Tower Blitz

I usually try to at least finish a cheap tower defence game before reviewing, but this is pretty bad. Only one enemy is properly animated the others are just static images that wobble back and forth like a kid playing with paper people making them walk. The UI is incredibly blurry. The gameplay is painfully boring and slow and there's no way to speed it up. And you can scroll up or down and see beyond the actual level backgrounds, there's this weird green box with a red arrow pointing up on the bottom and red arrow pointing down on the top in like level 3. It's bizarre. It's just not good. I'd say it's a poor man's Kingdom Rush, but I think that does a disservice to poor man's Kingdom Rush games because some of them can be pretty decent. This, even for how cheap it is, doesn't feel like it's actually a finished product.

[quote][url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asset_flip]Warning: Asset Flip![/url][/quote] Tower Blitz is a Unity asset flip, or what Valve calls a "Fake Game". The "developer" paid for/pirated someone else's example/template/tutorial game (the [url=https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/packs/tower-defense-2d-85612]Tower Defense 2D Game Package[/url] game template from actual game developers, GoodDay, in this case), changed the name, and submitted it to Valve as if it was their own game. Asset flips don't involve any professional game development, and are an insult to both PC gamers and to the professional game developers who dedicate themselves to producing real, high quality PC games. Completely reprehensible, morally bankrupt behavior. Impossible to recommend. [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 they deliberately ignored the part where Valve says: [quote]Though it may be tempting, not every review needs to be responded to. 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 developer insists this isn't an asset flip then admits it's an asset flip from GoodDay, the Tower Defense 2D Game Template. I'm not sure what they've accomplished by this admission. Asset flip scams like Tower Blitz are straightforward. Take a Unity Store Asset, change a couple of things, publish it on Steam (~$100), then sell keys in bulk to cheap nasty bundle merchants like DailyIndieGame. DIG in turn pay a few cents per key, they know they're pushing garbage, but in general this is profitable for the asset flipper which is why they keep doing it. Just look at serial scammers like RewindApp and INFINITE BRIDGE. They wouldn't keep running those scams unless it was profitable. In essence, the developer tries to claim credit for the work of other actual game developers. They try to get paid for someone else's work. It's completely unacceptable, which is why I ensure that when I have the misfortune of reviewing such a scam, I warn other gamers. Asset flips are harmful to the game industry, not just because of the immediate attempt to scam gamers out of money. They also glut the marketplace and draw attention away from the products of hard working, genuine indie developers who are far more deserving of a place at the table.