Wintercaerig is a 2D retro pixel endless runner that's been slapped together with the godawful GameMaker Studio video game construction kit from Yoyogames. There's a weird hippie theme about self esteem that bombards you as you try to cope with just how bad of a template/asset flip this mess is.
This is a very basic endless runner with little or no merit as a serious video game for serious PC gamers. The technical implementation is very poor, beneath that of even the freemium mobile app endless runners like Temple Run.
They chose to use obsolete 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. Resolution is locked, but at least you can remap the simple controls. These flaws push this game far below minimum acceptable standards for PC.
GameMaker Studio is a very poor quality game construction kit, and unsurprisingly results in products that have little to no value as games, especially when compared to the work of professional developers who create genuine products for gamers. Using a video game construction kit requires little to no talent or skill as a game developer. Very often, GameMaker Studio is used to make shovelware and lazy cash grabs, although in this case the game is completely free.
The game isn't even free, exactly, it's "donationware", AKA digital panhandling. The developer has their hands out for a donation, still wanting to be paid for their effort filling out templates/copying+pasting things in GameMaker Studio. This is the digital equivalent of the homeless guys that splash dirty water on your windscreen at the traffic lights and rub a dirty rag over your windows then knock on the windows expecting you to give them money.
[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 seems to want everyone to know they have severe English comprehension issues.
Reviews are about games, specifically the quality of the game and its value to gamers.
If a game is defective, it can be useful for gamers to understand how and why.
When a developer chooses poor quality tools, this invariably results in poor quality products.
Having now written over 8,000 reviews, of which at least a thousand or so were of games slapped together with the amateur/incompetent developers favourite tool, GameMaker Studio, I can confidently say absolutely no AAA games were ever made with it; it's a crap tool and it results, always, in crap games. Wintercearig is a crap game, and part of the reason why is that the developer was so incompetent they couldn't use a more advanced toolset to make the game. I know, a poor craftsman blames his tools, but when I do point out that defects in a game can be attributed to the poor choice of toolset, this is giving the developer the benefit of the doubt, and making the (usually flawed) assumption that they are capable of better.
But the pathetic respose from SynAtria Studios here shows that it's very likely they simply aren't capable of better. So let's ask the question... how is a developer not capable of anything better than copying + pasting crap in GameMaker Studio and dumping it on Steam as donationware doing anything that's good for gamers? Answer: They aren't. And let's be clear... the most important people in the gaming industry are not the crappy amateur developers who can't get a job as professionals. It's the gamers who matter.
Let's talk about pixelcrap, since the developer is trying to excuse their insulting use of it. Name a single AAA studio that's published a AAA game with pixelcrap "art" instead of proper graphics. Yeah, there isn't one. Pixelcrap is a crutch for developers who simply aren't capable of doing the job properly. As I mention in my review (which the developer seems incapable of reading or understanding), this can be due to incompetence, lack of talent, or lack of budget to hire staff who can do the job of game development properly. In none of these scenarios is there any situation that results in a product with value or merit for gamers. But again SynAtria didn't seem to bother reading or understanding my review. Probably they were too busy going through the classifieds looking for an actual game developer they can hire so they don't have to resort to copying + pasting pixelcrap in one of the worst construction kits to blight the gaming industry.
But let's be clear... if a developer is capable of doing visuals like Sensua or Death Stranding, [i]they will do those graphics[/i]. If they can't... they compromise and use crappy pixelgarbage. Why is this this compromise, this defect, good for gamers? It isn't.
The developer seems unable to read English. Nowhere in my review did I suggest this was an asset flip. Why has the developer lied about this? To try to make me look bad by lying about the content of my review? That's going to work out well. Dishonesty is a great disservice to themselves as well as the industry. But the developer has been dishonest about a couple of things here. And while reviews are about games, it's important to understand what leads a game to be so badly made, as Wintercearig is. Lying and deliberately misrepresenting the content of a review (when it's in clear, plain text for anyone to read) is foolhardy and also really insulting. It absolutely doesn't make a crap game any better.
The developer drops a whammy and now suggests the game is intended for people suffering from depression... glib jokes about games this crap actually being a CAUSE of depression aside, it's absolutely inappropriate to use the medium of gaming to push cures for mental health issues or to push other health or social agenda. Imagine if doctors didn't have to be qualified and the doctors the equivalent of crap amateur game developers who can't actually make games so they use GameMaker Studio, and can't do graphics so they resort to pixelcrap were allowed to practice healthcare. The death toll would be catastrophic.
Finally the developer insists this is "Free" but once more they lie, as I explain in my review they have their hand out for a donation, this is panhandling, the game is donationware and must be classified as such.
Based on the developers sheer dishonesty and lies, their terrible attitude towards gamers, my review will remain unchanged, but it's good that the developer has drawn more attention towards the defects and problems with this product.
