Gjana's World is yet another of literally thousands of 2D retro platformers infesting Steam and lowering the average quality of all video games everywhere. This one is very clunky and poorly put together, but also features custom artwork, making me think this might be a student project or something. But unfortunately, probably not, because researching this game lead me to the determination that the developer is a shady asset flipper, so wherever this game came from, it probably wasn't put on Steam with genuine and sincere intentions.
Albatross Idea/Lotus GamesTr have a known history of trying to scam people into paying them money for someone else's work, through this account or through closely linked/alt accounts. An example of Albatross Idea/Lotus GamesTr doing this is [url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1623320]Little Big Guy[/url], which is really "[url=https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/systems/survival-engine-crafting-building-farming-178160]Survival Engine[/url]", written by the actual developers, Indie Marc. Also, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1257540]Resistance TD[/url], which is really "[url=https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/game-toolkits/tower-defense-toolkit-4-tdtk-4-91023]Tower Defense Toolkit 4[/url]", developed by SongGameDev.
The game itself is a very mediocre action platformer with an esoteric "art" theme as you run around and do basic platformer stuff... this really does feel more like a Digipen dropout student game than a serious product.
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.
There's no options to change the resolution for the game or customise the graphics settings. There's no way for gamers to ensure this is running at the native resolution of their displays... there's no guarantee this game will look right on any PC as a result of this hamfisted design decision. There's no way for gamers to try improve the low quality graphics.
The controls and game handling are notably very clunky and unsmooth here. It's janky and unsatisfying to play... and any experienced gamer will tell you, the handling, responsiveness and general gameplay feel of the control scheme must be well polished for this kind of game to succeed. Unfortunately, this is something the developer seems to have phoned in, with little to no apparent gameplay testing. They dropped the ball on this one.
The controls can't be customised, which will be an annoyance for many, but it can also render the game unplayable for differently-abled gamers.
While this is on PC, it has all the hallmarks and deficiencies of a console game, from the clunkier than needed control scheme to the less than cutting edge graphics. There's 10's of thousands of PC games on Steam, and PC gamers deserve only the best. This might not appeal to many gamers due to the lack of PC-centric design. It's unclear why this game was never accepted on the video game console appliances it seems to have been designed for.
These technical defects 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 2 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 50,000 games for gamers to choose from (over 9,000 completely free titles), the overwhelming lack of interest in this low quality game is to be expected.
Gjana's World 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 and the unethical developer, this is impossible to recommend. Remember that if you buy from an unethical developer, you're putting your money at risk.
[b][quote][url=https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/marketing/profile]Profile Features Limited![/url][/quote][/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.
