The more honest explanation here is that our industry is producing apps that are junk.
Everybody enjoyed downloading apps because they got a kick out of them. Now the industry is mostly pumping decaf.
Everybody enjoyed downloading apps because they got a kick out of them. Now the industry is mostly pumping decaf.
Oh another game where you bleep an angry creature til they bloop and you get a point. Great. Oh, I can upgrade my bleeper? Wow.
I think it's because the industry attracts people who are, for whatever reason, avoiding meatspace activities. They get immersed in game industry memes and then that's all they know. I see a game about farming and it's like... Do you even understand what farming is like or why it's fun? But they don't... They just re-make MineCraft with farming graphics because they don't actually go out into the world and, like, farm. Do stuff. Understand what the world is like. Because the people who like the world never left it, never escaped to video games.
At this point I don't even play games any more, I just watch YouTube reviews of them and spend my time designing games on my own.
I think it's a huge missed opportunity though, and when people realize it there will be a gold rush on games that are actually about something.
I am happy to find new places to look for good games... But I don't consider "game jams" a serious suggestion, because they're not finished games. I think lots of cool games get prototyped and never made, that doesn't contradict my point or solve my problem.
I have spent a lot of time looking through Steam and it has resulted in my opinion as stated. I have also looked at a lot of VR games and not seen anything particularly outside-the-box reach the level of complete game.
I hope you are right, but telling me "just look for them!" isn't helping. I've spent hundreds of hours looking. Can you give me more specific guidance? Or narrow your list of suggestions to the ones that you think will help me find finished games that aren't just rehashes of older, well trod game types?
I'm not saying games about something don't exist. I'm just saying they are incredibly rare and the entire game industry could disappear and it probably wouldn't affect the rate at which such games get made.