Was abandoned for ~7 years in a broken mess. Sadly, because it was an otherwise fun game.
Developer has recently returned and is claiming to do bug fixes and some content adding - would be great, but they are going crazy with moderation in the steam forums. Shutting down anybody who even appears to slightly question their motive. The developer also increased the price after their first bug fix... a bug fix for a broken 8 year old game... that doesn't really warrant a price increase of nearly 100%. They responded to this criticism by more moderation and saying "it is a fan service" and that they didn't have to even fix bugs at all...
Also rather random update of the store header to a picture of George Floyd. I wouldn't really care much, only somebody asked about this in the forum and the developer replied with "Stop lying" or something like that - bit weird.
Edit: Got banned for saying the picture seemed to be George Floyd in response to somebody asking whether it was George Floyd.
The dev has seemingly updated the cover art now but the old one can be seen via the Wayback Machine.
This dev is quite unhinged.
Can't link the pictures of him gaslighting people (by saying it was never a picture of George Floyd), the old coverart (of George Floyd) and the ban reason he gave me; again, George Floyd related. Although, going to send it through to Steam Support and see what happens.
Don't support this guy, he's Domina levels of weird.
In response to comments because I weirdly now cannot comment on my own review:
Thanks for the Booty Steam user.
@Trivane - I was actually happy at first because "better late than never," but this developer is treating his community like ♥♥♥♥♥, and looking more into his background I am almost certain he does not have good intentions.
He very recently dropped a £20 game and made a "Post mortem" post basically saying "Yeah, I'm done, thanks - bye!"
@Mumen Rider - The price point doesn't reflect the quality of the game whatsoever, especially after one or two bug fixes. It is a game from 2015, not a new 2023 release.
@llefty - I actually saw your wayback machine post on the discussion board, the developer tried gaslighting you by saying "who is this character?" So weird.
Edit 6th Feb. 2023:
Vitali has made a "Developer message #2" where he tells a sob-story about how he was forced to abandon past projects because his colleagues ripped him off. Even says he paid 50euros for a consultation with a lawyer that never got back to him (made me laugh, because that ♥♥♥♥ would not fly as a lawyer, but, guess Vitali got extremely unlucky).
Skimmed the post mostly, beside the bit I was interested in. He is now taking a step-back from his extreme North-Korea moderation, interestingly, not because he feels bad or realises his mistake... because he realises he can get banned from not following the Steam Community Moderation guidelines. How genuine of him! We can also email him and plead for an unban, in his words, we gave him a chance so now he'll give us a chance - what a nice guy!
Anyway, as I write this, Vitali's weird concoction of the beaming red-eyed George Floyd stares at me in the top-right. Curious when that will get updated like the cover art on the store page.
Let the red-eyed George Floyd be a reminder not to trust this developer, and get the popcorn, because I expect there'll be more to come.
Edit: 7th Feb 23
Easy response @Lootgoblino to start, I'm not mad or hateful at all. I bought it in a humble bundle back in 2015 and hadn't thought about it since because of how broken it was. I was actually very happy to see Vitali had returned to at least get the game playable, then all this happened. Now, I am happy I have a copy because the self-inflicted dumpster fire is incredibly entertaining.
Anyway, Vitali, I found a funny irony with my ability to delete your comment but of course I won't... because I'm not you. Glad to see you finally showed the source image for that picture, this does not explain why you went on a banning-parade for so many people... instead of just answering queries with this source image.
For instance, my very innocent comment, or "statement" as you put it, was verbatim: "Seems like George Floyd. Dev has been asked this and hasn't responded answering it, just locked the thread."
You responded with a perm. ban and "game has nothing to do with George Floyd."
Do you see the disparity there? Surely you can see why, when you are treating a community like that, people are going to be mad at you? You even read this review and saw that you unfairly banned me and didn't think to unban me whilst you left your comment.
Your whole explanation seems to be that you respect your Finnish police and so you would never use a picture of George Floyd... which is... what? You really cannot see out of the scope of your own personal situation? Your weird explanation does not even make sense, you don't want to have to censor yourself and want to praise your own police force? What did banning people for saying a picture looked like George Floyd have anything to do with that?
You have even went further to insult people, "Are you that insane that you think a game about pirates would do something like that?" Well, Vitali, we aren't. You yourself said you just "studied" Domina and saw how that could get you in trouble - that game was about gladiators in a Colosseum, yet became much more.
You tried to be "playful" with these people (harsh definition of 'playful' Vitali, a perm ban is not very 'playful').
Then, when the reviews came in, you realised you messed up, then came "Developer Message #2" - the saving face message. You said you took so long to reply and didn't reply to comments because you were "preparing a statement." You realise that means you won't take action at all, besides that, what is so difficult about posting a screenshot of the image you used?
Source of all that is here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/264140/eventcomments/3757726797848067901/?ctp=2 - Vitali's own comment.
Also, funny note: https://steamcommunity.com/app/264140/eventcomments/3757726349627116974/?ctp=8
Lovely response to "Sex Vendor" there, threatening him with a ban for an innocent comment. Whilst this was made before your "Developer Message #2" where you say that you are reformed and now going to be much nicer, I think it is a perfect live example of how you treat your own community.
Valve needs to fix being banned meaning that you can't post comments on your own review, this ♥♥♥♥ is getting chunky. Emailed Vitali asking to be unbanned so that I can start commenting instead of updating this mega-wall. We'll see what happens.
EDIT from 13/11/2023 - On June 9th Vitali made a post that ended with the handy TLDR: "TDLR: Work on Pixel Piracy continues until 31.12.2023, and there will be a big 1.3.0 update after Summer Holidays; There is also a call to action to Wishlist IAH as it will help Pixel Piracy."
However, he just posted a "What's next?" stating development on PP was now complete. Seemingly, that "big 1.3.0 update" never came. In fact, after that June 9th post, only one small update came on June the 16th.
Yet now, Vitali is apparently making Pixel Piracy Online - an MMO.
Seems incredibly naive, particularly when you consider even large studios with massive budgets cannot pull off MMOs and he himself cannot pull off a simple singleplayer game... but will sure be interesting to follow.
Anyway, seems the final verdict is still at a solid "Do not buy." Unless you have some money to burn, but then ideally try to get your refund within that 2 hour mark...
Thank you for the unintended entertainment, Vitali.
