Mandagon (game): people are being a bit generous because it is free

I peruse the charts on Steam almost daily. I am always surprised when I find a game that is free and when i say "free" i don't mean "free but loaded with micro-tranactions." I mean properly free. This game is 100% free with no catch.

Now I am a big fan of 2-D platformers and even a bigger fan of stuff that is free. However, unfortunately this game isn't very good. I am not sure what the developers were going for on this one (and I believe that there were only 3 people involved in making this game.) The game is based on Tibetan mythology and has a lot of architecture and structures / symbols that are very reflective of that part of the world. It simply entails making a small block-person looking thing jump around a map activating various platforms and activate certain switches in order to gain access to higher areas.

There are certain areas where you can enter houses and inside there are items you need to collect in order to open the central gate of the temple. At least I think it is a temple.

Apparently there is a touching story on certain pillars that relate to the character's life and the sacrifices he made that resulted in him being in this mystical world in the first place. I didn't read them very closely because they didn't upgrade your abilities or activate any of the surrounding areas. Perhaps if I had taken the time to decipher them the game would have been more meaningful to me.

Mandagon is extremely basic in its mechanics and to be honest, except for the sound quality, NES games were more advanced than this.

I don't understand the motivation of releasing a game for free: Perhaps the developers are trying to build an audience before they decide to make a game that they can charge money for. I guess I was just surprised to see it featured on the first page of Steam.

If you look for reviews about this game in a web-search you will find that almost everyone is praising the crap out of this release and I can't help but think that a large part of why this is the case is because the game is free (thanks) and it also deals with religion to a certain degree - a topic that many people are afraid to be judgemental about.

I finished the game in 20 minutes or so and I suppose I should be more grateful that some people spent time making something and are giving it away. However, It just isn't very good.

The trailer is about 2 minutes long and that is roughly 10% of the time that it will take to finish the entire game. I'm not going to rate the game because I don't want to seem like a jerk complaining about something that I paid nothing for. Gift horses and all that.