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Ok, but Celeste isn't free except the prototype game jam version. I've spent well over $50 buying copies of Celeste for friends and family as gifts.

by umvi 7y ago

egypturnash 7y ago
It’s free on the Epic Game Store either right now or very soon.
chii 7y ago
it's a bit tongue in cheek - celeste being free is only due to Epic's drive to get more customers signed on. I don't think the Celeste devs are losing money. but his point stands - there are lots of great games that are free. Games whose graphical style and production value vastly out-weight his games.
Pfhreak 7y ago
Celeste is free this week (or maybe next week) on the Epic Games Store. From the customer's perspective, his point stands -- I can choose to play nothing but award winning, excellent games for between $0 and $10/month. How does a game developer compete when their audience already has a glut of excellent content to consume?
- dkersten 7y ago
  I’ve got lots of AAA games for free on these deals too, does that mean that AAA are basically free and therefore shouldn’t bother with whatever they’re doing?
  - Pfhreak 7y ago
    Those AAA studios sell many, many more copies of their games (like, orders of magnitude more). The demand/sales curves are totally different when you are selling tens or hundreds of thousands of copies of a game. And yes, it does play into their budgeting/planning calculus as well. There's a reason there are so many franchise games these days...
- kranner 7y ago
  This assumes different games are perfectly interchangeable. Would you make the same argument about books? Why does anyone bother to write a new book at all? My answer is that we're really all different: devs and players both. A game developer can compete the same way an author competes: by offering something only they can make, and only to someone who would buy precisely that sort of game.
  - Pfhreak 7y ago
    To a degree. I don't know the authoring world, but my intuition is that it's a similarly difficult profession to make a living in -- returns are thin, breakout success is unlikely, but you can probably carve out a niche for yourself. Same with TV/Movies. I watch what Netflix and Prime have, and generally don't buy a series or movie (unless it's something really special.) Are they perfectly interchangeable? No, of course not. I'm sure there's a musician/author/tv show out there that would be my most favorite of all time and I'll never know it because I won't be exposed to it. I don't get hung up on that, and enjoy that I have a lot of pretty good options at any given time.
- underwater 7y ago
  But he answers this question. He doesn't compete in the "indie game" space. He competes in the "Jeff Vogel game" space.
  - Pfhreak 7y ago
    That's one way people find success -- get a niche and build a reputation in it. It doesn't change the nature of the playing field though, that we've never had a time when there were so many great games available for free to anyone.

Ok, but Celeste isn't free except the prototype game jam version. I've spent well over $50 buying copies of Celeste for friends and family as gifts.

by umvi 7y ago

Ok, but Celeste isn't free except the prototype game jam version. I've spent well over $50 buying copies of Celeste for friends and family as gifts.

egypturnash 7y ago

It’s free on the Epic Game Store either right now or very soon.

chii 7y ago

it's a bit tongue in cheek - celeste being free is only due to Epic's drive to get more customers signed on. I don't think the Celeste devs are losing money. but his point stands - there are lots of great games that are free. Games whose graphical style and production value vastly out-weight his games.

Pfhreak 7y ago

Celeste is free this week (or maybe next week) on the Epic Games Store. From the customer's perspective, his point stands -- I can choose to play nothing but award winning, excellent games for between $0 and $10/month. How does a game developer compete when their audience already has a glut of excellent content to consume?

dkersten 7y ago
I’ve got lots of AAA games for free on these deals too, does that mean that AAA are basically free and therefore shouldn’t bother with whatever they’re doing?
- Pfhreak 7y ago
  Those AAA studios sell many, many more copies of their games (like, orders of magnitude more). The demand/sales curves are totally different when you are selling tens or hundreds of thousands of copies of a game. And yes, it does play into their budgeting/planning calculus as well. There's a reason there are so many franchise games these days...
kranner 7y ago
This assumes different games are perfectly interchangeable. Would you make the same argument about books? Why does anyone bother to write a new book at all? My answer is that we're really all different: devs and players both. A game developer can compete the same way an author competes: by offering something only they can make, and only to someone who would buy precisely that sort of game.
- Pfhreak 7y ago
  To a degree. I don't know the authoring world, but my intuition is that it's a similarly difficult profession to make a living in -- returns are thin, breakout success is unlikely, but you can probably carve out a niche for yourself. Same with TV/Movies. I watch what Netflix and Prime have, and generally don't buy a series or movie (unless it's something really special.) Are they perfectly interchangeable? No, of course not. I'm sure there's a musician/author/tv show out there that would be my most favorite of all time and I'll never know it because I won't be exposed to it. I don't get hung up on that, and enjoy that I have a lot of pretty good options at any given time.
underwater 7y ago
But he answers this question. He doesn't compete in the "indie game" space. He competes in the "Jeff Vogel game" space.
- Pfhreak 7y ago
  That's one way people find success -- get a niche and build a reputation in it. It doesn't change the nature of the playing field though, that we've never had a time when there were so many great games available for free to anyone.