Dark and Darker dev denies theft accusation: 'As far as we know you cannot copyright a game genre'

pcgamer.com:

Dark and Darker(opens in new tab) developer Ironmace has denied allegations that the game uses stolen assets and code, saying in a statement on Discord that all of Dark and Darker's code was «built from scratch,» and its assets were either purchased from the Unreal marketplace or designed internally.

The claim that Dark and Darker uses stolen assets and code first appeared on Korean site This is Game(opens in new tab) (Google translated(opens in new tab)), which said that developer Ironmace includes former employees of Nexon who were «disciplined and fired» by Nexon, and are now building Dark and Darker using materials they worked on while at Nexon. A Nexon project revealed in 2021 as "P3(opens in new tab)" was basically used as a prototype of Dark and Darker, according to the claim, and images from Project P3 definitely have a certain proto-Dark and Darker look to them.

Later in 2021, Nexon changed course to a different project, P7, a contemporary survival adventure. Around the same time, Ironmace was founded, at least in part by former Nexon employees. Ironmace's website(opens in new tab) suggests that they did not part on the happiest of terms.

«We are a merry band of veteran game developers disillusioned by the exploitative and greedy practices we once helped create,» it says. «We are experts who have worked on many of the biggest hits in Korea.

»We’ve seen first hand how corporate game companies sell their soul for the easy payday. We are disappointed to see them doubling down on more and more exploitative practices, becoming more like casinos instead of bringing joy to gamers."

Developers leaving big companies to try their hand at indie development isn't at all unusual, but obviously swiping code and assets to use