every take like this (e.g. "another Earthbound-inspired RPG about depression") reveals someone who's exposed only to the top 0.00001% of indie games that see huge success. indie is, by its nature, antithetical to the mainstream. you won't find much with the top gaming outlets/content creators - ThreadSky

lotusloveslotus.bsky.social • 84 days ago

every take like this (e.g. "another Earthbound-inspired RPG about depression") reveals someone who's exposed only to the top 0.00001% of indie games that see huge success. indie is, by its nature, antithetical to the mainstream. you won't find much with the top gaming outlets/content creators

Reposted from /home/cyhaxztpeu/threadsky.app/post.php on line 479

Deprecated: urlencode(): Passing null to parameter #1 ($string) of type string is deprecated in /home/cyhaxztpeu/threadsky.app/post.php on line 479
">
Warning: Undefined array key "handle" in /home/cyhaxztpeu/threadsky.app/post.php on line 480

Deprecated: htmlspecialchars(): Passing null to parameter #1 ($string) of type string is deprecated in /home/cyhaxztpeu/threadsky.app/post.php on line 480

Comments

owen.burger.moe•84 days ago

thank you for giving me another whiny white dude to block 😂
appreciate your insight in this thread

theryusui.bsky.social•84 days ago

what's frustrating is this is the guy who made McPixel and McPixel 3 (there is no McPixel 2) which are good shit

sosowski.bsky.social•82 days ago

Wait, what did I do?

sosowski.bsky.social•82 days ago

(I can't see it says blocked)

tomsennettgames.com•82 days ago

Sos they're saying you don't know shit about indie games

sosowski.bsky.social•82 days ago

Well, I think they got the wrong person, but alright!

gamongames.bsky.social•82 days ago

this person wrote a 2963 character long thread explaining the nuance in why saying "all indies are only doing this now" is misguided and thats your take from it?

kenlowery.bsky.social•84 days ago

I just can't bother with this stuff, the overt Scene Maintenance mentality. I'm gonna make what I want to make because it moves me, and people can take it or leave it. Anything else - including a self-conscious desire to "innovate" - is posturing.

tenebrionidae.bsky.social•84 days ago

How many "Earthbound-inspired RPGs about depression" are there, actually? I can think of a handful about depression, and a handful earthbound inspired, but I'm not aware of one that's both.

aaaaha143.bsky.social•83 days ago

that meme began with the release of OMORI, and that's pretty much one of the only games that truly fits (and even then, saying it's "about depression" is an oversimplification)

anabenskywalker.bsky.social•84 days ago

“Another earthbound-inspired RPG about depression”. Oh no I’ve been found out

porecomesis.bsky.social•84 days ago

I scour digital store fronts as much as I can—I regularly travel to the very end of the Steam's Upcoming category until 'Deltarune' and 'In The Valley of Gods' come up—and I don't think it's unfair to say that quite a lot of indie games repeat themselves a fair bit.

lotusloveslotus.bsky.social•84 days ago

I really resent the constant emphasis on gameplay genre. In Stars and Time, Mouthwashing, and Slay the Princess (to name only three popular, recent games) are all masterclasses in storytelling. but hey, a walking sim with light puzzle elements, a traditional RPG, and a *visual novel*? fuck em right?

rustydoodlebot.bsky.social•84 days ago

I genuinely struggle to play games that don't have a story to drive it. It can be as fun as it wants but if it doesn't have character interaction I cannot get into it

insertdisc5.com•84 days ago

youre my hero

lotusloveslotus.bsky.social•84 days ago

nothing drives me up the wall quite like game genre talk!!

lotusloveslotus.bsky.social•84 days ago

oh this is getting some attention so I'm gonna continue rambling, rn mainly to add context. neither they nor I made this clear, but OP was *trying* to talk about the (indie) games industry itself. this is not an industry-specific issue and I think talking about it so insularly is not great

lotusloveslotus.bsky.social•84 days ago

not gonna waste time with the setup: we're in a cost of living crisis. the price of failure is enormous (think this is true globally but note I'm speaking as a USian). risks are NOT rewarding enough. indies make "the same 3 genres" for the same reason your fave artist sells 90% fan merch: it sells

mixolumia.com•84 days ago

the number of prototypes I've thrown away being torn between "i need to make something honest and beautiful, oh god this will never sell" and "gamers will like this, oh no you can smell the desperation"

lotusloveslotus.bsky.social•84 days ago

🥲 pain

lotusloveslotus.bsky.social•84 days ago

that artist can't take time off to make their super cool, original webcomic for the same reason Super Lesbian Animal RPG took like 10 years to make: they need to pay rent and feed themselves. betting your life (and others'!!!) on a game that is unlikely in every way to sell well is fucking stupid

lotusloveslotus.bsky.social•84 days ago

a lot of us in indie creative scenes like to believe that if we just put the good stuff in front of ~the normies~ and get them to experience it earnestly, with an open mind, they'll Get It, they'll realize it's "better" than all that samey, mainstream crap and be forever changed. that's not true.

lotusloveslotus.bsky.social•84 days ago

being online really warps your perception of reality so like important to remember but most players game for entertainment and don't gaf about games as art etc. and that's completely fine! I'm glad they have fun. but that means the potential playerbase for weird/innovative/novel games is pretty low

kylelabriola.bsky.social•84 days ago

People be like "Man, indie games [that cross the $1 million revenue threshold" sure are all the same"

I also think Valve is partially to blame. It's especially egregious on the Steam Deck version of the homepage where they spotlight the same 5 games everyday

lotusloveslotus.bsky.social•84 days ago

Valve could do a lot more but they receive too much individual blame for this imo. Steam is a store that sells products, and it receives thousands of new ones every day. if you go onto the home page or get into the automated algorithm expecting anything but commercial products that's on you tbqh!

Comments

Posting Rules

Reply