Discourage reading Jesse Schell if you want to make _good_ games instead of corporate slop. He's never made a game you like or anyone you know likes. Agreed everything he says sounds great but then why hasn't he made any good games?
Quick browse of the portfolio on that website (https://schellgames.com/portfolio) seems to show multiple games that has won awards. All their original games seems to have "Mostly Positive" or above on Steam as well.
What metric are you judging this developer by? I can't say I've played/seen any of those games myself, but clearly they seem to be putting out some games that people play and enjoy.
I don't know their internal metrics by any means, but none of these games look 'hardcore', they all seem casual
Yeah, same here. But my conclusion from that would be "I'm not the target market", not "Those games are clearly shit because neither I or my friends play them".
Again, looking at the games, they've won awards + are highly rated by people playing them. You just think those people are wrong for liking the games, or something?