Get past all this and you’re more likely to be frustrated by the sluggish controls and dull gameplay than you are to be moved by the social commentary. If Abandon Ship! hoped to make some point about race relations, it’s effectively been muddled by the clumsy delivery. But the makers seem surprisingly committed to making a good (as in well developed, not do-gooding) game . “We believed that a large number of people would be drawn to the game just because of the social commentary,” they told me, “but we also wanted them to stay with us because it was a good game.” Perhaps this is why they’re now trying to divert attention from the game’s controversial characteristics. In an announcement posted to Steam on Jan. 4, the creators write that though they aspire “to create games that are thought-provoking … some of the comments on our Greenlight page are shifting the conversation toward an inappropriate place.” Though they beg their fans to remain “polite” and “civil,” they told me that they were actually surprised by how little hate speech had accumulated in relation to their game. “[T]he majority of the comments have been very level-headed and positive,” they wrote.