Replaced Pre Alpha Footage (read description)

Replaced was recently showcased at E3 with a flashy and stylish trailer. However, a pre alpha montage was revealed years ago which sparked some controversy for stealing assets from another game with a similar style. Here's what Tim Soret, the creator of that game, The Last Night had to say in 2021:

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Concerning Replaced, the main reason I'm happy [now] with it is because:
- they changed everything compared to their 2019 trailer (they removed every trace of it online, but Zhil linked it up here).
- as long as it's not a copycat anymore, then it's not a zero-sum issue.

Back then, they literally stole Charlie and put a beard on him. Exact same resolution, proportions, same key frames of animations. You have no idea how hard it is to come up with a character design in pixel art, with the right scale, proportions, level of detail, that meshes well with the environment, and allows the subtle animations we're looking for. They even replicated the messy hair, which is something we put in from our own hair, my brother and I.

Even the way we had detached papers on walls in 3D, our bin bags.

Or this death animation exactly copied from this 2016 tweet.
twitter.com/timsoret/status/727179225095102464

Even the gunshot effect is exactly the same.
The bullet trail (the bright yellow line that dissipates into pixels) is also from The Last Night.

I can do this for literally hundreds of elements. In 2019 I was really hurting from seeing this. Of course as an artist you want to inspire others. But not like this. They didn't acknowledge us or even got in contact. They just followed me on Twitter, and pillaged every piece of content they could ever find online. And the game was called replaced. This felt insulting & exploitative. The approach was the absolute inverse of someone genuine & sincere like Roman with his awesome university project.

But the most insulting, is how these guys behaved in 2019.
Someone back then was nice enough to translate this for me.
Look at this, and tell me that's a respectful, professional behavior. Especially toward the end.
(he's referring to this video: cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/512659923935428647/…)

So yes, I won't let anyone gaslight us by claiming that Replaced is ok, and that it didn't start as a rip-off by disrespectful people.

I never brought this publicly. I'm spending my life staying silent, out of the spotlight, dealing with tons of cases like that privately, protecting people who have been harming us - and it's all starting to really grind my gears. I don't want to see "You should be supportive of developers like Sad Cat Studios" on this Discord, really.
That said, I don't have a problem with 2021's version of Replaced.
Just, don't tell me this is a cool respectful homage or something like that. It's not.
I'm glad that they changed their game, but I'm pretty sure it only happened after hardcore feedback from publishers they pitched to back then. I heard a few stories...
I let you comment if you want, but please remain respectful.
This will be my last word on Replaced. Cheers.

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Discord link to this statement: discord.com/channels/512653483233509376/5126599239…

Thank you!