This has been true for a decade now.
It was true in the 90s too.
What game’s that goblin from?
Peglin!
Great game.
Okay I’m hooked. Except… Runs are way too short? I just start feeling like my build is coming together (matryorbshka relic, summoning orb, damage dealing orb) and the run just abruptly stops. Are there only the three maps? Is there no looping endless mode? I want to ride that high for a while, you know?
I know right. Those are my complaints too. But I just jump back on after a while with a new run.
Peglin, it’s simple and fun to play
Okay so I’ve watch some of the video and I’m annoyed by it. A problem in the video has been highlighted when it comes to indie games and that’s genre favoritism.
Indie game development seems to have such a hard on for roguelikes, strategy and anything that is addicting with retro visuals. That to me throws a lot of red flags. He does show some other games from other genres, but the ratio is evident. A lot of the games don’t really impress me that much and that’s coming from someone who has already been spoiled with the best of what indie gaming had to offer in previous years.
That guy is also kindof annoying too. “I realllly want to play”, “addicting” .etc
I’d say this is mostly due to budget constraints. Voice acting, music scores, high fidelity art, models, animations etc cost a ton of money. Making random generated boards / levels / dungeons with simple art and scalable gameplay is simply just more feasible.
Another aspect is the popularity of the game. We’ve seen a lot of saturation in genres over the years. A the peak of PUBG and Fortnite popularity, there were so many battle royale games coming out. Then we got extraction shooters, and so on.
Personally, I love roguelikes and how we got to the point of mixing it with other genres (Balatro, Dungeon Clawler), but I can see your point. I feel the same about 2D (pixel art) platformers: I feel like I’ve seen it all already and nothing can excite me anymore.
I will personally shout out Tactical Beach Wizards. Incredible writing, charming art style, easy to learn hard to master mechanics, loads of content for the price, it really is a gem of a game. All my homies hate Steve Clark!