Bookbound

[quote][b][url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asset_flip]Warning: Asset Flip![/url][/b] Bookbound 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] [quote][url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_slop][b]Warning: AI Slop[/b][/url] This game is partially or completely made with talentless, soulless AI generated content. Marketing materials are AI slop. The developer used AI slop TTS and did not declare it, in direct violation of Valve requirements on the disclosure of AI slop.[/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 stolen alien forest asset pack, a stolen boy asset ([url=https://3dexport.com/en/3d-model-leo-realistic-child-boy-with-beautiful-smile-541653]3D Model Leo Realistic Child[/url] created by khalouihamzaa) and dumped them on Unreal's third person game blueprint. It has no value or merit as a real game. It's an attempt to get YOUR money for a mix of AI slop and other people's plagiarised assets. On top of everything else, the developer couldn't be bothered to hire real voice actors and instead used AI generated text-to-speech throughout. AI TTS is a lazy, cheap shortcut that disrespects both the audience and the voice acting profession. Real voice acting brings characters to life in a way that soulless AI audio never can. 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 developers didn't design the game for modern gaming PCs, as such the display resolution caps out at around 1440p, there's no support for the state-of-the-art 4K or higher resolutions. The game simply won't look right on modern gaming displays due to this failure on the part of the developers. The game assets are fairly mediocre/low quality which fits with the idea they weren't developed by the game creator... they look like they're "just reasonable enough" to go on sale as part of an asset pack. The issue of asset flipping aside, ultimately the quality of these assets is low and low quality always makes for a less than optimal gaming experience. The game assets, such as they are, are much higher than the general quality of the game and it seems apparent the developer has just plagiarised/kitbashed them. Stock assets are just there to be used as placeholders while the developer creates their own assets for their games, but what happens far more often is lazy/unethical developers just throw a bunch of other peoples assets into a blender and put their own name on the horrible Frankenstein's Monster that results. Like this mess. As mentioned, this features really godawful, "wrong" looking AI slop instead of genuinely and sincerely created game assets. It's hard to say if this was because the developer didn't have the skill to do the job of creating real game assets or couldn't afford to hire someone who does, but it also doesn't matter. What matters is that this looks bad because of that decision. AI slop sticks out like a sore thumb... and it comes across as insulting. There's also the old adage that those who lack the budget and talent to make their own game assets usually lack the budget and talent to do the rest of the job of game development properly, too, and that's glaringly obvious here. The game features no proper level design or game/story flow/plot, as they opted to try to use samey repetitive procgen algorithms as a substitute for adding such content to the game, to avoid doing the important job of level/map design. As a result, the game doesn't actually have any content worth mentioning, just endless, boring, repetitive, soulless algorithmically generated sameyness. Developers must learn that procedural generation is not an acceptable substitute for content. These flaws make this game fall far short of the professional standards we expect from a modern PC game. The poor quality of this game is reflected by how many people spent time with it. At the time of this review, SteamDB shows the game all-time peak player count was only ONE player. That's right, only one person ever played this at a time. When I played this for the purposes of reviewing it, I equalled the peak player count for the game. OUCH. The only player activity occurs once or twice a month, presumably someone loading it up to see what it is then quickly uninstalling it. Considering there's over 130 million gamers on Steam and well over 140,000 games for gamers to choose from, the overwhelming lack of interest in this low quality game is to be expected. 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. Now on to pricing and value. Should you buy this asset flip? Is this really better than any of the 140,000+ genuinely made games on Steam? Of course not! Bookbound has the ridiculous price of $10 USD, for which you could easily get any number of older AAA games. For comparison, the $10 asking price for this game could get you games like "Assassin's Creed: Odyssey", "Ghostrunner" or "Pillars of Eternity II". Quality, professionally made games like those are frequently on sale cheaper than this. Ethics aside, the quality problems and defects with this game makes the asking price totally unrealistic. It's impossible to recommend this to gamers here on Steam, especially considering the unethical stuff going on. Because this is just a fake game/cash grab scam, and due to the sheer unethical nature of the developer, you should avoid this completely. Don't reward this morally bankrupt, unethical behaviour from SoerGameStudio. The use of AI slop is a direct insult to gamers and real, ethical content creators and artists everywhere. [quote][b][url=https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/marketing/profile]Profile Features Limited![/url][/b] Valve have marked this game as "Profile Features Limited" at the time of this review. This is usually caused by poor sales figures and low community acceptance for the game (to date). Until this status changes, this game will not give you +1 to your Game Collector badge count, appear in profile achievements or any other Steam meta-accomplishments, nor can it be displayed in some profile showcases. If these factors are important to you, it may be worth holding off before buying this game.[/quote]

I'm guessing this game is still being worked on, otherwise, I would say it is trash. It reminds me of "Split Fiction", but single player and certainly not as refined. At this time, due to it being poor quality, thus far, I would not recommend it.

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