A couple days ago, I made a post addressing Pixelberry/Series Entertainment's "It Lives Within." At the time, I wasn't aware of the story, I only knew that the name was the same. Since then, I saw many people accusing it of plagiarizing our game. I decided to look into it more, and after having watched all the episodes on YouTube, the claims of plagiarism unfortunately seem to be valid. As such, I'd like to further address this situation, and provide a list of stolen ideas and art with screenshot proofs and explanations.
A few years ago, I had a video call with one of the original writers for the It Lives Series. He no longer works for Pixelberry, and did not work with them at the time of the video call. Though I knew nothing about their original plans for the game before starting this project (including that they also intended to name the game "It Lives Within"), he told me their plans on that call. It was going to be a survivor-type cave crawl story with giant bug-inspired and creepy crawler monster enemies, where you play as a new character who is attacked by these creatures while camping and separated from their friends. From my understanding, Connor and his crew would be sort of like Sam and Dean from SPN, acting as these experienced "hunters" who help protect them.
That is not what the story of what Choices "It Lives Within" was. At all.
This means that the AI """writers""" at Series Entertainment/PB were not creating this story based on the original writersā plans. They made their story idea later - after ILW was completed in its entirety. Therefore, it's reasonable to follow that unlike the title, these similarities are not coincidence. Though even then, the title It Lives Within had to do with the cave setting and going literally into the earth, while the AI version has nothing to do with caves. So the reasoning for the title is not the same as the reasoning for their original title.
With all this in mind, letās go over the similarities between our game and the Choices It Lives Within AI show. I am going to be putting it beneath a read more, in case there are people who are interested in playing ILW and donāt want to get it spoiled.
Major things they stole:
Their villain, Silas, is Matthias. Literally, that's it. He's Matthias.
Silas is an immortal man who's been alive for almost 200 years and was a member of the Westchester cult, where he knew Cora. Matthias is an immortal man who's been alive 200+ years and was a member of the Westchester cult, where he knew Cora. Silas wants to sacrifice redfield Noah due to his connection to the Power as part of a complicated ritual he's put together in order to... I'm not quite sure what, exactly, as the story was a bit hard to follow. Matthias wants to sacrifice Rowan, due to their connection to the Power, as part of a complicated ritual he's put together in order to gain more power and freedom and heal the corrupted Power. Silas thinks heās all manipulative and the main crew states that "Heās getting us to do his work for him!ā Matthias thinks he's all manipulative, and gloats about being a "puppet master" and getting people to do his work for him.
And then there's his appearance. That's literally the same hairstyle - even has the part on the same side and the same curly swoops. He's the same age. Same race. Literally, just like Connor in their story is a recognizable AI-version of his in-game sprite, that's what Silas looks like to Matthias. All he's missing is the beard.
The gang's base of operations is Coraās cabin
This one is interesting. It's such a tiny detail, and I'd grown so used to the cabin being their safe place that when Connor was like "We need to get back to the cabin" it literally took me a moment to realize - wait. They had nothing to do with that cabin in the original series. Using that as a home base was literally our idea, an It Lives Within original.
The main enemies are mind controlled townspeople working for Silas
Instead of following the precedent of the previous games and having the enemies be Power-twisted animal monsters, they decided to make their enemies humans that are mind-controlled into zombie-like beings with that attack the gang in hordes. This is a rip-off of It Lives Within's horrors, which are power-corrupted townsfolk that Matthias takes advantage of to oppose the main crew. And on top of that, they copied the carnival scene where Harper drives through a horde of horrors, including a scene where Devon drives through a horde of mind-controlled/zombified townsfolk.
Noah and Devon's relationship
Their relationship in this '"TV show" has suspicious similarities to their friendship/romance routes in ILW. They made Devon be redfield Noah's anchor to reality, and even had Devon use memories to help ground Noah, which we showed in the cabin scene where Devon and Noah play baseball together. And I know there were Noah x Devon shippers outside of me before ILW released, but it was never PB's plan to canonize them. So the fact that they are seemingly changing course to canonize them after they grew so popular in the fan version feels a bit too coincidental.
Scraping fan art for their AI animation frames
But what's even more egregious is that they have even stooped to scraping from fan artists, who have nowhere near the same following or exposure as our project does. Seriously, what are the odds that the MC they choose to use matches this artist's MC's race, gender, hair, and outfit exactly, that they used Noah's old outfit, that they are literally positioned on the same sides of the image? It's blatant plagiarism, and it's despicable. @errajay I'm so sorry they did this.
These are the biggest similarities, but considering that it was only like 15 minutes of content, that means that a high percentage of the story was stolen. Sure, the exact details of "Silas's" plan are different (he's like a horcrux for the "entity" aka power and he was split into 43 parts and Noah's one of his parts and he needs to kill him to get it back and be free or something) it's the same concept: immortal man who's trapped making a complicated ritual requiring sacrifice while manipulating people to get everything into place.
If you want to see for yourselves, please find it on YouTube. Do not support them with clicks or traffic on their app. Thank you! Oh, and just in case anyone was wondering, no AI was used in the drafting of this post š
Like many of you, I woke up to the AI slop It Lives Within "TV show" on the Choices app. Having spent thousands (no joke) of loving hours on the fan-made It Lives Within, I admit it felt like a bit of a kick to the gut, especially since I'd stayed up until 2 AM the night before, meticulously working on improving the programming of textbox animations for the updated version of the game.
But at the end of the day, the people are what own stories. It doesn't matter what PB puts out, especially when it so blatantly disrespects a series we all hold close to our hearts. We can choose what to support, what to value, and what to be our true version of these stories.
As such, I wanted to provide an update for "It Lives Within: The Obsidian Cut." We are working extremely hard to finish rewrites, and I apologize it's taking so long - but real workĀ takes time. We take so long because we don't use AI to do our work for us. Our testers have found hundreds of bugs, which have been corrected. I'm currently working on some rewrites for chapters 21-22, and once that's finished, I'm going to play from start to finish with different MCs to include more complete personality variants for your MC.
While our game was highly beloved (which I am still so wholly grateful for three years after the final episode aired), I know some of you tried the original version and decided it wasn't for you. Others maybe never heard of it. But, with the news of AI It Lives Within dropping today, I just wanted to invite everyone to give our fan version a chance. If you tried it before and gave up, or haven't played it yet, I recommend waiting until Obsidian airs to experience that version for the first time. And if you did play the original, stick around! You'll love Obsidian when it airs. All of our testers are highly enjoying it and say that it improves on the story with every change, while still be the story they knew and love.
AI It Lives Within is frustrating and offensive, but ultimately, we never needed their blessing, and neither do you. Our story started small, with a team that never made any money. Everything was done out of passion and love for this series and these characters, and we were and still are, devoted to creatingĀ trulyĀ player-drive stories where your choices matter. A LOT. That passion is something that can never be generated in any machine. Stories from the heart speak to the heart, "canon" or not, and what really matters is how theses stories impact and inspire us.
āGo to hellā is basic. āI hope your favorite classic Choices book gets resurrected as a shallow ghost of its original self that nobody asked for with inexplicable anime-style ai art and a whitewashed main characterā is smart. Itās possible. Itās terrifying. It's happening right now.
Another thing I love about the TCH ending is that it truly commits to having a mortal x immortal couple. So many stories of this nature end with the mortal being turned immortal so they can be with their lover forever (think Bloodbound or Immortal Desires), but while TCH laid the foundation all through book 2 that MC would become immortal to be with Kieran without growing old and leaving them behind, in the end that's not the case. It's fully acknowledged that MC will grow old and die while Kieran stays perpetually young and will mourn them for the rest of their life, but they just lean into enjoying the time they do have together, and I think that's so interesting and refreshing to see.
Enjoy all the BOLAS love interests in the world of The Cursed Heart! With a bonus elf MC to round out the numbers (which feels like cheating, because I just 100% took an outfit from fem Kieran).
I have trouble getting an exact vibe on the two Courts. Sun is more rigid courtly expectations (be polite over honest) and Moon is the land of misfits? Sun is warm and loving while Moon is brooding and dark? They kind of map onto Light and Shadow, but not really?
Anyway, I sorted them based on the bathhouse scene, whether they folder their clothes nicely or just threw them off <3 (Aerin and Valax aren't in that scene, but I think they'd both be clothes folding people).
I'm happier with some than others (of course), but I am done with this little project and figured I'd share! And I learned quite a bit. (How to liquify! Use layered outfits to hide your sins!)
(I wanted Mal to show some ab, curse the way he's twisting his torso! And I like to think Valax would immediately protest having a flower in her hair, then eventually become adorably fond of it.)
Iām replaying The Cursed Heart and I was really enjoying it (didnāt remember this book was this good tbh!) and then I get to the part of the story where MC runs to Radiance after the mountain incident and. *long inhale* I am not ready for this. I hate that guy so much
Dude be so for fucking real right now. People in the Instagram comments are begging for Endless Summer/The Elementalists to get a sequel but it is so clearly going to be AI slop! Never mind the fact that Endless Summer got a definitive ending and doesnāt need a sequel???
I say donāt touch them. Please donāt touch them. Do not desecrate these graves.
Whichever one gets brought back as a sequel is going to be a Pet Sematary type deal. What comes back from the dead is not gonna be what was buried.
Okay I waited a couple of days since the end of Blades 3 to see what the reactions were more generally, and likeā¦ am I the only one who thought it felt really botched? Empty? The narrative didnāt make sense beyond its general line? They planted romance scenes in moments that really made no sense and were purely fan service? The conflicts were either resolved way too quickly and changed nothing whatsoever (looking at you, MCās breakdown scene) or felt like they shouldnāt have been conflicts at all (like the ādo we go back or stay deadā one?? Likeā¦ I felt that getting our bodies back was The Entire Point of the story and now they all donāt really care anymore?? WHAT ON EARTH-)
Yāall Iām gonna be honest, I only played it to the end because I held some kind of tiny hope that I could find something I enjoyed, but honestly I could count the moments I liked in this book with the fingers of one hand. Iām an aspiring writer and I felt like that narrative needed so much more to be done well; as it is, to me it feels lackluster and full of holes and things that donāt make sense, considering the previous two narratives, this narrative itself, and the characters behaviour in this one.
Iām sorry Iām so negative, maybe Iāve become very snobbish idk; but Iām really really struggling to understand what everyone liked about this book. I have more grievances still but these are the main ones regarding the writing. Iām really sorry but I simply canāt see whatās so good about this book. I thought book 2 was meh/just ok, but I prefer it SO MUCH to book 3.
I look at the polls asking what was my favourite part of book 3 and realise I barely remember it. To me, it felt very formulaic: we turn up in some new place, a character appears explaining where we are and what we need to do, enemy appears, new character leads the fight with MC and Co getting a hit in every so often, move on to new place, repeat.
Maybe thereās just too many characters at this point. Trying to share out the screen time with six LIs, animal companions who add nothing, and the new characters along the wayā¦we couldnāt even get 1 on 1 time with our LI, the premium scenes were shared, the cg scenes were shared, and the only way they could think to add romance to the scenes was MC asking their LI to hang back which a) felt more clunky the more they did it and b) often made no sense in the context of the scene.
I canāt believe I spent diamonds on Loola all the way in book 1 for her to barely show in the rest of the series. I spent diamonds on Aerin at the end of book 1 so he would face consequences, not to join the party, get a redemption and a damned romance route. I spent diamonds on the owlbear in book 2 and started to regret that - it just started annoying me. And the fact PB gave us an ai-generated winged kitten to coerce us into spending more diamonds to add to the party even more, BUT NEVER SHOWED THE BABY NESPERS.
And regarding conflictā¦..I think PB is afraid of writing proper conflict. We had Plus One where Shannon was an awful character but Lucia decided a lacklustre apology was enough and married them anyway. The other awful family members gave lacklustre apologies, as of that would be enough to make up for treating Darian like shit most of their life. Chapter 12 of COP3 had an amazing angst scene between MC and Trystan but it was a small apology before they jumped into bed. I wanted them storming out, wallowing in guilt, drowning their sorrows. Halfway through the scene I realised that wasnāt going to happen and groaned when I realised they were headed to the bedroom. And then at the end of Bladesā¦why does everyone HAVE to do what MC does? It was unfathomable to me to stay in the afterlife, but if Mal really wanted to stay, why couldnāt he?
PB seem to be afraid of seeing conflict through. They want everything resolved with a quick apology and sex (because everyone likes sex right?? Not meā¦), and the stories pay the price. Weāre losing depth and interest in favour of quick and easy resolutions.
Sorry, I didnāt quite mean to waffle on so much š Iāll probably replay the Blades series at some point, but I havenāt picked up anything new since Years Apart
Oh I agree with the ātoo many LIsā and the screen time for all of them, it feels like PB are trying to please everyone but in the end this results in very little content for each route; I know many people went for multiple LIs, so maybe doing that you donāt feel the same way, but since I went with only one (Tyril) I felt like my MC barely had time alone with him despite them being all dead and constantly hostile environments, aka places where you need reassurance and like to be beside someone close. And those scenes they added in felt really REALLY secondary, like yeah youāre getting a cool item but thatās it, and their main point was to allow more time with the LIsā¦ but since you only get 2 at a time and a very short moment, I felt like I was wasting my time or hanging on to what little content I could get for dear life, or both at the same time.
As an animal lover I donāt regret any of the animal companions I chose to get, but I do agree that they appear very little and serve very little purpose except being cute; so much more could have been done with them, PB just chose to not and just reminded us that they were there every once in a while. And yes the not showing the baby nespers was a flat out crime.
I had loaded up on diamonds thanks to the ads, and since I donāt play anything new that they put out because nothing appeals to me it means I didnāt have to worry about keeping enough diamonds for other books (I donāt like simple romance books, I need some element of fantasy or sci-fi or horror or whatever; legit the only things I played were Blades, Endless Summer, TC&TF, and the It Lives anthology, with maybe 1-2 other books but ages ago; oh and the Cursed Heart, those were fine). But I 100% see your point of feeling like many diamond options were a waste in blades 3.
And again since I havenāt really played anything recent, I wouldnāt know about PBās handlings of conflict in their last books, but yeah it definitely feels that way. How easily and shortly MCās breakdown scene was resolved made me so mad because MC was legit to have those grievances, and all the others did was apologise, behave differently for 5min, then go back to normal. And at the end itās still MC who has to make the final decision for the whole group as you underlined. That makes NO sense whatsoever considering the entire goal of the narrative and the breakdown scene.
Anyways, Iām glad Iām not just the grinch and someone else isnāt completely fawning over this book š there were some nice and cool moments but imo they couldnāt make up for the rest of the problems
Okay I waited a couple of days since the end of Blades 3 to see what the reactions were more generally, and likeā¦ am I the only one who thought it felt really botched? Empty? The narrative didnāt make sense beyond its general line? They planted romance scenes in moments that really made no sense and were purely fan service? The conflicts were either resolved way too quickly and changed nothing whatsoever (looking at you, MCās breakdown scene) or felt like they shouldnāt have been conflicts at all (like the ādo we go back or stay deadā one?? Likeā¦ I felt that getting our bodies back was The Entire Point of the story and now they all donāt really care anymore?? WHAT ON EARTH-)
Yāall Iām gonna be honest, I only played it to the end because I held some kind of tiny hope that I could find something I enjoyed, but honestly I could count the moments I liked in this book with the fingers of one hand. Iām an aspiring writer and I felt like that narrative needed so much more to be done well; as it is, to me it feels lackluster and full of holes and things that donāt make sense, considering the previous two narratives, this narrative itself, and the characters behaviour in this one.
Iām sorry Iām so negative, maybe Iāve become very snobbish idk; but Iām really really struggling to understand what everyone liked about this book. I have more grievances still but these are the main ones regarding the writing. Iām really sorry but I simply canāt see whatās so good about this book. I thought book 2 was meh/just ok, but I prefer it SO MUCH to book 3.
Okay am I the only one who is kinda suspicious of Portia??? Like I know sheās nice and all but in the tablet it literally says ādonāt trust friendly facesā SO many times
I'm curious. I think Nia might be the most romanced but I gotta know for myself. So in celebration of Blades 3, my first poll.
EDIT: i DID vote on my own poll
i need the party to acknowledge mc's relationship with their li. what do you mean they're not holding hands while strolling the festival or when they're tired after trekking for days, and one literally drags the other by hand. you want to tell me they're not kissing every few minutes in front of their friends who tease the hell out of them for it? i don't buy it š¤·š»āāļø
