Thread 715705049

It's kind of depressing how even the indie game scene doesn't incentivize making good substantial games, but rather making as many low effort games with a memeable gimmick as you can

We're never getting back the golden era of high effort passionate games made by small studios with a dream

>>715705049 (OP)
Most the games in that picture are made by big studios pretending to be indie

You're not even bothering to look.
Intravenous 2
Jet Lancer
Door Kickers 1/2
From Glory to Goo
Sulfur
Cultic
Mycopunk
Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom
Anton Blast
Synthetik
Peaks of Yore
Colt Canyon
Swirl W@tch
Katana Zero
Shady Knight
Pizza Tower
Do I need to keep going?

>>715705249
Based

>>715705249
yeah

>>715705249
Some good games on there but only a handful reach the combination of ingenuity, passion, and production values that used to be standard

>>715705049 (OP)
New generations deserve to only eat shit

>>715705759
And I think you're really looking at it through rose-tinted glasses because indies were always a mixed bag
You don't even remember all the "artistic" and "thought provoking" games indies shat out for many many years, or actual shovelware sentenced to rot away on random sites.

>cuphead
>low effort

>>715706065
Also the Xbox Live Arcade used to be the go-to place for indies and even though some good indies debuted here, it was generally associated with shovelware, troll games or meme bait designed to be uploaded on youtube

>>715706065
I'm talking about gen 4, 5, and 6 classics, not old indie games. No one has a reason to make a game like e.g. Spyro 2 or Threads of Fate anymore.

>>715705049 (OP)
Define substantial.

>>715706235
So basically everything the videogames industry evolved into. Xbox was truly ahead of it's time.

They're still out there, they just don't have the marketing support of Xbox/Playstation now and are gatekept like they should be.

The "dream", for the most part, was to milk nostalgia and that's worn out its welcome by now.

>>715706518
To use my Spyro 2 example
>game has 3 worlds of ~10 levels each
>each has unique themes, challenges, minigames
>each has new memorable situations, character designs, a funny short at the start of the level
>each has highly competent low poly models, great animations, superb music
>each world is capped off by a unique boss fight and cutscene
>lots of small unique things and secrets to find
>no central gimmicks or hooks, just a competently built and fully realized game idea with lots to do and see
Now obviously this was done by a team of professionals with a budget, but the point is that even if you pulled this off as an indie dev, you'd still get outsold and buried by that weeks meme "low effort on purpose" FOTM, you literally don't even have a reason to try to make a fully realized solid game because if it flops, and it probably will, you're bankrupt, and the dude that spent 3 months on an asset flip is now a millionaire

>>715705759
>be gamedev in the 90s
>get free innovation awards for coasting by on high level concepts such as "what if you played a thief" or "what if a strategy game but in zero gravity" because gaming only existed for like 15 years and most ideas were not attempted yet or were simply not technologically possible before

>be gamedev in the 20s
>can't innovate on any high level ideas that stand out because practically everything imaginable has been done already
>can't coast by on tech gimmicks like 90s devs did with 3D graphics because technology in gaming has standardized and stagnated
>any remaining innovation in design will be technical and invisible to the untrained eye
wow

>>715705049 (OP)
most good games nowadays are indies.
indies are in a great spot - most games are shovelware because that is the nature of content in general and imo it's not a result of incentivization that is exclusive to gaming. 99% of content is slop, whatever medium it is in.
When games are easier than ever to make, expect a glut in the supply of grain - but the wheat can and will be separated easily from the chaff.

>>715707174
>comparing Spyro 2, made by Insomniac and published by fucking SCE at the height of its powers, with indie games made by solo devs
OP, what the fuck is your point here? No shit your average indie game isn't going to be at that standard.

>>715705049 (OP)
there are loads of good indie games, you should try looking for some