“TEST RELEASE DO NOT BUY !!!” sits at the top of Steam’s new release charts this morning. The game’s own store page begs you to look away: “Do not Wishlist this game. There is nothing here.”

Twenty-one people are playing it right now. The price tag is $1.99. The sole user review — Positive, 0.1 hours played — reads, simply, “It was worth the $2.”

So how does a game that explicitly tells customers to stay away land at number one? The answer is that “don’t buy this” might be the most effective marketing hook on the internet. Steam’s algorithm rewards velocity — clicks, wishlists, and purchases compressed into a short window. A title that doubles as a triple-dog-dare generates all three.

Behind the joke, there’s an actual game. According to the game’s wiki on Games Manuals, TEST RELEASE DO NOT BUY !!! is a metacommentary on game development that slowly builds itself in real time, unlocking clicker mechanics, an endless runner, fishing, poker, blackjack, a virtual pet, and a puzzle mode. The developer claims an intern accidentally created the Steam page and the team scrambled to “throw something together last minute.” Sure.

The studio, Bad Ideas Productions, is co-founded by YouTuber Jonny RaZeR and RIT fifth-year student Mary Haley. Jonny RaZeR also organizes the Bad Ideas Game Jam — a month-long competition where developers turn terrible concepts into playable games. The current theme: “Outside the Box.” No Gen AI allowed, per the jam rules, which means the title’s reverse-psychology hustle was crafted the old-fashioned way.

The game’s title is the pitch. The chart position is the punchline.

Sources