[quote][b][url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asset_flip]Warning: Asset Flip![/url][/b]
Àrengard-Invasion is a Digital Homicide style asset flip, or what Valve calls a "Fake Game". The "developer" paid for/pirated a few Unity asset store assets, dumped them all in a blender, and submitted it to Valve as if they're real game developers.[/quote]
Two notable criteria for what makes an asset flip instead of legitimate use of stock assets are whether those assets comprise the majority of the game, and whether the "developer" properly credited the people who created most of the assets in the game. This game fails both of those tests. The "developers" here didn't credit any of the artists and real, actual game developers who created the assets here, so this is plagiarism, as well as cash grab shovelware.
In this case, the asset flipper took a bunch of Synty assets, slapped his own name on them to take credit for Synty's work, and then applied them to a really lame Unreal brawler blueprint.... then very quickly added "donationware" DLC to try get your money for Synty's game assets. It has no value or merit as a real game.
Taking this shovelware seriously as if it was a genuine attempt to make a game, it doesn't meet basic minimum requirements that most PC gamers expect as standard.
The mismatched Synty game assets are fairly mediocre/low quality, it's a wonder why they couldn't be bothered "borrowing" higher quality assets for this asset flip. This is a lot like going on a shoplifting spree but only stealing the cut price store brand goods. Regardless, the poor quality assets alone should be enough to deter gamers from bothering with this.
This might seem like I'm reviewing Synty's assets rather than this game, well, I have to. Asset flipping sucks. Anyway, the Synty packs the developer ripped off are lazy low-polygon "retro" assets, making this look like a barely functional 3D game from the 1990s. This looks bad as a result of the developers choice to steal these low quality Synty assets, a compromise PC gamers shouldn't have to put up with.
This kind of asset flipping isn't harmless. It makes it harder for gamers to find genuinely made games from ethical developers. It makes it harder for genuine indie developers, who put hard work into trying to make real games, to find an audience for their products. It gives indie developers a bad name.
The game isn't really free as the developers have their hands out for paid, empty/valueless "donation" DLC, basically digital panhandling. I can't recommend that. It would help gamers if Steam differentiated between genuinely free games and donationware etc, because advertising this as free is misleading.
[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 claims this is their first time trying to make a game. If I went to a restaurant, got sick from eating bad food, and got told "The chef is new and has never cooked food before", would that make it okay? No, it wouldn't. The developer supplied a very valid reason why this should never have been put up for sale on Steam in the first place.
But this is an asset flip, so the developer didn't even really make this. This is like going to a 5 star restaurant, ordering a burger, and getting a cold Big Mac. And when protesting, the chef insists he cooked it himself. See why asset flipping, and asset flippers like this "developer" are so toxic?
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. This is 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.
These aren't the only reasons this should never have been put on Steam.
The developer admits they're trying to claim credit and get YOUR money for Synty assets on purpose through DLC donation panhandling. This isn't okay. Plagiarism is highly unethical. It's [b]wrong[/b] to take the work of others and try to profit from it. The fact the developer [i]claims[/i] they paid for Synty's assets doesn't mean he's not trying to get YOUR money for someone else's work. All it means is that Synty cannot directly take legal action for this plagiarism. But wow, shows you a lot about this developers disgusting attitude, doesn't it?
The developer admits this trash is not complete, or polished, or any fit state to publish. But clearly he was desperate for the DLC donations so he published it anyway... ignorant or not, publishing things that are not fit for publication is wrong, and was done only to serve the developer and nobody else. Main Character syndrome... the developer here simply doesn't care about what's good for gamers, just himself.
My review contains no disinformation, but the developers response says so much more than my review ever could... garbage like this has no place in your Steam library, and developers like this are why indie devs have such a bad name.
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 game to anyone.
