[quote][b][url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asset_flip]Warning: Asset Flip![/url][/b]
"Apocalypse Island" is one of literally thousands of creatively bankrupt asset flips infesting Steam and lowering the average quality of all video games everywhere.[/quote]
[quote][url=https://unity.com/legal/as-terms]Warning: Unity License Violation[/url][/quote]
This is a collection of Synty assets, most specifically the [url=https://syntystore.com/products/polygon-city-zombies-pack]Synty Zombies Pack[/url] and a few other asset packs mangled in a blender and dumped on a basic survival game blueprint from the asset store.
So, "Apocalypse Island" is partially or completely made up of stock assets, "borrowed" from asset stores and free asset websites. Little, if anything in this game is the creation of the "developer".
While there's no up front price for this asset flip, the other problem with asset flips is that when developers aren't capable of doing their job and creating high quality assets, it's also true they can't do any of the rest of the job of a game developer either. That's definitely true for "Apocalypse Island", and this kind of asset flipping never results in games that have quality or value for PC gamers.
Because this is exclusively made up from Unity store assets, it's in violation of the [url=https://unity.com/legal/as-terms]Unity Asset Store Terms of Service and EULA[/url]. Specifically, this part:
[quote]Subject to the restrictions set forth in this EULA, Licensor hereby grants to the END-USER a non-exclusive, non-transferable, worldwide, and perpetual license to the Asset solely:
(a) to incorporate the Asset, together with substantial, original content not obtained through the Unity Asset Store, into an electronic application or digital media that has a purpose, features, and functions beyond the display, performance, distribution, or use of Assets (“Licensed Product”) as an embedded component of that Licensed Product, [b]such that the Asset does not comprise a substantial portion of the Licensed Product[/b][/quote]
Because the developer misused Unity asset packs such that they comprise the vast majority of this "game", the developer has unethically and deliberately breached the agreement. This is a license and intellectual property violation. Why is this permitted on Steam?
Now on to pricing and value for gamers.
This is "free" enough (not every "free" game in the "free" section is truly free, there's usually some hidden price tag), at least you won't be expected to spend any more money after you download this, but just because something is free doesn't mean it's good, and the cost of a game is more than just financial, your time is valuable too.
In terms of public reception, this failed. There's well over 130 million gamers on Steam. SteamDB showed the game peaked at less than 100 concurrent players, they couldn't even break three figures, and now there's basically nobody playing it. Even though it's free. This is a dismal public reception, but it's easy to see why gamers rejected it. Gamers can smell lazy asset flips from a mile away.
Since free games don't contribute to your game collector badge and other profile stuff, is this a worthwhile addition to your Steam library?
Definitely not. This isn't worth it. I'm paraphrasing another reviewer here, but this should be a paid product... they'd have to pay people to download it.
[quote][url=https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/reviews]Developer Response![/url][/quote]The developer has weighed in to inform everyone they didn't read the [url=https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/reviews]Developer Usage Rules[/url] for Steam "partners", or they deliberately ignored the part where Valve says:
[quote]Though it may be tempting, not every review needs to be responded to. A developer response will frequently draw more attention than the original statement, potentially turning a small issue into a much larger community discussion. It's also not a good idea to use this feature to refute customer opinions. Your direct attention can be seen as validation or a defensive attempt to silence your customers.[/quote]
The developer ADMITS, brazenly, that this is a disgusting asset flip, but this is no revelation, it's obvious Synty did all the work here. Rearranging other people's assets like a kid playing with wooden blocks and then pretending to have made all the blocks is simply plagiarism, and, like I said in my review, doesn't result in quality products, because as this garbage shows (a game template from a real developer with assets from a real developer), asset flips are always valueless, badly made junk.
The developer admits they didn't hire a team of talented staff to produce the game and tried to do the whole thing on their own, instead. If that were true, it would a lot like boarding an airplane, and halfway through the flight, having the pilot come out and serve peanuts. It's going to end in disaster. It requires a team of competent people to do a complex job properly, and that's not what has happened here... another explanation for the poor quality of this game. But the developer is lying here, other people did the work, creating the game blueprint he clumsily misused, and Synty et al created all the game assets. The developers attitude here is like prompting GPT for a story and then trying to publish it in Readers Digest "because he's an author and did all the work". What an utter joke. But that's what's going on here... this guy is claiming the work of others as his own.
The developer complains that they "worked very hard" to make this, therefore it cannot be a bad product. What bizarre rubbish. If I had "worked hard" for years and the result was this godawful game, I'd be utterly ashamed of my failure. Hard work doesn't mean quality work, and in this case it just highlights incompetence. This is not the flex the developer thinks it is. But once more, the developer tries to claim the work of Synty and others as if it was his own; you can see what is happening here. Plagiarism.
For us gamers, for whom games are made (the developer seems to have forgotten that), it doesn't matter if GTA:V was made by one guy in a shed over the space of a weekend and Depression Quest took 1000 staff working for 5 years to make, what matters is the resultant quality of the product. You can see the intellectual dishonesty of the developer made apparent from their comments, but they already admitted to just plagiarising a bunch of Synty assets and then trying to get famous for Synty's work; this kind of morally and ethically defunct asset flipping is disgusting.
Nothing in the developers pointless breach of Valve guidelines changes any of the objective facts of my review. My review stands unaltered. I cannot recommend this asset flip to anyone.
