this post was submitted on 26 Dec 2024
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This author has no fucking clue that the indie gaming industry exists.
Like Balatro... you know, the fucking Indie Game of the Year, that was also nominated for Best Game of the Year at the Game Awards.
Localthunk was able to build this in Lua... WITH A BOX OF SCRAPS!
I think the worst part is the author even points to freaking Minecraft and Roblox, both were indie titles when they first launched, and also compared triple-A titles to a live service game and Epic's tech-demo-turned-Roblox-clone.
Honestly it reads more like they set out to write an article supporting a given narrative and carefully tuned their evidence to fit that narrative.
How about some studios that aren't hurting and don't fit that narrative? SCS software which makes Euro Truck Simulator 2 and American Truck Simulator hasn't released a new game since ATS's launch in 2016 because their business model is to keep selling DLC to the same customers, and invest that money in continuing to refine the existing games. Urban Games has openly stated they exist solely to build the best modern Transport Tycoon game they can, releasing a new iteration every few years with significant game engine improvements each time. N3V Games was literally bought out by a community member of one of it's earlier titles when it was facing bankruptcy and simply exists to refine the Trainz railroad simulator game. Or there's the famous example of Bay12Games which released Dwarf Fortress (an entirely text mode game) as freeware and with the "agreement" that they'd continue development as long as donations continued rolling in
The answer isn't a move to live service games as the author suggests, nor is it to stop developing high fidelity games but simply to make good games. Gaming is one of those rare "if you build it they will come" markets where there's a practically infinite number of niches to fill and even making a new game in an existing niche can be extremely successful whether that be due to technical differences, design differences or just differences in gameplay. RimWorld, Dwarf Fortress and Banished all have very similar basic gameplay elements but all can exist without eating eachother's market share because they're all incredibly different games. Banished focuses more on city building, RimWorld focuses on story and your colonists ultimately escaping the godforsaken planet they've crashed on, and Dwarf Fortress is about building the best dwarf civilization you can before something ultimately causes it's collapse (because losing is fun!)
This article wasn't about indie games.
Ignoring indie games here is ignoring the answer to the entire premise. It's part of the equation.
It would be like complaining that there's no place to see big cats, while not mentioning the zoo at all.
Please read the Article before commenting....
Having read the article I don't see how the comment your replied to is out of context. It's very in context, especially given the article literally points to highly successful indie games as examples of low fidelity games that are incredibly popular
To quote from the Comment I replied to:
That's why I told him to read the Article. Because the Article literally talks about indie-games.
I think you're misunderstanding what people are saying. The author of the article is clearly trying to say that major video game studios should stop focusing on high fidelity games, making unrealistic statements about market demands (let's be real, that's not how people select what games to purchase. The art style is certainly a factor, I've not played games with art styles that don't jive with me and I've certainly had gaming experiences elevated by brilliant artwork, but regardless of art direction, of the gameplay isn't for me I'm not going to play it) and honestly it feels like the author was told to write an article to support the title rather than reporting on actual industry trends or providing real criticism ongoing industry trends. The entire argument the author is trying to make falls over when you consider any market segment other than the AAA developers
I'm sorry sir, but I'm not an indie dev. I need to show the investors that my game will earn $100 million otherwise it's a failure.