KreatureKind was released on Steam at the end of April, and two months later Aurora Punks helped bring the game to Xbox Series S|X and Playstation 5. The reception has been good among the intended audience, with over 80% positive Steam score (over 90% before the below happened) and review sites placing it between 7 and 9 out of 10. While not perfect, one may be led to think that it’s a decent game. Of course, not everyone is the intended audience. And boy of boy, did they have a field day once they found the game.
The first YouTuber who made a video about KreatureKind was, as far as I know, alleged grifter AndyPants. He called it nuclear levels of cringe in the title and matched it with a homophobic thumbnail (although to his questionable credit it now says “garbage”). I have not watched it, and don’t intend to waste my time doing so. This was followed by a handful of other videos with what appears to be a similar tone, many of which honor KreatureKind by comparing it to Dustborn – a game that was also dogpiled on by anonymous keyboard heroes. Unsurprisingly, this led to a wave of comments being added to KreatureKind’s Steam hub and YouTube videos.
Now, I was in the industry during GamerGate and remember it well. It has been at the back of my mind ever since, and it’s part of the reason why my social media presence is limited and my online security level high. As someone who makes games that don’t necessarily match the current norm, I have known for a decade that something similar would happen sooner or later. As grim as it may sound, it feels like I finally got that feather in my cap. In fact, I was a bit giddy in the first few days, and refreshed the comments in the hopes of finding creative insults. The feeling soon faded, however, when I realized no one actually had anything of substance to say.
It also surprised me that they bothered going after such a small developer and game. Surely there is bigger fish to fry? Of course, the game’s relatively modest sales is one of the things they try to make an example of. They display “go woke, go broke” like the severed head of a traitor at the city gates, in an attempt to dissuade anyone else from putting (gasp) brown people in their games. Alternatively, the game’s performance could be based on a combination of my aforementioned aversion to social media, and the fact that it’s an incredibly tough market out there. 15,422 games were released on Steam in 2024, and the majority of Steam games makes less than $1k. Being indie is hard for everyone, regardless of game. An anecdotal example can be found in this article about Bramle Royale – a game I deem comparable to KreatureKind, of excellent quality, and, as far as I can tell, not particularly “woke”. But, meeting these arguments with reason is a fool’s errand, as it would appear like their feelings don’t care about facts.
Of course, what these people are doing is just proving that the work I and others like me are doing is important. These trolls are bashing a shield in the hopes that the person holding it starts thinking shields are pointless. My only worry is that any marginalized person seeing what is happening feels less secure. For this reason, I have deleted or locked threads on Steam depending on how abusive I considered the content, and whether or not I found merit in any discussion that arose in it. On YouTube, I let them tire themselves out for a while before deleting their comments, as showing an immediate reaction likely would have made things worse and/or risk their hate spilling over into other channels.
Fun fact: Vlad was designed in 2021, and then we just didn’t revisit the design when another light-haired vampire dropped 🤷
Now – if you are here because you watched any of the videos mentioned above, I have nothing but sympathy for you. A life where you avoid certain media because it’s “woke” must be so much smaller and less filled with joy than it could be. If you dislike the gameplay of KreatureKind or feel like the vibe isn’t for you, that’s entirely okay! There are around 100.000 games on Steam – I’m sure at least some of them are right up your alley. Either way, I sincerely hope you find all the love and peace you deserve.
To anyone who is unsettled by this kind of hate, please remember that even though times may appear dark, the pendulum always wings back. Progress is not linear. Hate sells right now and is promoted by the algorithms, but every action has an equal and opposite reaction. For now, all we can do is take care of ourselves and each other, and keep fighting the good fight.
Finally, I want to take a moment to thank those of you who have pushed back against the haters. It’s a sisyphean task, and I deeply appreciate you using some of your precious energy on showing that this type of behavior is not acceptable.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go make more woke DEI slop that nobody wants.
Sincerely,
Your silly bard forced to dual-class paladin
Anaka
PS. If you have any updates on those millions of tax dollars I’m apparently stealing and/or laundering, please let me know! They must have the wrong account number 🙁
PPS. Should you wish to support me, you can find KreatureKind on Steam as well as on PS5, Xbox and itch.io. I also have a Ko-Fi! And please remember, pushing back against the hate is fine, but let’s not sink to their level.