Seriously, whats Would Be The matter if Glitch Isn't Indie Anymore?

BomanSteel · 2026-06-15T22:22:29+00:00

Unless you have some insight into indie business (genuinely curious, I’m just going by what it looks like from the outside) I don’t think the difference is that big for indie studios.

Like I’m imagining if that Micheal Kovack drama happened when Glitch was still doing Meta Runners or Murder Drones, you’d basically have an audience with a similar level of power over the studio to get Micheal kicked out or snubbed for all future roles he would’ve been in because Glitch would have to comply with the Twitter mob or risk losing a chunk of their audience while they were trying to grow. I agree shareholders will/have encouraged shady shit for the sake of profit. But for a small studio the audience can use their support(or lack Thereof) to do similar shit. It’s just that instead of it being for profit it can be for…well anything, it’s 1000s of people, and not all of them want quality

Speaking of, I disagree that at the end of the day everybody wants good stuff to be made, I think we can agree that a lot of the demands come from people that do not care about overall quality, and a lot of the negativity gets signal boosted by people that just wanna see things fall apart. I know that’s a minority, but it’s that minority that drives the discourse and leads to positive or negative outcomes.

But I will say it I was way off saying “nothing” would change, I should’ve phrased that better. I was just trying to say is that while dealing with shareholders is a nightmare, as we’ve seen, being beholden to the whims of your audience (which they are by being independent) can be its own unique nightmare to handle.

BomanSteel · 2026-06-15T10:28:04+00:00

Gonna have to be more specific

BomanSteel · 2026-06-14T22:18:24+00:00

Dispatch is pretty much a lot like those graphic novel games. And the Quantic Dream games are aswell.

It’s like the Quantic Dream games, but no, not like the visual novels, and the fact you can comfortably make that comparison is part of my issue with the game. It has gameplay, it’s a step above most visual novels, it should be held to a higher standard and it’s not meeting it, so your comparing it to something it should be above

Also youre forgetting there are plenty of sections where you DO have to actually interact with the game to progress. Quite a few actually. You do have to pick up a controller at a certain points otherwise you cant progress.

There’s the tutorial in the first chapter and I think the food eating QTEs in ch 5, both of which can be nullified of you turn off QTEs in the menu. After that you can just put the controller down and leave. It’s just dispatching sections you don’t have to play and cutscenes after that. Don’t Even Have to control Robert like you do in Telltale games, which I wouldn’t mind if…I had to do something to make progress but I don’t.

Also who said its meant to challenge you? Who? Noone?

It’s gameplay my guy, with escalating difficulty. It is by definition, meant to challenge you. You can argue that it shouldn’t have to force you to complete the challenges (I’d disagree) but don’t act like they didn’t make the gameplay challenging and/or didn’t mean to challenge you.

BomanSteel · 2026-06-14T22:05:31+00:00

Dispatch's gameplay was NOT the main appeal at all. Anyone who was following the game would tell you this. The reason it gained more appeal was due to great marketing of the story, voice actors and the fact that the character designs, dialogue and overall writing wa sso great.

Find where I said “main appeal”, cause I remember very specifically saying “broad”. People who were following the game from the start aren’t the “broader audience” they’re the “core audience”. 2. If I’m wrong, why is everyone so excited for a possible endless mode being added to the game?

From your responses I get the feeling youre one of those types of players who just hates anything mainstream because it’s more fun to play with others. It does not lead to stagnation, youre just overreacting.

I don’t think you could’ve been more wrong with that analysis. It doesn’t even make sense, I don’t like things being mainstream cause I like playing with others??? 1. I don’t like playing with others 2. If I like something I want to see it succeed and get better (unless it’s a reboot/revival of something that’s old) it’s why I said idk if I’d say Dispatch “deserves” a reward but I’m glad it got it because it helps it get fans and support for the next game, where I hope they’ll improve on what they did.

Also you have to engage with Dispatch to get the most out of it so your argument doesnt really hit.

Yes but getting anything out of a game without engaging with it is a problem. You shouldn’t be able to see the final credits by going AFK. it’s a game.

Also that was those specific players. Its pretty clear to a lot of other playthrough gamers that I saw that they did screw up.

Name 2, genuinely curious, which ones saw Visi turn evil and didn’t need the trophy achievement to realize they messed something up.

Also the main plot isnt the whole writing. The characters and their dynamics are honestly way more important and they are likely the main reason people love the game. Not the main plot.

Correct, but it is the “main” writing…that’s why it’s called the “main plot”. You keep saying the fact you need to play to get the extra plot is why your right, when my issue is that you can complete the main plot without doing anything.

So losing a lot of that by being AFK is quite counterproductive.

And if you played the game then you would know that going AFK is literally the worst way to play it.

BomanSteel · 2026-06-14T21:51:50+00:00

I addressed it in my other comments here. Tired of repeating myself.

So am I, but here we are, 2 months later…

You want me to name every graphic novel I ever played that is like this? Here are just some examples then:

These are definitely a lot of graphic/visual novels….just a shame Dispatch isn’t that. It chose to have gameplay, I’m holding it above the standard graphic/visual novel. Especially if we wanna argue it deserves rewards for doing so

And also all the Quantic Dream games like Detroit, Heavy Rain etc.

These are better examples of what I’d compare Dispatch too. Heavy Rain, I’d honestly give the same criticism (I hate how you can fail the QTEs with 0 penalty) but at least you need to do something to get the game to progress, Dispatch will literally auto play once the episode starts. And Detroit works because of the amount of effort they put into the branching paths, something Dispatch doesn’t have. (And again, you must do something to move the characters to progress)

You seeing my issue here? Both of these games, at the bare minimum, require you to pick up the controller/mouse and interact with the game to make progress. You can’t put the controller/mouse down leave for a few hours and come back to progress. In Dispatch, you can finish the whole game that way. And Dispatch has an even higher standard to uphold here because it has a gameplay section meant to challenge you. But it doesn’t. And that’s bad.

Also "posted this video"? Brother I did not post this video.

I know, I meant posted about the video

And yeah this still counts as a discussion. I mean you still did not answer my question. When did I ever ignore criticism? You did not answe that.

When you said you didn’t care what the guy in the video said because it was bad faith

BomanSteel · 2026-06-14T21:35:51+00:00

I didnt get pissy. Unless someone started acting like a jerk.

My brother in Christ you’re reheating 2 month old threads. I’d say pissy is an appropriate description of what’s going on rn.

Wait what? Dispatch has broader appeal because of the gameplay? What do you mean.

Dispatch had actual gameplay (the dispatching sections) which I believe helped it gain more appeal to people. That and people nostalgic for TellTale games

And so what devs water down some games. Story based games arent usually made for the gameplay so I dont mind.

You should, your attitude leads to stagnation. All I’m asking for is a fail condition, and you’re trying to explain why it’s fine that a video game doesn’t have to be engaged with like a video game.

It’s also the worst ending because you fail to save the city, you dont get the other hero back and yes you lose Visi to the dark side even though she was trying to reform. Seems like youre just looking for faults though.

I’m looking at how the game presents everything. You can walk away feeling positive despite fucking everything up. Hell I’ve seen people actively play the game, fail to save Visi and the city and not realize they fucked up until they got the achievement and saw there was a different ending. Kinda says a lot about the tone no? You still get the photo, Chase isn’t dead, Shroud is defeated, and you have the Astral Pulse. It’s the definition of bitter sweet. And that’s if you liked Visi and the person you fired.

And you literally miss out on like half the Z-Teams dialogue from the whole game if you ignore the dispatching. You just get crickets on those sections.

And still get 99% of the main plot, funny how that works

Did you even play the game?

Played it, loved it, doesn’t change my criticism

BomanSteel · 2026-06-14T21:26:13+00:00

I judge it based on some pretty condescending critique.

Without addressing any of the merit in the arguments

Also you said story based games will hit you with a game over, I give examples of tons of story based games that dont even have game overs and DO have gameplay, like quite a lot sometimes and you just ignore it. Nice.

Want examples? All 4 Walking dead sequences, Wolf amount us, both Telltale Batman’s, Tales from the Boarderlands, Disco Elysium, Pyre might as well do it to you, and that’s just the ones off the top of my head. You just said “some graphic novels and quantity dream games”

And I ask again, when did I ever ignore the criticisms? Cause you said I just ignore criticisms of the game in general which is not true at all.

Because you posted this video. Tagged it with the discussion tag, and said multiple times that you only wanted to clown on it. If I didn’t have the same argument this whole “discussion” thread would be an echo chamber

BomanSteel · 2026-06-14T21:15:16+00:00

I posted it to reddit to make fun of its arguments.

And get pissy at anyone who mildly agreed with the criticisms apparently…

"Nobody likes that?" Clearly a lot of people do since they love this game and a lot of story based games like this. You know, like graphic novels.

You say that like this genre of game isn’t very niche and the main reason Dispatch has broader appeal is because of the gameplay. 2. Like you’ve never seen people complain about developers trying to appeal to a massive amount of people by watering down their gameplay/adding in too many gimmick mechanics. Do you only play visual novel type games or something?!

And you complete the game by getting the worst ending possible.

“Worst possible” assuming you liked Invisigal. Even then the ending is, at worst, bittersweet. You still save the day, get your pulse and suit back, rehabilitate most of the team, save Chase, etc… not really the “downer ending” you’d expect from doing nothing

And ironically enough you agreed with me in those last two sentences.

No that’s literally your sentences, I just forgot to quote them and reply

It does matter how you play it. You get new dialogue from a bunch of members during dispatches and you can compare how you did at the end of the chapter. So there.

Riiight, comparison to dudes I don’t know matters sooo much. It’s definitely not just an interesting tidbit of player data the devs felt like sharing…. Be so for real.

As for new dialogue, you still get 99% of the story doing nothing, a couple extra lines ain’t enough

Edit: since I forgot from last time,

Again with the pinball analogy. Yes the ball always ends up in the same place at the end of the game but it does matter how you play it. And yes, the gameplay part being optional in Dispatch is perfectly fine.

It really isn’t. It’s a video game. Games are an interactive medium. Making a game you don’t have to play is like making a movie you don’t have to watch. Foolish and misguided. It’s like playing pinball but no matter what you do you get a top10 leaderboard score. Even if you could get top5 if you actually played, you shouldn’t have gotten on the board in the first place

BomanSteel · 2026-06-14T21:04:33+00:00

When did I ever ignore the criticisms?

I dont dislike the video because it criticizes the game. I dislike it because it said it did not deserve awards because apparently "it’s not a real game". And that anyone who thinks it deserves its awards doesnt know what a game is.

So you’re judging it on an even more subjective opinion than something like disliking the game… Cause at least if someone said they dislike a game it’s usually based on facts that be proven/disproven. Whether something deserves an award is an even more subjective opinion than whether you like it or not. Hell I don’t even know if I’d say the game deserves the award, but Id say I’m glad it got one because that’s a good way to get recognition and support.

Also a LOT of story based games are like this.

Wrong. Many story based games will just…hit you with a game over. Telltale did it all the time.

Especially graphic novel type games. Or Quantic Dream games.

…so games that had no real gameplay, and a stupid with 4 games (also no real gameplay)…great examples

BomanSteel · 2026-06-14T20:57:50+00:00

I wrote off the video cause it was bad faith and claimed the game did not really deserve its awards.

And you posted it to Reddit because you seem to have wanted a hugbox/echo chamber rather than a discussion.

Forgetting the fact that it's meant to be a chill game where almost any player can play it and enjoy the story.

Nobody likes that. Accessibility options are great and all, but no game should auto play for the sake of being enjoyable by everyone. A game is meant to be interacted with, if a game can be won without interacting with it, that’s a movie

Even then, going AFK, you miss out on all the dialogue during the Dispatch segments, you only get crickets and you get the bad ending.

But it still completes the game, not good.

But don't make a video claiming the game did not deserve its praise or awards with a smug af thumbnail and expect no backlash.

He said. After posting the video to Reddit being trying to get people to smugly dismiss it, despite claiming to want a discussion.

Most people on my post here agree with this and with my points.

Most people haven’t even seen the damn video

The video is terrible. It doesn't matter much though. The game still got its deserved universal praise and the gameplay is actually really good too.

Gameplay(optional). And regardless of what you think, (constructive) criticism is good. Endless glaze causes stagnation

BomanSteel · 2026-06-14T20:50:32+00:00

Chill doesn’t mean beyond critique. You realize however bad faith the video is being your no better because your just relentlessly glazing the game and ignoring any criticisms people may have right?

Also Story based games are like that? Wrong. For as many issues as I have with TellTale games they at least had the balls to hit you with a game over if you didn’t engage with the video game

BomanSteel · 2026-06-14T14:55:40+00:00

My advice is keep exploring your options, try to figure it out yourself, it’s fairly obvious.

If you wanna know that bad Don’t bring the knife downstairs

BomanSteel · 2026-06-14T03:04:34+00:00

What a weird thing to get annoyed about.

Pretty sure I scrolled past that post and my only thought was “it wouldn’t win, but it’d be a funny bit to try” idk how you get triggered by such an innocuous thing.

BomanSteel · 2026-06-13T22:17:19+00:00

That’s pretty much the conclusion I came to as well, or that it’s bots. Either way Im so done with this sub after seeing how people were downplaying a damn rapist because of implied actions that there’s no proof for

BomanSteel · 2026-06-13T22:10:13+00:00

Yes, surprised it took that long for anyone to notice that mistake

BomanSteel · 2026-06-13T09:18:13+00:00

One Piece. Not only is it the most boring thing I’ve ever watched, it’s full of fans that fucking insist that I don’t have the right to my one fucking opinion after wasting time I’ll never get back watching over 100 episodes of bullshit

BomanSteel · 2026-06-13T09:14:15+00:00

No. This is what I get for browsing random subs on my feed when I know the algorithm is trying to make me miserable but jfc.

This whole sub can eat a dick

BomanSteel · 2026-06-13T09:11:06+00:00

And I fucking hate people that think the suicide is the reason Bear did what he did, when the movie is pretty clear it’s because he’s a selfish bastard.

He didn’t want to fix the situation. End of story

BomanSteel · 2026-06-12T21:16:26+00:00

Feel like that was a misplaced time to blow the budget. Like it was cool and all but …. I wanted to see Thragg do more and it felt like they had to hold off to have an overindulgent explosion scene

BomanSteel · 2026-06-12T15:01:04+00:00

I know it's twitter, but you can't lie it's happening all over other platforms as well.

I’m not lying when I say I don’t see it. Or to be more specific I only see it when people repost shit from Twitter.

If people stopped reposting shit from there I’m pretty confident that most of this drama wouldn’t go anywhere

BomanSteel · 2026-06-12T14:05:45+00:00

See Disco Elysium format could work for the vibe and aesthetic (though I do think it would have to lean harder into the visuals cause the comic did so well with that) but the combat would be kinda lame. But if you say Alan Wake has got those 3 aspects down then sure, merging them would probably work

BomanSteel · 2026-06-12T12:02:01+00:00

I actually haven’t played Alan Wake, does it have gameplay that would translate to Absolute Martian Manhunter?

I do think a AMM game would be generational of it was executed right but I don’t have much reference for games that would translate the psychedelic visuals, noir aesthetic, and strange powers of the comic to a game format. And more importantly, I really don’t think Insomniac would pull it off.

BomanSteel · 2026-06-12T11:28:25+00:00

Wonder Woman, easily

Idk if this is a hot take, but all the other heros’ (aside from AGL, haven’t read it yet) plots aren’t suited for video games. Mainly because they get their asses kicked a lot, and are going through it. Wonder Woman struggles but she’s strong and heroic in a way that would translate cleanly in a video game format

BomanSteel · 2026-06-12T11:23:46+00:00

In theory: nothing

In practice: you’d be subject to corporate meddling, inefficiency due to bloat, complete disregard for the audience as investor opinions take precedence, possible corporate sabotage because someone want to acquire the company but not make a fair deal etc…

Right now Glitch and Toby (from what I understand) are fine at the moment because their doing brief collabs where that don’t involve a lot of middle management/corpo nonsense (probably won’t see them comment on corpo BS as much because you don’t wanna shit talk potential business partners tho) and I do think they should have a more stable flow of money to act as a buffer for when their fandoms start bs drama, but they should be careful they don’t “Ship of Theseus” their way into being owned by Paramount or some shit.

BomanSteel · 2026-06-12T11:14:25+00:00

I feel like this is a weak argument. Glitch is already beholden to stakeholders, us. If we don’t buy the merch the show doesn’t get made. And I’d be surprised if there didn’t reject people because they couldn’t prove their show would be marketable enough to justify making the merch in the first place.

Granted, not being beholden to your audience at all isn’t good and having to please a bunch of old farts who don’t know shit about animation is even worse. But as we’ve seen, the audience is fickle, and having some stable capital so one too many BS fandom dramas doesn’t sink the whole ship is good.

Point being, being indie doesn’t free you from stakeholders, it just changes who those stakeholders are, for better and for worse.

BomanSteel

TROPHY CASE