Video Game Thoughts Bonus Bag #3
We have a free demo out! Also, the world is terrible!
Every once in a while, I come up with a clump of topics too small for their own posts.
1. Geneforge 2 - Infestation Demo Available!
Since almost 14000 new games were released on Steam last year (Really!) and the pace isn’t slowing, getting anyone to actually learn about your tacky wares is almost impossible. Fortunately, Steam has provided one good way for indies with hustle to get a little bonus visibility: Steam Next Fest!
It's a biannual event where indie developers can make demos of their games available for a week. It's still desperately overcrowded. (Around 1200 demos this time. People, this is not a viable career path.) But it's less utterly hopeless.
Our next indie RPG, Geneforge 2 - Infestation, is coming out March 27, 2024. We had a demo in the fest. It worked out really well and we got a bunch of life-sustaining wishlists.
We're leaving the demo up for another week at the link above if you would like to try it! As always, wishlisting an upcoming indie game you support is hugely appreciated.
2. I Watched a Bunch of Steam Next Fest Demos on Twitch
Indie games mainly exist to mix, match, and utterly strip-mine existing genres. I found watching what people are working on to be kind of exhausting.
A great path to success in indie has always been to find a genre that is underrepresented and represent it. Give players the thing they didn't know they were missing. The problem, of course, is there are now no genres that don't have a million good games in them.
I don't blame indie developers for sticking to mix-and-matching existing genres and hoping to stumble on something that feels a little fresh. After all, the only alternative is coming up with a completely new idea. Two problems with finding a new idea: 1. It's almost impossible. 2. Most new ideas are terrible.
3. The Feeling of Burnout
For example, I was looking forward to Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor. (Hoped it had online multiplayer, but it doesn't yet.) But I watched streams of it and a weird thing happened.
I could sense it was trying to trigger those satisfaction receptors in my brain. That whole kill-loot-improve loop that is so addicting. But instead, I felt numb. I could actually feel the game's attempts to please me bouncing off.
I was looking for something that felt fresh, but all of the upgrades were just, “Numbers go up this many percent.” It’s still in Early Access, so they do have time to add some spice to it. Not optimistic.
I've played enough Vampire Survivors clones that my brain is burnt out on them. Other Steam Next Fest games gave me the same feeling in a way I found unnerving. It's a Tragedy of the Commons situation. As a developer, you want to eat that yummy potential player interest before everyone else burns it all.
You know who is going to make a fortune though? The genius who comes out with a really good Vampire Survivors clone in 2034.
4. Brotato Design Deep-Dive
Every once in a while, I find a game that's really, really well-designed and play the heck out of it and pick apart what makes it work. It's a great exercise for a designer. Lately, my kick has been Brotato, the Best Vampire Survivors Clone.
(I jumped off the Vampire Survivors train when they made an Among Us expansion. I love things that are silly. But they have to be internally consistently silly. There's a fine line between silly and distracting.)
Brotato is simple. There's 20 levels where you shoot monsters. Killing monsters give money, and you spend it on upgrades between levels. There are a ton of statistics (speed, attack speed, armor, life drain, etc.) you can improve on the way. The final level is 90 seconds, two big bosses. Kill or outlast them to win. (I'm describing the highest difficulty level, the only difficulty level of note.)
The genius comes from two things.
First, there are 35 different character classes. A lot are minor alterations on the base game. But the others are very strange. A lot of them make minor changes that turn Brotato into a completely different game and force you to rebuild your strategy from the ground up.
Then there is a pool of over 100 weapons and upgrades to buy. They are heavily balanced to allow for a lot of variety. Some are basic stat updates, but others force you to change your strategy on the fly to use their full power. Some items and weapons are better than others, but all of them are useful sometimes. They're strong enough to feel they make a difference without being broken.
So, while there are a multitude of ways to make your characters stronger, what you choose depends on which character you play. As you go through the game, every design element will, at some point, step forward and become vitally important. The design doesn't leave a scrap of fat on the bones.
It's a low budget game with three games worth of design. Great strategy for an indie. As tons of graphics and voice acting are really expensive. But design is cheap!
So there's your secret recipe for indie success: Work very hard to develop a lot of really good ideas and then implement them flawlessly.
5. The Layoffs
The video game industry seems to be entering a really harsh recession period of the Business Cycle. An unending flood of product. Interest rates going up, pressuring companies to actually become profitable. Human beings going outside again. And, again, so, so, much product, much of it already free.
Much sympathy for the newly unemployed. I really hope you land on your feet. I'd offer bonus sympathy for those who want to start living the indie game dream, but there's not enough sympathy in the world to help you face that buzzsaw.
The situation does, sadly, remind me of the most controversial thing I ever wrote. A post that drew so much abuse that Substack literally added new moderation abilities because of it. (They contacted me personally!) This article might be worth revisiting as our eyes adjust to a brighter, harsher light.
6. Baldur's Gate 3
I'll write about it when I've finished it, but I'm in the mud of Act 3. I can't walk 30 seconds without some new demigod showing up with an ass that needs kicking.
Subscribing is free, and you get all these nice posts in your in-box. If you’d like to support us, consider wishlisting our upcoming indie role-playing epic, Geneforge 2 - Infestation, out March 27.
Spiderweb Software makes fun role-playing games and also has a mailing list and a Twitter and a Facebook if you want to learn when we do something big.
One very weird thing I forgot to mention. This Substack is starting to make a noticeable amount of money. I'm more surprised than you are.
Thank you SO MUCH to the people who donate. It really does get me to write more often. I mean, I'll write no matter what. But if a month goes by where people pay me and I don't give anything in return, I will feel very guilty. So it helps me overcome fatigue.
I plan to put out a lot more posts in the near future, in order to get attention to our new game. That will be what REALLY pays the bills.
I have reposted a link to There Are Too Many Video Games about 7 or 8 times last year in reply to something someone says like "why is my indie studio failing?" or "what do I need to do to make games for a living?" or "how many millions of copies will my game sell?" It's a great time-saver for me.
The other thing I could post a link to is my completely new kind of game that I spent 4 years on and earned about a thousand bucks on. Getting attention for a game is so hard.
Am I bitter? Yes, a little.