Monday, April 4, 2016

Fake websites stealing stuff from my game and other indies...



     Hey everyone. Just wanted to post a quick blog update to let people know about some very shady game websites that steal from indie game developers for their own benefit.

I recently found my newest game "Potato Thriller" on several different online gaming websites. However, the thing is, its not my game. Websites such as v3arcade.org, pokionline.com, 8iz.com and many many more shady looking online sites steal graphics and images from indie game developers work and then use the same exact name as the title for their crappy game that they are hosting on their website (which is probably also stolen) to confuse people into thinking that the that is the actual game from the developer when in reality its not. They do this to attract traffic to their own websites so they can get their ads clicked and make their money. Which by the way, these sites are very very spammy. They have ads everywhere, like the ones that say "congratulations you are the 1000000 visitor click to claim prize" or "download this software" etc, annoying pop-ups and just not a very cool website at all. These are the kind of websites that will probably give your computer a virus. So, its best to stay away from places like these.


Not cool....


And Just look at how they make up some BS description for my game and other games:


Potato Thriller is an online Horror game that you can play for free here at Poki Games Online. This game is one of our featured games with a rating of 8 / 10 (from 1 ratings). Potato Thriller is one of the many Horror games that we feature. In the mood for more like this, then check out Potato the Destroyer or Just Potato. To play even more poki games, go on over to the all time top games page.

No... just stop. This is not cool. Not cool at all....

And, its not only my game, they steal stuff from other indie game developers and host on their site as their own. For example, "Emily wants to play" - This game has become a pretty well known and successful indie horror game for PC that is available on Steam. But again, these spammy websites take the name and images from the actual games and use that to market their own crappy games.


Some other indie games they stole from:



So if anyone goes to these websites thinking that these are the actual games that indie developers created, just know that they are not. 

Anyway, I just wanted to let people know about this because someone needs to say something. I was actually a bit disappointed to see this. This is not cool at all. And I am not just speaking for my game, I want to let other indie game developers know about this as well because they worked hard on their games and to have some spammy website just take from that hard work and use it to advertise their own site is just like a huge slap across the face.

I have never heard of these websites and am in no way affiliated with them. I'm sure the other indie developers whos games are supposedly on here also have nothing to do with these websites.

Potato Thriller is not an online game that you could play in your browser. Potato Thriller is currently only available for Windows pc and Mac, at the moment. Potato Thriller is currently only available on itch and you can check it out here:

https://snowconesolid.itch.io/potato-thriller

I am working on getting it on other platforms and game websites and will post updates when I have more news. It will only be available at places I say it will be on this blog or on my twitter.

Thanks for reading. More updates soon.