The indie developer behind Please Fix the Road, Ariel Jurkowski, has been pointing prospective players towards a pirated copy of their game. Please Fix the Road was released on June 10, 2022 for all of the usual platforms including Steam and GOG, but the game can also be downloaded by torrent.
The game is described as “a colorful, minimalistic, laid-back and casual puzzle game in which it's probably not hard to guess... you're fixing roads! Your road repair doesn't have to be beautiful, it just needs to get the job done!” The developer adds that “your mom will like this game, too!” Please Fix the Road has received mostly positive reviews from both critics and players.
“Would you kindly Please Fix the Road? I'm releasing my game in June, 2022 on Steam, GOG, and torrent (pirate version) for Windows and Linux,” Jurkowski announced on Twitter. “The pirate version will have all of the launch levels, but no updates. No strings attached. There's an extra pirate themed song at the start, altered intro sequence, a pirate face instead of the cogwheel options icon, and a request in the options menu to buy the game. Cheers!”
When it comes to their motivation for the move, Jurkowski noted how “it would be pirated anyway and I don't blame anyone for it. It is what it is. I hope at least some people will appreciate the gesture, maybe I'll get some public relations points from this. Cheers!”
The news about Please Fix the Road being available for download by torrent was first spotted by the user on Resetera known as ToyThatKills. “Jurkowski released the very reasonably priced Please Fix the Road yesterday in the usual places,” they remarked before pointing out how “of note is that they also released an ‘official’ pirate version of the game. This isn't a demo. It's the full game as it releases. The logic being that people are going to pirate it anyway, so why not have a bit of control over it and use it as an opportunity to maybe generate a few sales that otherwise would have never been achieved. It makes a weird kind of sense?”
This comes in the wake of several other games being offered up on a platter to pirates in recent years. “I know there have been developers that have released their own pirate copies before, but usually that's been with a view to punishing players,” ToyThatKills remarked, noting how Game Dev Tycoon makes piracy bring down your business. “I can't think of any developers just releasing what is basically a legit game.”