"SpaBerry VR Experience" is not a game. Games contain meaningful gamelike interaction and game loops, which are absent in this advertisement.
Instead of being a game, "SpaBerry VR Experience" is an advertisement for SpaBerry 2 person spa baths... a small spa, slightly larger than a bathtub. In order to attempt to increase sales of the product, they launched this advertisement for it on Steam, as if it was a game.
I can't believe I have to say this, but [b]consumer goods businesses should not be abusing the Steam Games Store to advertise household products, furniture, whitegoods or appliances.[/b] What's next, Cuisinart publishes a "game" about how to buy a new sandwich press? Imagine if every business dumped advertising onto Steam. Steam Direct only costs $100, after all.
Yeah, this is disgusting abuse of the store.
For those unfamiliar with what actually makes something a game, a "game loop" describes the interaction and feedback a gamer has when playing a game.
Tetris, for example, has a game loop where a random block appears, the gamer interacts with the block to position it, and then the game decides if that finishes a row or not, increases the players score if any rows were completed, then gives the gamer another block to position. Counter-Strike has a game loop where a player seeks another player, tests their skill against that player by shooting them or being shot, the computer rewards the player if they win, and then if the player survives, they repeat that loop.
There's no loop here, no true interactive feedback. It simply is not a game, it cannot be "played".
This has misleadingly been launched in the "Games" section of Steam instead of the "Software" section. This is a common mistake for developers who are new to Steam, or don't understand the difference between games and software which isn't a game. It seems this software published incorrectly as a game is simply lack of experience/knowledge of the correct process.
Here's a link for the process to publish non-game software on Steam:
[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 software application being published in the wrong place.
Publishing things which aren't games on Steam in the Games section as games is misleading to gamers and somewhat harmful, because it pollutes the Steam marketplace and takes away visibility and market exposure for genuine game developers who do the right thing and make games for gamers.
There are no gameplay loops in this software, no "gameplay", no meaningful game like interaction. It's a software application and as such has no merits as a video game for gamers. Because of this, I cannot recommend this non-game software as a game to gamers.
In terms of public reception, this failed. There's over 130 million unique gamers visiting Steam every month. SteamDB showed the product peaked at [b]only 3 concurrent users[/b]... this is a dismal public reception. This was so bad they couldn't even give it away.
Despite having no up-front cost, this failed to appeal to the 130 million+ gamers on Steam. SteamDB shows this peaked at [b]only 3 concurrent users[/b]... this is a dismal public reception. This was so bad they couldn't even give it away.
