[quote][b][url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asset_flip]Warning: Asset Flip![/url][/b]
"Lost Girl Platformer" is one of literally thousands of creatively bankrupt asset flips infesting Steam and lowering the average quality of all video games everywhere.[/quote]
This is a nasty asset flip scam from the Russian asset flippers at RaCaRa (but they've punted this garbage between a number of fake/shell accounts to hide their identity). The developers stole a bunch of assets, the title asset being [url=https://angeler1234.itch.io/basic-character-female-pack-64-ver-pro]Basic Character Female Pack 64 PRO[/url] from the real developer, Angeler1234, and set out to try scam you out of YOUR money for someone else's game assets.
So, "Lost Girl Platformer" is partially or completely made up of stock assets, "borrowed" from asset stores and free asset websites. Little, if anything in this game is the creation of the "developer".
While there's no up front price for this asset flip, the other problem with asset flips is that when developers aren't capable of doing their job and creating high quality assets, it's also true they can't do any of the rest of the job of a game developer either. That's definitely true for "Lost Girl Platformer", and this kind of asset flipping never results in games that have quality or value for PC gamers.
There's no English translation for the game, but that's okay. The language of bad games is universal.
Now on to pricing and value for gamers.
There's no initial download price, but the developer was charging $60 USD for this. SIXTY DOLLARS.... combined with fake/paid reviews, it's clear the Russian developers set out to scam gamers with this asset flip.
Price barriers, especially on low quality products, can be a direct cause of failure. It seems like a nice gesture for the game to have no up-front cost anymore, but it also tells us that the game wasn't good enough to succeed as a paid product. This is also a bit of a slap in the face to anyone who showed enough questionable judgement to pay money for this... nobody got refunded.
In terms of public reception, this failed. There's over 130 million unique gamers visiting Steam every month. SteamDB showed the game peaked at [b]only 12 concurrent players[/b]... this is a dismal public reception. This was so bad they couldn't even give it away.
[quote][b][url=https://www.ftc.gov/legal-library/browse/federal-register-notices/16-cfr-part-465-trade-regulation-rule-use-consumer-reviews-testimonials-final-rule]Warning: Review Manipulation![/url][/b]
This product features a number of fake positive reviews from accounts known to be in the business of review manipulation/paid reviews. They're all written in either Russian or broken English, appear at almost exactly the same time, very shortly after the product launched on Steam, and the accounts are used consistently to write fake reviews for asset flips and other cash grabs/scams. The "Positive" review score on this should be disregarded due to this blatant, unethical review manipulation. This is done to deceive and scam gamers into paying for a bad product.
Due to the 2024 FTC ruling, these fake reviews are a violation of US Federal Law ([i]16 CFR § 465.2, 15 U.S.C. § 45[/i])[/quote]
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?
Not on a bet. This might be "free", but I still feel like I got ripped off.
