Captain vs Sky Pirates Reviews

Bad and buggy

[b][quote][url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asset_flip]Warning: Asset Flip![/url][/quote][/b]"Captain vs Sky Pirates" is a Digital Homicide style asset flip, or what Valve calls a "Fake Game". The "developer" paid for/pirated a Unity mobile app screen tapping defense shooter template, stole a bunch of pirate sprite assets from the internet, dumped them all in a blender, and submitted it to Valve as if they're real game developers. Two notable criteria for what makes an asset flip instead of legitimate use of stock assets are whether those assets comprise the majority of the game, and whether the "developer" properly credited the people who created most of the assets in the game. This game fails both of those tests. The "developers" here didn't credit any of the artists and real, actual game developers who created the assets here, so this is plagiarism, as well as cash grab shovelware. Boogygames Studios 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/681150]Rainbow Duck[/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/973200]Case Simulator Weapons and Armors[/url]" = [url=https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/packs/yet-another-case-opener-91635]Yet Another Case Opener[/url] developed by NeraQuam [*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/713590]Hidden Object - Food[/url]" = [url=https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/systems/hidden-object-game-template-19394]Hidden Object Game Template[/url] developed by Puppeteer [*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/714570]Hidden Object - Tools[/url]" = [url=https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/systems/hidden-object-game-template-19394]Hidden Object Game Template[/url] developed by Puppeteer [*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/909830]Color By Number - Pixel Draw[/url]" = [url=https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/systems/pixel-art-color-by-number-117587]Pixel Art: Color By Number[/url] developed by Moana Studio [*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1053780]Pixel Art Monster - Color By Number[/url]" = [url=https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/systems/pixel-art-color-by-number-117587]Pixel Art: Color By Number[/url] developed by Moana Studio [*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/666800]Solitaire - Cat Pirate Portrait[/url]" = [url=https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/tutorials/klondike-solitaire-complete-game-tutorial-101265]Klondike Solitaire Complete Game Tutorial [/url] developed by University of Games [*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/707610]Food Mahjong[/url]" = [url=https://marketplace.yoyogames.com/assets/3337/mahjong-game-engine]Mahjong Game Engine[/url] developed by SmallBigSquare [*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/718350]Loot Collection: Mahjong[/url]" = [url=https://marketplace.yoyogames.com/assets/3337/mahjong-game-engine]Mahjong Game Engine[/url] developed by SmallBigSquare [*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1431210]MahJong - Medieval Fantasy[/url]" = [url=https://marketplace.yoyogames.com/assets/3337/mahjong-game-engine]Mahjong Game Engine[/url] developed by SmallBigSquare [*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/709940]Weapon and Armor: Mahjong[/url]" = [url=https://marketplace.yoyogames.com/assets/3337/mahjong-game-engine]Mahjong Game Engine[/url] developed by SmallBigSquare [/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. In terms of gameplay you just tap your iPhone screen to "shoot" stolen pirate sprites as they come at you from the right side of your phone screen. That's all there is to this lazy Russian garbage. While there are options to change the resolution for the game, all this does is scale up the simplistic 2D art assets used to make the game, which makes little or no difference to the graphics quality. Without any other substantial graphics tweaks, it's not possible for gamers to improve the lacklustre 2D visuals. The game features simple, cartoony 2D graphics, of the type you normally expect to see in low effort mobile apps. 3D graphics programming does require a degree of skill and competence and unfortunately not all developers have the budget or talent to deliver this, despite 3D graphics cards hitting the mainstream in the 1990's. Considering this is being evaluated as a PC game, having the graphics phoned in like this isn't going to result in a high quality, visually impressive game that PC gamers are used to seeing. The controls can't be customised because the game has such a dumbed down, simplified interface that it's just iPhone screen tapping stuff. The fact that the interface is this dumbed down might be seen as a problem in itself, however... this is a fairly shallow experience if you're the kind of gamer that likes to play games with deep, rich control schemes and interaction. You'll get none of that 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, maybe it was rejected by Apple and Google (they do have more rigorous quality standards than Valve does for Steam, after all). Regardless, for all intents and purposes "Captain vs Sky Pirates" might as well be a mobile app, it has the same limitations and dumbed down qualities. It's impossible to recommend such a game to PC gamers. We don't spend all this money building gaming rigs so we can pretend they're iPhones and play games that might as well be mobile apps. 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 all-time peak player number was only 2 players. This is a remarkably low number, and now, 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 50,000 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.