A developer had a simple technical demo stolen, which became a game sold on Steam.
A few months ago, the developer Tyson Butler-Boschma worked on a technical demo articulated around the Unreal Engine 5, graphics engine which will impress us in the years to come. His project is very simple: to use the city of The Matrix Awakens: An Unreal Engine 5 Experience and replace the protagonist with a hero who looks like Superman (but isn’t Superman for rights issues). This experience is available for free on itch.io. But it was also sold on Steam, for ten euros…
As PCGamer reported in an article published on November 14, Tyson Butler-Boschma had his work stolen by an unscrupulous studio. According to the various clues, confirmed by the principal concerned and the outcome of this case, Hero Game Studios would have appropriated the demo in order to make money with it on the Valve platform (which allows companies to offer their games quickly thanks to a simplified submission program). Heroes City Superman Edition nevertheless remained ten days on Steam.
A simple Superman demo turned into a money-maker
Tyson Butler-Boschma was made aware of the deception earlier this month, when an itch.io user, also a developer, said: “ I want to warn you that someone is trying to steal from you on Steam. And while he tried to assert his rights, including posting an incriminating review on Steam and denouncing the morality of this initiative, the case went very far. Hero Game Studios had its teaser video posted on YouTube (nearly 4 million views) removed and tried to make it clear that Tyson Butler-Boschma was an ex-employee who wanted to get all the light because of the success of the game. a tweet posted on November 14he speaks outright of harassment.
“ I thought it was possible to replicate my work, after all, I used publicly available tools myself to design this project. But several things struck me “says Tyson Butler-Boschma. He explains that a few too many details are similar (silhouette, choice of boots…). He also refers to the way the cape reacts to movements, physical constraints which are a priori very hard to take into account and which he has not seen reproduced anywhere. Further proof that Hero Game Studios is a vast scam: the studio had the audacity to associate Heroes City Superman Edition to the Superman and DC Comics brands – which do not belong to him (precautions taken by Tyson Butler-Boschma). Warner Bros. could therefore have had a say in this story.
Fortunately, Tyson Butler-Boschma finally made his voice heard. On November 14, her YouTube video came back and Heroes City Superman Edition disappeared from Steam. Relieved, he said on Twitter: Little creators are such easy targets, and it’s annoying how easy it is to get tricked. »