[NSFW] Air Control or Why we need greenlight not self publishing on steam

Hey everyone,

Just thought I would share a game that is currently on Steam called Air Control. Not not that awesome 2D mobile game of the same name.

But a PC well you will see...

As you can tell it is made with Unity3D Free. It has been on the front page of Reddit and the developer is blaming peoples computers for not being up to spec to running the game when it flat out crashes or stop responding.

It is a mix of bad coding, Stolen assets, and a stolen audio... Hell I am not sure if anything in this game is "legal" so to speak.

There is going to be a Jimquistion on this game - Where he will proceed to rip this game and Valve new one. We just need quality control for Steam.

Anyway Enjoy the video...

 

Towns was a broken mess and now it's not even going to be completed. Greenlight isn't a solution to "bad games."

 

I would like to hear suggestions then I do not want my library of steam games just vanishing.

 

Seems like a clear case of feeding the troll, to me.

Wh... why do you think that has anything to do with dodgy games on Greenlight?

 

Your games aren't going to "just vanish."

edit: This game wasn't even self-published. It went through the Greenlight process too.

 

Why did this guy in the video buy that. Has anyone else here paid for this game?

 

And then some people wonder here why Unity has a bad reputation

 

He reviews games - Much like Total Biscuit or Angry Joe.

You can also find him on the escapist regularly - http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition

He used to be very Pro Indie developer - He might still be. However not sure about that any more considering a few "Bad Games" are ruining steam for indie that wants to self publish.

 

Oh for...

BAD GAMES HAVE ALWAYS BEEN ON STEAM AND HAVE ALWAYS GOTTEN ON STEAM, EVEN BEFORE GREENLIGHT.

 

Pretty much...

 

At one point, someone in Valve said "Yup, this game's up to our standards! Let it sell!"

 

Seriously? this game came out on Steam? for 5$?


Steam really needs quality control...
Don't end the self-publishing, because that's the best route for indies, but Steam should have some standards to games published on their platform.
At least review them before publishing

 

I'm so confused by what I just watched...

 

It's deeper than goat simulator ...

 

Maybe if there will be more games like this, then valve will understand that self-publishing is not the brightest idea out there.

 

That's not really the issue. Bad games get released all the time. The bigger question is: how or why is this game so popular?

Sometimes they get popular for a reason. For instance, there is a very good reason why Flappy Bird became popular.

 

Purple cow.

Which could also be precisely why it was allowed through. Surely nobody's taking it seriously, and it's not like $5 is a big loss as long as you have some fun along the way, even if that fun is "Look how much this sucks LOL!!!" And, honestly, from back in my LAN party days I've seen plenty of people who do find exactly that fun.

 

That game got on Steam?

OMG, we're doomed.

 

... this game really is available on Steam. And it costs 5,99 €.
Wow. Just. Wow!

Maybe I should just try and make my own full game.

 

Interesting talk, and an interesting reflection on indie dev. If you're making a game without a lot of manpower, your best weapon is being unusual. If you pick something too conservative, the larger shops have an advantage over you.

One nice thing is that larger shops do tend to be conservative.

 

Self publish to steam will be awesome. Consumers can request refunds for rip off games (just like apple store). A review process is fine but it is great to have an open market.

This game is just a joke and shows self publish is a good idea since greenlight clearly is worthless anyway.

 

Well, even Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing sold copies, although that's a pretty low bar. And this does serve as an example of what not to do - make input that doesn't work, rotating the camera while using the mouse to click things, and stealing assets. And above all, blaming the users when it inevitably doesn't work.

 

How can these people even look at themselves in the mirror?

I made this in a couple days back when I barely knew anything about Unity https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2CDO5-whik&index=19&list=PLErCcrOZ4OS9KdC58VjbHlta2yEZQerrs

How could they fail so bad at something that only takes a single line of code? How could Steam do self publishing without a threshold system that flushes the game down a toilet and refunds the money?

 

F. F. S

Id expect this on the android store... not steam.

 

That's applies to most successful indie games.
You either create a really silly fun game (i.e. Goat Simulator, Surgeon Simulator), a niche game, or something unusual, big studios wouldn't dare to produce (Minecraft, Braid etc.)

 

What is the problem exactly? If a game sucks, don't buy it. You can't trust Steam to do your thinking for you.

Valve doesn't want to the gatekeeper any more; to be the only one who picks who lives and who dies. It's too much work and it's too much responsibility. They should focus on developing Steam as a distribution channel, and off-load the work of curating the content.

Imagine your favourite reviewer/developer/journalist/sandwich artist has their own store where they feature all their favourite games Some stores can focus on first-person shooters, RPGs, or 19th century strategic war games. You could have a program similar to the Amazon affiliate program where people get a certain percentage back from any sales made through their referral (to incentivize people to create stores and feature high quality content).

Ultimately, it will be easier to find games you like, and for people to find your games. Niche games won't be lost in the shuffle on Steam.

Discoverability will increase so Valve will make more sales with less work since all the work of selecting games will be delegated to domain experts. What are the best graphic novel adventure games coming out this year? How would a Valve employee know? Get someone who is passionate about them to set up a list of their favourites. Then people can view or subscribe to the stores they know they like, or find stores that already feature a lot of their favourite games.

The transition may be a bit rocky, but I think the people at Valve generally know what they're doing so I'm hopeful its heading in a good direction.

 

I don't want Valve to do my thinking for me. However, I would like a reliable way to get my money back if the game turns out to be like that. Remember, someone has to buy it to review it, so there will always be a group of people that get burned.

Likewise, Valve allows games that are obviously cash grabs with non-existant content to continue to sell, often taking months to remove. This is NOT okay. I realize they don't want to manually check every game anymore, and that's fine, but they need a way to remove predatory games from Steam.

 

This is a pretty legitimate concern, which is why I was kinda amazed when Origin of all services implemented a proper refund system.

 

This is just unacceptable. These indies that put 0.0001% effort into their games make other indies look like a heaping pile of horse S***. If I went into the greenlight section for the very first time and saw this or anything similar, I would never return. At the very least a rating bar would be a good way to keep games like this from entering steam.

 

Found this today http://anwell.me/articles/unity3d-flappy-bird/

Look familiar? Looks like they stole the code and changed a single sprite...

 

Behold the future of game development.

 

Or, you know, Flappy Bird is a ridiculously simple concept.

 

Look at the stalactites - they're the exact same image.

 

...

 

Yeah, they didn't even get the collider size on the plane right.

 

http://www.pcgamer.com/2014/05/30/air-control-may-be-the-worst-game-on-steam/


To me this is exactly what I predicted would happen. You don't mess about in this industry for 32 years without seeing a trend or two. Steam's dead until this is fixed.

All you'll get in the end is ads and f2p on desktop as well. Being the biggest desktop platform has s double edge:

1. everyone generally only uses steam, because it has everything in one place with very cheap AAA
2. everyone therefore needs to publish to it.

The result is that only features matter and we've hit mobile all over again, Woo hoo! This is what happens when you ignore people saying curated content is a good thing.

 

Gabe did bring up that very idea before, where everyone has there own store. Wow how exactly did that game on steam...

 

Not trolling but its not *that* bad a game. You see tens of thousands of games just like that on newgrounds. Besides that seems to be the direction Steam is pushing in. Steam want to open the platform for anyone to release anything they want on it.

 

Are you kidding? have standards dropped *that* low that any old S*** is considered "not that bad" ?

Have you actually seen what it's really like with a plane that defies physics and clips the ground rotating? the default unity gui? seriously? this thing is a car crash.

 

It even has the UFPS plugin... Who voted this game on Greenlight? JEEBUS!

 

You didnt have to pay $5 for any newground games they were all free, this game is worse then anything that would have ever made it to the newgrounds front-page.This game is "that bad", its something wooglie would reject.

 

Did it make front page on Steam though?

 

The difference is they were free games, this is a $5 paid game, it sucks. I dont know if you are the developer or what.

 

The vote requirement is now much lower than normal. Any old tat. 900 games this time.

 

I see what you mean about pricing. One mans trash is another mans treasure. I would like to know how many copies he sold though?

 

If this can go through Greenlight I don't want to know what we're going to see on steam when the gates are open.
Console-Development it is, I guess.

 

I ignored this thread (I don't read game reviews or browse Steam) until I saw the other thread and looked at the videos in the like Hippo posted.

1. The models and art are impressive despite the "developer's" laziness.
2. Unity performs impressively despite the "developer's" laziness.
3. Steam does it's job
4. The customers do their job
5. The reviewers do their job.
6. The "indie developer" does not and blew a good opportunity
7. What's the problem then, Steam seems to be a place that true indies can get published? Are the sort criteria according to date and title sales and author sales?
8. The way to slow "troll titles" down is insist on using a legitimate business (even LLCs take work to setup and keep active with the governments) or their real personal name when publishing. Yes, I'd argue this is a troll title and not the work of someone "that" naïve as to publish it. There needs to be a gate to establish real identity. I doubt anyone will be searching for future titles for this author.

It was interesting that 1st video and they got interest but their attitude blew it. I'm not going to accept a "noob" excuse because a "noob" would not have published. Also, like you see in the forums sometimes users saying "but I'm only 15" or "I'm a noob" not an excuse. If you want to give excuses give excuses as to why you didn't publish that crummy game like my excuse I'm just too "lazy" or "ADHD" or the "game wasn't good" or both. And the customers won't even need to thank you for not wasting their time or money. So unless the "developer" / "game studio" is independently wealthy the joke's on "developer" / "game studio".

I can see the day in the not too distant future where a "noob developer" can leverage good visual scripting / state machine / behavior trees / mecanim to impart interesting behavior in the video to the passengers as the steward/ess walks by.

I've worked as a busboy and steward at a race track and anyone knows people instinctively find it hard to ignore people calling to you as you walk by. The player walking by would be very interested in seeing what the passengers had to say or what the wanted. Maybe not much interest if everyone were asking for peanuts and a drink but maybe if they were advising how to pilot the plane to the destination safely mixed in with the peanuts and drinks and barf bag request the developer could have made an original flight simulator instead of this and it truthfully wouldn't have been much more effort than the game the published had they had the right attitude; but seeing as one of those videos was a typical "noob machine gun FPS" I doubt had they even had the visual scripting / state machines / behavior trees / mecanim all nicely integrated and available they would have attempted anything interesting even a concept as simple as having the passengers and crew parachute out of the disabled plane and hit the 'bullseye' on the targets on the ground.

So yes, the "noob" blew it and trying to blame it on Unity, Steam, or the providers of the assets isn't the solution because we know the "noob" is not so dumb that they should have known to not have published that game. Now the "noob" if they develop a good game will be forced to release under another "internet handle". It's one thing to have an Internet Handle in the forums but quite another in an app store or the Unity asset store. That's why I like the Apple App Store insisting you must have a legitimate recognized business (even if they mostly are LLCs you still have to do work to make them legitimate and recognized and active) or use your real name. The Unity Asset Store and Steam needs this approach as well if they don't already.

 

You guys just don't know "awesome" when you see it. It's like Snakes on a Plane, Resident Evil, and Flappy Bird all rolled into one. I mean come on! Flappy biiiiiiiiiiiiird! Play it! PLAY IT! You know you want to. I hear next update will even include a Goat simulator level! Who doesn't like goat simulators?!

 

Goats.

 

Someones been drinking today.