Launch Director

☀️

"Launch Director" is a godawfully bad... thing... made with Unreal Engine. The idea, or intention, I guess, because whatever this intended to do it didn't, is to provide a simulation game where the player can administer a terrestrial space program. The implementation here is a direct affront to gamers and game development, a slow, clunky mess as you plod around the entryway to a space center then try to get in and find out just how much worse it is the more you go... this truly is an incompetent train wreck pretending to be a game. This comes across as something unambitious and "simple" in terms of implementation and technical quality and depth, more like a game dev tutorial or an experiment. It’s a classic case of a developer prioritizing the low effort needed to get a game listed on Steam over the actual delivery of a technically sound or compelling product. Whatever is needed to hammer out something "good" enough for Steam Direct self-publishing. The graphics aren't great, a laughably primitive low poly spaceport scene that looks to be lifted from a basic Japanese asset pack of some kind... I'm 100% sure I already saw these exact same assets in a bit of Russian junkware. Of course I am sure the developer, who is not Japanese, decided Japanese signs would make perfect sense for this game. Since I can't remember exactly where I saw these assets before, I guess the developer gets the benefit of the doubt on charges of plagiarism, but the asset pack itself is garbage anyway, and ultimately gamers care about quality. This has none. That's understandably a turn off for a lot of gamers, and it's a big contributor to the failure of the game to attract gamers despite having no up-front cost. Gaming is a primarily visual medium, and if developers want to succeed, they must understand that it's not an area for compromise. You deserve better than compromises. You're forced to sign a highly questionable yet legally unenforceable End User License Agreement... for such a relatively low effort, low quality product, this comes across more as a delusion of grandeur than anything else. This agreement includes questionable requirements that may attempt to revoke consumer law protections that gamers expect to have, which is also highly problematic. Developers must learn they are here to serve gamers, not control them. I had my cat walk over the keyboard while the EULA was displaying, which fixed that problem for me. Now on to pricing and value for gamers. This is "free" enough (not every "free" game in the "free" section is truly free, there's usually some hidden price tag), at least you won't be expected to spend any more money after you download this, but just because something is free doesn't mean it's good, and the cost of a game is more than just financial, your time is valuable too. Even as a free game, this couldn't find an audience. With a peak of [b]only 3 players[/b], it's clear the Steam community took one look and walked away. They literally couldn't pay people to spend time playing this. Bearing in mind that free games don't add +1 to your game collector count, should you bother adding this to your library and downloading it? I think you should give this one a miss. Although it's free, your time and storage are valuable resources, and the market is filled with superior options.

cool