[quote][url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_slop][b]Warning: AI Slop[/b][/url]
The game this is advertising is partially or completely made with talentless, soulless AI generated content.[/quote]
"Candy Shop Simulator: Sweet Start" is is not a game. It's an advertisement for a product called "Candy Shop Simulator". Candy Shop Simulator is a fine blend of disgusting AI slop and flipped Unity Asset Store game assets slapped on a basic "Tycoon game" game blueprint... the modus operandi for serial offenders at PlayWay S.A.
But this isn't completely relevant because this is not Candy Shop Simulator, it's just an advertisment for it, so it's not correct to try to review that completely distinct product. We must instead review this for what it is... an advertisement. If you enjoy advertisements, you can consume them for free on the web or on Youtube without needing to add them to your game library, download them, and then launch the advertising. It's impossible in a general sense to recommend people should do that over playing real, full games on Steam, and that applies here with "Candy Shop Simulator: Sweet Start" too.
Valve provides a specific way to handle demos, free trials and advertisments. It is clearly outlined in the [url=https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/application/demos]Steamworks Documentation for creating Demos[/url]... something I would say is mandatory reading before anyone thinks about abusing Steam Direct. This "developer" either didn't responsibly try to understand Steam, or worse, deliberately and wilfully chose to ignore the correct process just to pollute Steam with for-profit advertising. Either way, this is unprofessional and bad for gamers, and here we are, looking at an advert.
The purpose of this advertisement is to get you to shell out a whopping $13 USD on buying Candy Shop Simulator, and I don't recommend you do that either.
Next is pricing and what value this has for gamers.
As an advertisement, this is only free in the same way that adverts on Youtube and banner ads in your browser are. This is a game demo that's been dumped on Steam to advertise another Steam store page in the hopes of raking in some cash. Just because advertisements are free, doesn't mean they're worth your time.
It's important to understand there's a formal process to create a demo/page for a game which hasn't been followed here:
https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/application/demos
While it might seem like an innocuous mistake, publishing demos and advertisements as if they are full games is misleading and in some ways harmful. This advertisement is taking up marketing space and visibility that would be better made available to a developer that's done the right thing and created a full game. Instead, that visibility is given over to a demo/advert that's been published incorrectly and is polluting the marketplace.
It's unclear if this mistake was made through incompetence or a deliberate intent to mislead gamers. Often developers may choose to incorrectly publish demo/advertisements as separate games as a cheap way to bypass paying Valve for marketing presence on the Steam front page, which may seem clever to them, but it's harmful behaviour and it's not good for gamers.
Advertisements and incorrectly published demos don't add +1 to your game collector count, they aren't full games. It's impossible for me to recommend this incorrectly published advertising spam to gamers, you deserve better than adverts.
The use of AI slop is a direct insult to gamers and real, ethical content creators and artists everywhere.
