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Update: The original Indiegogo page has been removed, but I'll just leave all of this here for the laughs.
As an Indonesian gamer, I'm pretty excited to hear about the success of DreadOut in the PC gaming world. It has pretty much been a hit in the realm of crowd-funded games, spawning various YouTube gameplay videos from well-known Let's Players like PewDiePie, Markiplier and Rooster Teeth.
It has changed how Indonesians view about PC gaming. The game itself is reasonably priced to well accommodate Indonesian gamers, and it's also one of the first Indonesian-developed games that are greenlit on Steam, and is expecting its release at the end of this month.
It has also changed how Indonesian game developers think about PC gaming. Back when they only care about developing games on mobile platforms, this success story has pretty much inspired them to grab their own slice of pie on PC game development as well.
Enter Battle of Yogyakarta. To be honest, I don't know what this game is all about. The game itself is developed by only one person, the entire Indiegogo page is written in Indonesian-style broken English, and even the video doesn't help me get the idea of what it actually is.
The game itself looks... way too unfinished, even for a pre-alpha. The helicopter effects are laughably unrealistic, the textures look blurry most of the times, the frame-rate looks horrendously slow, and I don't believe that the scenery of the in-game map even reflects what the real-life Yogyakarta actually looks like (Well, apart from the body of a schoolchild lying afloat on the river).
In fact, the map textures itself is a cheap knock-off of the Modern Ruins Pack on the Unity engine showcase. They just simply take the whole model and put it together in the most half-assed way possible, adding some of their own assets here and there.
Yep, sounds legit to me.
It's already going downhill from how the gameplay actually looks like, but I just couldn't resist looking further through the Indiegogo campaign description.
The following blockquotes contain snippets of the actual text grabbed verbatim off the Indiegogo page.
This is indie FPS game about Yogyakarta. In big idea, this story line is about Yogyakarta in 2025 has invated by alien's robot from other planet.
Oh cool, another FPS game, I thought. And with that level of Engrish, nothing could possibly go wrong, right?
This game still in Alpha Version. The gameplay can be played until the end about 1 hour. We've been creating for 1 year. We need 1 year again to make this game perfect. But we still difficult in money. We are independent progamnmer. We make this game with standart computer that also used for browsing, and othe daily task.
"WE ARE INDIE DEVELOPERS GUISE HELP US MAKE THIS GAME PLS!!1"
In all seriousness, putting "because we are an indie developer" as an excuse for launching a fundraising, and not delivering with an acceptable first impression, kind of puts it in a bad way already.
Show your goddamned potential, don't beg for sustenance.
If you are from Indonesia, you will know if no similar existing games are maked by the Indonesian Developer (with graphic like this). We make it with full limitations in hardware and funding but still also with full of spirits. But we still hope, this game can be launching and could be the first FPS GAME FROM INDONESIA with great Quality.
Hell yeah! National pride FTW!
Although the "made in Indonesia" label kind of sells out at some times, mostly (especially in electronics, software, etc.), we still have to resort to imported products, because in some cases, quality is sometimes the issue.
And in this case, quality is the issue.
Now this is the part that concerns me this might be a scam: The donation perks. There are only two perks available, and they are the following.
$20 — A single perk We will share you the Alpha Versions of this game. Until now, no other than our team ever played. You would be lucky guys can be played this alpha versions before someday this game will be greatest game in Indonesia
Alpha access to the GREATEST game in Indonesia! Trying hard to beat DreadOut, I see?
And here's my favourite part (and where it shows itself as a total scam):
$100,000 — A Great Deals If you give us $100000, this game is will be yours. You will get the copyrights to sell it (in 1 years again). So big deal?
Uhh… what? So we give you 100 thousand dollars, and basically we own the rights to the ENTIRE game?
I mean, WHAT?
…I'm just speechless.
In all honesty, I just hope this will give all of the aspiring indie game developers one simple lesson when it comes to crowdfunding your project:
Don't be like this guy.
Web developer based in Jakarta, Indonesia.