The Facepalm Roundup: Digital Homicide Is At It Again!

Not content to just spit in the face of its customers, reviewers, and of course, Jim Fucking Sterling Son, Digital Homicide is now trying to destroy any potential good will remaining between it and the community. Today, for the third time in about a week, they have thrown their latest abomination, "Temper Tantrum 2," onto Steam Greenlight. It is the third time because they keep getting destroyed every time they put it up. Pages of criticism telling them in no uncertain terms that their latest "game" is, like the others, a lazily thrown together smattering of pre-made Unity assets, barely functional gameplay, and shameless delusions of grandeur.

The members of Digital Homicide simply can't, or refuse to see that every decision they make hurts no one but themselves. Robert, who I guess is the one that runs the whole show, recently baited Jim Sterling into an "interview," in which Robert made accusations that bordered on the insane. Robert accused Jim of "stifling innovation." He claimed that he has written thousands of lines of code. It goes on and on. Outrageous claims. Insults towards the gaming community. I even had a minor Twitter "discussion" with him a few weeks ago in which he insulted me a few times after I said some of the same things I'm saying in this blog post.

This man, his company, and everything they do makes it harder for true indie developers to make a living. They flood the market with some of the laziest attempts at game development I've ever had the misfortune of witnessing, and that offends me. I take it personally, because if I ever get a game up and running, games like theirs are only going to make it harder for me to distribute mine. They think the community is stupid, and for some reason, feel like it owes them something. They release garbage and then have the gall, the arrogance, to become filled with indignation when that garbage doesn't make them mountains of cash overnight. Most games take several years to make, even for experienced developers with a full crew and plenty of funding. What does it say about Digital Homicide that they've release five games in the past year and a half (Slaughtering Grounds, Deadly Profits, Temper Tantrum, Forsaken Uprising, and Medieval Mercs), in addition to having two more on Greenlight (Six Nights At Susie's and Temper Tantrum 2). Seven games in a year in a half. Let that sink in for a minute. That alone should tell you how much these people care about providing their customers with a quality product. 

I have a full time job. It's a good job. My employers are good people, and I enjoy the work that I do. However, I've never wanted anything more than to make video games, and to make a living doing that. It is something I wake up thinking about, and one of the last things I think about before I fall asleep. I may succeed, I may not. I may release a string of hits that win awards. I may release some games that crash and burn. Something I will never do, is lie to my customers, allow my ego to swat away good judgement and reasonable criticism, or bite the same hands I expect to feed me.