Grim times for indie game devs

[OhhJim]

@Ryuthrowsstuff

I dont think thats a Steam issue. Ive never had that problem and I have steam games from when it launched that work fine. As well as a bunch of really old, non rerelease games purchased through steam that work fine. Others not so much.

Older PC games had a tendency to stop working after a while. The older they are. The more often that was the case and the trickier it is to get them working. Newer versions of windows seem to be better at running the old stuff. Maybe its the game itself, could be a quirk with your system.

Maybe you’re right. I have Painkiller on Steam (won’t work) and on disk (won’t work). On the other hand, Pharaoh/Cleopatra works fine.

[Ryuthrowsstuff]

https://www.vogons.org

These guys are useful when you run into these things. Sort of where info for games with known issues lives. And a lot of guides for optimizing pre HD games that run OK but dont get along.

[OhhJim]

Thanks a lot.

[tlwest]

@Shuck

As an indie, it’s a huge problem - you have a small team (or even one person) spending a good chunk of their time doing “social” stuff rather than developing the game. It can easily end up that a sizable fraction of the team’s time is spent on that.

I think this comment reflects a common misconception - producing the game is the hardest part.

The reality is that like books and music, there’s a vast oversupply of high quality (not triple A, just high quality) games and a vast under-supply of people’s attention. Making a good game is really tough. But it’s nothing compared to trying to get possible customer’s attention.

My wife’s publisher takes 92% of her books’ earnings. That’s probably a fairly realistic division of their respective economic values.

(Yes, the bookstore gets almost half, which gives you an idea of the bookstore’s economic value with to respect to the book, so the publisher’s cut is closer to 42%…)

[Mister44]

I can confirm this game is an absolute delight. It appears it is a short game. I am probably near the end and will end up spending about as much time at a movie as I did playing this game (I will be re-playing it with the kiddo.)

The game play is novel with some simple puzzles. The art is beautiful. The characters and flavor text literally made me LOL several times.

So yeah, I have spend this much money on a movie and been less entertained.

[TooGoodToCheck_]

I heard about this a while back, and wondered if it would fill the Katamari shaped hole in my heart

[Mister44]

One of the reviews said something like, “It’s Katamari, only you send everything to hell.”

I am really enjoying it. It’s a fairly casual game, but the charm, atmosphere, and humor works for me.

If you just like dropping things down holes, there is a rip off of the concept with no story, charm, or humor called hole.io you can find in the various app stores for your phone.

[Grey_Devil]

I’ve heard good things about the game, i might not buy it currently but i’ll keep an eye on it

[Grey_Devil]

I miss Katamari.

[Magdalene]

You can still play it on PSN

[Grey_Devil]

I need new Katamari, granted i know the series creator has been keen on making new IPs rather than revisit old ideas. I respect that, but Katamari is so good.

[Shuck]

And a studio-made game with a publisher sees the publisher spend more (sometimes many times more) on the marketing budget than the dev budget. But for game developers - either first timers or those coming from studio development, where they spent all their time making games, this can come as a shock. And not something they’re necessarily any good at - the social stuff is another skill-set entirely (and one that most developers don’t tend to have).
I think of Minecraft as a triumph of community building rather than game-making. If Persson hadn’t spent most of his time doing the social stuff, the game probably would have disappeared without much of a trace, rather than being the most profitable game of all time.

[Pensketch]

“Katamariesque” needs to be a well served genre, like “Metroidvania”

[tlwest]

@Shuck

And not something they’re necessarily any good at - the social stuff is another skill-set entirely (and one that most developers don’t tend to have).

Indeed. One of the annoying things about the book market is that publishers now expect authors to do the social stuff, which in my mind is part of that 92% they’re being paid. More to the point, many authors lavish so much time on that (at the behest of their publishers) that they don’t produce book 2 in a timely manner, thus sabotaging their careers.

This is especially tragic for those who don’t enjoy public interaction, or even worse, are really bad at it.

I’ve often thought that there’s a niche career in being the bright, polite, bubbly public face of authors who would rather just write. Of course, it might get awkward at signings “Wait a minute! You’re Fred Jones and Sarah McCormick?”

@Shuck

If Persson hadn’t spent most of his time doing the social stuff, the game probably would have disappeared without much of a trace

Interesting. I hadn’t realized that’s how it succeeded. I’d assumed it was one of those “lightning strikes” sort of successes that still occasionally happen.

Anyway, agreed that being an indie developer sucks. Hearing about having to continuously hit the convention and social media circuit to promote just makes me cringe inside. As you point out game-dev and sales ability are at best orthogonal and at worse negatively correlated.

[Shuck]

@tlwest

I’d assumed it was one of those “lightning strikes” sort of successes that still occasionally happen.

It was that also, but during the development, especially very early on, he was spending a lot of time in forums talking about what he was working on, having conversations with people and getting encouragement (and suggestions for development directions) and generally getting people interested in the game. He developed a significant following before getting any sales, which also made game sites aware of him. All that early work gave it enough public awareness/momentum that it could then be hit by lightning, so to speak.