Who are the devs?

[Uncontested]

Genuinely wondering this. Anytime a game pops up with lofty promises, I try to do a little research first. Just found out about this game tonight because someone recommended waiting for it.

I see the page lists them as "CampFire Studio." When you click on their name in steam no other games come up attached to their specific page thats linked to the game's page. This already appears to be a red flag.

I've found at least two other companies that go by CampFire Studio in a simple google search. One appears to be a "Media" (See TV/Film) production company. (This appears to be the producer of some Netflix, Hulu, etc content. The only thing I recognize being the "unauthorized' American Gladiator documentary thats on Netflix, lol.

The other is an indie dev, but I can't tell if they're actually related to THIS CampFire Studio because the social media account I found went dark circa 2020. That being: @StudiosCampfire The next account I find is @proj_delivery which calls itself "Campfire Studio" and is advertising "Arcane Blast" and "My Dream Setup" which are on Steam. This Twitter/X profile lists them being from Ukraine.

Then theres a website called campfire-software[dot]com but when you go it, it is a "Private Site" in wordpress with no information.


Next is the fact that all of the Devs that have posted here made new Steam accounts to do so, hiding who they "actually" are. And its not like these appear to be "company" accounts. Both are personalized as if belonging to individuals.

Then comes the "Publisher" who has, according to Steam, Published exactly zero previous Steam games. A google search seems to show they have published what appears to be a mobile game. Their website lists their offices at a massive three building structure called the "Ocean Financial Center" in SINGAPORE.. It seems odd that a Publisher with one game to its name and one in the works is seated in a massive financial building. Or, more likely, this is like our previous "Survival" game from Singapore [The Day After] and they simply use the address as a forwarding point and don't actually work there. Which is another red flag. (At least their publisher has a website thats running.)

I don't doubt that this game looks interesting, and the fact that a Demo existed is leaps and bounds better than other suspicious games but the fact that there are a lot of suspicious things going on here IS still a red flag.

With all that said, can anyone actually attest to who these devs are?

[Rogue]

No idea. The developer is from China(I think or just outsourced) but the publisher actually produced a mobile game and decided to publish Soulmask. I also believe the publisher is actually from Singapore with Singaporean employees.

That building is just an office building housing various businesses. A small business setup in Singapore in order to get financing from the Singapore government or other ventures while avoiding the harsh restrictions coming from China regulatory body, especially if you are not a giant like Tencent or Netease.

Just think of them as an indie. Anyway, people had played the demo for many MANY hours, with gameplay videos online, and there's an ongoing beta at the moment. So it's not as fake as the "day before". If all else fails, try to contact them (email or discord) instead of speculating...

[Grace O'Malley]

Bump

[Heimdall]

Republic of China or that fake one?

[Cyberpunker]

From my research they have the holding in same building as the Snail games so could be a subsidiary of them or re branding a studio of the Snail Games.

Also when i saw the LIVE with those 2 guys (the Chinese and the black guy) and their gaming performance then it was a big red flag for me to drop the media over hype.

I'm very suspicious about these devs because if it's another sub studio of the Snails Games Corpo, after Dark & Light, Outlaws of the wild west and ATLAS experiences i really don't wanna hear ever about SNAILS.

[Rogue]

Originally posted by Cyberpunker:

From my research they have the holding in same building as the Snail games so could be a subsidiary of them or re branding a studio of the Snail Games.

Also when i saw the LIVE with those 2 guys (the Chinese and the black guy) and their gaming performance then it was a big red flag for me to drop the media over hype.

I'm very suspicious about these devs because if it's another sub studio of the Snails Games Corpo, after Dark & Light, Outlaws of the wild west and ATLAS experiences i really don't wanna hear ever about SNAILS.

I'm still waiting for someone to actually contact Qooland Games than randomly speculating. ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ fake news.

Snail games is located in Suzhou, China as well as Culver City/CA, USA and it's not listed as a tenant in the Ocean Financial building which is in Singapore, either as a previous or current tenant or even has direct relations to this game or the publisher. https://www.sgpbusiness.com/building/OCEAN-FINANCIAL-CENTRE/049315/eyJzaG93IjoibGl2ZSJ9

[Uncontested]

So your reply is to stop speculating and just 'trust me bro' lol. Ok. Not a good sign that no one knows anything about who they are or even where they are.

[Kaos]

Better than some devs that just release a promising video and a beta, but vanish and never deliver. Who the devs are doesn't matter. All that matters is that they release a fun game.

[Mantis]

I disagree. who the devs are DOES matter. the game looks really good and they are offering up an exceptional demo time. But why?? im excited and suspicious as gamers today all should be. its no good emailing or asking their discord for info as they can say whatever they want. I do however, hope this is a genuine team. the REAL question is, how much are they gonna try sell this for???

[Noxsa]

a tad of trust may be req, lucky the demo runs GREAT on my pc on medium no less "having an very old pc" what i'v played of the demo, the game looks and feels legit and great.
sure there could be tons more of polish, but when they eventually go early access and the price is fair "like max 20 bucks". i may very well invest "because that's the risk of buying early access games".

as far as of who made this game, at this point i really don't care, game works, looks good.

[NexAngelus *X*]

its like kids being treated differently from same parents... in THEORY it shouldnt and wouldnt happen...but in reality it does. just because u find out some all star team makes something does not mean next product will be fire. see tabula rasa and shroud of the avatar as perfect examples. even nexon has games that at least were clear p2w and others that were the gold standard for the non p2w movement at that time. why dont we just FOCUS on what the ppl making the game...the devs, are doing to THIS game, RIGHT MEOW!!!! even a good team could roll over in bed one day and decide to go all tarkov on ya ;) lol. these are the kinda things u sweat when u know nothing of the game. we can literally play it for 10 days RIGHT now!

[Yria]

if you are having fun playing what does it matter ?

[Noxsa]

Originally posted by GigaWatt:

Over the last few years, I've followed (and subsequently not bought) a few games from Chinese developers. They were all very similar:

- New, unknown names.
- Average games that mostly consisted of wildly thrown together elements.
- Poor performance and no improvement even after years.
- Poor ingame translation and no improvement even after years.
- Poor documentation, especially of server settings.
- No or difficult to configure dedicated servers.
- No or rare patch notes.
- Always online, even in single player. High GPU load, even in the background.
- High ping because only the login servers are spread around the world, but the game servers are in Asia.
- Little development after release.
- Chinese players receive massive support in PvP, while western players are controlled with the help of the devs.
- No effective anti-cheat in PvP.
- Servers are dominated by Chinese mega-guilds.
- Clumsy combat system.
- In-game shop where p2w items or ingame currency will be sold shortly after release.
- 80% of the playing time is just grinding. The other 20% might be a bit fun. This forces players to use the shop.
- Many promises, of which not even 10% are kept.

These are my experiences with Chinese developers over the last few years, so yes: for me it is VERY IMPORTANT who the developers and publishers are.

so basically you sum up how "UBIsoft, Electronic Arts, Activision and many other AAA publishers" are. You labeling a chinees dev for doing this, then you completely ignore the things in western devs/publishers, someone is a racist for sure.

[UgaBuga]

Originally posted by Rogue:

No idea. The developer is from China(I think or just outsourced) but the publisher actually produced a mobile game and decided to publish Soulmask. I also believe the publisher is actually from Singapore with Singaporean employees.

That building is just an office building housing various businesses. A small business setup in Singapore in order to get financing from the Singapore government or other ventures while avoiding the harsh restrictions coming from China regulatory body, especially if you are not a giant like Tencent or Netease.

Just think of them as an indie. Anyway, people had played the demo for many MANY hours, with gameplay videos online, and there's an ongoing beta at the moment. So it's not as fake as the "day before". If all else fails, try to contact them (email or discord) instead of speculating...

We dont know really. Do we know who owns it? it could be owned by tencent through shell companies.

[UgaBuga]

Originally posted by Noxsa:

Originally posted by GigaWatt:

Over the last few years, I've followed (and subsequently not bought) a few games from Chinese developers. They were all very similar:

- New, unknown names.
- Average games that mostly consisted of wildly thrown together elements.
- Poor performance and no improvement even after years.
- Poor ingame translation and no improvement even after years.
- Poor documentation, especially of server settings.
- No or difficult to configure dedicated servers.
- No or rare patch notes.
- Always online, even in single player. High GPU load, even in the background.
- High ping because only the login servers are spread around the world, but the game servers are in Asia.
- Little development after release.
- Chinese players receive massive support in PvP, while western players are controlled with the help of the devs.
- No effective anti-cheat in PvP.
- Servers are dominated by Chinese mega-guilds.
- Clumsy combat system.
- In-game shop where p2w items or ingame currency will be sold shortly after release.
- 80% of the playing time is just grinding. The other 20% might be a bit fun. This forces players to use the shop.
- Many promises, of which not even 10% are kept.

These are my experiences with Chinese developers over the last few years, so yes: for me it is VERY IMPORTANT who the developers and publishers are.

so basically you sum up how "UBIsoft, Electronic Arts, Activision and many other AAA publishers" are. You labeling a chinees dev for doing this, then you completely ignore the things in western devs/publishers, someone is a racist for sure.

Nice bait. but not believable.

[Noxsa]

Originally posted by Breathe and run fast:

Originally posted by Noxsa:

so basically you sum up how "UBIsoft, Electronic Arts, Activision and many other AAA publishers" are. You labeling a chinees dev for doing this, then you completely ignore the things in western devs/publishers, someone is a racist for sure.

Nice bait. but not believable.

i'm not a fishermen or hunter, i do not use bait, all the points he complained about that chinees devs use, are being used by tripple A devs all over the world.