Hi folks, Heckpoint's programmer here. It's our first game, and most of us (not me, but the rest of the dev team) work awful day (actually 12-hour overnight) jobs to fund development of this game, which we had hoped would change our lives. We're not a big company, and can only continue to do this if people actually buy the game. I will again bring up the subject of releasing a free demo with the team, so that people can get a taste of Heckpoint without resorting to thievery.
I feel bad for the situation regarding the dev team, but honestly, most people who pirate are going to do it regardless of what the devs say or want (Especially for single player games). This seems to be part of the reason everything is going online/mmo, to avoid this. Also, SP games won't make enough to change your lives unless they are largely successful. In 4 months on steam you have 12 reviews and not a whole lot of community activity. I doubt it has brought in life changing profit for anyone.
Yep, I agree with all of that. It hasn't brought in a lot of money, but it's been a great educational experience (good and bad), and not just about DRM, piracy, etc. Honestly, our reaction when we found this page was "Hey, we've been pirated. We've finally made the big time!" Far Cry 5 was hacked in 19 days, so we have no illusions about being able to keep our game protected. Our current project is 2-player local co-op, smaller in both scope and price point. Our hope is that the lower price makes it more accessible, but we are also looking at moving to console for the protection that (hopefully) affords.
It could have potential so let's wait to see how the developer will improve it.