Spirit Messages is not a game. Games contain meaningful gamelike interaction and game loops, which are absent in this software. This is, in essence, a crap ripoff of the Magic-8 Ball (that thing you shake that gives you a yes/no/maybe answer). Except it's not even as good as that. Here's how this "software" works. You type in a question, then it displays a random pose and a mix of random shapes, numbers or letters, and then you're supposed to "magically" glean insight from that and [i]type in your own answer to your own question[/i]. Ugh. Well, that sure got my organic tofu energy chakras aligned and my feng shui tingling. What garbage. Anyway, on to the important things for gamers to know about this.
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, 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, and then repeats 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.
