.

Archangel’s Response

Archangel Studios denied the accusations, stating that roughly 10% of Bleak Faith’s assets and animations come from the Epic Marketplace, which sells pre-built tools for developers using Unity. The team member, Roia, explained that any animations not created in-house were from the Epic Marketplace and had been available for years, rigged to an Epic Skeleton. Archangel is also linked to the user who sells the animations they implemented in Bleak Faith.

Archangel acknowledged the concerns raised by the community and raised a ticket with Epic as a sign of good faith. However, the studio did not address the similarities between Elden Ring and Bleak Faith or suggest any changes to the animations in question.

The Epic Marketplace’s Copyright Guidelines

The Epic Marketplace has strict copyright guidelines, but it is unclear how closely Epic monitors or vets submissions. Archangel Studios stated that they are willing to rework things if there is something amiss going on in the marketplace. Still, they have received no notification from Epic, and they too are customers of the market.

Archangel Studios faced backlash over the accusations and the use of AI-generated art. The Valve moderator locked the Steam thread, stating that the conversation was going nowhere, but the conversation continued on Discord.

In conclusion, Archangel Studios has been accused of using assets from Elden Ring in their game Bleak Faith. While the studio denied the accusations, they acknowledged the community’s concerns and raised a ticket with Epic as a sign of good faith. However, they did not suggest any changes to the animations in question or address the similarities between the two games. The use of pre-built tools from the Epic Marketplace has raised questions about the marketplace’s copyright guidelines and how closely Epic monitors submissions.