Most likely, this is a date in DD MM YY or YY MM DD format. Given the international nature of indie development, two interpretations exist:
September 2010 was a notable month in indie gaming: Minecraft was in its Alpha stage (version 1.1.0 released Sept 10), Super Meat Boy launched in October, and Flash gaming was at its peak. A “desperateamateurs” release during this window would have competed with thousands of free web games.
Alternatively, the numbers could be a version code – build 22, September 10th – but the “treasure remastered” part suggests a later re-release.
Why has this “Remastered” version become a point of interest for digital archaeologists? Because almost no copies survive. desperateamateurs 22 09 10 treasure remastered
According to scattered forum posts (Wayback Machine captures from 2012–2015), the original download link was hosted on a free web host (e.g., MediaFire, Dropbox, or a personal university server). By 2013, the creator’s domain expired. A few fans backed up the original 2008 demo, but the September 22, 2010 remaster was thought lost until a Reddit user in r/lostmedia claimed to have found a partial ZIP on an old external HDD last year. That post, now deleted, contained the keyword: desperateamateurs 22 09 10 treasure remastered.
Efforts to contact “desperateamateurs” have failed. An email address (d.amateurs@[redacted].com) bounced. A LinkedIn profile with that nickname has no activity since 2011.
Given the naming and era, “Treasure” was probably a 2D puzzle-platformer or an adventure game made in RPG Maker 2003, GameMaker 6, or Adobe Flash (ActionScript 2.0). Here’s a speculative but genre-appropriate synopsis: Most likely, this is a date in DD
Setting: A young cartographer’s apprentice inherits a fragmented map from a vanished explorer. The map points to the “Sunken Isle,” a location erased from official records.
Gameplay: Top-down exploration with turn-based combat or real-time puzzles. The core mechanic involved “memory fragments” – items that reveal hidden passages only when the player tilts the camera (a clever effect for the time using parallax scrolling).
Original Release: Circa 2008 – buggy, with inconsistent art (some pixel art, some crude hand-drawn sprites). The ending was reportedly broken due to a script error. September 2010 was a notable month in indie
The 2010 “Remastered” Update:
The original file suffered from low bitrate compression—a common issue for indie content in 2022. The Treasure Remastered edition, released quietly via the platform’s vault this September, addresses the three pain points fans complained about: