The shooter Ultrakill recently celebrated record numbers on Steam. A player shared a photo of herself allegedly pirating the game and received a surprising response from the developer himself.
What did the student do to attract attention? On May 31, 2024, a user under the name “kali” shared a photo of herself installing a game on a laptop. She captioned the photo: “I love pirating indie games.”
The provocative slogan caused a stir: some users were of the opinion that it would be better to support indie developers financially – whereas piracy by huge publishers is probably more acceptable for some.
The post eventually even reached the solo developer behind the game pictured – and he had a surprising response.
The game was Ultrakill, a retro shooter that is characterized by fast and brutal gameplay. We introduced the shooter to you in April.
Ultrakill presents itself in the Early Access Trailer
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“Culture should not only exist for those who can afford it.”
What did the developer say? Hakita, the developer of Ultrakill, responded to the post on June 2. On X, he wrote that while independent games should be supported, “culture should not only exist for those who can afford it.”
The developer explained that his game would not exist if he had not had easy access to films, music and other games as a young adult. For Hakita, support does not necessarily have to mean buying a game: “If you don’t have the money, you can use Word-of-Mouth [„Mundpropaganda“] support.”
You can read the developer’s full response here:
The developer gives his blessing
Isn’t that uneconomical? Not necessarily. Hakita explains in a comment how important it can be to simply share a game with others: “If you pirate a game, then enjoy it, report on it, and get someone else to buy it, that’s an equal trade at worst.”
In the best case scenario, the developer continued, it would be an additional sale that would not have happened otherwise.
In the comments on X and a thread on Reddit, many users are enthusiastic about the developer’s attitude. Some even say they want to buy the game now. If you feel the same, you can find Ultrakill on Steam.
The user herself clarified on June 1st that her post was so-called “bait”, i.e. meant to stir up emotions. She has owned Ultrakill on Steam for a long time and only used this procedure to be able to install the game on her school laptop. You can find out what it looks like when you actually play on Steam using unfair methods here: A game has 40,000 players even though it doesn’t even exist