Categories: Gaming News

Swedish artist Simon Stålenhag is not happy with Generation Zero

When Generation Zero released its gameplay trailer earlier this month, I remarked that its blend of moody landscapes and retro-futurist technology looked very similar to the work of Swedish artist Simon Stålenhag, the creator of pen and paper RPG Tales from the Loop.

As it turns out, those similarities have not gone unnoticed by Stålenhag himself, and the artist is not particularly happy with how those similarities have caused a flood of questions regarding whether he was involved with the project.

The issue has been rumbling on for several weeks, starting not long after Avalanche released its gameplay trailer for Generation Zero. In a tweet, Stålenhag said “Every time Avalanche releases a Generation Zero trailer, I have to answer questions about if I was involved or if they ever talked to me about it. It’s getting tedious.”

Stålenhag then followed this up with a thread explaining his feelings in greater detail. To be clear, it isn’t the similarities between Avalanche’s work and his own that he finds troubling. “Borrowing, referencing, and modifying other artist’s work is a very important part of art” he wrote. “Furthermore, I don’t think it should be necessary to declare your influences.”

What does annoy Stålenhag is that he already has connections with the studio. “Avalanche knows who I am. We live in the same town. The game director of the GZ follows me on Twitter. I’ve even met them and briefly worked with them, and not once did they mention they were working on a game set in the Swedish countryside in the late 1980s, featuring giant robots.”

“The minimally decent thing to do would have been to at least acknowledge the similarities when pointed out,” he added. “If acknowledging that is something you’re not prepared to do—fine—but then I’m sure there are other ways to do Swedish sci-fi that doesn’t look confusingly similar to the Tales From The Loop books and RPG.”

Eurogamer has since followed-up the story, speaking both to Stålenhag and Avalanche’s Emil Kraftling, the director of Generation Zero. Kraftling stated that Stålenhag “hasn’t been involved with the game directly or indirectly” and that “His work has not been the motivation for—nor the inspiration behind—why we decided to create it.”

In addition, Kraftling said Avalanche had been in contact with Stålenhag’s agency, and that there was an acknowledgement that no copyright infringement had been made. But Stålenhag refuted that there had been any such acknowledgement from his agency because neither himself nor they had “accused Avalanche of anything.”

It’s impossible to know for sure whether Avalanche took inspiration from Stålenhag’s work, or whether the whole thing is a freak coincidence. But Avalanche’s refusal to acknowledge any kind of similarity between Stålenhag’s work and Generation Zero does seem a stretch, especially given the existing connections between the two. According to Eurogamer, Kraftling claimed that they’ve explained the situation to journalists who have asked, but nobody had published any of those explanations. Hopefully the two sides will find a way to settle the issue soon.

Author

PCG1

Recent Posts

Microsoft underlines how DirectSR tech will bring upscaling to many more PC games – but there’s a catch

     ​    PCGaming 1 News Read More  ​Microsoft has been going over what its incoming DirectSR…

3 hours ago

I put nearly 100 hours into Dragon’s Dogma 2 before I realised it was all just a tutorial for the Warfarer vocation

     ​    PCGaming 1 News Read More  ​The real Dragon's Dogma 2 begins now. By the…

3 hours ago

Here’s how a secluded Polish studio was called upon for The Witcher Remake, Baldur’s Gate 3, and Divinity 2

     ​    PCGaming 1 News Read More  ​During the half-decade he worked at CD Projekt Red,…

3 hours ago

Join us in celebrating all things Elder Scrolls as the legendary RPG series turns 30

     ​    PCGaming 1 News Read More  ​Happy birthday, Tamriel. The Elder Scrolls turns 30 this…

3 hours ago

Steam’s latest free game is an open-world zombie RPG starring Will Smith

     ​    PCGaming 1 News Read More  ​Video games are becoming increasingly attractive to film and…

3 hours ago

Skyrim player gives 12-year-old character save the retirement they deserve

     ​    PCGaming 1 News Read More  ​We all have characters we don’t want to say…

3 hours ago

This website uses cookies.