Unstable Rock is yet another construction kit template copy+paste from serial shovelware pushers, My Way Games. These guys do nothing but copy premade game templates and game tutorials, fill out a few things/stamp out basic levels using the construction kit templates, slap on an asset flipped set of sprites/assets, and dump them on Steam and into cheap nasty shovelware game bundles as cash grabs. Trying to get paid for someone else's game templates, assets... at best, this is shovelware, at worst, it's a scam/cash grab.
This is using a very familiar GameMaker Studio template often used and abused by Russian asset flippers, some of whom have (thankfully) been banned from Steam (surely no co-incidence that the same templates they used are also used by My Way Games!). What happens in this GameMaker Studio asset flip is you basically direct "gravity" up, down, left or right and use that to move an asset flipped boulder sprite to an exit zone... that's all there is to it.
My Way Games/RenPixel have shown a repeat pattern of unethically dumping other people's work onto Steam as a cheap, nasty cash grab, through this account or through closely linked/alt accounts. Here's some examples so you can see for yourself:
[list]
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1034160]Extreme Racing On Highway[/url]" = [url=https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/packs/highway-racer-50866]Highway Racer[/url] developed by BoneCracker Games
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1050810]The Hunt in the Forest[/url]" = [url=https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/systems/advanced-sniper-starter-kit-7593]Advanced Sniper Starter Kit[/url] developed by Hardworker Studio
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1054930]Mine the Gold[/url]" = [url=https://unityassets4free.com/goldmine/]Gold Miner Century[/url] developed by SplayGame Official
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1058500]Muscle Car Robot[/url]" = [url=https://gamening.com/muscle-car-robot/]Muscle Car Robot[/url] developed by GameNing
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1058930]Top Burger[/url]" = [url=https://unityfreaks.com/asset/4815]Top Burger Chef[/url] developed by KetchAp
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1058980]Dinosaur Bone Digging[/url]" = [url=https://www.sellanycode.com/item/515/dinosaur-bone-digging-games]Dinosaur Bone Digging Games[/url] developed by Ardian Kaltara
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/628570]Trivia Night[/url]" = [url=https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/systems/trivia-quiz-game-template-45521]Trivia Quiz Game Template[/url] developed by Puppeteer
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/628580]Miniballist[/url]" = [url=https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/packs/endless-turns-63501]Endless Turns[/url] developed by SGLib Games
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/645360]CubeXL[/url]" = [url=https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/packs/switch-the-gravity-63196]Switch The Gravity[/url] developed by App Advisory
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/864010]Space Force[/url]" = [url=https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/x-racer-35344]X-Racer[/url] developed by Deer Cat
[/list]
Taking this shovelware seriously as if it was a genuine attempt to make a game, it doesn't meet basic minimum requirements that most PC gamers expect as standard.
A choice was made to use obsolete, decades old retro pixel "art" as a substitute for contemporary PC graphics. It's unclear if this is due to lack of budget or talent, regardless, the overall visual quality of the game is extremely low as a result.
There's no option to change the resolution and no useful graphics tweaks. There's 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.
The controls can't be customised, which will be an annoyance for many, but it can also render the game unplayable for differently-abled gamers, left handed gamers or gamers using AZERTY or other international keyboard layouts.
Some of the defects in the game can be attributed to the choice of using the GameMaker Studio construction kit/toolset. This is a very poor quality toolset favoured by amateur developers as it's cheap and requires little in the way of development skill, but unfortunately has very limited capabilities. Just as you can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear, you can't make a great video game if you use a terrible engine. GameMaker Studio is most commonly used to make retro pixel shovelware and cash grabs.
A strong argument can be made that construction kits like GameMaker Studio should never be used to make games for profit, as the "developer", RenPixel has done here. These construction kits are intended to teach people some of the basic principles of game development, and to make small demos to pass around with friends. They're not intended to replace to actual work of real, professional game developers. So it's inappropriate when amateurs try to use these for profit, without any actual, real game development effort taking place. This doesn't result in products that have any real meaningful value for gamers.
These technical defects push this game below acceptable standards for any modern PC game.
The poor quality of this game is reflected by how many people spent time with it. At the time of this review, SteamDB shows the game all-time peak player count was only ONE player. That's right, only one person ever played this at a time. When I played this for the purposes of reviewing it, I equalled the peak player count for the game. OUCH. The only player activity occurs once or twice a month, presumably someone loading it up to see what it is then quickly uninstalling it. Considering there's over 120 million gamers on Steam and well over 100,000 games for gamers to choose from, the overwhelming lack of interest in this low quality game is to be expected.
It's also important to note the "developer" here has connections to a number of shady Russian asset flippers and review manipulators who show an organised pattern to scam and defraud gamers with fake reviews and asset flipping the work of others for profit. While reviews are about the games, gamers should be informed when developers act unethically. Whether these connections are the same developer using multiple accounts, or just working closely with other unethical developers, gamers should be warned about the harm to gamers by this developer and their associates. Buying games from unethical developers puts your money at risk.
So, should you buy this game? Is this one of the best of the 100,000+ games on Steam?
Unstable Rock has the ridiculous price of $30 USD, for which you could easily get any number of older AAA games. Given the defects and quality issues with the game, coupled with the unrealistic price, and the questionable ethical nature of the developer and/or their associates (as outlined above), this is impossible to recommend. While there's no evidence in this case, it is entirely possible that this aggressive pricing for what is clearly a fake/garbage game is to facilitate money laundering or other cash movements. There's simply no ethical reason a game this bad would be priced this highly.
[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 for the game (to date). Until this status changes, this game will not 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 are important to you, it may be worth holding off before buying th
