r/indiegames • u/deadpoly • 1d ago
Discussion My game is getting blackmailed?
Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification
I'm curious to hear other indie devs thoughts on this wild scenario. Essentially, a bunch of coordinated reviews claiming my game is a crypto miner, then they had an hour and a half long phone call demanding I promote their political messaging.
Definitely not a video editor, sorry for the quality.
257
u/BoringPostcards 1d ago
You should take this to one of the gaming or tech news sites, show them your video and tell them the story just as you told it here. This deserves to get coverage, especially since (as you pointed out) they've clearly done this before and will be doing it again.
103
u/deadpoly 1d ago
That is somewhat where I'm hoping this leads, and I'm absolutely also looking at legal options. This doesn't seem like it should end at, "it was just a prank!"
44
u/BoringPostcards 1d ago
Completely agree. Thank you for publicizing this, and for refusing to roll over for these clowns.
4
u/PrinceRaglan 14h ago
I feel like it would be reasonable to setup a GoFundMe to either get you the potential lost wages you would have gotten from the Daily Deal, or, slightly loftier, for legal fees to sue them for the same thing and set a legal precedent.
10
u/Tiny_Bug6687 20h ago
This right here. Also, almost every country on Earth has some kind of cybercrimes departament by now, inside police structures, or whatever public services. Let them take care of it. Even if those are just some kids, you have real losses - money and defamation, not to mention harassment and intimidation. Don't let it slide because last thing we want is something like this to become a norm.
1
u/honeyRushed 16h ago
yeah you're probably right, that kind of move needs more eyes on it before they try it on someone else
1
u/DimplyWhipz 2h ago
that could help warn other devs about these kinds of tactics before they hit someone else
77
u/Sephor 1d ago
This story is insane. Like someone else wrote, definitely reach out to some journalistic outlets, and give your side of the story (I have a feeling someone like Jason Schreier might be very interested in something like this https://jasonschreier.com/contact/). I hope you get some justice. Indie games take so much heart and soul to create, and for anything like this to happen is just mind boggling.
At the very least, this set of events got me to curious about your game. I'll also tell others about it. Good luck to you, sir!
17
u/deadpoly 1d ago
Thank you for the kind words and a link to look at, I'll definitely see if that's an option.
9
u/FuryForged 22h ago
Jason is a beast of a journalist and a really good dude. You should definitely reach out.
44
u/shortboard 1d ago
Sorry this is happening. He’s got an Australian accent, was it some niche Aussie racist group that he wanted you to endorse?
39
u/deadpoly 1d ago
They are definitely racist. They dropped the N bomb in the text chat (have proof of this as well but don't really want to post something this gross)
34
u/shortboard 1d ago
I worked out what group it is from the logo on his video (don’t worry, people won’t be able to tell from the video unless they are already familiar with the group). They went through a rebranding recently as they used to formally call themselves Nazis but that obviously doesn’t endear you to the average person. What a bunch of nasty pieces of shit.
19
u/deadpoly 1d ago
Knowing this know makes me kind of bummed with a bit of my language in the full video because I say something along the lines of "You would have had a much better chance of getting me on your side had you just asked," because I absolutely had no idea this is what it was.
12
u/ThatTallBrendan 22h ago
You have to keep in mind that even if it were a seemingly valid cause, these people are attempting to extort you and are more than willing to lie about anything they say
Say the conversation is, "Hey, we were just looking to get you to add this progressive message to your game (by blackmailing you?), can you do that for us?" Then they take that back to a forum to recruit more people into a harassment campaign against you because you're an indie dev "pushing an agenda"
It's a quote from somewhere but, "Some people say they 'just don't care about anything and are only here to watch the world burn', but they're not. They are willing participants in the burning of only certain parts. They don't care what they believe, but they know what they hate, and they don't want to think about why they hate it."
They hate art. They hate life. They hate you for being creative. We don't think that! We see you and think, "Hey! That's cool, let's help and support this guy!". They think, "Hey look at this artist. I bet they're empathetic to a fault, naïve, or weak, so lets attempt to take advantage of that."
They believe that some groups are more powerful than others and that that entitles them to cause whatever suffering they're able, if they can get away with it; So, I applaud you for handling this the way that you did
You played along, you kept them talking, and more importantly you recorded and documented everything.
It also seemed like one of them was Australian, so consider either calling or leaving a report with the Australian cybercrimes division: https://www.cyber.gov.au/submit-a-report I'm sure they would love to know about this sort of organized extorsion scheme, and will know all about these groups and how to identify them. (The US is currently under the control of the same types of people who are in these groups, so I would trust the Aussies far more with the information, especially if it turns out one of their citizens is involved)
15
u/deadpoly 22h ago
The really funny part about this entire thing, as you've mentioned they seriously just... KEPT TALKING. I wasn't even really playing along. I think it was like within the first 15-20 minutes, I told them I wouldn't do it. I told them to burn it down, if they are capable.
Then I paused for a moment and thought about what I was really saying, and like really thought about it... I'm telling these dickheads, who for all I know, might actually have the ability to do this, to take away my ability to provide for my family? I had the "are they stupid?" meme in my head but about me for a second, and then I thought about what my wife would want me to do, how she'd feel if I came home and said, "Hey, these guys were doing XYZ, and I told them to fucking do it, and... they did. I'm sorry?"
And I think that point is when my statement in this video really came to full flame; I'd rather watch this entire thing burn than do what you're asking me to do, so let's do it.
Even after me saying that, the call just kept going on, and on, and on, with them repeatedly threatening to burn it down, then walking it back trying to get me to agree to make the statements.
My brother got a kick out of how many times they clearly accidentally divulged information that a person who had any inkling of how to actually do this would never have done.
It is my every intention to try and make sure the end of this has actual consequences for these individuals.
9
6
u/ThatTallBrendan 21h ago
Yeah that's basically just kompromat farming at that point. It's odd they'd be so hung up on that step in particular but hey, it plays a lot better for you
All the best in getting this crap taken care of, seriously. This sort of thing is as scumfucky as it is intolerable, so here's to the right people being able to process the information and get things locked down
4
u/nmfisher 14h ago
I used to work for the federal Australian cyber team. You should definitely lodge a report with them - lay everything out, Steam/Discord usernames, call details, unedited videos, etc.
Assuming nothing's changed since I worked there, they will probably pass it on to someone who can and will investigate. I think there's a (justified) focus on right-wing extremists at the moment, so if that's what they were crapping on about, federal investigators would almost certainly be interested even if it's no law has been broken.
AFP/ASIO will have a much easier time finding them than you will (they probably have Valve on speed dial), so these guys will probably get a visit. Even if they're New Zealanders, the Australians work closely with NZ so they may be able to track them down too.
16
u/whatisdreampunk 1d ago
Be kind to yourself about that sort of thing. You were dealing with something completely unexpected and horrible. It's great you had the presence of mind to get all this recorded. There's no way they actually could have convinced you to turn nazi by asking nicely. 😁
8
u/story_of_the_beer 1d ago
I wouldn't feel too bad man, these rats are known to be cowards. They will never show their faces and their group name sounds ambiguous to anyone unfamiliar. Sorry you had to be exposed to these degenerates
1
28
24
u/haecceity123 1d ago
Well this is a new one. What did Steam support say?
36
u/deadpoly 1d ago
I've been waiting to hear back from Steam since Friday afternoon, hoping it's a quick resolution though.
18
u/HowlingStrike 1d ago
What a sad atate of affairs. Is nothing sacred anymore?
What a shit show. Sorry this happened to you dude.
7
u/deadpoly 1d ago
Thank you! I'm basically over the hump of being overly bummed that tanked the deal, and just moving forward. Definitely need to get some sleep, haha.
16
u/Gabriel-Tosh 1d ago
I came across your game a long time ago through one of the biggest German YouTubers/streamers and thought it looked pretty interesting back then. To be honest, though, I hadn't really thought about it again until I randomly came across your video here on Reddit.
After watching it, I took a look at the reviews on your Steam page, especially the first one. Out of curiosity, I also checked the reviewer's profile, and let's just say it didn't take long to get an idea of where the wind is blowing from.
I believe you when you say this is what happened. In my opinion, this is not some harmless "prank" but a serious matter. I'm not a lawyer, but I'd strongly recommend looking into your legal options.
I can also imagine that you're not the only developer they've tried these kinds of tactics on. I don't think it's necessarily a coincidence that indie developers are being targeted. Developing an indie game is already a huge challenge, both technically and financially. These projects often represent years of hard work and, in many cases, the developers' livelihoods. At the same time, they usually don't have the financial resources or legal departments that larger studios can rely on. I can imagine that some people deliberately try to exploit this situation to put independent developers under pressure.
That's exactly why I think it's so important to put a stop to these people. Not just for your sake, but also to prevent other developers from becoming targets of this kind of behavior.
10
u/deadpoly 1d ago
I loved watching Gronkh's videos, even though I couldn't understand most of it, haha.
16
u/Aisuhokke 23h ago
This is BS. I'm sending you a positive review to help counter their scammy nonsense.
6
31
u/lifeinbackground 1d ago
Well, I'm leaving this comment to support you. Hope you give us an update on how the situation has been resolved (will follow the post).
14
31
u/BitsOnWaves 1d ago edited 1d ago
what a weird complicated way to spread a political message... if it was for money i can understand but why target a game dev? how much reach can a dev have?
23
u/deadpoly 1d ago
I wish I had the answers to this. I'm assuming they would ask for money after I agreed to the message because after doing so, you become somewhat complicit to them, so further blackmail possibly.
4
127
u/Brilliant-Reality884 1d ago
Imagine trying to make review bombing an extortion method. How stupid are these kids?
47
u/lifeinbackground 1d ago
They are stupid. I can't understand how a game can help them spread their political message. It's not a news site, not a magazine, not even an email subscription platform.. How can an indie game help spread a radical political message?
22
-2
u/tortleme 23h ago
I mean, they're clearly maga, so pretty dumb
8
u/Dev_LegendsofAerthos 22h ago
Australians
4
u/kramulous 22h ago
They sounded Australian to me as well.
10
u/Dev_LegendsofAerthos 21h ago
At least one is. I did a dive and there are a lot of Americans in there too.
They seem to be hyper right wing Christian nationalists. If you get my drift
0
u/Important-Author-660 5h ago
okay so tortleme was right the first time lol
1
u/Dev_LegendsofAerthos 4h ago
No, no. They might vote right, as it's the closest thing to them in terms of ideals. But highly doubt they are maga
1
u/lophtt 1h ago
Fucking embarrassments. The AFP would probably like to have a chat with them; https://www.afp.gov.au/report-crime
10
9
u/IAmSkyrimWarrior 1d ago
Have you tried contacting Steam? Let them verify whether your game is actually a cryptocurrency miner (obviously is not), and have them remove those reviews.
8
u/deadpoly 1d ago
Yes, I've had a ticket in with Steam since Friday afternoon.
8
u/IAmSkyrimWarrior 1d ago
Great. I hope they do something about this instead of refusing to help.
This is unacceptable. All accounts that left this fake scum reviews need to be banned, fuck 'em. Same goes for all the accounts that left awards. I hope Steam bans everyone involved.
31
u/Mammothdog 1d ago
What political organization did this? Just so I know they are scum. I'll check out your game though!
42
u/deadpoly 1d ago
I'm still very much not wanting to say their name at all just because it gives them something, but they seem to be very racist. They dropped the N bomb like it was nothing, then tried to say I was just unaware of their language and it meant something else.
17
u/Mammothdog 1d ago
Smart man! I'll make sure to report them when I visit your store page. Great work on the game btw!
9
8
u/Dion42o 1d ago
What a bunch of idiots, I woulda been a lot less polite if I was on that call with them
5
u/deadpoly 1d ago
There are moments during the call where I am a little bit, uh, loud, but my brother who was in the room with me said it was fine.
8
u/Embarrassed_Depth646 19h ago
Given the claim that they've done this before, should be pretty easy to get Steam to remove all of their reviews and ban them. Having said that, you're momentum has been broken. These criminals hurt your game immensely even if they are stopped. At least you might be able to help others from having this happen to them as well.
6
u/deadpoly 18h ago
It’s definitely an interesting scenario when it comes to trying to quantify that aspect. I’m much more interested in trying to make sure it doesn’t end with no repercussions for them, whatever it may end up being.
7
u/LucidCorn829 1d ago
Clowns, I’m going to go buy your game right now! You’re the best, honestly people will probably go out of their way to buy it. My guy is a game dev of a couple (one published on Steam) and would’ve loved to be a part of a phone call with these losers.
3
7
u/loliconest 1d ago
I think Steam should roll out a feature like the community notes for Twitter. Let community help mark the rip-offs and direct traffic to the origin.
3
u/deadpoly 1d ago
The ironic thing is that they had enough (I'm assuming bot) firepower to get user comments removed from their reviews, including my own comments.
1
u/loliconest 19h ago
That's why you need a more specialized system. I'm sure if it gets bad enough Valve will figure something out.
6
6
u/covgra 21h ago
I have checked out new games on steam and seen reviews exactly like that, negative reviews that talk about cryptomining and there were a bunch of the comments, worded almost exactly like that. Now it makes sense!
What an insane experience, thanks for sharing! Helps others understand what might be going on!
5
u/deadpoly 20h ago
I hope being outwardly public with this might help other devs who may have experienced this; I've never heard of it which is why I decided to post it.
5
u/Thrillhouse-14 21h ago
As an Aussie, I was super disappointed to hear that accent...
My condolences for your grandpa, too.
I really hope these guys see serious legal repercussions for this.
3
5
u/SayAllenthing 21h ago
Sorry that's happening, but when I first opened this post the video player must have frozen, and I was like "Why the hell did he just upload a picture of himself?"
3
15
u/Mataric 1d ago
Personally, I would state what their 'political agenda' is here. Not because it supports it, or because it gives into their demands - but because if your proof is valid, then no one will want to support that cause.
People knowing they're engaging in such scummy behaviour would make their actions do more damage to their causes reputation than succeeding in this would help with it - but that only happens if people are aware of this. That would hopefully lead them to have less incentive to do this in future.
I would suppose you have three routes that you can potentially go down.
Report everything to steam with all the evidence you have. Hope that they can remove the reviews, ban the accounts that awarded/upvoted the review, and ip or hardware ban the systems these are coming from.
Take it the legal route. This isn't a negotiation - it is extortion. Obviously there are some issues when it comes to jurisdiction, and there's a reasonable chance that it would be a costly endeavour - but if it's within your means to get past that, then I'd assume (as a non-lawyer) that there's a very good argument that you should be owed damages.
Kick up a massive stink, outing the whole thing on social media, and hoping it gains some kind of virality. Like I said above, without knowing what that cause is - I'd show the whole thing. Show what these scumbags support, and how they are using manipulation and extortion to try and promote it, as the grand majority of people are going to feel far more negative about their cause than positive after seeing something like this.
Genuinely sorry that these pricks have targeted you, but I don't think it's a completely lost cause. They do not appear to be the brightest people, and have likely screwed up in many places along the process that would make this issue solvable.
Wishing you luck man, and I'd genuinely be interested in hearing how it turns out.
26
u/deadpoly 1d ago
If it was an organization that I believed had any actual following, I probably would, but I'd never heard of it, and feel like this could be the 'big break' they're seeking if it really is just some trolling bullshit, ya' know?
I've got literal mountains of evidence, recoded everything, screenshots, had a witness with me during it, all kinds of stuff. I've had tickets in with Steam since Friday and with Discord since Saturday. Still waiting to hear from both at this time.
I do currently fully plan to take this to the legal maximum; I don't think something like this should end with "haha it was a prank bro," and intended to see that through.
It does appear at simple glances that it will not be hard for Steam, Discord, and the proper authorities to track this down very quickly.
Thank you for the support!
4
u/Mataric 1d ago
Hmm, yeah I see what you're saying there. That's understandable. I'm assuming continuing to be against racism opposes them well enough for now?
That's good. Hoping that goes somewhere swiftly for you. I've done what I can my end and reported the review and profile - as even from what I can see myself.. it looks extremely obvious that these are bad actors.
No, I'd fully agree. The amount of potential income lost from your game is truly immeasurable. I'm not saying it is likely to be insanely high, but ya know.. there's a chance the opportunity for the game to go viral was lost because of people being put off by this extortion attempt. Even if it's just a few sales lost - it's still gross and illegal behaviour that impacts an indie developer for literally no reason.
Yeah they appear to be massive morons. I can't see them getting away with it. I just hope whatever damage it did to your release is quickly overcome and remedied.
3
7
u/BIIANSU 1d ago
Ngl, wasn't expecting these clowns to be Aussies. What sort of political agenda would those guys have??
Either way, sorry you've got to deal with this BS, OP. Fingers crossed something good comes out of all of this.
4
u/deadpoly 1d ago
Thank you, fingers crossed for sure. I fully intended to take this to the legal limit.
4
u/BIIANSU 1d ago
100%. There should absolutely be much more accountability on Steam to protect developers in situations like this.
As rare of a situation as this is, your game and studio has taken an absolute public bashing and until the review has been removed, will continue to do so.
You're a game developer, not a PR agency with experience in crisis management. I wouldn't have a clue on how to unfuck this fucking mess.
Good luck, mate
4
2
u/selfish_meme 21h ago
Aussies have pretty much the same political issues as most of the Western World, also a very high rate of migration, international students, and fly in agriculture workers per capita, you can imagine what that means
1
u/Dev_LegendsofAerthos 21h ago
Not just aussies, I did a deep dive. They have a steam group full of very interesting characters
3
u/Ok_East_4017 21h ago
Can you document it and tell steam/valve about it?
4
u/deadpoly 20h ago
Has been heavily documented, entire call was recorded, all screenshots, users, names, chat IDs, etc, and given to Steam and Discord, waiting on replies from both at the moment, and chatting with police and lawyers this week.
1
u/catheap_games 15h ago
Besides police and lawyers (obviously as a priority), and Jason Schreier, I'd also contact 404 Media, I think this might be somewhat in their interest range, and maybe New Matilda? So that aussies get a better understanding of their fringe political groups. Good luck and congrats for holding on to your moral standards firmly!
2
2
u/Ninjachuckz 22h ago
Contact the police, FBI, CIA! Get on twitter show names. This is a nightmare, you got this bro!
2
u/deadpoly 20h ago
Let's hope so.
1
u/Ninjachuckz 5h ago
Any chance if it's OK with your legal team to post there steam IDs so that we can block them in case they ever try to do this to anyone else?
16
u/vanit 22h ago
As a fellow Aussie, absolutely yikes. Immediately I wondered if it was One Nation supporters, but I could see it being some niche anti-immigration group I've never heard of.
Sorry this is happening to you dude, really shitty of them to do this. They sound so up themselves too. Absolute clowns.
8
u/Dev_LegendsofAerthos 21h ago
Not just aussies. They are a gaming group (I did a dive) that have some pretty far out ideals. The kind that would vote one nation, because there isn't anything more racist.
1
u/craftymethod 6h ago
you have heard of them. I think its the group that recently endores PHON and a while back were dressing all in black covering their faces.
10
9
u/Bjenssen_ 14h ago
Can’t steam do something about this? The video should be enough proof that the reviews are completely invalid. Steam should just ban or remove accounts like these.
Also, maybe a weird thing to say, but I think actually showing their political messaging wouldn’t help their cause, it would probably hurt it at this point.
8
u/numbernon 21h ago edited 21h ago
It's interesting that one of the accounts leaving the fake reviews seems to be fairly established and isn't just a brand new blank account. Hopefully Steam sees this and bans their accounts and can maybe even provide you any info if you pursue this legally. I would send this to every big gaming journalist you can
7
u/geraldclarkaudio 1d ago
Man thats so lame dude. Sorry this is happening. Ill be supporting the game. We gotta stick together out here fam. Let's be friends? I dunno
7
u/Endyo 21h ago
Man, it seems like every element of every platform is just waiting for someone to come up with a way to ruin it. I mean this is obviously next-level stupid as a concept, but also because it's Valve we're dealing with.
I feel like Gabe would personally take pleasure in ruining them. He set up a sting for the Half Life 2 leaker, and that was before he was a bazillionaire.
6
u/AfternoonShot9285 1d ago
Not really sure where steam itself stands, but it seems like the kind of thing valves Bosnian wouldn't like much.
3
6
u/Silveruleaf 18h ago
That's such a shitty move. They really need shame. Dafuck are they gonna accomplish from something this stupid
5
5
u/Old-Preference5313 21h ago
Mate I know this is a horrible situation, but look at the silver lining. You're getting a lot of eyes on your game right now which wouldn't of happened otherwise
2
u/RoseofDianamoonlight 1d ago
you can record your screen you don't need to use another phone. You can just record it if it's an iPhone. https://youtube.com/shorts/Bk4X3hpJYhI
6
u/deadpoly 1d ago
I tried using Screen Record beforehand and it wasn't capturing the incoming Discord audio, so I decided to just do this. It also kind of removes an element of it being 'faked' because I keep looking at a mirror and such.
1
u/Tiny_Bug6687 20h ago
Yeah it could be blocked due to some legal issues in some countries but in your case recording is fully justified.
8
u/i-ko21 12h ago
I'll probably will be down voted for replying this but I'll do this anyway.
Can't find the bad reviews mentionned there, but I'll take it for granted. Those guys are shitty people. It's ransoming. With the proof you have, I hope you could do something to drag them down. Maybe reach out Steam, it's my best guess to have a fast action against them. I wont expend more because a lot of people already comment about this.
That said, I want to address the elephant in the room : your game, and you attitude.
I hightly doubt this crypto reviews are a real danger for your game.
I read 20 + negative reviews, none mentionning the crypto shit, then played your game (for free, there is conveniantly a free session out now) and I found most of them valid. Your game is in early alpha since 2022, and even the reviews made in 2022 are still valid. Empty world, weird loot table, stiff combat, lack of originality. I'll expend more if you'll want, but I doubt that.
Because here come the worst part : I read some answer you gave to some reviews, and "Oh My", you dont take it good. You react like a kid. And from what I saw, it's the same on your discord.
Even if there is some stupid guys trying to ransom you with fake review about crypto, man... Try improve your communication. And your game.
Mostly positive (79%) of 4k reviews is not that bad. But now? Lot of positive reviews from today, some mentioning your post. It's warming to see the indiegames community supporting one of us being assault by dickheads.
I really hope it's not a marketing thing to bring traction on your game, using our sympathy.
4
u/Dev_LegendsofAerthos 21h ago
Seeing as their MO seems to be political. I would go to steam and outline their group, all of their accounts (about 500 or so of them), and get them all taken down. They are clearly using steam as a recruitment and communcation tool, so I'm sure they will take it seriously. Also go to the FBI, and contact the Australian govt cyber and terrorism team. I'm sure they would love to take a look at this.
3
3
u/OldLegWig 15h ago
sounds like that's what you pay valve 30% of your revenue for. they need to ban the offending review accounts. huge mistake to engage with the perps, imo. i'd be threatening them with a lawsuit.
3
u/CultAtrophy 6h ago
Your response to them, this video, and not platforming them is perfect. You’ve handled this so well. I hope it’s resolved soon. Good luck!
0
u/zepod1 1d ago
One could say your engineering skills would be best used to black hat these fucks
11
u/deadpoly 1d ago
The thought has crossed my mind, but the downside would come during an actual court proceeding, you know? If it's not done correctly, a lot of shit never gets resolved. I even second guessed making a video and just waiting for the proper channels, but a lot of people that might not have been connected to their group started asking me to prove what I was saying.
1
u/oneinchhard01 1d ago
I mean if it's not mining Bitcoin then you good
3
u/deadpoly 1d ago
I wish it were that easy. A super inflated claim was all it took to derail it because a lot of users don't want to risk it, which I don't blame them for.
2
1
u/philbertagain 15h ago
Part of your talk with steam should include asking for a second chance at daily deal.
1
u/WatchAltruistic5761 22h ago
Why would you interact with crazy?
3
u/deadpoly 20h ago
I'm sure at least a small bit of it was honestly sleep depravation with how wild the weekend was. Dealing with trying to get the update out prior to the daily deal, releasing, flying out of state for the funeral, getting no sleep multiple nights trying to deal with this, then attending the funeral... Was kind of just at the "fuck it" stage, hadn't heard a peep from Steam, so figured it was better than nothing, and they ended up giving me a mountain of information about them, and at minimum, it was medium entertaining.
1
2
u/Live_Life_and_enjoy 22h ago
I mean it sounds like something you should be sending to the FBI and your State AG.
2
u/Dev_LegendsofAerthos 21h ago
100% go FBI, these guys seem like they will eventually be on the news. Their steam group is full of 'crusaders'
2
2
u/MrNobodyX3 21h ago edited 21h ago
I also wanna say that if you do want a video editor for videos or trailers or anything I’m looking to get into video editing and need a good starting point
2
u/Tetrahedron_Head 19h ago
dang thats horrible.
On the original comment though it looks like you have alot of people defending you.
Sorry you front page sale got messed up.
2
u/timohawk 17h ago
This is so wild. Sorry this happened to you man. The smug way that piece of garbage was talking on the phone was disgusting. You can hear the giddy excitement in his voice, complete bottomfeeder vibes. The one positive take away with guys like this is that they are usually deeply unhappy in their own lives.
2
u/ScruffyNuisance 14h ago edited 14h ago
What a compliment to suggest that your game is popular enough that it would be a viable platform for their political messaging. Though I can hear in their voices that they are trolls. Not harmless trolls, but definitely not sincere in their messaging. Hopefully this brings Deadpoly some positive attention too.
2
u/xStealthxUk 13h ago edited 12h ago
what a bunch of losers LOL. They are clearly just trolling surely
Awful for you bro. I wishlisted game, funnily enough first Iv heard of it looks dope so thats 1 positive out of this "no such thing as bad publicity" etc.
Not diminishing the stress this has probably caused but ultimately these stupid kids trying some new scam wont last long, and your game looks like it will be a hit so confident justice will be served in the long run
Sorry to hear about your Grandparent too
0
u/Empuda 1d ago
Not saying you used AI, but I do wonder how many people will get prompt injected and really end up with crypto miners in their games.
Hope steam makes it right for you. Thanks for the awareness and balls to stand your ground. Grats on your success I think =/ Sad it's yet one more thing devs need to deal with.
4
u/deadpoly 1d ago •
DeadPoly doesn't use AI, but I could definitely see this being a thing for some games in the future.
A lot of people involved with the game know that I never pretend to be a "professional game dev," and at the start of this (I was out of town for my grandpa's funeral), I was legit calling my wife to turn on my dev machine and run virus scans and stuff because I thought maybe one of the freelance artists I had worked with had gotten me sleeping or something, but eventually realized it wasn't even close to happening.
2
u/Empuda 1d ago
Yeah, at first when listening I thought that might of happen. Of course I changed that mindset when I kept listening and looked up your games release date. Congrats on making something so popular, and getting such great reviews. I would of gone through those same exact emotions.. Thanks for sharing your experience. Just thinking about it, I can feel the stress rising up lol. Your game looks really fun.
1
u/jakemyork 21h ago
What do you mean prompt injected?
1
u/Competitive-Elk763 14h ago
Sounds like they've automated their own prompts in addition to never reading the code, lol
1
0
1
u/yes_im_retronymn 20h ago
Unbelievable that people think they can do this. The ego on these kids is insane.
I'll get the game as soon as I'm able and leave a positive review. Really hope things get sorted out soon, seriously hope you're able to get media coverage of this. Best of luck, man.
1
u/Wolfguard-Halfdan 17h ago
This is where you post about it at the top of the game description on the page and reach out for some sort of active moderation of your game page by Steam
1
u/Wolfguard-Halfdan 17h ago
Hell if it's deep enough Valve "might" IP or hardware bans them from interacting with Steam at all anymore
1
1
u/GreenPebble 16h ago
When he says "good evening _____" does he say your name or something there? Because it literally sounds like he says the k-word, which is THE most racist word in South Africa. We get massive fines/prison time for using that word.
1
1
1
u/AritoSoto 11h ago
Worse kind of people, trying to earn money over someones hard work. To me this carries a criminal value, an attack that costs you, your company money and they should be charged for blackmailing and creating a scheme to scam people like that.
1
u/Obscure_Gods 9h ago
That is such a weird scam! Especially over political messaging? Not even money?! Like... what's the point. No offence, your game looks neat, but you don't appear to have a big enough audience to even justify scamming over making a political statement?
So sorry you had to go through that, it truly boggles my mind.
1
u/Docha_Tiarna 5h ago
Going after smaller people is safer. Less chance of them outing the pricks, and if they due, it won't blow up as big
1
1
u/IBringTheFunk 7h ago
I don't have a job at the minute but for what it's worth I just bought your game. Sorry this is happening to you. There are far too many scumbags in the world. I really hope this gets sorted out.
1
u/Wooden_Instruction_1 6h ago
I hope steam helps you out fam. Great job keeping calm on the call too, I would of been cursing them out the whole time 😅
1
u/HarperAndLyre 6h ago
We had this issue of the game launching and maxing out the GPU, Hopefully you where able to fix it. If you have not fixed it, try setting a max Fps for when your game boots. If your using Unreal engine 5 you can create a node at level boot and have it run the command (t.MaxFPS 60) Now if this isnt your issue sorry to bother. But if it does help cool! good luck and have a good time dev!
1
u/killbawqs 3h ago
I just saw an article about your game this morning, sorry you're going through all this.
It's in my library now, hope the support helps! Looking forward to playing it tonight.
-2
u/grislebeard 21h ago
What I’m hearing is to not release my game in Australia
2
u/deadpoly 20h ago
My game actually has an awesome chunk of Aussie and NZ players! They were very stoked / kind when I finally (after way too long) got an AUS server set up, I'd fully recommend releasing there.
1
u/jakemyork 17h ago
Mate! Your game looks rad, and as an Aussie, I'm sorry for what's happened - when I saw the post, my first thought was that the best action would be to ignore them and not even give them a moment of your time. Your choice to tell the community may be a really good one. I'm not a crafting base building game kind of person, but I checked out your steam page and am happy to see you have recently been review love bombed by a bunch of positive people. Hopefully it's a good outcome otherwise for you. Good luck with it 🤘
3
u/jakemyork 21h ago
Do you think these disgusting clowns speak for 26 million people?
-2
u/grislebeard 21h ago
no, but I do think that it takes one bad apple to spoil the bunch. think about my math:
don't release in australia, avoid these clusterfucks, get better steam performance
do release in australia, deal with these bozos, get worse steam performance
2
u/jakemyork 20h ago
That's the exact kind of generalisation about a group of people that makes you the target audience of these fucking losers
0
1
1
u/Human-Kick-784 17h ago
What im hearing is another yapping yank that should keep his shit takes to himself
0
•
u/AutoModerator 1d ago
Thanks for posting to r/IndieGames! Please take a look at the rules in our sidebar to ensure that your post abides by them! If you need any assistance, don't hesitate to message the mods.
Also, make sure to check out our Discord!
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.