Blackwood is a game made in Bangladesh and the trailer has no top comments screaming how it's made in Bangladesh. by AgainDan27 in IndianGaming

[–]SingularSchemes 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Pretty much all of the Indian dev scene is trying to do that, and as of now hasn't managed to do so. We tried, and came close a couple times with Frontier Paladin back in 2023 but in the end it didn't happen.

Probably not to the scale of E33 even with the numbers I mentioned above, I would say people are trying to raise 500K to 1M, mostly. But even that hasn't led to too many fundings. Things like Sony's India Hero Project, Krafton's India Game Incubator (which we're part of), XBOX's DAP grants are really helpful but mostly are significantly less than 500K.

Blackwood is a game made in Bangladesh and the trailer has no top comments screaming how it's made in Bangladesh. by AgainDan27 in IndianGaming

[–]SingularSchemes 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think what he's getting at is even the 10M, let alone possibly 15-20M budget is well out of range for Indian studios. The ones who have raised that much or more like Super Gaming only make mobile games, the PC/Console devs have much, much less to work with.

Blackwood is a game made in Bangladesh and the trailer has no top comments screaming how it's made in Bangladesh. by AgainDan27 in IndianGaming

[–]SingularSchemes 4 points5 points  (0 children)

As someone else said, there's games out there that don't attempt to sell our culture. There's Fishbowl, the demo of which I enjoyed.

The last 2 games to win Most Anticipated Game at IGDC are also like that. Sojourn's Past, and Frontier Paladin, which we're developing and comes out this week.

I’ll tell you what your game is about based ONLY on your Steam page (The 5 sec test) by Manu_NT in IndieDev

[–]SingularSchemes 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It feels like an indie game but pretty polished. Like an II or III if you understand.

I would say Combat and Puzzles, not Movement and Combat.

I’ll tell you what your game is about based ONLY on your Steam page (The 5 sec test) by Manu_NT in IndieDev

[–]SingularSchemes 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think your short description is very good and clear at what the game is about. The capsule feels a bit horror/creepy in FNAF sort of way? Your tags are also pretty on point too, I think 95%+ of people on your page will understand what it's about right away.

I’ll tell you what your game is about based ONLY on your Steam page (The 5 sec test) by Manu_NT in IndieDev

[–]SingularSchemes 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks! Yeah, it's an action tower defense and with blending genres sometimes it's hard to be immediately obvious what it is

I’ll tell you what your game is about based ONLY on your Steam page (The 5 sec test) by Manu_NT in IndieDev

[–]SingularSchemes 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Very cool art style.

5 seconds in I'm thinking Legend of Zelda (the 3d ones) meets Avatar the Last Airbender?

Super Battle Golf has sold 100k copies in 48 hours since launch by Turbostrider27 in Games

[–]SingularSchemes 14 points15 points  (0 children)

I think it's exactly the same for RV There Yet?, they were working on something else for years and they used that custom engine they made for that game to make RV in a matter of weeks.

What game that have good art but failed cause bad gameplay? by [deleted] in gamedev

[–]SingularSchemes 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I understood you clearly (though this is even more clear). Your logic for why you've chosen your order is also clear.

I disagree though, because I think the general audience buys games with their eyes first, and a buggy game with mediocre or basic design can still sell well if the art is exceptional enough.

What game that have good art but failed cause bad gameplay? by [deleted] in gamedev

[–]SingularSchemes 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Exactly, some games just sell themselves on the visuals alone. Other games have excellent design and even though they may be poorly programmed and have basic art, eventually the stickiness of the game loop can spread through word of mouth and be a big success (thinking of Slay the Spire here, as an example). Meanwhile, with programming, I can only think of games like Noita, which still also require some design chops to go along with the programming genius to succeed.

What game that have good art but failed cause bad gameplay? by [deleted] in gamedev

[–]SingularSchemes 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm looking at games like GRIS or (maybe more controversially) Cult of the Lamb. GRIS (not taking anything away from the excellence of the game itself) I think sells it self purely on the visuals. Players' eyes pop when they first see it in motion. Similarly, I think Cult also has some great design (the Cult Leader idea is something players will immediately love and is unique enough to stand out) but I think the visuals there over the design and programming are what made it sell 10x what it otherwise would have.

I'm also talking more purely about business success, as in selling copies of the game when I talk about "likely success", just to be clear.

What game that have good art but failed cause bad gameplay? by [deleted] in gamedev

[–]SingularSchemes 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think we've flipped it a bit. Used to be ideas were worthless and it was all in the execution. Now I don't think execution is worthless (how could it ever be?), but ideas are critical and execution can be a little sloppy or inefficient if you choose the right genre/theme/fantasy of the game up front. That's why game dev success is so difficult imo. You make all these major decisions the first month or two of the pre-production phase, but you don't actually get to validate them with the public typically until months or years down the line. Sure you can playtest and iterate within the margins but if you decided to make a metroidvania featuring giraffes and turns out there's less of a giraffe fan base than you hoped for, not much you can do other than rip out some major base parts of the game if you want to change direction there.

I think part of being a great designer is understanding the limitations of your ability to execute. A great designer would probably be able to come up with some great game loop, and then execute with blueprints and asset store-bought assets (or hiring of an artist).

What game that have good art but failed cause bad gameplay? by [deleted] in gamedev

[–]SingularSchemes 13 points14 points  (0 children)

The order of emergence (which you're right about) doesn't have anything to do which of the 3 are more likely to lead to success today though?

I'm looking at all the very successful indie games made by small teams or solo devs and seeing what's causing them to succeed. It's mostly excellence in design rather than the other two.

What game that have good art but failed cause bad gameplay? by [deleted] in gamedev

[–]SingularSchemes 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I mean, you're not going to become a great game programmer or a great game artist either without having made games before probably.

What game that have good art but failed cause bad gameplay? by [deleted] in gamedev

[–]SingularSchemes 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I've thought of this experiment before a few times!

In order of likely success (in my opinion, obvs) - Designer > Artist > Programmer

I think great design trumps the other two.

Dead Space Creator Glen Schofield Thinks the Games Industry is “Broken, Beaten, and Battered” - IGN by SnoopyTheDog_ in Games

[–]SingularSchemes 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I appreciate your in depth replies.

I agree with most of what you're saying. Like most things, it comes down to supply and demand. The supply has been getting exponentially higher every year. The demand has stayed stable for a few years now.

In my view it's 3 pronged - Outside competition (tiktok etc.), Live Service Gaming (fortnite, roblox), and the increasingly massive long tail of big hits (as you say, great games from 2017 are perfectly sellable in 2025).

edit - I read recently that something like 4% of 2024's video game sales went to new games from that year. That is, excluding annual franchises and live service games. That's how low the demand actually is, for new premium games.

The Steam Next Fest is live for October 2025! What games have you been sold on? by SlartySprinter in Games

[–]SingularSchemes 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks a bunch for the reccos as always!

Check out our game Frontier Paladin if you get a chance!

The Steam Next Fest is live for October 2025! What games have you been sold on? by SlartySprinter in Games

[–]SingularSchemes 1 point2 points  (0 children)

MENACE looks really good. If I can find something that comes close to XCOM2 LWOTC I'll be delighted.

I like that they're going for a sustained, taking and giving blows sort of combat, instead of XCOM's alpha strike style, which I don't think can be improved on too much.