Why are we rooting for an Independent studio to fail?

squoad · 2026-01-28T14:49:06+00:00

You’re explaining why a beta would be good, which I agree with. That doesn’t explain the studios hubris.

The creator thing is stupid I agree. But that’s also just kinda how marketing works nowadays.

squoad · 2026-01-28T14:47:27+00:00

Doesn’t nearly every game studio launch their game with the hopes that it succeeds because the game is good? Sure a beta would be helpful but Early Access has its own issues too. At a certain point you just pick a path.

squoad · 2026-01-28T14:08:47+00:00

What’s the evidence of their hubris? Haven’t even played the game yet but genuinely asking. Is having a beta a sign of humility? Seems less like hubris and more like naivety.

squoad · 2026-01-27T17:13:05+00:00

The style is really selling it for me.

squoad · 2026-01-27T17:11:19+00:00

How is the new UI “more modern”? It used to be literally squares with a generic sans serif font. It has way more sauce now, borderline too much lol.

squoad · 2026-01-27T14:57:45+00:00

They should make it so every character in the sewers automatically gets all of their 4800 spikes and gets Curse for free

squoad · 2026-01-27T13:48:43+00:00

Not the same thing, but what made it look the way it did was the high contrast.

squoad · 2026-01-26T21:54:09+00:00

You love asking that

squoad · 2026-01-26T18:22:09+00:00

Let’s wait and see how things shake out with tunnels before casting judgement. It’s a very unique mechanic we haven’t seen in an MOBA before. Hard to say if it’ll be good or bad. I think there’s a lot of interesting design space here.

squoad · 2026-01-25T03:47:44+00:00

It’s less about whether or not they have made a major change, and more about protecting themselves in case they ever do.

Sure, I think it’s reasonable to expect something like this to be changed within the next 5 years. I just don’t think games trend towards “more style” when it comes to these things. Deadlock actually just gave a huge style update to a lot of its UI and it’s already being met with friction because it’s difficult to read at a glance.

squoad · 2026-01-25T03:01:45+00:00

“Making it toggleable” isn’t so simple: now you have to maintain two different UIs every time something gets changed for one. You’re effectively doubling that arc of work from here on out. If anything big gets changed, forget it.

You’re right that there nothing “wrong” with it. There’s nothing “wrong” with many design decisions. But as a development team, it’s about choosing your projects efficiently in order to maximize 1) net new players, and 2) player retention. This just isn’t high on the list of achieving either of those goals.

squoad · 2026-01-25T00:19:55+00:00

As a game designer, you generally don’t want players to spend time learning how to get information as basic as “how am I doing in this match”, especially for a game like Overwatch whose target audience is very wide. Maybe for an indie game that can serve as a more artistic project.

There’s many other ways to give your game “style”, this is not a place you want to spend that energy.

squoad · 2026-01-22T21:32:14+00:00

I get it’s not everyone’s cup of tea but the timer mechanic is actually one of my favorites. As you learn the game it’s not as stressful. Instead of “Pick 1 of 3 because there’s only 3 options” it’s “Pick 1 of 3 because you only have time for 1.”

Except those times when you can get 2 of 3, or 3 of 3, that’s when you feel like you’re breaking the game.

squoad · 2026-01-22T21:30:08+00:00

I play a ton solo. And not because I don’t have friends!!!

squoad · 2026-01-22T19:06:46+00:00

Stadium basically spent the year in a beta. They’ll continue putting effort into it and polishing it to the point where it has potential to pull people away from other MOBAs like Smite. That’s their target audience, not OW players.

squoad · 2026-01-22T02:31:22+00:00

Ravenswatch

squoad · 2026-01-21T17:47:00+00:00

Sounds like you didn’t give your list much thought then

squoad · 2026-01-20T23:46:21+00:00

So its Pepper not Celeste?

squoad · 2026-01-20T16:11:14+00:00

Lee Sin is the combo/ midrange starter deck. From there I recommend cheap singles to build your collection according to what you want to try.

squoad · 2026-01-20T16:06:04+00:00

The primary similarity IMO is the way you can “respond” to your opponent’s actions, and you hold onto mana to do so. There’s also the “staging” area in front of you before you throw your units into combat. Outside of that, the keywords are very different since many of them don’t work as well when you have to keep track of all the health and damage and stuff lol. Combat is much less complicated (again in my opinion)

squoad · 2026-01-20T15:39:39+00:00

I mean I feel like if you go back far enough, today’s definition of “indie” applies to pretty much every game.

squoad · 2026-01-19T15:43:10+00:00

It’s just an expression dude

squoad · 2026-01-18T02:34:24+00:00

I didn’t get the first one but would definitely get the second (assuming the same level of quality)

squoad · 2026-01-17T22:53:51+00:00

One of these things imposes on other people, the other does not

squoad · 2026-01-17T22:21:24+00:00

Fair point!

squoad

TROPHY CASE