Edit: "Derision" is an asset flip. The developer used the developer response feature to confess he deliberately failed both tests for what makes an asset flip... when other people's assets make up the majority of the game (true for Derision) and whether the developer failed to credit the people who actually created the game assets (true for Derision). And of course the developer, by not crediting the actual creators, tacitly claimed credit for their work [b]FOR PROFIT[/b].
It doesn't matter if the license for those assets permits such use cases (there's no reason to believe so in this case), taking someone else's work, putting your own name on it to pretend you made it, and then trying to sell the result for profit is plagiarism and ethically bankrupt.
If this was done in film or literature, not only would the developer never work in those industries again if they got caught doing it, but they would possibly be looking at finding a lawyer for the impending court cases. It's unclear why this is tolerated in the gaming industry and absolutely forbidden in others, but regardless, this is all about what's good for gamers, what's good for the industry, and what's good for genuine game developers who do the right thing and don't resort to plagiarism.
Original review follows:
This is a sole developers first time project, from a developer who, at the time, was apparently unable to secure work as a professional game developer. Now, I'm not one to overuse analogies, but if you had to go on a plane flight, would you choose the plane designed and built by hundreds of engineers at Airbus, or the plane designed by the guy who never made a plane before, couldn't get a job at Airbus, and made the thing in his backyard in his spare time? Yeah. So why are you even reading reviews for this game? Move along, nothing to see here.
The game is very simplistic, small and limited in scope and ambition. This feels more like a tech demo, proof of concept or student homework assignment rather than a fully fledged product designed for PC gamers. As such it doesn't offer any real value as a serious PC game.
As always reviews are all about the game, and this one is a rather poor one, even if it was a genuine attempt by someone unqualified to do the thing they're not qualified to do. It's a first person adventure/puzzle game of somewhat inferior quality to the average Russian haunted house Unity asset flip. There's an egyptian kind of theme (I guess?) but for some reason the title screen has some American mesas in it... and really the quality is just so low none of that matters.
You don't have to take my word about how bad the game is, we can measure the interest in a game by how much people bothered to play it. Derision has achievements, and they show us a very clear picture that the game absolutely failed to capture any interest from gamers. The most commonly and easily attained achievement is for finish the (short) game, trivial to achieve, but less than 8 percent of players bothered to get that far before uninstalling the game. That's a tiny, tiny proportion of gamers who even bothered with this. Ouch.
The poor quality of this game is also 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 120 million gamers on Steam and well over 100,000 games for gamers to choose from, the overwhelming lack of interest in this low quality game is to be expected.
So, should you buy this game? Is this one of the best of the 100,000+ games on Steam?
Derision is relatively cheap at $1 USD, but it's not worth it. Given the defects and quality issues with the game, coupled with the unrealistic price, this is impossible to recommend. This is also competing with over 11,000 free games available on Steam, many of them far better than this paid product.
[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]
[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 confirms 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.
The developer brazenly admits, almost proudly, that they took the work of others, didn't credit them, and tried to profit from that by selling a half-baked, unprofessional, inferior quality game on Steam.
The developer knew the product was simply not up to scratch but they put it on Steam anyway because they wanted a big fat paycheck from stealing the work of others and not crediting them.
When developers put themselves before gamers, this is always the disastrous result. This is harmful to the gaming industry. It makes it harder for gamers to find genuinely made games from ethical amateur and independent developers who do the right thing. It gives indie devs a bad name.
Due to the developers admission of unethical and anti-gamer behaviors, I have edited my review to contain a more accurate warning to prospective buyers. I cannot recommend this game to anyone.
Edit: The developer had a bizarre meltdown... guilty conscience I guess. Plagiarists hate being caught red handed trying to claim credit, and even worse, get PAID for stealing other people's assets. Disgusting isn't it? And wow, this guy does not like that he got caught. Talk about the Streisand Effect. Regardless, none of the facts of my review have changed... nobody wanted this asset flip cash grab, and it has no value whatsoever for gamers compared to genuinely made games by professional, ethical developers.
