Indie Developer Dream Games: Homophobia, Religious Threats and Early Access

Published: June 2, 2016 1:14 PM /

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Operation Caucasus Heading

Indie Developer Dream Games, behind the first person shooter Operation Caucuses, may have shot itself in the foot.

In the latest roundup of idle gossip, Dream Games has been apparently offering free Steam Codes to players on Facebook for the past month, to help the game get through its current Steam Greenlight. One user, going by the name of Nivea, attempted to receive a code, but instead was told to "f*ck off" by the Dream Games facebook because, according to Dream Games, "they do not support LGBT."

Nivea has a rainbow-flag overlay over her profile picture, which is often used to showcase a person's sexuality, or support, for the LGBT community. Nivea screen-capped a picture of the conversation, which is show below as well. She then took to playing the game anyway after a friend gave her a code, and ripped into Dream Games not only over their game, which is apparently in very poor condition with choppy framerate, game crashes and terrible gunplay, but for their homophobia towards her, where she hopes her user review can serve as an example for others when thinking about purchasing the game.

From the review on Steam, by Dream Games
From the review on Steam, by Dream Games

Dream Games has also doubled down on this too, stating in the user review that it will not support LGBT people, as it is their free will.  In broken English, they state that Dream Games are real humans, and anyone who is Christian or religious can't support "LGBT" people. They also say that American parents teach people wrong, and to understand it, people need to become real humans. 

Outside of the message making no sense other than being a basket case for how to not treat your audience, Dream Games apparently is a very religious group. A second Steam Review, written by user Tin Cup Middleman and posted before Nivea's review, stated that the developers were removed from Steam before for attempting to scam players with a demo of Operation Caucuses, and even contacted Middleman and in his words, "offered a bribe" for a review of the game, and allegedly, religious quotes found in the game code as well. 

Regardless of the validity of that charge, or the recent controversy, Dream Games is also apparently abandoning Operation Caucuses, stating that they released the game's demo originally by accident (which Jim Sterling played live and reviewed) and that people were "misunderstanding" their intent because of this mistake, forcing them to create an alpha version of the game in 2 months. 

 We have reached out to Dream Games for comment on the whole situation but they have not responded.


Quick Take

Frankly, I don't see how anyone rational would defend Dream Games. When a developer is refusing service to people completely over orientation, and it's actually worse than any transgressions the game itself may have, which apparently are many since it is a lousy game by most accounts. 

And no, that's not ok in the end. Their right, sure, but then they shouldn't be on Steam in my opinion for it. Also, before people bring it up, yes this is agenda-pushing, but it is not the same as other companies or agendas out there; at least those games allow you play the game and judge for yourself, instead of telling you to "f*ck off" because of a facebook profile picture. Dream Games, in my opinion, deserves to be reviled for such behavior, regardless of how you feel about agendas.  

The rest is just icing on the cake. The claims of abandoning development and the demo being released by accident avery convenient, and the accusations regarding religious quotation in the games code a bit suspect. Something certainly doesn't add up, but what do you think? Please leave your comments below. 

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Me smiling
| Staff Writer

A longtime player of games, creator of worlds, and teacher of minds. Robert has worked many positions over the years, from college professor to education… More about Robert