Over the summer, a bubble of discourse centered around one developer – Mateo Covic of Paddle Paddle Paddle fame – and his frustrations with Steam’s two-hour refund window saw countless players and developers interrogate Valve’s policy. Lots of people, including Covic himself, said they remain “100% pro refund” despite some potential for exploits. In a delayed response to that whole incident, two developers have made and released Refund This Game, a first-person platformer designed to put Steam’s refund policy to the test.
“Fling yourself up to the top in this ‘Getting Over It’-like 3D platformer!” reads the game’s Steam description. “Stick your pole to walls, bend it and fling yourself with great speed! One mistake means falling all the way down. Can you reach the summit in under 2 hours and EARN that refund?!”
The point of the game is on full display. There’s even a Steam achievement for beating it under two hours, an on-screen timer ticking down all the while. “Feel free to refund the game after, if you still can,” the devs insist. “It wouldn’t be a real challenge without stakes!”
Getting Over It remains one of the gold-standard ragebait platformers – the timeless tale of a man in a pot using a sledgehammer to slowly chip away at his sanity while Bennett Foddy taunts him from the great beyond. Refund This Game really does look like a 3D, first-person take on it: “physics-based stick-flinging” sends you up, up, and up a lofi dreamscape, and you get exactly one checkpoint. Welcome to rage games, here’s your stick to bite down on. And for just $5, or $4 on sale in this case, why not? Why shouldn’t I lose my mind?
Co-developer dofhouse, who worked alongside Cactile Games, says “a huge inspiration for this game was the discourse surrounding Steam’s refund policy this summer.” They tip their hat to indie game curator Indie Game Joe, whose Twitter thread about Steam refunds also reached Covic.
“We celebrate players’ right to refund games, and we wanted to create something that invites players to give it a shot, no strings attached,” dofhouse adds.
The early response to Refund This Game has been pretty positive, and based on some of its Steam reviews, a few players have actually managed to beat it in time to get their money back. Pour one out for Steam user Sklett, whose exactly two-hour review says it all: “:(“