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> The group of truly indie studios is dwindling unfortunately. This is inaccurate. I don't have the stats to back it up, but the power of Unity Engine and Unr

> The group of truly indie studios is dwindling unfortunately. This is inaccurate. I don't have the stats to back it up, but the power of Unity Engine and Unreal Engine have effectively created an indie game developer renaissance. One of my favorite games at the moment, Hell Let Loose, is published by an indie studio that started in 2017 as a Kickstarter project. They launched their PC version last summer and successfully launched an Xbox port this past fall. It is objectively a better (but harder) game than COD WWII or Battlefield V, both of which are considered AAA titles and have had hundreds of millions put into them for development. Combine that with the lower barrier to entry with the discoverability of games on Steam and Xbox marketplaces and you have a very hot market. Oh, and consumers play video games now more than ever.

vintermann 5y ago
Yes, the problem is that the reliance on these few engines is a worrying form of concentration in itself. Especially for the Unreal engine, which is used aggressively to push the Epic games store. How independent are they really when they're so dependent on a single software vendor? And, to my eyes, Epic uses openly monopolistic practices: they drop the license fee for the engine if you use their game store.
vymague 5y ago
Inaccurate in what way? Indie studios getting bought by Tencent is true.
kevinventullo 5y ago
Ironically, HLL is a lot closer to the original BF1942 than any other game I’ve seen recently.
lowbloodsugar 5y ago
I'm having the opposite experience. I dropped probably $400 on games over the holidays and found three games I wanted to play. I used to make games, so I hated when people used GameStop because it avoided the developers getting any money. But now I'm thinking that GameStop would be great, because most all but three of the games I bought just suck. These online-purchase-only systems frankly need a one-hour refund policy. So many games where the controls are just jank (like 100% janky). Like everyone looked at Celeste and thought "This game is good because it's hard" instead of "This game is good because it rewards skill". I'd rather play Celeste and Returnal than these other utter wastes of hard drive. I only made it through Unsighted because you can make yourself invulnerable: fun story, fun ideas, fun levels, jank combat. Bah humbug.
- enkid 5y ago
  Doesn't Steam offer refunds for he's purchased within 48 hours or something?
  - lowbloodsugar 5y ago
    I'll check that out. Most of 'em were PS5, and once you download them you can't get a refund.
  - baud147258 5y ago
    Steam's refund policy is no question asked within 14 days and less than 2 hours of playtime.

vintermann 5y ago

Yes, the problem is that the reliance on these few engines is a worrying form of concentration in itself. Especially for the Unreal engine, which is used aggressively to push the Epic games store. How independent are they really when they're so dependent on a single software vendor? And, to my eyes, Epic uses openly monopolistic practices: they drop the license fee for the engine if you use their game store.

vymague 5y ago

Inaccurate in what way? Indie studios getting bought by Tencent is true.

kevinventullo 5y ago

Ironically, HLL is a lot closer to the original BF1942 than any other game I’ve seen recently.

lowbloodsugar 5y ago

I'm having the opposite experience. I dropped probably $400 on games over the holidays and found three games I wanted to play. I used to make games, so I hated when people used GameStop because it avoided the developers getting any money. But now I'm thinking that GameStop would be great, because most all but three of the games I bought just suck. These online-purchase-only systems frankly need a one-hour refund policy. So many games where the controls are just jank (like 100% janky). Like everyone looked at Celeste and thought "This game is good because it's hard" instead of "This game is good because it rewards skill". I'd rather play Celeste and Returnal than these other utter wastes of hard drive. I only made it through Unsighted because you can make yourself invulnerable: fun story, fun ideas, fun levels, jank combat. Bah humbug.

enkid 5y ago
Doesn't Steam offer refunds for he's purchased within 48 hours or something?
- lowbloodsugar 5y ago
  I'll check that out. Most of 'em were PS5, and once you download them you can't get a refund.
- baud147258 5y ago
  Steam's refund policy is no question asked within 14 days and less than 2 hours of playtime.