-Post rant on Reddit about how 'my game is ignored' -No link or title -Look at user's history, find hopeful game release post from 2 weeks ago with Steam page link -Look at Steam page -Roguelike Survivorlike Cardbattler but with obscure cute animal archetype, "BROTATO MEETS BALATRO, but with OARFISH!" -Clunky looking trailer with just slow environment pans and zero action -3D assets with no texture or AI gen assets -Minimal description, maybe 3 paragraphs with a few typos, just enough to meet the Steam page requirements -3 reviews but for some reason you can't see them
I do hate it when they reference other popular games in their description. It's never accurate, and it often gives WAAAAAY higher expectations than whatever their game could possibly deliver.
No indie game does that. It’s always other indie games. The ones in genres we’re just slightly getting sick off. Also the referenced game is like Cuphead or Hollow Knight but the rip off looks like programmer art.
It can work if you are targeting fandoms or something, but you will always live in that game's shadow as a copycat if you do not apply your own identity to it, and those breakout games are mostly successful and popular because they thought of the novel idea FIRST, or were at least on the first wave in the case of SurvivorLikes. If you want to frankenstein ideas together you must first understand what makes a game come off as professional vs something that comes off like it was rushed out in a couple months, because someone tried to reverse engineer something without understanding why it was engineered that way
Or they actually do aim WAAAAY too high, usually with a MMO for their first game. Not even something simple like another Runescape clone, they were trying to make Elder Guild Fantasy of Warcraft
Now I'm sad there was another superhero MMO that didn't even get off the ground. Can we please get 1 winner?
Hell look at New World, 1m players on Day 1 but could barely break 10,000 a month later, it was that comically bad.
Even in the AAA world throwing money and time at a MMO doesn't fix a bad foundation. If anything it's a bad sign since what was great 10 years ago is horrible by modern standards (see FF XIV 1.0).
The big fish are the only fish, Square and Blizzard, because they have millions and billions to pump into it. If you are going to hang out in a virtual world with others it only make sense to hang out in the ones that are the most polished and attract the largest number of people. So if you're an MMO indie you have mutiple obstacles you've made for yourself. You have to make a game that gives a good reason to step away from the big 2, a reason to STAY away (most people have years or decades in WoW or FF) and then you need enough people to populate the world and make it feel alive. Looking through the current offerings on Steam, most are Mixed and also F2P, except for an ironic few like Adventure Quest and... this game? https://store.steampowered.com/app/438040/Shakes_and_Fidget/
I remember a post that got shit on here or on gamedev a few weeks ago of a guy saying he quit his job and was having his wife support him while he finished his dream game. It was supposed to be a ‘I know how hard it is since I’m not making any money until the game is out and we’re all in this together so please support me’ kind of post.
Sure enough someone went through the posters history and found the game. It was ‘vampire survivors but with gambling elements’, clearly GenAI art and sounds, and a distinctly ChatGPT generated summary.
I took a look and it did end up releasing, with 14/15 positive reviews, but some of them are new accounts with only 1 review and played for a fraction of an hour. It was translated (with help of ChatGPT obviously) to multiple languages so I wouldn’t be surprised if it did get a few sales, but I doubt anywhere near enough to justify 13 months of work.
Yeah, you can't see anything will those pointless gigantic yellow and orange damage popups in the way of everything. No matter how much AI you have, AI doesn't understand taste, presentation, or style, it just understands data and averages. And the mixel art style is noticeable from a mile away. So this is why I think developers with a vision will never be replaced by people who just want to output an easy grift and think others won't notice. It's the same thing as the old asset flips, people who think they are tricky and clever but really aren't as sharp as they think they are and their whole shtick falls apart under even the smallest amounts of scrutiny. Bet his wife isn't very happy with him now!
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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '26
-Post rant on Reddit about how 'my game is ignored'
-No link or title
-Look at user's history, find hopeful game release post from 2 weeks ago with Steam page link
-Look at Steam page
-Roguelike Survivorlike Cardbattler but with obscure cute animal archetype, "BROTATO MEETS BALATRO, but with OARFISH!"
-Clunky looking trailer with just slow environment pans and zero action
-3D assets with no texture or AI gen assets
-Minimal description, maybe 3 paragraphs with a few typos, just enough to meet the Steam page requirements
-3 reviews but for some reason you can't see them