[quote][b][url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asset_flip]Warning: Asset Flip![/url][/b]
Demon's Wrath 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 Unity survival game template and lazily dropped a few stock assets around the place... this is probably around 1-2 hours work overall. It's bad, seriously, godawfully bad. It has no value or merit as a real game.
The game was abandoned roughly 3 months after launch and hasn't been updated in almost 2 years. It blew past the developers commitment to complete the game without any notification or admission of failure from the developer. The game will never be completed.
The mismatched 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.
Note: Unity don't permit asset flips like this garbage. The terms and conditions for use of Unity assets are clear.
The developer is in breach of the Unity Asset Store agreement under Appendix 1, Section 2, Subsection 2, that says the "developer" may only [i]"incorporate the Asset, together with substantial, original content [b]not obtained through the Unity Asset Store[/b], 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, such that the Asset does not comprise a substantial portion of the Licensed Product".[/i] The developer openly admits the majority of this garbage asset flip is made of assets stolen and plagiarised from the asset store. Breaching intellectual property licenses and copyright law, for profit. Disgusting, isn't it?
The entire thing is riddled with technical defects that push this game below acceptable standards for any 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 all-time peak player number was only 4 players. This is a remarkably low number, and now, 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 120 million gamers on Steam and well over 110,000 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.
Demon's Wrath has no upfront cost, but just because something doesn't have a price tag doesn't mean it's valuable. This isn't worth downloading. While this won't cost you any money, you get what you pay for, and sometimes, even when the game is free, it's still not enough.
The developer also indicated they intend to infest this asset flip with a toxic in-game cash shop, a desperate and disgusting attempt to get YOUR money for someone else's Unity asset pack.
This is not okay.
[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 brazenly admits they're plagiarising... they took someone else's assets, and did not credit them. Gamers are not supposed to "guess" if a developer didn't actually create the assets in their game. When developers do this, they position themselves as having their name against those assets... it's 100% plagiarism. If they used someone else's work in a Hollywood movie, they'd be sued into the ground and never work in the industry again. They're tacitly telling gamers because this is their game, the assets are also theirs.
We also know that this is deliberate. It's easy to include a simple credits page. Why would the developer deliberately choose not to do this, if not to hide the true origin of the game assets from gamers? Claiming the work of others as your own, failing to credit the work of others, is highly unethical, [i]and the developer here now openly admits to it[/i]
Worse, the developer [b]willfully and deliberately violated the Unity Asset Store terms and conditions for profit.[/b] This remains on Steam simply because Unity have not yet stepped in to halt this blatant, for profit infringement of their intellectual property license... and when you breach an intellectual property license, this is copyright infringement, which can carry penalties up to $250,000 and up to 5 years incarceration.
Nothing in the developers pointless breach of Valve guidelines changes any of the objective facts of my review. My review stands unaltered, with the exception of adding a notice about the developers deliberate, for profit breach of the Unity Asset Store copyright and intellectual property licensing agreement. I cannot recommend this asset flip to anyone.
