Steam’s Naming Blunder Turns into a Heartwarming Success Story
With hundreds of games launching each week, discoverability remains a significant challenge for developers on Steam. Despite the platform’s efforts, like introducing a personalized release calendar, the ultimate hurdle for both indie and AAA studios is getting players to notice their titles.
One factor that complicates this challenge? Launching a game in the same week as another with the exact same name. This is the situation faced by the developers of two games titled *Piece by Piece*, but they’ve turned it into a positive experience.
Gamkat’s *Piece by Piece* is a charming management sim where you take on the role of a cute orange fox running a repair shop. In contrast, Neon Polygons’ *Piece by Piece*, which released just two days later, is a puzzle platformer where players manipulate levels made up of puzzle pieces to advance.
A Reddit post gained attention recently when a user searched for one of the games, likely referring to the puzzle platformer. The post was titled, “I feel this is going to mislead a lot of people,” with a description suggesting that marketing should prevent such confusion.
An employee from No More Robots, the publisher of the cozy shopkeeping *Piece by Piece*, noticed the post and responded. “The actual situation is that both ourselves and the dev team behind the other *Piece by Piece* somehow managed to announce the same week of release for both our games, had a good laugh about it together, and then put both games into a Steam bundle,” they explained. “Not exactly sure how anyone is being ‘misled’, but on our side, we’re all happy and having fun with it :)”
A developer from Neon Polygons, creators of the puzzler *Piece by Piece*, also shared their thoughts. “As a small indie team, you might imagine how we felt when we first saw No More Robots’ *Piece by Piece*. They’ve handled this coincidence with nothing but grace, and we’re honored to share the same name and launch week as them. Cheers, guys.” In another thread, the Neon Polygons developer mentioned they had been cautioned about the potential risks of reaching out to the other team but were glad they did. “The folks at No More Robots & Gamkat are top-notch people.”
Both games are currently available at introductory discounts, with positive player ratings. Gamkat’s *Piece by Piece* is 20% off until March 25, while Neon Polygons’ *Piece by Piece* is 15% off until March 27.
As noted by the No More Robots employee, you can grab both games in a bundle for $18.57, which is a 17% discount off the total price. “It’s crazy to think that if you act like human beings about a situation, it somehow ends up great?? Who would have guessed,” they remarked.
