I recently saw a little web-comic floating around twitter that sent me spiraling into some self reflection about how I thought about games and how they're bought & sold at a hobby developer level.
When I'd finally thought through the idea to a point I felt comfortable blabbing about, I'd lost track of the comic. So, rather than spending serious time hunting it down, I decided to take a minute and whip up a remake in MS Paint.
When I'd finally thought through the idea to a point I felt comfortable blabbing about, I'd lost track of the comic. So, rather than spending serious time hunting it down, I decided to take a minute and whip up a remake in MS Paint.
My first thought was "That's nice! It really is about making cool stuff for each other, not about competing with each other.", but the more I thought about it, the less that seemed like reality. In reality, if there were really only two games to pick from at any one point in time, then yea, most people would be happy to have two entire games to play, but that's not really how the market works. Especially with things like Unity, Unreal, and GameMaker being as popular as they are, there are more games being produced every month than there has been before, as these easier to work with engines and lower price points (I believe they all allow development & publishing entirely free, with limitations of course.) more and more people are developing and releasing games.
The indie market really is a veritable flood of cakes, of all kinds of qualities from all kinds of people. Which poses a complication at best, and a death sentence at worst, as consumers now have so many cakes to choose from and nothing but opinions and visuals to help them make their choices. This makes our simple "Yay, two cakes!" answer far more difficult. In the end, I'd like to (naively) think that the creme of the indie scene does rise to the top but in the end, most people buy games based on what kind of games they've liked in the past, and what the game's screenshots look like.
While the comic was fun, and a great temporary mood booster, I think it really misrepresents the issue, as with a cache of millions of cakes out there, people will choose the cake that looks best, which occasionally leaves swathes of delicious but less visually appetizing cakes to rot. I don't mean to swipe at good looking games, or make excuses for uglier games getting overlooked. Honestly not 100% sure what this's supposed to contribute to the conversation, just felt I needed to get it out there.
Of course, this is more or less just speculation, as I didn't poll any real number of people or conduct a deep study, so by all means disagree with me.
Before I go, I do want to put in a little plug here for the fantastic @BorishDugum and his current project, Dark Flame, an Igavania styled platformer. He's got a Patreon page with criminally few backers that you should definitely support. I've played a recent build and as a fan of the Igavania style I can confidently say that, while still very rough, I'm super into it and am absolutely ecstatic to see the final game.
PS: If someone can find me the original comic, please email me or tweet it to me so I can link to it (email and twitter buttons on the left over there)
Thanks for Reading,
Wyatt White
Alison Pleasant waz here.
The indie market really is a veritable flood of cakes, of all kinds of qualities from all kinds of people. Which poses a complication at best, and a death sentence at worst, as consumers now have so many cakes to choose from and nothing but opinions and visuals to help them make their choices. This makes our simple "Yay, two cakes!" answer far more difficult. In the end, I'd like to (naively) think that the creme of the indie scene does rise to the top but in the end, most people buy games based on what kind of games they've liked in the past, and what the game's screenshots look like.
While the comic was fun, and a great temporary mood booster, I think it really misrepresents the issue, as with a cache of millions of cakes out there, people will choose the cake that looks best, which occasionally leaves swathes of delicious but less visually appetizing cakes to rot. I don't mean to swipe at good looking games, or make excuses for uglier games getting overlooked. Honestly not 100% sure what this's supposed to contribute to the conversation, just felt I needed to get it out there.
Of course, this is more or less just speculation, as I didn't poll any real number of people or conduct a deep study, so by all means disagree with me.
Before I go, I do want to put in a little plug here for the fantastic @BorishDugum and his current project, Dark Flame, an Igavania styled platformer. He's got a Patreon page with criminally few backers that you should definitely support. I've played a recent build and as a fan of the Igavania style I can confidently say that, while still very rough, I'm super into it and am absolutely ecstatic to see the final game.
PS: If someone can find me the original comic, please email me or tweet it to me so I can link to it (email and twitter buttons on the left over there)
Thanks for Reading,
Wyatt White
Alison Pleasant waz here.