[quote][b][url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asset_flip]Warning: Asset Flip![/url][/b]
Take Your Throne is a Digital Homicide style asset flip, or what Valve calls a "Fake Game". The "developer" paid for or pirated a few Unity asset store assets, dumped them in a blender, and submitted it to Valve as if they're a real game developer.[/quote]
[quote][url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_slop][b]Warning: AI Slop[/b][/url]
This game is partially or completely made with soulless AI generated content.[/quote]
Two notable criteria define an asset flip versus legitimate use of stock assets: whether those assets comprise the majority of the game, and whether the "developer" credited the people who created them. This game fails both tests. The "developers" didn't credit the artists and real game developers who created these assets, so this is plagiarism as well as cash grab shovelware.
In this case, the asset flipper took a bunch of Unreal/FAB assets, AI slop and a basic Plants vs Zombies blueprint to pretend they're a real game developer... no, to scam gamers into thinking this was a genuinely made game. It's not... it's a cash grab to get paid for AI slop and plagiarizing other people's assets. This is not okay.
It has no value or merit as a real game... it's just a basic game template with AI slop and plagiarised assets all over it. Not a full or genuinely made game.
Taken seriously as if it was a genuine attempt to make a game, it doesn't meet the basic minimum requirements most PC gamers expect as standard.
There's no option to change the resolution and no useful graphics tweaks, and no way to ensure this is running at the native resolution of your display. There's no guarantee this game will look right on any PC as a result of this hamfisted design decision.
As mentioned, this features godawful, "wrong" looking AI slop instead of genuinely created game assets. It's hard to say if this was because the developer lacked the skill to create real assets or couldn't afford to hire someone who does, but it doesn't matter. What matters is that this looks bad because of that decision. AI slop sticks out like a sore thumb, and it comes across as insulting.
There's also the old adage that those who lack the budget and talent to make their own assets usually lack the talent to do the rest of the job properly, and that's glaringly obvious here.
This looks and feels like a mobile app, but I wasn't able to find it on the app stores. Maybe it was removed, or rejected by Apple and Google.
Regardless, Take Your Throne might as well be a mobile app, with the same limitations and dumbed down qualities.
These technical issues put this game beneath what's expected from a contemporary, professionally developed PC game.
Take Your Throne didn't capture much interest from its owners. The achievement data makes this clear: the easiest achievement, "Forward to the Past!", for starting the garbage asset flip/AI slop mess, was only unlocked by 13 percent of players. Even the simplest milestone went unreached by most owners. Hardly a ringing endorsement.
The poor quality of this game is also reflected by how many people spent time with it. At the time of this review, SteamDB shows the game's all-time peak player count was only ONE. That's right, only one person ever played this at a time. When I played it for this review, I equalled the peak player count. OUCH.
This kind of asset flipping isn't harmless. It makes it harder for gamers to find genuinely made games from ethical developers, and harder for genuine indie developers, who put hard work into making real games, to find an audience. It gives indie developers a bad name.
On to pricing and value. Should you buy this asset flip? Is it one of the best of the 140,000+ products on Steam? Absolutely not.
Take Your Throne has the gamer gouging price of around $5 USD, not worth it given the defects and shortcomings, especially considering the sheer number of free, much higher quality games on Steam. Because this is the kind of game you can play for free on mobile phones, it's impossible to recommend anyone pay for the same experience on Steam.
For comparison, the $5 asking price could get you games like "Outlast", "Total War Shogun II" or "This War of Mine". Quality, professionally made games are frequently on sale cheaper than this.
The quality problems and defects make the asking price unrealistic. It's impossible to recommend this to gamers on Steam, especially given the unethical stuff going on. Because this is just a fake game/cash grab scam, and due to the developer's unethical nature, you should avoid this completely. Don't reward this morally bankrupt behaviour from Grozny23.
The use of AI slop is a direct insult to gamers and real, ethical content creators and artists everywhere.
[quote][b][url=https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/marketing/profile]Profile Features Limited![/url][/b]
Valve have marked this game as "Profile Features Limited" at the time of this review. This is usually caused by poor sales figures and low community acceptance to date. Until this status changes, this game won't give you +1 to your Game Collector badge count, appear in profile achievements or any other Steam meta-accomplishments, nor can it be displayed in some profile showcases. If these factors matter to you, it may be worth holding off before buying.[/quote]
[quote][url=https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/reviews]Developer Response![/url][/quote]The developer has weighed in to inform everyone they didn't read the [url=https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/reviews]Developer Usage Rules[/url] for Steam "partners", or deliberately ignored the part where Valve says:
[quote]Though it may be tempting, not every review needs a response. A developer response will frequently draw more attention than the original statement, potentially turning a small issue into a much larger community discussion. It's also not a good idea to use this feature to refute customer opinions. Your direct attention can be seen as validation or a defensive attempt to silence your customers.[/quote]
The first thing the developer wants everyone to know is that they are "The Main Character". You, as a gamer, don't matter. They breach Valve guidelines just to complain about an accurate and informative review (with facts their ego doesn't like). It's evident they never created this product with gamers in mind, but to stroke their own ego. That explains how this trash ended up on Steam, but it doesn't excuse it. At least we finally got to meet The Main Character.
The developer brazenly admits they're plagiarising... they took someone else's assets and did not credit them. When developers do this, they position themselves as having their name against those assets... it's 100% plagiarism. If they used someone else's work in a Hollywood movie, they'd be sued into the ground and never work in the industry again. They're tacitly telling gamers that because it's their game, the assets are also theirs.
They pushed AI slop onto Steam and claimed the work of others as their own, a direct attempt to scam gamers out of money for other people's assets, AI slop, and someone else's game concept... morally and intellectually bankrupt!
Real, genuine developers don't pass off someone else's work as their own, and don't scam gamers out of money for something with ZERO creativity. This is someone else's game made of someone else's assets, but this guy wants YOUR money for it!
Claiming the work of others as your own, failing to credit them, is highly unethical, [i]and the developer here now openly admits to it[/i]
The developer even admits this is substandard garbage beneath a mobile app, but published it on Steam anyway... a pure cash grab.
Nothing in the developer's pointless breach of Valve guidelines changes any of the objective facts of my review. My review stands unaltered. I cannot recommend this AI slop to anyone.
