yeah i'm getting myself into a rabbit hole aren't i
alright. don't buy this game. the only time i died was by softlocking by clipping into walls, you have to restart the game every time you die because trying to start a new game will cause the game to forget to spawn your character, and the answer to the question of "It is not known how far the end of these caves is, or if there is any," is that there isn't, because in trying to find more mechanics than "fly" and "shoot," i discovered that the N key teleports you to the next level, and that you can mash that button for a real long time without getting anywhere.
and, well... yeah. that's sort of expected. this isn't a game.
this is a hard reupload of the Cave Exploration Starter Kit by "that games guy" on the unity asset store. look, you can get it here: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/tutorials/cave-exploration-starter-kit-37158. it's literally free, plus you can modify this version to give it some gameplay. it's barebones because originally it's meant to be the baseline for a 2d roguelite game, for a developer to expand upon.
the marked publisher of this game, INFINITY BRIDGE, seems to do this a lot. of their listed games:
-"something strange in the woods," developed by moenen, is a hard reupload of the free template "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" from the unity asset store. this one isn't even meant to be a game, just a simple showcase of all the 3d models! you can find that here: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/santa-claus-is-coming-to-town-63497
-"space abyss," developed by #NVJOB, is a hard reupload of the free template "Infinity Square/Space" from the unity asset store. this one looks really neat actually. get it from the real dev, not these freeloaders. https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/packs/infinity-square-space-procedurally-generated-space-with-a-destru-149923
-the other "upcoming games" - one of which was meant to release 5 days ago, lol - also seem to be extremely simple baseline games. i'd expect that they're also ripped straight from the asset store too, but their developer names are simply set to INFINITY BRIDGE this time, making it impossible to find their originals. they may actually be original, though. use your own judgement on that one.
most interestingly of all, though, is their seemingly flagship game, TRAPPED GUYS. it has actual marketing images, a listed publisher page, an announcement, and other such features you'd expect from a "real" indie game. i can't say much about the game itself - it looks high quality, seems to have some gameplay, but without buying it for real and uTinyRipper-ing it apart, i can't see if it's yoinked from the asset store or not.
but let's get back to that announcement. it has a twitter link attached - twitter.com/INFINITYBRIDGE, with an insane amount of followers, given that they have one tweet with 6 likes, 7 retweets. almost all of them are empty accounts, named something like Tristan0008267, who have participated in giveaways from one website - giveaway.su. never heard of them myself, but it seems like some follower farming using giveaways has been done there.
also in that announcement is a youtube link. one video with a gameplay trailer for trapped guys. as expected, right? however, they also have a TRAILERS playlist. a trailers playlist with 2 videos - the other video is privated - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqHEWiRrVbM&list=PLoGtYtwZ_Y5D3q9jfmQ73VxagdjGcXBV7.
luckily by typing the video link into something like google (or in my case, duckduckgo), we can see the cached version that those search engines last crawled for - the privated video was called FRENZY PLATNS - TRAILER - https://i.imgur.com/fqIzPnr.png. searching for "frenzy platns game" returns a link to a completely different game, apparently by a different company named MADSKILLZGAME, that released a single game called FRENZY PLANTS late 2019, then never released another game again.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1118930/FRENZY_PLANTS/
i have legitimately no idea what the reasoning behind changing developer and publisher name like this would be, but operating under multiple names isn't unheard of for shovelware companies on steam, and i'd say this company certainly passes my benchmark for one.
so yeah. don't buy this game. don't buy any of the infinity bridge asset flips. probably don't buy frenzy plants either!! the reputability of this company is hilariously slim, and i'd really recommend you stay away for fear of getting scammed.
anyway, i'm done researching dumb crap now. i'm gonna go refund this game.
pce
-ralc
update (2020-12-28): confirmed "beat the moles" (listed as simply being developed by INFINITY BRIDGE) is a very minor modification of Whack a Mole by tasonco on the unity asset store, found here: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/whack-a-mole-82155
it appears as though the only changes are to the name, lighting, and text position on screen.
confirmed "hover ship" (listed as developed by INFINITY BRIDGE) is at best a minor modification of Hovershift by SgLib Games on the unity asset store, found here: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/packs/hovershift-107789
the only difference i can see between the two is two coloured bars in the top left during gameplay, although the screenshots on the unity page may be taken in some sort of developer mode.
the newly added game marked as coming soon, "Asteroids Belt: Try to Survive!", listed as being developed by INFINITY BRIDGE, is actually... "Asteroids Belt: Try to Survive!" by Allebi. https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/packs/asteroid-belt-project-2062
i guess they really gave up on that one, didn't even change the name lol. yet again lighting and resolution seems changed, but the original is intended to be a mobile game, so these changes aren't too surprising.
i still can't find any extra info on frenzy plants or trapped guys, so they're probably custom-developed.
update 2 (2021-01-16): "infected town" is actually "toxic townsmen" by daniel buckley, available free at https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/packs/toxic-townsmen-complete-game-104332
"zombievan drive" is actually "zombie drive" by puppeteer, available for 13 euros at https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/packs/zombie-drive-full-game-template-73074
