This Steam game wants you to refund it – if you can

Released on July 22, the first-person stealth-horror title has more than 100 different paths, with only one leading to “salvation,” according to the Steam page.

Players need to progress through the dark environment and throw flares to remember their tracks, listening out for noises and written warnings as they progress. There also appears to be some sort of monster, with developer Sungame Studio issuing one final warning: “Never stay more than 45 seconds in the same position.”

The player will need to escape Refund Me If You Can’s maze whilst the aforementioned monster tracks them down.

galaxy brain premise for a steam game: are you a good enough gamer to beat the refund window? pic.twitter.com/OTxhAiytBN

— D????CFUTURE (@topherflorence) July 23, 2022

The game description reads: “Sarah is having a nightmare. Only you can wake her up. To achieve this you will have to find your way through the maze. When playing this game, you agree to finish it before asking for a refund, unless you are a coward.”

Refunds, especially those on Steam that allow players to refund a game if played for less than two hours within 14 days of purchase (as outlined here), have become a topic of contention in the game industry. Some developers deliberately design shorter experiences, and Steam’s refunds let players abuse the system and essentially play certain games for free.

In fact, solo developer Emika_Games left the industry entirely last year as their short game Summer Of ‘58 was being abused in the system. The developer made such little money that they cancelled their next game, and said they are “leaving game development for an indefinite time to collect my thoughts.”

In other news, Street Fighter 6 is going to include a number of DLC costumes based on appearances in Street Fighter 2.