 | Digital Release: | Steam August 04, 2015 Nintendo Wii U June 16, 2016 (EU, US) PlayStation 4, Vita October 03, 2017 (US) October 11, 2017 (AU, EU) Xbox One August 29, 2018 (AU, EU, US) |
| Delisting: | May 07, 2018 - Steam | |
| Developer: | Thinice |
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| Publisher: | Thinice (Steam) Ratalaika Games (Consoles) |
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| Available On: | Nintendo Wii U Nintendo Switch (as Ultimate Edition) PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita Xbox One (as Ultimate Edition) |
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| Links: | Twin Robots homepage SteamDB page |
Delisting
Twin Robots creator, Pablo, announced on May 7th, 2018 that the game had been removed from sale on Steam. The announcement explained the decision:
I have decided to stop selling this game, due to the new GDPR law that goes into effect May 25, 2018. Don’t take me wrong, I love how this new law gives power back to the people about its own data, but adapting Twin Robots to this new regulation would require:
1) Removing gameplay analytics: These are stats about where players die, how long they stay on each level, etc.
2) Removing Unity Hardware analytics: These registered hardware info so the Unity team could gather insight about where to optimize their engine, for example. The thing is, the free version of the Unity engine does not allow to disable this data gathering. You have to subscribe on their $35/month plan to be able to do that… with a minimum 12 month stay.
3) Removing online leaderboards: I used my own server for this, and since it registered your username along your score, it could potentially be considered personal data under the new GDPR law. Specially when considering that the default username when submitting a score is your Steam username, which uniquely identifies you.
4) Removing Steam integration: when playing from inside the Steam client, the game sends & receives personal data like your Steam username, so that’s probably a no-no under the GDPR too.
If I don’t remove all this, I’d have to provide a means for the player (you) to access, revoke or modify any of this data.
After that, I’d have to build, test & upload all 3 versions (Win, Mac, Linux).
I was going to do it, I even purchased the Unity subscription plan, but honestly… it’s not worth it. It doesn’t make any financial sense, the game has been for sale since 2015 and it sold pretty bad. So I can’t keep pouring time & energy on it.
I’m a single developer with a normal day job, so I prefer to put my scarce resources (time, effort, money) towards building a new game where all these requirements will be met from the start.
Thanks for reading, and sorry if this causes you any trouble. If that’s so, please let me know and we’ll talk about it, I can probably help.
Oh btw, for existing players: the game should continue working as usual, though the leaderboards won’t work anymore so you’ll see a “Loading…” message in there that never clears (the leaderboards on my server have been removed). Sorry for that inconvenience.
Have a nice day,
Pablo
About the Game
“Twin Robots is a 2.5D platformer where you can switch control between two little robots; They have been imprisoned and need to find the way out of each level!
You can play alone or with a friend in local co-op multiplayer, so that each player controls one robot.
The game can be played along its 28 levels alone or in cooperative mode with a friend thanks to his split screen gameplay.“
Features:
- Strategy thinking: Manage your energy levels through the level so that you can safely reach the exit & charge the last door to open it.
- Puzzle solving: Some levels require both robots to help eachother in order to solve easy puzzles.
- TV Border: You can adjust the TV border so the game fits your TV completely.
- Local co-op: You can have some multiplayer action!
Select Video Coverage
Thanks to Mog666 for submitting this game to the site