Kira

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nice, short fantasy experience

"Kira" isn't a game. Real games require "gameplay" through loops and interaction, both of which are missing from this "art project". Rather than functioning as a game, "Kira" is just a software app that prsents a low-quality "art experience" (ugh). This art experience lets you look at a couple of scenes in a "faerie workshop", whatever that is. All you do is look at the art stuff. This is at best a VR tech demo with nothing to do. We get this non-game shovelware on Steam whenever your usual Starbucks barista/McDonalds frycook art school dropout finally gets a restraining order from the local art galleries so turns to Steam Direct to try get their art published somewhere so they can finally dream of moving out of their parents basement. It's true that games can be art... art is where the pinnacles of craftsmanship and quality meet vision and narrative to create an experience far greater than the sum of the parts. This isn't a game at all, and the craftsmanship and narrative are terrible. This isn't making art better, it's just making gaming worse. To make it clear what a game is and why this isn't one, it boils down to whether the software has any "game loops", which is the interaction between the player and the game itself. Here's an example of a game loop. In Dark Souls, you explore an area, encounter an enemy, fight that enemy and if the computer lets you survive, you repeat that loop with the computer providing you with new enemies. Another example is Candy Crush, where you rearrange your gems and if you create a match, they're eliminated, you get rewarded, and then the game provides you with more gems to match to repeat the process. There's no such loop here, no true interactive feedback. It simply is not a game, it cannot be "played". Launching these "artistic" applications in the "Games" category on Steam is incredibly misleading. Many amateur "developers" don't seem to understand that an interactive gallery is not a game! We should assume this is ignorance over malice, but it's still a non-game published in the wrong section. Nobody read Wordsworth's "Daffodils" and then said "Wow what a great game that was". The correct process for publishing non-game software is found here: [url=https://help.steampowered.com/en/wizard/HelpWithPublishing?issueid=925]Steam Developer Help With Software Publishing[/url] It's unfortunate this process was not known about/followed, resulting in a non-game "art experience" being published in the wrong place. This pollutes the Steam marketplace and takes away visibility from genuine game developers who actually make games for gamers. There are no gameplay loops in this rejected art school dropout exhibition, no "gameplay", no meaningful game like interaction. As such, this has no merit as a video game for gamers, and so I cannot recommend this non-game as a game to gamers. Even as a free art piece, this couldn't find an audience. With a peak of [b]only 7 viewers[/b], it's clear the Steam community took one look and walked away. They literally couldn't pay people to view this.