Let's Play - Meta Ghost: The Breaking Show

[@the_elder_gamer]

21:10 The word you're looking for in English is "telegraphed". (historically one could send a telegram ahead of one's arrival so the receiving person could prepare) Clearly, your success was all skill-based! This seems...fine, maybe almost good even, but when you compare the "show" aspect to _Showgunners_ it's clear that _those devs_ put a lot more effort into the concept. This seems like a few decent but uninspired ideas dropped on to the standard template of a modern low-effort action-y rogue _lite._ Maybe it could turn into something over time, but it's got a long way to go if it wants to shake the 6/10 indie doldrums. Like (almost) always, there are just too many better games out there in the genre already and if you're not setting out to be something new, or aspire to make the very best game in the genre, you'll always come up short of where you'd imagine you'd like to be. I don't envy indie devs now, but the heyday is over. You can't just launch an unremarkable early access game and expect it to perform. I feel like we're entering into the professional sports level era of indie gaming, where your chance of making a successful game is about the same as making it in A-tier professional sports, or winning Olympic gold, it's possible of course, but highly unlikely. So, now you need to have a both a talent for development _and_ to work harder than everyone else just to get noticed. (at least in established genres with seminal games) Or you take the longer path, like a filmmaker, you're going to have to struggle to prove yourself over several underappreciated and underfunded films before you get your chance to make the movie (game) you always imagined you'd make. It's not an easy path.

[@SpiritAnden]

Yes! Telegraphed was the word I was looking for. Yea, there are a lot of games being made these days and it's just increasing. There is definitely a lack of creativity or evolution within indie game development. Hopefully it will plateau in a few years forcing creativity and ingenuity to come back. I do still enjoy playing all kinds of games even if they aren't the best, I rather have too many games to play than to few 🙂

[@the_elder_gamer]

@@SpiritAnden I see your point, but back when there were maybe 100 new games a year, it was easier to get excited about what you wanted to play. Choice is great, variety is great, but for me at least, over the last few years, since maybe 2019 or so, I feel like it's much harder to find games I'm engaged with/absorbed by. But I tend to also prefer games I can sink 100 hours into, and those are still reasonably few and far between. In some way, it's like the more I try to force the issue and play more games, the less interested I am in any of them. And as a result, they all just sort of blend together with few games really standing out. (or maybe I'm just too critical...which is part of why I appreciate your positivity!)