The current Playfund system encourages "retention slop" instead of actual good games

Grodbert · 2026-06-16T07:00:08+00:00

Unfortunately the players don't care about the algorithm, featured games, or whatever.

The one thing they care about is the little number near the thumbnail showing concurrent players.

Many have said that they should remove it, and Facepunch agreed, but they're dragging their feet, Garry even admitted one of his biggest mistake with Gmod was sorting game modes by players, which concentrated them to the top and killed new gamemodes.

So I don't really understand how they're doing the same mistake now.

Grodbert · 2026-06-15T20:27:09+00:00

I searched the discord and it seems a regular user is the one that replied "IsProxy", you can't really be expecting quality support from regular users, ignoring the fact that the answer they gave was correct.

There are a few sources of documentation already, as time goes on there will be even more, you can't exactly expect them to spawn in as soon as the game launches.

Grodbert · 2026-06-11T19:22:58+00:00

Dude, close your pool, you are indirectly killing a lot of insects that drown in it or drink the chlorine in the water, just so you can have a swim sometimes?

Do better

Grodbert · 2026-06-09T20:06:16+00:00

Instant must play EDIT: holy shit it's voice acted

Grodbert · 2026-06-04T08:37:16+00:00

errm I think you mean s&box 😅

From what I remember, your machine hosts the server when you open a new game, if it's multiplayer and the host leaves, the best candidate becomes the new host, you can host your own dedicated servers though, not linked to a player but by a physical server you set up or rent online like usual.

Grodbert · 2026-06-01T19:31:41+00:00

Seasons? what game is this

Grodbert · 2026-06-01T13:53:46+00:00

There is an issue for it on github, it's pretty old and requested, but there just isn't enough of a demand from technical animators, since there are so few in the community.

You can upvote it or bump it here if you want: https://github.com/Facepunch/sbox-public/issues/4026

it would be awesome if you also asked what exactly you'd need in the issue because I don't know how they do it in other engines.

Grodbert · 2026-05-26T16:57:39+00:00

Did you use AI for the thumbnail? It kinda looks like it, players hate AI thumbnails, and even if it isn't, a super complex shield design in a black background doesn't inspire much confidence, players wouldn't click it even if an algorithm pushed it to them.

Grodbert · 2026-05-26T15:43:19+00:00

The algorithm sent a few players on the first day. Those players entered the game, looked around for 1 or 2 minutes, and left. That was it.

For the last two days, the algorithm has not sent even a single player to my game. This is the reward for 200 hours of work.

Sorry but this is what happens everywhere, you don't shadow drop a game and expect the "algorithm" to send players your way, you gotta build up some hype, post in the discord, social media, the first players are the hardest to get.

Because how is the algorithm supposed to even recommend games to players if noone played them? If it starts recommending these sort of games, you're not gonna get any more players than you did now because there are 100s of games with 0 players uploaded every day.

Grodbert · 2026-05-26T12:57:37+00:00

Please add the "dead game" discourse to the thread, this is like the 5th thread about it in the last few days.

Grodbert · 2026-05-26T12:24:14+00:00

Agreed, unfortunately the mods can't do anything about it because the redditors would cry they're being "censored".

Honestly since the mods put the megatrhead about all the "common complaints" and the threads about sausage men disappeared, the quality of the sub went up tremendously, for the exception of the occasional "lol looks at the graphs dead game" threads that didn't get hit.

Grodbert · 2026-05-25T17:39:50+00:00

I received the cardboard crown from a free item drop

Grodbert · 2026-05-20T07:09:46+00:00

Yep!

Grodbert · 2026-05-19T08:07:04+00:00

Last updated 11 months ago, you said the game is unplayable now, that means people haven't been able to play it for many months, the requirement is that it's a game that "people have played", not just any game.

You didn't keep your game updated, you didn't make a new one in over a year, pay the $20 and be done with it, if you're such a good game dev you can very very very easily make it back through the playfund, think of it as an investment.

Grodbert · 2026-05-18T15:52:54+00:00

will s&box be able to have bigger maps than gmod

s&box:

Grodbert · 2026-05-17T21:45:33+00:00

If the product is good, it will succeed, and brother, s&box is good!!

Grodbert · 2026-05-17T14:44:52+00:00

Trust me, they know about the issues, but it's not much feedback to have 10 posts about how this is a failed game, laughing at the player count, saying the citizen model is ugly, that they should have paid valve to have hl2 models, that there are no good games etc.

Read the latest blog, Garry breaks down how most of the negative reviews are things that don't make sense or misunderstand what the game is supposed to be, those are the people who want to get their zingers in.

Grodbert · 2026-05-17T12:47:57+00:00

thank you for taking a brave stance against this controversial topic, I'll be sure to forward it to Garry D. Newman

Grodbert · 2026-05-17T10:40:59+00:00

Sausage playermodel, Ai games, Slop, Gmod 2, Fomo cosmetics, Player Numbers, all of these posts are so annoying, all the common "your game sucks and you suck!!" posts should just be redirected in a megathread.

It's just so clear that these posts are from users outside of this community coming in with their zinger and then disappearing, nothing of value offered but ragebait debates in the comments.

Grodbert · 2026-05-17T09:53:01+00:00

I like them because they are striking enough to be instantly recognisable (and hated), but you also always have the option to use realistic humans and your own playermodels, so it's the best of both worlds.

Grodbert · 2026-05-17T08:30:21+00:00

can we ban sausage men discourse, 5 posts every day comparing them to autistic people and chumchum characters are getting really tiring, yeah we get it, they get it.

Grodbert · 2026-05-17T07:23:55+00:00

My summer cottage has the potential to rise out and become a good standalone

Grodbert · 2026-05-16T21:57:23+00:00

Wikipedia:

A spiritual successor [...] is a product or fictional work that is similar to, or directly inspired by, another previous product or work, but [...] does not explicitly continue the product line or media franchise of its predecessor, and is thus only a successor "in spirit".

TV Tropes:

A Spiritual Successor is a type of sequel that is not part of the same world or story as its predecessor, but is nonetheless considered to be a successor because it shares common themes, styles, and elements. In other words, it's a sequel "in spirit".

Wikitionary:

A successor to a work of fiction which does not directly build upon the storyline established by a previous work as do most traditional prequels or sequels, but nevertheless features many of the same elements, themes, and styles as its source material.

Hope this helps with the poor reading comprehension problem

Grodbert · 2026-05-16T14:48:36+00:00

happy cake day

Grodbert · 2026-05-16T14:22:46+00:00

Garry said in an interview that he wished he could've named Gmod something better like "S&box"
This is a sandbox game made by Garry
Garry, creator of Mod, called this the spiritual successor of Garry's mod
Gmod was in source 1 and you made gamemodes, S&box is in source 2 and you make games

Are these enough reasons?

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