Shaz M writes: This is a narrative game unlike any other, whose themes aren’t presented linearly, but ones that you must allow yourself to feel, and accept as you play.
The Citizen Sleeper developer has stated that Xbox Game Pass is allowing many indie studios to keep going nowadays.
Yeah. It's called industry welfare. When you need to take a handout because you can't stand on your own two feet, and don't believe your game can stand out amongst the crowd and sell, it's literally that.
I'm not against a handout when you need it. But to automatically look for a handout instead of believing in your product and making it sell, I do have a problem with it. Beyond the fact game pass hurts sales, it can also bite you in the ass if Microsoft ever has too many big games or popular games on the service and decides to offer you less money in a contract if they don't think your game is worth the dollars. Or just flat out declines from a lack of interest.
Then what will you do? Fall back on sales? When the base is so used to not buying your product and expects to play it for a few dollars? Run to another platform hoping they are interested in your game or hope they pay you to put the product on their service?
These indies are playing with fire. Getting paid now. But they may not like what happens later.
"welfare", "handouts", "can't stand on your own two feet", "don't believe your game can stand out"
Are we undermining just because his cheque had Gamepass rather than PS+ on it? Bro got paid, bro and his team gets to continue doing what they love.
In a time where major 1st parties are laying off devs left and right I applaud any indie that can keep the lights on, regardless who or how theyre funded.
Exactly- most indies don't have the luxury of deciding where they get this kind of money from, and realistically if any of the big three stepped forward with an offer they'd be foolish to turn it down, especially given most game pass deals don't prevent these games from going elsewhere later down the line.
Tell me you never had a real job without telling me you never had a real job 😂
From AAA to Indie: The Changing Landscape of Gaming. Indie Games Take Center Stage Amidst AAA Fatigue. But, has the market become too crowded?
Eh, It would be better if we talked about specific genres instead of treating the indie market as a singular entity
Personally I'm kinda done with roguelikes and I feel that there's too many of them
I could agree with that but there's still some good ones out there. The more games the better. The way I see it not every game is tailored to me. If it was the latest summer blockbuster would've hit right with me. Seriously though. Almost every game has a fan.
I agree, I don't wish for the demise of the genre or anything. Different strokes
While I get being done with a genre, the thing about roguelikes/roguelites is the concept simply increases replayability at very little cost.
For example, take Pepper Grinder. Charming game, like 25 levels, has collectibles, etc. Once you get all the collectibles, and beat it, the only content left is beating stages faster/more proficiently. Procedurally generated games don't have that negative, as they're always somewhat different. I can do five runs of Enter the Gungeon, and have different obstacles to overcome.
When you don't have a massive budget to add a ton of content (I made a full run with collectibles video for Pepper Grinder and it was 90 minutes), it's a cost effective way to achieve that goal.
Very true about cost, roguelikes are probably also a nice way for beginner developers to learn and gain experience. I disagree with procedurally content never feeling samey tho, even the best examples of the genre ( skull, gungeon, brotato, dead cells, wizard of legend...) eventually run out of things to show and become a chore to me.
I'd rather spend 10 hours in a memorable hand crafted metroidvania than 100 in a roguelike, there's too many competent games to experience and the time investment just doesn't feel worth it for me personally
Naw. We definitely need more turn based jrpgs. Never ever to many of those. Yes I'm serious.
Not by a long shot, you still have to sift through a lot of mediocre titles, but there are plenty of gems there, and room for even more now that people are buying less AAA games.
It's kinda always been like that though. From nes to present. There's always been sifting.
“Another month has passed us by and during it, many incredible indie games released so let's celebrate the 12 best from March 2024.” - A.J. Maciejewski from Video Chums.
